Welcome honored guest!

As of today, I’m Creepy and I’m kooky! But actually pick it up tomorrow. This will be my first pin that I actually want to mod up!

Welcome Honored guests!
Mod away, mines a hot mess of mods!

Looking at an Addams, it has the following black marks around the magnet inserts.i don't think this is magnet burn but it's clearly something and I haven't seen it before... maybe dirt under mylar?

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Any idea how easy something like that would be to fix?

And clear coat chipped under the mylar.

LTG : )

So that's pretty bad then yeah? Unfixable I assume?

Remove mylar. Clean area. Touch up clear coat.

Fixable, a lot of work to make it look nice. vid1900's playfield guide can help you.

LTG : )

Thanks. It's not exactly cheap (I suppose no TAF is nowadays). What you've described doesn't sound like a particularly easy thing to do for a layperson

Study up - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration

Practice on something else first.

Then decide if you are up to it or not.

LTG : )

Thanks very much. To be honest I am looking for something that needs minimal - if any - work, as I'm more a player than a maintainer. As said the guy isn't exactly selling it super cheap so I'll probably end up passing on it.

Or you could get the overlay decal for the magnet area. It's not exactly HEP, but it does the trick and is quite neatly covered up under a playfield protector or mylar.

I would pass on it then and get a better example. Still pinball machines need maintenance, sometimes.

I have a dumb question. I got to play two separate Addams families at the White rose show today. I managed to spell greed, open the valult and lock a ball at the thing lock on both of them. Thing comes out as usual and picks up the ball and takes it under the PF. Now here is where my issue is. On my home game when I do this, the ball stays locked in the swamp and I have to plunge a new ball in which I can easy plunge it into the swamp to get the 2nd lock. On both of these separate Addams I played at the show, instead of keeping the ball locked in the swamp it showed a message "watch for swamp kick out" or something along those lines and it ejected the ball from the swamp instead of letting me plunge a new ball. Now I have the gold roms in mine, not sure what these had. Is this a difference in roms or is there a setting that changes what happens when you lock the first ball with thing?

I'm not certain, but some games have a setting that disables multiball. Haven't fired up my TAF as I'm just finishing the restoration so I don't know, but it may have been just a disabled multiball.

I don't know I never made it to multi ball on either of them. Just weird, or is mine weird. Mine you lock it in thing, it goes to the swamp, you shoot next ball lightly, it goes into swamp and locks game says good thinking and you plunge the 3rd ball and shoot for chair or vault to start multi ball

That's what two of the ones I played did (handy shortcut with that light plunge). The one that spits it out instead of locking is messing around, my guess is that the multiball feature is disabled. I think they put that in as people would just frantically start to mash the buttons on multiball mode rather than catching the balls. That led to all kinds of servicing issues (balls hitting balls and flying to places they shouldn't, coils going out quicker, etc).

Looking for a project Adams family
Ty

TAF stock ROM does not eject locked balls between games (except if you power cycle). So if the locks aren't empty by starting a multiple you end up with locked balls in the swamp when you start the game. Easy to check by looking into the ball through to check how many of the game 3 balls you have in there. Soren made an updated ROM that clear lock between each games (on top of other things).

You, along with everybody else. I would recommend posting a WTB ad and sharing your location.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-the-addams-family-software-mod

Thanks man, got it, cleaned it, and haven’t wanted to walk away from it since. Got a good one! There’s one crazy spot on the playfield where the wood looks splintered up, and there’s a second layer of Mylar in it, which is odd, but it’s not killing the gameplay. Whats crazy is I almost can’t angle this thing high enough to get the level right, and the front is to the floor and the back is all the way up!

I’m looking into the ROMs, because I’m running P-2, and it looks like there’s some debate on going with original vs gold due to Cousin It scoring. I won’t open that here as I’m sure it was discussed earlier. I have some reading to do haha.

All these toys and decals for the game is awesome, I’m going to drop so much money on this pin! Haha

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Another condition question gentlemen (and ladies)...

Another of the photos of the playfield of the machine I talked about earlier shows something I don't know if it's a manufacturing issue, or a playfield decal that has been applied incorrectly, or is just normal...

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To me it looks like all of the mansion inserts have a white stroke around them (for example see "THING" and "RAISE THE DEAD"). I haven't seen this on other TAFs on Google Images, etc. What would cause this white stroke to be around the inserts? There is also some light bleeding through the top of Gomez's head ("Hit Cousin IT"), and some dirt under the mylar under the left hand side of his forehead it appears. Again this is being sold as "collector quality", and I'm inexperienced, so I dunno...

It looks to have a line around the whole mansion perhaps a decal?

Wouldn't expect dirt under the Mylar unless it's been torn off and a new sheet had been applied. It does happen around the edges, but shouldn't be anywhere far from them. That and the presumed overlay decal just means someone had been tinkering with the playfield.

While I see what you are referring to I know tons of people that would kill to have a mansion that looks that good.
I say play on and enjoy the game.

Looking for anyone that has lit their swamps, vaults and chairs adding extra GI lighting.... I want to do this to mine and I see there is a mod you can buy that is basically plug and play, however I don't feel like spending $25 for a bulb, socket and two alligator clips. I would like to make my own. Unfortunately I cannot find any pictures of the actual mods that people sell so I can't see exactly how they made theirs.

I am assuming I would need a 44 bulb socket similar to the ones used for the GI in the game. I would need wire of course, and I am assuming a 4004 diode? Hook everything together and solder one wire to a nearby GI lug and solder the other wire to the other? Anyone that has done this mod, care to share any pictures?

That's pretty much it, although being GI, you don't need the diode. You can also use a wedge base socket.

I've lit up tons of stuff on my other games, and not even using sockets. LEDs, a resistor, some heat-shrink tubing, wire, insulating tape, and alligator clips (I prefered to keep it plug-and-play in case I wanted to remove it). I didn't get sockets because normal LEDs are much more flexible than pinball LEDs, except if you get bendies. They also fit in places normal pinball lights (incandescents and LEDs) don't fit. Additionally, it saves me having to make extra holes in the play field.

Thanks guys. One more question. Has anyone lit there thing hand inside the box? I think it would look really neat to have a light somehow mounted in the thing box that shines on the hand to make it more visible when playing in a darker room.

You could either try a homebrew LED inside the box. It would have to be a normal, non-pinball LED as to not take up space since Thing needs to come out and grab the ball. Alternatively, a spotlight pinball light fitted somewhere near or on the Vault plastic, pointing at Thing. If you connected it to a light that goes on only as Thing comes out then it would be great.

Quick, random question on siderail trim - staple or glue? I don't think there's any right or wrong way, but I'd rather follow the crowd on this one. Just want to get an idea as I'll be putting mine on soon.

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Have you checked out the matrix series of lighting at Comet ? Really cool, set up a GI #44 insert and ran a line to a green wedge for the swamp. $3 cost. Reversible in about 2 minutes.

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Anyone have a color DMD (LCD) in their machine? How they look?

I don't think I have any pics, but I have one of the earlier LCD. Looks fine to me but I do prefer the look of the LED version and considering swapping that in so I can use the light board again and use the LCD in my HS2.

hmm, interesting...

Is it still the case that you need to desolder and solder wires onto the THING board to use the LCD version of ColorDMD on Addams? This seems like such a hack, but from what I can tell this is still how it works?

I thought the newer colordmds with extra mounting holes, had a set where you could mount the display up higher and not impede on the stock Thing light board at all. You'd have to pull the speaker panel out 1st, before swinging open the backbox light panel, but small price to pay to keep everything else the same.

I don't know. I'm looking at getting a TAF and wanted to get upgrades ready for it. I've read conflicting info about it really, I know the LED version fits without issue but I'd rather have LCD (my other games do).

Also, can you fit LEDs to the Thing board?

It looks like it is still the case but I'd have to think someone has made their own holes or adapted. Attached a few pics of mine I found from years ago. If it were me, I'd go with LED and save a few.

https://www.colordmd.com/Assembly%20for%20Instructions%20WPC%20CHROMA%20rev1.PDF
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Yes you can. I have the brightness all the way up on COLORDMD and THING lights are visible, but not quite bright enough for my tastes. I guess that's why wanting to go LED COLORDMD with LED's in the light board. I haven't been obviously bothered enough.

Do regular LEDs (without caps) fit then or do you need special ones? The install instructions on the ColorDMD website (here) talk about hacking LEDs apart and soldering wires.

EDIT: I guess that's the old version of the display, strange that the instructions are still linked to. I see now the newer ones are just mounted higher and don't actually interfere with the THING board. Would like to know if I can install normal no cap LEDs in the OEM THING board though.

Yes, you can use any normal wedge-base LED.

A few things here....

So as you probably noticed, this is a restored playfield, and it's awfully hard to call a restored playfield collector quality. One way to know is if you can't tell it's a repro or a restoration. This fails the latter. As you can see the playfield mansion area was beat, so the restorer used a decal. There are lots of versions of the mansion overlay decal, and this one has a white shadow stroke - I guess to make the letters stand out. Not original and a weird restore. The mansion decal, however, does not extend to Fester's forehead so you see the original wear there.

This playfield also has the blue shading on the mansion and Fester, which is the less-preferred version of the playfield. Lastly, there should be no mylar anywhere near Fester. Only areas where factory mylar is supposed to be are the right swamp kickout area and the pop-bumper + chair area.

Thanks very much. That's very comprehensive. I've decided not to proceed with it due to the issues raised.

That's most definitely a safe call. I wonder what hideousness was hiding underneath that decal.

i have a new lcd in my taf , and it fits perfect . it fits in the lowest holes of the sceen , no adjustments on the thing light board .

Does anyone have a new red thing box they would sell ? I have had my eye out for one with no luck . Thanks.

Regarding the Thing board and ColorDMD. Yes the newest color DMD can be mounted above the thing board, and the image set lower. I didn't like this because then you have to remove the speaker panel every-time you want to open the the lightboard. I made my own LED thing lamp board. All you need is a piece of thing plastic (in my case plexiglass since I had some scrap), 7 diodes, 7 LEDs, some wire, heat shrink and hot glue.
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fatality83 Here is a picture of a purchased chair light, I don't know which manufacturer; it came with the machine:20180807_204636[1] (resized).jpg20180807_204730[1] (resized).jpg

dmacy How did you light your topper up blue. Is there blue flashers in there? or did you run blue LED's up to it? I am thinking of doing this to mine but maintaining the flashers as well.

PTHermes Thanks that looks nice, I never saw that chair light before. I ordered about 10 bulb sockets and am going to run my own lights for the chair, swap, thing ramp and maybe some up to the topper.