Been lurking for a while (This is my first Pinside post). Took delivery of a new BM66 premium in October (my first pinball machine!). Figured I'd post some thoughts/impressions.

Quick note after spending last night doing some needed maintenance (~500 games in):

* Wiped down playfield, used Novus 1 in areas where ball wear/marks were obvious (in/out lanes mostly).
* Waxed/manually buffed the playfield with the smallest amount of Blitz One Grand to get adequate coverage (Thanks to the maintenance threads here for the recommendation!).
* Inspected/cleaned balls (none needed obvious replacement).
* Adjusted left Batphone target (only the target directly under the bat phone had been registering).
* Updated to latest code.

Impressions after doing this: Holy crap. This game now plays *fast* compared to stock out of box. I've been watching the Deadflip streams and have wondered why my machine seemed to play so much slower than Jack's, and I imagine it's because his playfield has been waxed. It's a bit *too* fast now (had an auto plunge on a ball save sail into the back board once), but I imagine after some play that this will calm down a bit. It took about 10 games before the left riddler orbit shot would stay in the bat signal scoop without bouncing back out from the velocity. Ball spin is a bit of an issue now as well, with the ball sometimes reacting in a similar manner to a bowling ball on a waxed lane (reacting strongly to the spin).

Some general impressions of the game:

* The depth of rules keep this game consistently interesting. I find that i'm making minor villain choice strategically based on where I am in the game (If I'm on ball 3 or late on ball 2, I'll usually go with Shame for points/shot multipliers rather than the standard Bookworm->Freeze->Profit! progression. *Love* how deep the rules are, and can see how there are "modern classic" discussions happening around this game.
* Haven't quite broken a billion pts yet, but have had a couple games in the ~800 million range (on v.99 code).
* With the increased speed after playfield waxing, I'm terrible at this game. Have barely broken ~100 million a couple of times. It really is a completely different game now.
* Dimples. Everywhere. Becoming less noticeable as more show up, though. It was a bit shocking at first, but as more show up, it's obvious that outside of putting down a full plastic protector before playing a single ball (which I don't think is practical for most), I don't see how these could be avoided at all (some pics below).
* Art Blade installation: *much* easier with 2 people. If you're waiting to install these, my advice would be to solicit help and go slow.
* I've got a ton of mods waiting to be installed, but don't want to make massive playfield changes all at once. Will be adding these over the next few weeks, one at a time.

Overall, in *love* with this game, and it's inspired at least one other pinball purchase (Waiting for confirmation of delivery of a MBr some time in Jan.). Will continue posting impressions/thoughts as I start to mod the game in the next few weeks. Happy to be part of the club!

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By any chance can anyone point me in the direction of installation instructions for the Bat Signal Projector/Villain Topper for the Premium BM66? There is some additional wiring needed after transferring the signal to the topper from it's unused base, and I'm not quite sure where things plug in (The villian topper instructions only explains how to connect the topper wiring only, not the topper/signal combo. The signal instructions don't explain any wiring at all. Can post pics if that would help point me in the right direction. Thanks so much!

I've got a fairly significant chip in the coat (with exposed wood/art flaked) in one of the riddler orbits. Just showed up one day. Stern has been *great* in responding, and I'm waiting for a (currently backordered) replacement playfield. I've been told this can take some time. Will do the swap once it has arrived, and I *may* consider trying a playfield protector for my next one. I don't have them on any of my other machines, but this machine is special in our house, and I truly believe it's going to ultimately be viewed as an all-time great.

By any chance does anyone have a decent source for a new rule card, baseball card and plastic cover for the apron? I did a playfield swap earlier this year (Stern was *great* throughout the entire process), but the replacement playfield did not come with replacement apron cards.

Thanks!