Do you have a link or more information on this?

Why don’t they add internal braces at the factory? Seems like an easy way to avoid this problem.

Agreed, if you buy from any major distributor, they will take care of any problems for you...These posts are annoying.

Thank you, OP, for posting this. I appreciate these posts for two reasons.

1. We are considering ordering two new Sterns for our collection, an Iron Maiden and a Guardians. The last thing I want to do is read through thousands of posts in the "club" threads to hear there was a documented quality issue I "should have known about because it was in the forums" Thank you for sparing me all of the reading. I had no idea this was happening until I read the reinforcing post just before this one.

2. You can't judge a person's reasoning or worthiness to post based on what they choose to list in their collection. I know most of my collector friends, myself included, do not list all or most of our games. In my case because of all the unsolicited PMs asking to sell or for technical advice or pictures. That's what the forums are for.

happy (resized).jpg

Man. I wish people would throw money at me for games.

6 years-ish I've been on here, and never ONCE have I ever been solicited to sell a game that I didn't have listed.

I'm saying that when I DID have all of my games listed I would get PMs asking if I would ever sell one, or could they could come test a game to see if they liked it before buying elsewhere, or would I mind taking a picture of something under the playfield for them. Well, my games aren't all set up at once or even at the same location at once. I don't even have any of my games at my home so any request I did want to help with involved me driving somewhere and often shifting games around for a photo.

That is why I DON'T list all of my games.

I actually have a few times, but don't find it particularly bothersome. Most guys are polite, and understand when I say "sorry NFS".

On the flipside, I could almost see being so desperate for a particular title close by, to try an unsolicited ask. You never know otherwise, right?

The right offer could knock socks off and the pin loose either way. But it's all about the polite approach. OTOH none of my games are so desirable that I get pestered; I can see how that would be annoying after a while.

Back on OP topic, a set of metal brackets / braces is like what, 8 bucks retail? Figure $20 for commercial-quality set at retail, then lower the price for wholesale bulk? A few minutes more labor to install. At the price these finished pins go for, how is this still a problem?

Are you a paid Stern rep? Is that why you prefer to keep their problems a secret?

I saw the braces on the Iron Maiden and they are the exact same as Guardians (I checked mine). So this shouldn't factor in to which pin you choose.

If this is an issue, it would be good for folks to know. However, it's my understanding that only 2 cabinets were reported to have this issue.

I prefer people to comment on games they actually care about and would realistically purchase. Why is everyone rallying to a topic that was created for attention and not awareness? If it's real, post a link or a photo. Don't just repeat a rumor you heard.

PinMonk just posted a nice write-up to correct this design flaw

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/reinforcing-stern-cabinet-legs-step-by-step

Somebody show pictures of at least 5 games with split cabinets. So far this seems way overblown. I've heard of two games so far.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sterns-new-cabinets

thanks
blake

Well, now another above It's ridicilous that this issue is still occurring, even rarely, considering today's NIB prices.

Doesn't matter. People are paying nearly 9000 for a machine without seeing one single picture. Stern sees that, and they DGAF; they see that money rolling in like crazy and this community's willingness to take it on the chin and do the repairs/upgrades themselves to "get their grail pin" citing "it's not really THAT big a deal".

Doesn't matter to Stern. The community keeps paying without question, orders come in at an impetuous rate, and they're more making money putting out less quality games.

Until we stop buying their games, nothing will change.

Simple as that.

That really sucks man, sorry. Check out the thread about converting to Bally/Wms brackets. You should be able to fill that gap with epoxy (use West system, don't F around) then change the brackets.

Numbers reported are really a bad metric to evaluate how widespread or how small an issue is. Pinside is a small portion of the overall pinball community. Not everything will make its way here. Things can look bigger or much smaller than they really are. Reports help explain what an issue is, but they don't give a good representation of how common a problem might be.

Right during the height of the ghosting playfield problems when you couldn't look at Pinside without seeing 10 threads on the issue, I pointed out ghosting inserts to someone on their Ghostbusters. They didn't even know what I was talking about, so I explained and showed them. I have to image that many people like him let that issue go unreported and never addressed.

I can’t wait to get my IMDNLE next week!

It's the same picture as what is already on the Maiden thread.

I'm sorry...if I came off as sarcastic...I wasn't being. All my games are "for sale" other than Crescendo and Night Moves... I just haven't listed them anywhere yet, so I was saying it would be awesome if someone threw me an acceptable offer on one of them!

Yuup, after seeing this post, I'm ordering the brackets today.....

But the whole thing will fall apart, catch fire, and insult your wife all on day one. Why are you excited about this?

It's not so much a design flaw as another Stern overly aggressive cost reduction. Crappier cabinet wood + cheap, underpowered brackets = more potential to split cabs where they're stressed - all to save less per machine than we'll pay to reinforce the cabs with the proper leg brackets anyway. It's stupid.

Star Wars LE cabinet was put together perfectly...don't know why they don't do it for all others going forward.

Stern’s fix was not overlapping the decals at the corners, correct? If so, only Stern would Call that a “fix”

Wtf is with the down votes?? I thought this was a great question and seeing the pics below definitely helps.
Initial post -- not helpful.

EDIT: your initial post must have been different. N/M.
I do appreciate people who posted details here.

My guess is he edited the post and that is not what it said originally.

Before I purchased my NIB Ghostbusters Premium last year I called Stern to ask about the cabinet issues that were being reported around that time. The person I spoke to immediately said "there's no issue, sometimes a cabinet simply doesn't get enough glue" and that was it...I then waited several months before ordering my game as by then reports of the issue had stopped.

Yes, we know they,'ve had problems in the past..... and some people got new cabs. I have seen two Maidens with splits, both were at a pinball show.... are there more Maidens split?

Not trying to downplay the severity, but there is no context in these photos. The damage seen here could be from shipping, rough play, sloppily moving pins down the stairs, rage tilting, etc etc.

Of course, but you can't introduce common sense comments like that when everybody is in full panic mode.

How many pins did Stern ship last year? On pace for this year? 8k-10k? More?

Given that it's only been out a couple weeks, to have two already is not great. Time will tell if we get more, but the point is it's still happening, we just don't know how widely yet. It's why I upgrade all the Sterns with B/W legplates now as a preventative measure. Plus when you see firsthand things like the Stern leg plate strip installed backwards and shipped (as in the B/W leg plate step by step I did) - it doesn't inspire confidence in Stern QA.

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Where do those estimates come from? I'm curious as I had a post inquiring about production numbers not to far back and the general consensus was they don't release there sales numbers other than LE and therefore everything is a huge estimate.

Thanks
Blake

Because if pigs had wings they could fly?......

I'm just guessing, they say sales have gone up last two years significantly

Why does Stern seem to love so much to kick themselves in the balls. Even if its only two Iron Maidens that split at a show. It's a show this is the last place you want to see a new pin with a split cabinet.

ok got ya. I was thinking you had an inside man.
thanks
Blake

Not to mention the multiple NIB Iron Maiden's that were rejected by the customers when opened at MGC and they selected different ones to take home.

Huh? Can you elaborate on this?

I only know of one. Hilton's had some patch/filler/something on the bottom of the cabinet along one side. Yes, the bottom. He swapped it.

Excuse me?

My Star Wars has braces inside on top and bottom of the cabinet. Solid as a rock. I would assume IMDN has the same? If not, this is very easy to fix...

yes, first one I opened was a complete mess. Distributor saw it, shook his head in disbelief, and thankfully told me to grab another.

4 or 5 of the ones I saw opened at MGC had gobs of wood filler on the bottom of cabs and sometimes running the entire length of the base seam.