That second pic shows the star post edge below both the clear AND artwork.

Soft clear, new rubber = leaning post?

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This seems to fit with what someone said previously about not doing populated playfields anymore.

To what end? They're not a big manufacturer nor are they making a machine with a high demand theme in which they are trying to trick customers by doing this.

I'm sure if we messaged Damien he'd do it again with a clamped camera and in a single continuous shot.

edit: i've asked Damien if he can do it again in a single shot

What incentive do they have to do that though?
Are customers not purchasing because quality has gone down?

Ready for some “extreme dimpling?”

Played this guy today. Ball kept getting stuck and when I checked I initially though it was the ramp flap. It wasn’t even touching it rather resting in the valley.

RIP clear coat.
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That would logically seem like a no brainer for stern but i'd expect it would be a case of "$12? too expensive" meanwhile "where are those $600 toppers?"

Or maybe they could offer a "premium playfield wood upgrade : $600". Is a 50 times markup enough?

How many are getting unpopulated vs populated? Locally i've heard about people with bad pf's but havn't heard if they got populated ones or if that is a thing of the past now.

What are people that are getting unpopulated going to do with them? Would even 1/2 of them swap the pf's?

To me it "seems" like its this :

unpopulated = shove under the machine until I sell it. Perhaps add it as a sweetener if they see the playfield condition or sell it later to make up for the difference.

populated = actually getting what I originally wanted and paid for.

Atleast they are being honest then!

Oh lord! So that’s the tip of a screw being sent too deep pushing up art layer?

If it was installed then the ball will rip through the rest of the art around it and then start scratching up balls.

Does a magnet stick to it?
Can you push it down flat?

If there is no metal then you’d probably be able to get it recleared as you already said (not that you should have to!).

"Neither"

lol i'm just kidding but get what your saying. You'd hope that a large dist can apply pressure when required.

Yeah optimism bias or perhaps stockholm syndrome

‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.' .. "but its JAWS *swipes credit card*"

its like they need to clean the print wires/heads or something.
The vertical stripes on the turtles chest seem to be a quality artifact of that.

Anyone know what process are these actually make with? its not screenprinting so ... Inkjet/laser/dye sublimation/uv led (like this

) ?

Its worrying that along that entire process all those different people said "yep, good enough".

Pressure from the sling rubber would still be pulling on the lower section of the post though won't it?

So as a test if you rebuilt the sling (not connected to the playfield) using just the art sling plastic, your yellow plastic, the 3 bolts+nuts, 3 posts, and the rubber . Wouldn't it still be pulling inwards on the posts?

The top and bottom posts would have to be be very tightly screwed to your yellow plastic to resist the rubber pulling it in. I'd guess having the nuts screwed down that tight would likely crack or atleast scratch the art sling plastic.

wow thats pretty bad!

"thats just next level theme integration" <inset joke about blackhole/warped spacetime in that part of the playfield here>

The walk through with Jack Danger suggested otherwise re: in house clearing (6min mark) but this was from october last year.

cc : "we sand the entire playfield to make sure the entire thing is level and this is the preparation to bring it to where we're clear coating them in this back room that we're not going to show you"

Video was from october last year so anything could have happened between then and now.

Entirely possible things have changed or you are getting special treatment outside of their normal process.

damn. :\

This is a token/accountant gesture and stern know's it.

They've done the sums and seen how much it is going to cost to fix that issue and are closing the books on your case.
Any physical replacements or service that they have to do will reduce profit margin on the machine by a non trivial amount.

What they should be doing is taking the entire machine back and give you a new one (has this ever happened?).

With the old one they could recover parts and remake with a new playfield and mark it as refurbished like they do in other industries. It's not dishonest and the new customer knows what they are getting at a reduced price.

Hell, don't even do anything to it and mark it down with the known quality issues. Plenty of route operators might take a cheap version like this!

All of this makes me SUPER wary of ordering something new. I discussed this with my local distributor after I had a deposit in for a jple and the best I could get was a "we'll look after you". When asked how this sort of thing would be resolved it was "it depends on stern", so I cancelled my order. and got a refund. As much as the distributor wants to fight for me I could see that it wouldnt help.

orbiter 1 remake confirmed!

"obviously your table is warped or its a trick of the light" /s ;p

I'm really shocked tbh! Would love to see a straight edge right across it from edge to edge now its depopulated.
Fill in the holes and you have a boat hull!

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