My MBr SE has been perfect since day one out of the box. In my opinion, CGC is the Honda and Toyota of the pin makers. Their pins may not appeal to everyone at the moment. But you see no threads recently of quality issues that JJP and Stern have.

JJP is the exotic maker with low volume and some quality issues. High end buyers will put up with their quality issues.

Stern is your mass producer pushing out one game after the next to keep the customers flocking to the next must have pin. Quality suffers some time with a model, but buyers soon forget because they desire the next popular pin.

CGC is your lower volume, build a safe bet machine theme that has little to no issues.

Spooky and the other lower volume manufacturers are just working at getting their feet in the door and if they want to survive, will continue to work on their quality issues while providing unique or original themes. I hope they keep up the pressure on the to big to fail companies that everyone continues to support.

And DP, well that is everything that is wrong with the industry. Great ideas, horrible execution.

Want to help the manufacturers fix their quality issues. Stop buying their products for a while and they will either fix the issues or go by the way side. Losing a manufacturer is not always a bad thing. Maybe another company will come along and buy them out and fix the issues they had. Or maybe it opens the door to the lower volume guys to fill and show everyone that they have better ideas and provide a quality product.

You gotta get over a business failing. It usually leads to a higher quality company coming along with a younger generation of talent.

I bought a NIB MBr SE about 6 weeks ago. No issues with the play field. It was my first NIB purchase and set the standard as far as I am concerned. I have not had a single issue to complain about. I was looking to buy a JP or WW, but have informed my distributor that I am waiting to see if either company is going to resolve the PF issues.

There is not a product I would buy if the manufacturer told me that paint moving on a new item is acceptable. We have been painting wood for more than a hundred years and there is no acceptable reason for this to be happening.

Heck...if it takes MrBally 20 hours and Panzer 50 I am looking at 100!

And what would I do with all of the extra parts when I am done?

Well, if you had ten people doing the complete assembly and it took each one 15 mins for their steps, that’s around 2.5 hours. But everything is being installed in the most efficient manner based on their procedures.

Because the vehicle issue would end up on TV. Pinball issues would not. The internet is your only recourse. That’s my take.

Let’s hope the PF issue goes away for a long time.

My MBr has a FLAWLESS play-field and it was manufactured June 04 2019. It is the standard I expect from every NIB I buy.

I will say this...I just started buying NIB. My first was a CGC MBr. Not one issue or complaint with it. It is exactly what I expected when I bought it. Nothing has stopped working or broken in the first few months I have owned it.

Now...I have just bought a Stern and a Jersey Jack pinball machine. Both have yet to arrive at my home. CGC has set the standard for me in regards to quality and reliability. I am going to be curious to see what issues I have with either of them and how either company is going to handle any issues I have going forward.

Those are some cool looking boards! Nice

Funny, I like it! I am not used to hearing jokes about lawyers. It’s always fun to here jokes from other professions.

Ditto...life is short. Seen way to many friends of a young age pass away.

I have a quality background and that is good news for the company going forward. It might take a while to get things aligned, but it should mean more reliable games going forward.

I don’t know much about Sterns history, but if they are expanding production, they may have just realized that now is the time to bring in someone with a Quality background. Hiring someone with that background will not be cheap. But worth it. It’s growing pains I might suspect.

That’s a creative way to put it.

Wooden lanes dimple. They are made of maple on the approach/pin deck and pine for the rest of the lane. They used to sand them every few years to remove the dimples and even out the lanes for leagues/tournaments. When they sanded them down to a certain point, they would replace them just like real wood flooring. All wood dimples under the right circumstances! The smaller the pressure point/greater the weight/impact, the more likely the wood will dimple. Humidity, temperature and age of the wood all affect wood and it’s hardness. Along with what type of sealer you put on the wood.

And yes, most of the oldest trees/best aged wood have been cut down. They provided the best wood for manufacturing. No wants to wait 75 to 200 years for them to grow up. Don’t get me wrong, they still exist in some places in the world. But the wood is not cheap and all maple trees are not the same.

My MBr has been flawless and set the standard for quality. I have not even had to replace a single rubber part or reinstall a single screw. I cannot say the same about my Stern or JJP. Both have had their share of issues right out of the box. And all of the issues could have been prevented if the quality control at both JJP and Stern was better.

I personally am waiting to see what the next CGC pin is.

While reviewing some pinball related patents...I came across some text that I thought other owners might see as interesting in regards to playfield damage.

"Specifically, it has been seen that the protective hardcoat that is typically provided to the surface of the playfield becomes damaged at the point(s) where the ball impacts the edges of the shooter groove as the ball is being directed towards the playfield. When the protective hardcoat is damaged in this manner, the integrity of the playfield surface is compromised and a costly repair of the damaged area and/or replacement of the entire playfied are the only known solutions to correct this problem."

Capture (resized).JPG

Yes rails above the shooter groove.

LOL...I liked the end of the video best! Nice touch. You had me for a moment when I thought you were going to show the difference between two playfields by placing your level on the other machines playfield. I think it would be more telling. One playfield is level and smooth and the other is not.

I completely understand why you placed it on the glass. Makes sense to me and I understand why you did it. I personally would want to show that another playfield could be just as flat as the glass. I have never moved a level around on mine to find out if they are completely flat. Not seeing the whole picture/video, I wonder like others about a raised insert. I could not see what is under the level (i.e. insert).

The thread and 116 pages of comments reflects both companies playfield issues in the past and potentially going forward. The title should remain as it is or at a minimum keep JJP in it in some way.

How is a new owner going to find JJP playfield issues if the title is for Stern only?

I say leave it alone or close the thread and start a new Stern only thread.

Read a post in the TMNT thread about drilling holes in the playfield to move rail guides. SMH

It is worth about as much as an ISO mark! The ink that was used to create it.

You mean like this?

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B4126479-8631-4ED8-BFF7-72AFCE155908 (resized).jpeg