Yeah, a bunch of people have said that the person signing the playfields signed them in the wrong place.

Silly designers...they need so much oversight.

Yeah, that totally blows! The same thing happened to Wise_Guy, and Stern ended up giving him a brand new machine and paying for shipping both ways:

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tf-decepticon-35/page/2#post-119824

If you are not happy with what they are offering you, you just need to pursue the issue more aggressively. Now that they have given Wise_Guy a new game, a precedent has been set. In my opinion, they should allow you to keep and play your current game until they are able to get you a new one.

If it were mine, I'd just accept some replacement parts (like spare toys that you know will be broken in a few years) and leave it alone. Or if they will just give you a playfield, I would take that in a second. You know what a NIB playfield will be worth in 20 years...

Do you really care that the designer did not sign in the correct place?

Does it really affect game play at all?

Will the ones with the misplaced signatures be worth more one day?

Yea, I might be inclined to take a new playfield with signature in correct position and keep the current one if that were on the table as vid1900 said. Sorry to hear about the hassle GoBlue. Stern had worked with Wise_Guy for an acceptable compromise. If you are not happy let them know what you would be happy with and see if they would be willing to work with you. I've heard it is a fun pin to play so that is one plus I guess. Hope it all works out in the end keep us posted.

All these stories have put me off a NIB AC-DC!

Seriously, what does it take to do just a little bit of quality control! How much money would they save by getting it right in the first place for crying out loud.......and don't give me this BS about how you should expect all pinball machines, even new ones out of the box, to have flaws...that's garbage.....

So it's shipping both ways and an absolute pain in a** to deal with....man I feel your pain, I went through some issues with my LOTR LE NIB....

You know how it went:

1. The designer is told to sign the outlane.
2. He signs it below by accident on some of them (maybe the first 20?).
3. The boards are sent out for clearcoat.
4. The boards come back and are assembled into machines.
5. Nobody notices because it just blends into the cluttered artwork.
6. It does not get any attention because it does not affect gameplay.

It may well become the more valuable of the 2 playfields - just sayin'...

I was watching one of the HEP videos about the TF Decepticon LE and I have to agree, Gomez needs to resign them.

I think this is correct. Probably only decepticon, too. I haven't heard of a single signature issue with Autobots or regular LE's. Could be worth something in the future. Like an error on a baseball card.

I don't care how it went, it's screwed up and a pain to deal with....and who the heck wants an "error", this isn't a baseball card....

No excuses, get it right.....

+1... and it sucks cuz i really want ACDC!

-Craig

If your interested in AC/DC wait until people give some reviews about it and then decide if you want to order one.

I don't think so, it will diminish the value.

Great advice Gap.....if it gets good reviews AND you play it first, then buy it if you love the theme!

I honestly don't think it matters one way or the other. My LOTR LE has sigs from Gary and Gomez on the bottom of the outlanes, and I only noticed when I waxed it.

Yep, the secondary market may well be the best bet (assuming the limited models are sold out).

-Craig

My kids are the ones who found the sigs on LOTR LE....I agree, who cares, it's not like it's Michael Jordan signing the play field......

But for those that do....why do they screw up something so simple...

Looks just like mine.I was offered a signed translite.I thought that would be fine because I could really care less about the signature beyond the fact that it just isn't what was promised or properly executed.
The funny thing is that I got my translite today and now get this.......It is signed by both Gomez and Stern but.........It is an LE translite not the correct Decepticon one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think I would ever even consider dealing with them again at this point.

Postage stamps, Baseball cards, Coins, Record Albums....errors are worth more.

Chris,
I don't think anyone received the Autobot or Decepticon specific Translight as compensation. I think they were all standard editions sent out.

Simply wrong....

Well they should send out a signed translite for the correct version otherwise what is the point?

Maybe an "error" pinball machine with no legs would be worth more....

Right.I had no idea we were talking about getting anything other than the correct translite.
I thought I was doing them the favor by accepting this lame solution but after getting it today I am even more annoyed.

I'm guessing they would think it would be used as wall art or something. Beats me.
Maybe they only printed enough for the LEs for a single run or something. Again, beats me.
Maybe they figured your machine needed the matching hologram with the number on the translight and it shouldn't be replaced. Beats me...

I'm just guessing. I only heard of one other person getting a translight and it was the pro version translight that was sent out from what I recall.

Stern is a cheap ass. Listen to any TOPcast featuring an interview with any of his designers. This is par for the course with that guy.

...but I guess I am just a "Stern-Basher" (despite the fact that I bought a NIB Stern machine once).

Being the only manufacturer he could afford to be bad....with turds like BBH and Avatar....what goes around comes around But the "only manufacturer" ain't so anymore

He has always been a cheap ass. Will always be a cheap ass. Don't ever expect him to hire a guy to build toys and customize his machines, like JJP has already done. Gary goes to Toys R Us for his stuff, by his own admission. He panders to the wrong crowd, as far as state-side pinheads like us are concerned. His position won't change, even if JJP knocks WOZ out of the park.

Chris, go back to your distributor and ask them to have stern send you a decepticon translight. I understand your frustration but they should make it right. Sorry your having so many issues.

I just received my replacement decepticon for my signature that is cut of by apron. Guess what I have #108 they sent me #107 never opened it to check to see if the signature is cut off and guess what?? Yes its cut off also and is worse then the one I have already!! I am not happy and am being sent 4 sets of different plastics for 4 different stern games I own. I am done this is my last stern I am buying without playing the game 1st.. No more pre orders for me.. Now Mike at automated services is having to pay for the game to be sent back to him and is sending me the plastic sets for all my troubles and Stern is doing nothing!

What a Joke....how they hell did they not even break out the games they still had at the Stern Plant to see if others had these same issues. If so they could have easily offered them at a discounted price & explain the situation before hand so the people receiving them wouldnt have been suprised.
Well this may have made my decision for me as to wether my next purchase was going to be a IJ (WMS) or TF LE.

Sorry to hear this happened to you Wise_Guy....I was about to take you up on your offer to come play your TF LE. Guess i'll just have to check out BBB instead.....(=

smassa I am keeping my original TF LE I have.... I just updated the the code and am trying to like the game before I most likely sell it 3 months or so down the line... 93/IJ is a great game and I love mine as I would take IJ 10x before a TF LE..Yet come play it and decide that for yourself. The ball dynamics can't change with a new code and feel that its TF weak point or at least to me I should say.

Holy S**T!!! That is unbelievable. I'm so in shock right now that I don't even know what to say.

that's too bad. I'm really glad I haven't had any issues with my Tron LE.

I heard today from PinSlug that ALL of the signatures were incorrectly placed; irregardless of serial number.

At this point, it might be cheaper to fly Gomez out with a paint pen to anyone's house that is crying about it, than to ship back a bunch of games. LOL

-
If I end up picking one of these up, I'm gonna just request a replacement playfield and put it away for safe keeping.

I think the biggest issue for me is the price hike from Pro to LE and with that increase, I would not expect all these issues, as essentially they are for home use and not really going out on location.....

Trouble is, their limited edition business model forces people who want LE machines to pre-order them before the flaws or issues are uncovered.

Unbelievable!!! Sorry Wise Guy, there's really no excuse for them not ensuring that they weren't sending a TF with the same or even worse problem.

That is incorrect. I personally saw a Decepticon LE that the signature was perfect in the outlane and 100% visible.

Believable Rumz. #107 and #108 would have been shipped in the same truck logically. Sounds like the retailer had both games, and Stern never did ship another. Unless it's a pretty big coincedence.

I guess guys that support the bad guys get bad service... errr...

It doesn't surprise me at all Wise Guy, Stern just doesn't seem to care....now Mike at Automated is great and he'll make it right!

That said, anybody that pre orders a Stern in the future ought to have their head examined.....I loved the Transformers theme and it's a beauty of a machine.....but I got a chance to play the LE and would never buy one now because of how it plays compared to others like SM and LOTR....

I'm not going to ever have 50 pinball machines, not because I couldn't afford it but because I can't imagine trying to play 50....that is what the arcade in Austin is for...now what I want is 8 to 10 of the best that I like and I'm patient.....

If JJP makes the same mistakes he'll pay for it big time on machine number 2......He won't make the mistake though and we'll have an option!

Yep, here everyone is blaming Stern for the second screwup, but it is the distributor that never checked the second machine before shipping it out.

that sucks Wise guy. Its a good game that they rushed out the door.

With new competition you would think they would stop trying to rush good games out the door and instead try to focus on quality control. Sorry to hear of all the trouble. I hope they can get their act together for future releases!

George Gomez is a human, an artist, and a playfield designer who signed the playfield. He is not a robot, and the "error" everybody is talking about is attributed to him.

Can you imagine the waste and destruction if Stern felt is was necessary to trash the playfields? Or does that even matter?

As for the quality control of JJP...We haven't even seen any of it yet manufacturing-wise, decals, cabinets, playfields. What if JJP gets in trouble and Stern has to build WOZ?

He designed the playfield he should know where the out lane is.