Well I finally got my first NIB. An AC/DC Premium is now in my gameroom. I picked it up on Monday from Estes shipping. Haha I couldn't wait 4 days for them to deliver so I just went to there dock and picked it up myself.

Got it home, unpacked, and setup. I did notice several quality issues.

1. When I lifted up the playfield there were three thumb screws stuck to the speaker magnet. I have no clue where these went or even if they belong to the machine.

2. After playing a few games, the blue LED kept falling out of the sockets under the slingshots above the flippers. This happened about three times. I pulled the sockets out and the LED's do not fit snug. I cut a small piece of thick stock paper and wrapped around the center of the LED base and stuck it back in the socket. They seem to be holding now.

3. The clear portion of the playfield above hell mini playfield has imperfections. You can see some spots here and there. Some are on top and may be able to be buffed out. Some can't be. It is not foggy like the first run but has imperfections. In the bottom left corner there stress lines that can be seen. through into the lower playfield. Not sure what to think of that.

4. The machine came with specific instructions taped on the playfield to install the ball into the mini playfield and how to do that. Well.... it was already installed. ???

5. The cannon was not traveling it's full extent either way. I looked closer and the canon plastic cover was rubbing really bad against the right plastic ramp. The screw holes on the ramp had already been slotted to push it away from the cannon but that still was not enough. I had to carefully shave some of the edge off the ramp lip to make proper clearance so the cannon could move without hitting/binding. There is NO WAY that Stern QC could have passed this cannon movement without seeing this problem. I don't understand how this got out of the door???

After the few things were adjusted/modified, The game plays very well. It is a blast!!! I am glad I got it but not the happiest about the items mentioned above. Especially the playfield imperfections and the canon/ramp problem.

Also installed Hemi's cannon mod and detonator mod. Both are awesome! Great stuff!!!!

Here are few pics to enjoy.

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Haha no but why put the paper there. Do they just randomly put the ball in every other machine?

That sucks about your playfield. I would think by now that this playfield window issue would be fixed. I can understand it not being absolutely perfect but the imperfections that I can see should not have left the factory that way. Plus I hear that playfield problems is why they cut this run short.

Hopefully you will have no issues at all! All in all I am happy with the machine. Remember this is my first NIB so I really don't know what to expect. I know what I want to see and that is a machine that has little to no issues out of the box.

I understand things get jarred during traveling/handling and may need to be readjusted. I have no problems with that. But the ramp/cannon issue was not a handling problem. It is a clearance problem that was there from the beginning. They even slotted the holes in the ramp trying make it work and still it didn't fix it. The playfield window is a quality problem that has yet to be fully fixed.

JJ is the man. This was my first time dealing with him and I am very happy with everything. Ordering went super smooth and he kept me up to date on the whole process. Couldn't ask for more.

JJ I'll get you those pics later tonight.

Here is a few quick pics of the main problems on the play field.

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Yes the playfield is clear but it shows imperfections that should not be there. Also I have readjusted the right ramp and it still was hitting the cannon. The pic below shows where the ramp pushes over the gray post sleeve. For it to properly do that it still hit the cannon. Also like I mentioned, Stern already slotted the mounting holes in the ramp near the cannon trying to pull it away from the cannon. They failed! I had to remove some of the lip of the ramp for the clearance. It still could use a little more because you can see the ramp move slightly when the cannon moves back to home.

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Not pits but it does have a couple bumps. The pic above shows one. Right below the right eye. You can feel it on the play field.

If you bought a new nice sports car and it had paint blemish on the top of the hood would you be cool with it? Or how about a 60" LED TV and it had a small crack in the screen would that be no big deal? May not be a sculpture or fine art but at $6K+ I expect more.

Got it from JJ at Game Exchange of Colorado. It was drop shipped from Stern to me through Estes shipping.

I would definitely recommend JJ. He has great prices and awesome customer service. I didn't even have to say anything to him about this. He is already on it and is working to get things solved for me.

A+ Service!!

Like I have mentioned at the beginning. I don't mind to adjust things. That doesn't bother me. I expect it. But what I really don't like or accept is known issues such as the playfield window quality not being addressed by Stern. I know that these had issues in the past and so did Stern. But yet they keep sending them out. That is a QC problem and an upper management issue for allowing it to happen. I am partially at fault for rolling the dice and hoping that this was fixed.

I don't regret buying the machine at all. The fun factor trumps the imperfections. But I know it is there and it bugs the crap out of me and it is something that needs fixed!

I personally feel that a lot of people that this doesn't bother are probably operators or have large collections. Not all but the majority.

The operators use these machines to make money. A few blemishes here or there no big deal. They are going to get more out in the wild.

Some people who have large collections it doesn't bother as bad because this is one of many and possibly the $$$$ doesn't mean as much as it does to me.

I can only afford one game at a time. LOTR sadly is leaving because of the AC/DC. So this issue is a big problem to me.

I have some spots like that too. I just didn't get them to pick up as well in the picture. Man I am sorry you are having problems as well. I really hope Stern steps up and takes care of this.

Yeah I pulled mine up too but still had to shave some of the lip off with a razor. My left horn has the most noticeable defects of all. It is very irritating because now I see it everytime I play.

Big update.

Just heard back from JJ. Stern is going to replace my playfield for me. They are going to send me a populated playfield so I can swap it out. Hopefully the replacement will be defect free.

Big thanks to JJ for pushing this for me. I cannot recommend him enough for a great guy to buy your next NIB pinball from. He has worked hard to get this problem fixed.