My WOZ standard arrived yesterday. It has decals on the cabinet instead of direct print with clear coat. My understanding is that Jack experienced supply problems from the supplier of the direct printed cabinets, which is why they started running standard WOZ (to keep the line busy) until they could get the direct printed cabinets to make more LEs. I've also heard that they had some QA problems with some of the direct printed clear coated cabinets. When the cabinets were scratched/damaged, the clear/artwork came off in chunks instead of just a scratch. I have no idea how big of a deal or extensive of a problem this really was. JJP has said that the decal cabinets are easier to repair the artwork, while the direct printed cabinets are nearly impossible to repair if the art is damaged.
I wasn't going to buy a WOZ until my wife and I played one last March (2013) at the Texas Pinball Festival. My wife loved the game and wanted to get one. I was very impressed with the build quality and wasn't going to argue with my wife, considering it's the only game she's ever asked to buy, other than MB (which we still haven't bought). I do recall admiring the clear coated direct print cabinet at the time and thinking it looked very nice and I'd never seen a cabinet finish like it before. So I ordered a WOZ standard with a shaker and invisiglass through my distributor last March (2013). I wasn't expecting to get it for several more months, but the direct print cabinet problem bumped the standards up in line, so I got it a lot sooner than expected.
The decals on my WOZ look just fine and are comparable to the decals my Star Trek LE, maybe even better resolution. That being said, it's not the cool clear coated direct print I was expecting when I ordered it. My wife couldn't care less about how the cabinet is printed, she just wants to play the game and thinks it looks fine. The upside is that I would never have received my game this soon if JJP was using direct print for standards now, because I'd be last in line behind the LE's that are still not finished. However, considering that this machine is going to sit in my house forever, unless we decide to sell it, cabinet damage is not a big concern.
So at the end of the day, while I'm a bit disappointed by not getting the clear coat cabinet, it's my wife's game, she's fine with it, and we got it sooner, so I guess I'll live with the decals.
Now to my thoughts on the game itself. The build quality on WOZ is amazing. I thought I'd compare it to STLE for those who are interested. I got my STLE mid December, about two months before we got our WOZ. I'll preface all of this by saying that I LOVE my STLE. I'm biased because I'm a big trek fan, but it is a great game. I think it's the best modern Stern since LOTR, possibly the best modern Stern ever, both in gameplay and build quality. We've been playing it non-stop for the last two months, and my LOTR and other machines have received very little attention since we got STLE.
Now WOZ appears. It's sitting right next to my STLE. Visually, WOZ is considerably more impressive than STLE, IMO, and that's saying a lot, because STLE is a beautiful work of art. WOZ has more LEDs, and the light show in attract mode is better, IMO. (Of course the WOZ code has been in development for a lot longer.) When you look at WOZ, it's like looking at a Pat Lawlor game like TZ. It has toys and features everywhere, many more than STLE.
The game play between the two games is very different. STLE is a flow game, created by the King of Flow. It's fast, furious, and very fun. WOZ is much more of a stop and go game like TZ, and also very fun. I've only had WOZ a couple of days, but it seems very deep, with a lot to figure out. It seems deeper than STLE, but STLE is quite deep itself, IMO.
So here's an incomplete list of features for each game:
WOZ: 2 mini playfields including one with a spinning house and witch legs that pop out, winged monkey that captures the ball, moving witch that goes up and down, crystal ball with video display, pop bumpers with giant trees on them, state fair pop bumper in left outlane with a chance of kicking ball back out of outlane, 4 toto rollover switches in right outlane, 5 flippers, 5 magnets, 2 VUKs, more multicolor LEDs than STLE, LCD display in the back box, lit topper (even on a standard), headphone jack on coin door (even on a standard), line out audio jack on the back, multicolor (but dim) LED GI.
STLE: Vengeance ship that crashes into playfield, lit USS Enterprise model, chase lights on warp ramp, kickback, two asteroids with flashers, laser starfield projector (cool despite what people say), 3 flippers, 1 magnet, 1 VUK, white (brightly lit) monochrome LED GI, Red DMD, lit emblems on side of back box, lit side rails with animated phasers.
This may not be a complete or entirely fair comparison of features, but the WOZ seems to have a lot more "stuff" on it when the two machines are viewed side by side. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of opinion, I suppose. The price for these two machines is similar for NIB (if you get a shaker and invisiglass on WOZ, like I did). ST Premium is probably less than WOZ standard by $1000 or more, which is something to consider.
At the end of the day, these are both great machines, and I'm very glad I'm fortunate enough have both, and don't plan on either leaving my collection for a long time, if ever. These are also the first two NIB machine's I've ever bought. They play very differently, but are both fun. STLE is a very fast flow game. WOZ is more stop and go like TZ.
Hopefully this is helpful to someone who may be looking at one or both of these machines.
Burlingame, CA
