Out of the list you gave to choose from, these are great:

1980, Galaxy, 5150 made
1980, Ali, 2971 made
1980, Big Game, 2713 made
1980, Cheetah, 1223 made
1980, Flight 2000, 6301 made

-Dave (DOC)

Bill and I are Classic Stern fanatics. I'd put Stars ahead of Freefall. Just finishing up a resto on Stars and it is a great game on par with Stingray. (Chimes sound soooo nice when they are rebuilt)

The list I own:
BIG GAME
F2K
CHEETAH
QUICKSILVER
ALI
SEAWITCH
STAR GAZER
STINGRAY
STARS
NINEBALL
GALAXY
METEOR

Owned but sold off: Dragonfist, Iron Maiden, Catacomb,Freefall

Dave (Doc)

Well since Bill has given the litany of his Sterns and all their beauty (and rightly so), I'll do so with mine to represent the East Coast:

Most of these Classic Sterns have been in my collection since I've started this madness. I have restored each one to look and play like new with emphasis on optimizing the the nuances of each one's gameplay (smooth as silk flipper feeds, spinners that spin forever, drop targets that are sweepable/no bricking, all metal buffed to a mirror shine, nos clearcoated playfields or touched up/ clear coated playfields, excellent cabinets, excellent condition backglasses) on all below:

Star Gazer
Quicksilver
Nine Ball
Seawitch
Stars
Galaxy (w/7 digit mod)
Cheetah
Big Game
Flight 2000

Waiting their turn patiently in the resto queue:
Meteor
Stingray

-Dave (Doc)

All 3 where in HUO condition especially the Dragonfist and the Iron Maiden that I shopped out. The Catacomb was no slouch either.

I found Dragonfist to be a poor man's Star Gazer. Left me wanting to play my Star Gazer instead so bye-bye Dragonfist. Sold off to a collector that wanted an extremely nice copy of the game.
Iron Maiden was a spectacular looker. But left me cold gameplaywise. Felt like it was an unfinished game codewise. But not as unfinished as Split Second.
Sold off to a collector that could appreciate this HUO beauty more than I.
Catacomb? Great looker but damn, I couldn't stand the delay of game of that pretty but stupid bagatelle in the backglass after EVERY ball. They should have written the code to use it more of a last chance after ball 3 drained.
Traded it for a decent Bally Rolling Stones that I will be doing a full restore on.

Dave (Doc)

Classic Stern drop targets are sweepable and drop like butter by design unlike their Bally counterpart.

If they are bricking, inspect the drop target for breaks or weakness in the stem where the spring attaches. If fractured or broken here, this will cause the drop target to bend back and not drop when hit.

Another thing to check is the rubber ring behind the drop target bank. If too thick or too close to the back of the targets, then the targets will hit the rubber and bounce back with no time to drop when hit.
This can be addressed multiple ways but I have found the best way is to make sure the right size rubber is there. If that is good then I check the gap between the face of the drop targets and the playfield wood in front of them. If there is a gap, you need to make it a millimeter of less. Do this by relocating the entire drop bank assembly. Take out the assembly, fill the holes with bamboo skewers and wood glue. Cut flush to bottom of playfield. Line up assembly to get that drop target to playfield wood gap close to "0" as you can. Mark the holes. Pilot drill then screw it down.

If still no joy, then I start moving the rubber ring backing posts behind the drops back a few millimeters doing the same bamboo skewer method above.

Also when replacing targets with new from PBR, be careful as they are not of the same height as original and sit lower when down. They do not sit flush when down as the originals do. THis can be addressed by putting some shimming material under the drop target lift bar.

Hope that helps!

Dave (Doc)
www.pinballdoctor.com

I concur. I clean up the original drops and use them whenever possible. The PBR ones look great but performance is not as good as the originals. Different plastic blend I'm thinking.

-Dave (Doc)

Had 2 Freefalls that I nicely restored and sold them shortly afterward. Ok player but suffers delay of game / slow between balls like most Stern wide body multi-ball games from that time frame(Split Second, Iron Maiden). I like Stars,Ali,Quicksilver,Nineball,Seawitch and a few others for fast edge of your seat action much better.

Dave (Doc)

Sure. I'd definately put Big Game and Cheetah in front of it too.
Freefall sure is pretty though. But so is Iron Maiden.....