Only thing so far is the quick tweak for the drop targets on the pro. Can't speak for the LE.

I had a NIB avengers hulk and I have a NIB Monsters Premium,I was working on the Hulk forever to get it to play right.with the monsters Metallica I just plugged it in and played

In short, no. It's great. It depends on your attitude though. Pinball comes with a cost of ownership. If you are buying to have a great game that once is set up plays great then buy it. But if you are thinking for the good money you spend, you should only plug it in and play, don't buy it. I've never bought a game new, used, restored, that didnt need some tweaking with glass off and playfield raised. It's just the nature of the hobby.

Met Monsters Premium. Plays great right out of the box with only one minor tweak needed. (left orbit was trapping balls) Built last Thursday, inline drops work perfect, orbit post is fine, snake is fine.

Nothing like Hulk that can't be fixed with code. The only real issue is timing of the magnet for Coffin Lock. It will be fixed with code. Snake rejects were cleared up by leveling and dialing in for me.

Anyone have momentary power loss issues yet? A few times now the flipper power cuts out during play on ball 3. Is this code related? I haven't updated yet from 1.06

This and an overpowered right sling are the only issues I have had with mine. It's like night and day compared to my NIB Hulk experience. Metallica is a huge step forward in QC for Stern. Still not perfect, but is there such a thing in pinball?

Harry, are you sure pinball is right for you?

I'm not so sure if Metallica was a huge step forward, or if HULK was a pretty big step backward for QC from Stern I love my HULK now, but there were some significant growing pains with this game, that my previous three Sterns did not share! I'm glad people are happy with their METLE's

Glad to know I'm not the only person with this issue. This has been my only issue, so I can't really complain. I have already adjusted the coil strength to "soft" in the software, but It can still fling a ball into the left cabinet wall pretty hard. WTF?!

If I recall, one of my sterns had different actual coils. Maybe the solution is to get a less powerful coil?

None so far on my LE.

The only real problem I have had on the Pro was the drop target issue, which took a few seconds to effectively hack. I also had to replace a defective flipper button. There don't seem to be any mechanics in the game that would require a major modification.

I had the same problem on my machine -- routinely the right sling launched balls over the left sling and into the left wall. It even knocked the left spotlight out of alignment and knocked the LED out. While putting the LED back into the socket, I think I identified the cause of the issue. I'm not positive, but I think it is a simple quality control issue.

Can you take a look at the posts under your sling? It looked like on my machine that the right post was installed upside down:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52811814@N00/9266764482/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52811814@N00/9263988081/

I can't imagine this is the way the machine was designed to play. So I am assuming this common issue is just Stern QC. I have flipped my post and the game plays the way I would expect it to now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52811814@N00/9263985025/ met_post.jpg metpost2.jpg metpost3.jpg

anyone find a fix for the airballs off of Sparky...that seems to be my only real issue...

I do not think this is an issue, just the way it is...

Yeah, I agree with this.

I like the airballs off of Sparky

I changed my slingshot rubbers to 2" white rubbers. Cut down on the air balls but the slings are also less sensitive. I'm going to try swapping in star posts with 2.5 black rubber eventually. If nothing else, a 4ohm power resistor in series with the coil will be the last resort.

Oh by the way, after a quick novus on the main playfield, I noticed rejects on the drops from the higher speed direct impacts. I removed the novus residue and cleaned the balls with alcohol and its a touch slower, but no rejects. Just an FYI

The only real issue I see remaining is the orbit post sending balls back down the orbits instead of feeding the pops. Most people are just disabling it but I find the pops never see action that way and there are some decent points to be had there during fuel mode, especially with 2x and ESPECIALLY with a big MB 4x going... 100k a switch? Yes please. I have a design in mind for a replacement orbit post that may be getting manufactured in the coming week or so. I'm hopeful it can take the abuse and successfully feed the pops 100% of the time. I'll keep you all posted.

Snake traps the ball fairly regularly on my early PRO, not sure if they've fixed this in later versions or not (the ball perches on the top front lip of the scoop-hole and is leaning on rear of the flipped up tongue). I've e-mailed Stern and await a reply. Snake tongue can bind metal to metal on the lower 'jaw'. I've had problems with mine since the first day.

Drops are still an issue for me; stubborn to get knocked down.

Orbit post shot bouncebacks are annoying.

Sparky airballs will probably eventually result in something getting smashed. I'm in the planning stages of making a guard to go over this area. If someone else beats me to it, great!

I like the sounds of this post idea!!

Or Lyman should just make it used much much less in the rules...

anyone find a fix for the airballs off of Sparky...that seems to be my only real issue...

I actually swapped out the 2 posts up by Sparky so I could install Cliffy posts, and that has cut down on airballs off of Sparky greatly!! Now Just gotta get that right sling to quit flinging them into the left side and the spotlight ...and the coffin lock to work and it will be good to go!

Phoebe

P7050009.JPG

Hard to believe there were 9 posts after this one, and not one of them addressed this. Yes, it looks like the post was installed upside down. Unbelievable! You're lucky you didn't get a ball stuck under the sling plastic!

Not on my PRO. It is on location and, other than adding hole and flipper button protectors, it hasn't needed anything. Stern is sending a fix for the drop target optos but this game hasn't really had a problem with them - but I will put it on anyway.

Parker

A 4ohm resistor soldered inline on the slingshots calms them enough.

Metallica has a few small issues but stern are moving slowly in the right direction it's good to see.

Are there any real issues (like Hulk on Avengers) that can't be fixed on Metallica.
I'm not talking code related, I'm talking toys and/or mechanics.
Besides the new machine tweaks, is there anything that is a real issue with this game?
I ask, because I'm still soured with the QC issues of my AC/DC purchase. It's now fine, but man did I get a bum machine. I was under the hood for weeks fixing things that shouldn't need fixing.
Fast forward to now. AC/DC is by far the most played game in my collection. Now that it's been fixed and tweaked, it's pretty solid. I guess I'm just hoping Metallica, after the tweaks and fixes (if needed) that it's (somewhat) worthy of AC/DC.
Thanks in advance.
Harry

Its good. Really. NOTHING like Avengers. Solid fast fun and hard. Out of the box good.

Only minor issues like inline drops not always dropping. Tighten up the drop springs fixed mine. Plus they have to break in. Chaz told me only 5 or 6 have had a broken drop.

Added a few mods to mine. PM if you need more info.

20130625_132110.jpg

Early game play

http://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=LwFsTe1Kw6k&video_referrer=watch&ns=1

That overpowered right sling is the only real issue in our case. Hulk was great once it was dialed in, but didn't come out of the box that way.

Agreed! I have to go home and check mine now....

I think Pinbits eventual protector set will address this.

my posts are correct from the factory...still some WILD kicks off the slings! (and I kinda like em)

That's fine for you, but I personally don't like that it flings my ball through the air, brushing the spotlight, and landing in the outlane for a drain I totally don't deserve!

Try repositioning the rubber. Make sure it's not super tight over the kick area...try to give it more slack on that area, tighter on the inlane part.

I can't wait for pinbits protectors : )

I greatly dislike the steel washers Stern uses on the sling plastics

complete clears are the way to go !

Put the first 20 plays on mine. I seem to be free and clear of most issues. Left orbit was fine out of the box. No right sling issue. Drops have no issues. Snake rejects are minimal. The left side stand up of the right ramp seems to be favoring the left side of it hole which kinda pinches the snake head into being a tighter shot. The orbit post seems to be good only sending rejects down the left side once in every 10 or 12 times. Functionally out of the box has been near perfect.

The hammer is bizarre. My game came with 1.3 installed and was made on June 29th. I played 1.3 for the first few games and the hammer was flawless. Always registered every hit and I swear every time lock was lit, the next hit would always catch and pound through the field. My mistake was not saving 1.3 before I loaded 1.65. The hammer on he newer code registered hits the same but it took consistently 2 additional hits to have the magnet grab the ball. First lock was 5 and it would take 7. The next was 7 and it would take 9 hits. Never got to the MB with factory settings. I went into the settings and changed the hits to 3, 5, 5 knowing each one would add 2 hits to lock and got MB on the 20th hit. Has anyone else experienced similar?

Even with the hammer I am really enjoying the game and glad I chose to go with the premium. On a side note there sure look like there is enough room to get a protector around the hammer magnet. Regarding the critique the cube prevents strategic ricochetes I can tell you this was not the case. I was able to consistently make the snake from the cube. Hit Sparky from the cube. Even make the left ramp off of the cube. The cube is definately getting a racing stripe from the ball hits. I opted to slow down the progress with a strip of mylar and that to is getting beat. Very solid right now, can't wait for more.

Cheers

Yes...hammer was really better on 1,13,software,but why
was it flawlwess before and now its not.

Ditto

Great video of your son playing. He definitely has some nice skills already. Enjoy the fantastic game!

I would give more details if I backed up 1.13 but I didn't. What I am confident on is it was faster (less hits to the cube) on 1.13 to progress to coffin MB than 1.16. That was my experience.

Cool. I need a clear protector to go over sparkys feet area. I get airballs alot too. No stuck balls though.

I got the sling protectors off ebay.

Well i think i was wrong...it was version 1.11

I kept it, and i am doing the change right now,i will test it to make sure and give you the details!

Looks like the version 1.11 is not good on my key,the pinball does not see it.

Just played a couple more games. Had the magnet let the ball go before the hammer comes down thing twice. For the record it doesn't record a lock when that happened. I also had once where the magnet let the ball go and the hammer didn't come down.. Will try to see what caused it. More to come. Other than that, by changing the ball counts on the locks to 3,5,5 it is functioning close to what factory settings are supposed to.

Alan

i am really convinced that it is the Software that needs to be tweek for the hammer and magnet!