Probably not, everyone likes different things. I think GB possibly could be Sterns best game ever but that's just me. I like it better than my TWD I believe. Not as good as WD or GOT for tournament play, but it's more fun to play with friends over a few beers. We were laughing our asses of at the magna slings last nite. Magna slings are the best ever, there's no disputing that!

Was it a GB pro or premium? I didn't like the pro nearly as much.

Aerosmith looks like a sleeper, LCD and animations are awesome. Gotta wait out code on that one with Lonnie, I agree and it doesn't hurt to wait and see if Stern has fixed the PF issues.

None on my BM66 yet!

I gotta agree with you on Aerosmith man. I think we have a winner in that game for sure, and I don't even really like them much as a band.

That is right on. It's just plain F ing fun! Those magna slings are genius and the subway ramp is one of my favorite ramp shots.

If only it had the LCD.

A great beer drinking pin. TWD is more work, blood pressure raising.

I spent time on GB Premium & GB Pro. Both piss me off. The Pro is missing cool shit while the Premium under utilized or botched (IMO) the cool shit. Weird!

Yeah Aerosmith is indeed a surprise. Code & QC is all I need to see!!!!

I think you're going to see code and quality both. Time to pull out some of that old musty money PW!

To me, it is. I could give you four reasons I don't really care for any of those.

I'm not a huge MET fan but I know everyone else loves it so I included it. GB, WD, and GOT though are all time greats!

As far as layout, gameplay, and code, sure. But none of those themes do anything for me.

With Batman, I get a great shooting layout with tons of shots, code that is maturing as we speak, an LCD screen, and a great theme and music that are as timeless as they come.

At what games cost today, I'm not satisfied owning a machine just because somebody else likes the theme.

Historical data says otherwise

I'm like Mulder... trust no one. Especially pinball companies. They are the F'n worst lol

But you're right my money is musty!

Well if you watch the dead flip stream the code already looks solid. As far as the playfield quality goes, I think that is behind them personally. My WD and GOT were both made during the real scary times last year and they are both beautiful. My GB playfield was made in October and its gorgeous too. As long as they fix the bad ones that's all I care about, and that appears to be exactly what they are doing.

Pretty strong statement. What information do you have that gives you this level of confidence?

I hate being the "I know and I can't tell" guy, but in this instance I really shouldn't say. Someone who would DEFINITELY know and would speak without bias laid it out for me. It doesn't mean that every playfield will be perfect, because that has never been the case in pinball history, but the ratio of good to bad should be back to normal and acceptable levels again.

What I think Stern wants is to replace the worst of the playfields during the iffy yield window as good will or warrantied replacements and let time bury the whole issue. As long as they replace the affected owners, I really am fine letting it all drop and letting it become a small blip in their historical timeline. Mistakes were made, they just need to be corrected and not repeated in the future.

What month were they corrected jar? Like September? Also we're all playfields produced during thos times made badly or just some? Reason I ask is because my GOT and WD seem fine and they were early to mid 2016.

I don't know the beginning/ending time frames. Sounds like all is well now though. Again, you're never going to get 100% perfect yields, but things should be normalized by now.

Just curious because seems like things got better mid September

We received a replacement playfield for GoT back in August, but the old one is still here in the box and we're waiting for instructions. First we were supposed to get a paid return shipping label, but now it seems we're going to provide "proof of destruction" instead. Might involve drilling at some specified places and returning some key parts. The details are still to be decided. In the meantime we have a great source of replacement parts, so there's that

Shady on whose part, and how?

Photoshop some holes in the PF, boom you are done and have a backup.

To those saying all is well... are we reading the same forum?

A local guy received a MET maybe a month ago with a very very recent PF & he already has insert ghosting & flaking clear

Another dude's replacement PF began ghosting & flaking within days.

I've been skeptical of the all is well claims too, but I'm pretty convinced now. I think we'll need to accept that no matter what a few bad ones will always get out. It's just up to Stern to do the right thing and replace them.

You're being overly sensitive here.

The guy is in norway.. return shipping will be expensive. So they are probably thinking destroying it vs paying to get it back is the better route. Stern just wouldn't want the PF being sold or circulated. They aren't really concerned about the owner getting an advantage of parts... they don't want the owner reselling the parts to avoid abuse and other customers from getting subpar stuff.

There was another guy swearing up and down that things were fixed too. That was a few months ago and issues still existed ever since then. I guess without some technical/quantifiable explanation I'm not a NIB buyer and will avoid all Sterns with a build date from ~April 2016 and beyond. If there is a title I want I will be inspecting it like crazy and passing if there are any issues.

F it, have Don do a "Going Rogue" podcast and spill the beans.

I interpreted oyvindmo 's post to mean that Stern's original plan for replacement was the bad playfield be returned but now they are considering asking him to destroy it and provide proof of that destruction. If that's the case I would strip everything off the playfield and break it into pieces, keep all the spare parts that Stern doesn't want returned.

Stern also denies claims...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbusters-le-playfield-restoration-begins/page/4#post-3613003

We all know what will happen to that dude's PF if he plays it. But Stern pretends the early indicator is the final result. Its not. Its like that carpenters song "The ghosting's just begun"

Aaaand again Stern sent defective PF's to replace defective PF's. That is not a confidence inspiring move.

Aaaaaand they ignored my email when I was about to buy a NIB TWD & I wanted to know the PF warranty. Thats a dickhead move so I bought a HUO TWD.

Aaaaaand its not just one game. Its MET, GOT, SMVE & GB. Shit!

Aaaaand so many games are unfinished.

Am I surrounded by shills? Is Pinside an elaborate pinball matrix that only exists to fool me & only me?

Lol Tramadol & Waffle House theories

My Google-Fu is failing here, please clue me in on this one - it sounds awesome.

Its not something you can google

It was me 10 minutes ago eating a pecan waffle

I'm not saying that the QC issues have been fixed. I'm saying that from what I have heard, I believe that the playfield clearcoat issues have been addressed. No playfield maker will get a 100% yield, that's just impossible. However, the higher than usual numbers of bad playfields seems to be a thing of the past. Now, will Stern's relaxed QC still see some bum playfields get used in machines? Probably. I mean, my GBLE had TONS of additional issues beyond a bad clearcoat, so it's not like buying NIB is a safe bet anyway, regardless of playfields.

The issue of poor QC still exists. It's going to take a long time for that reputation to be rebuilt, and every bump in the road is going to be harder to smooth out. I would still not buy a NIB game from Stern at this time, but if I did, I would be more confident in the playfield than I would be in a mid-2016 game. Also, who knows how much stock from the dodgy time frame is still being used? Stern could be using playfields that they shouldn't be using, despite better yields coming out from their suppliers now.

Edit: I might be the LAST person that should be called a Stern shill. I'm actively boycotting the company until they make some much needed changes in their business practices that go way beyond customer service/support and game quality.

KISS has some ghosting as well? It has made me wary picking one up.

Everybody has to make their own assessment of the situation with Stern QC

There are always going to be issues that crop up from time to time. Some bigger than others like PF gate

Can also just wait it out like Curly is doing. I used up all my patience for a lifetime waiting on Woz

What I know for myself is that I'm thrilled with my Stern purchases. Aside from a F Ed up mech, my BM66LE is working beautifully now

Going forward, I think Stern is gonna crush it with that LCD and the pricing of that pro model

The good news is there are lots of options to pick from competition wise if you don't like one vendor

The other guys' interpretation were indeed correct. English isn't my mother tongue, so I sometimes write things in a way which has a slightly wrong ring to it, so to speak. I sincerely apologize for making you look like an over-sensitive twat

You're in a normal place. Pinball is in a weird place.

See? It's a weird game. You're normal to see it for the trash monster that it is. Congrats!

*ahem*

Magna slings are not the best ever.

I just disputed it. Thank you.

I think that the biggest contributor to the fear, uncertainty, and doubt around the playfield CC issues is Stern's foolish refusal to discuss the problem and alleged "solution" publically. All we know is that they have/had a big problem in 2016, which some claim they have figured out and resolved. But if that is true, then why not explain it to their potential customers to try to rebuild their reputation?

If they *really* don't want to go public with the nature of the problem, then the next smartest thing they could do is slap a 2-year, no-questions-asked warranty on all new playfields. That's the kind of thing that companies do to show they believe in their products to show their customers that they are a safe bet.

The only reason they don't do these things is that they feel they don't need to due to the lack of a high-volume competitor.

So quit sending your hard-earned $$ to Stern and send it to Heighway, Multimorphic, and JJP instead if you want the pinball industry to become stronger, and its customers happier.

I have monies in my hands...can I buy a machine now from any of those companies for under 6k?

I realize it's not under $6k, but looks like Full Throttle is $6,300 and Alien is $6,450. So Heighway is still ~$1k above Stern street prices, but not terribly far off from your target.

Right but the first part of my question was can I get one now? I can get plenty of Sterns right now if I want to by going to my distro. Alien is finally shipping so that line has to be a long wait? If I ordered a FT how long would it take?
I'm not even mentioning the shipping prices which I wouldn't pay....nor will i mention buying a dutch game

Is Dutch still taking money, if so where do we sign up?

Right here...it's going greeeeeeeeat
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-the-big-lebowski-1#post-3612374

i could never work that one out. all it would have taken is some good (ongoing) customer communication. to those affected , and potential customers... didnt happen.

they didnt mind communicating production numbers/output though. ?

You need to lay off the drugs Rare, they are bad for you! First you said GB sucks and now you're saying magna slings suck. You cannot be serious, magna slings are an absolute riot. I'm not saying put them on every pinball machine or anything like that, but they are perfect for GB! Maybe if they ever make The Munsters they would be great on that game too?

They are a great idea, but to me hurt by the 1 switch per sling set up. The total randomness doesn't bother me, not every game has to be the same, but most of the time they get no reaction at all.
Games can be lame and have good ideas.

Seems like they get more active as you get deeper into the game. They seem kinda like normal slings at the start of a new game, but if you have a great game going they start getting very wild.

Yeah i like that part and it makes sense...but they do not work anywhere near normal slings at the start. Again, the 1 switch issue.

I've never done a drug in my life...but I have dated an infamous drug addict. She was super loopy...she'd probably like GB lol

Meh - when they work normally, they work like regular slings, which already exist....and when they do goofy shity for no reason, it's just another cheap down the middle drain from your friendly neighborhood Ghostbusters!