Dude are you nuts? Why the hell would you down vote my last post? If you would read back through all my post you will see that I'm not defending stern at all, matter of fact I've dogged the hell out of them for the most part. I know they are having QC issues, I've never said that they wasn't.

this.

a friends Sopranos has had a ton of plays.... playfield only had minimal shooter lane wear.

i can understand a price rise, (but probably not to that extent) as with most things... but pls dont compromise quality or processes and that is what has happened.

Torch mob chant

"What do we want?"... "Clearcoat!"

"When do we want it?"... "Stay tuned!"

I like it, good one Curly!

Now it stands for Bada** Mfer.

Exactly, good point. It would be hard stomaching today's NIB prices from Stern even if quality was the same from years ago but when quality decreases, code support is put on the back burner and prices go up it just doesn't make sense to buy their games NIB anymore (at least not right now).

Ghostbusters is a dream theme for me but I'm holding off on buying one due to the playfield issues, lack of substantial code updates, quality issues, etc. My next NIB purchase will be an Alien LE from Heighway instead.

I agree with you 100% but doesn't it worry you any at all to buy a pin from a brand new company not knowing anything At all about their quality or whether they will even be in business next year or five years from now also? I wouldn't be at all surprised if these companies don't have problems also. At least with Stern you kinda know they are going to be in business for awhile and can give you a replacement playfield if you get a bad one. Once again, I'm not taking up for Stern. I know they have been having some bad issues lately and that they need to improve their quality....I get that trust me.

Heighway has one game under their belt, Full Throttle, and its been reliable.

Heighway, like JJP, use Mirco for their playfield manufacturer. Mirco playfields are very high quality. The one on my Hobbit has held up great and the Mirco playfield I saw on a distributors Hobbit that travels to shows looks extremely good for a game with thousands of plays. No worries at all.

Sterns going to have some competition! Buy and Alien and a full throttle deck ...2 games cheaper than a Super LE with seemingly more quality !

I know JJP never turned into the Stern competitor we hoped, but things are looking really really good for Spooky and Heighway. Competition is GOOD for consumers

Even though JJP doesn't currently sell as many games as Stern does they are still their biggest competitor. Figure that JJP has sold 6,000 games between WOZ and Hobbit across all models at an average price of $7500 (trying to be conservative). That is $45 million that didn't go to Stern.

AC/DC prem, TWDLE, GBLE and BM66LE are some of the greatest pinball experiences I've ever had.

Throw in my first pin LOTRLE and then SM and I'm a Stern fanboy!

I don't know wtf your problem is Panzer but my $$$ is going to anywhere i like pinball. Including Alien next.

Take the toys and the micro PF's and..........

Wow, calm down there Iceman, I didn't tell you or anyone what to do with their $$$. My goodness, lol.

Yeah Spooky is really pumping out some great games! Give me a break!

JJP.... pffffft!

I will just wait out "Sterngate"

More like Sternfield.

Well TPF is not far away so we shall see what Game #3 brings...

Doesn't matter what it is because the company making it sucks

Wow, never heard anyone say that before. Some people don't like their games but I think you must be the first person to say they don't like the company.

It's nothing personal toward the people, I'm sure they are good people. I just don't like their games.

I had my Walking Dead Pro finally arrive yesterday (production date 30 Nov 2016)

Playfield is perfect, no issues I can see.

So you can purchase WD with confidence.....for now....lets see how it holds up

Congrats, you got a great game there for sure. Playfield will be fine, don't worry about it. I'd put a cliff in the shooter lane just to be safe but it should be fine. I'm not sure if you can turn down the eject power on the ball trough or not, if you can that would be a good idea. I turned mine down on my new GB because it was just slamming the ball into the shooter lane ridiculously hard. Now it shoots it in there nice and soft but I'm still gonna put a cliffy in there just to be safe and one on the drain hole as well, or at least a small piece of Mylar. I have a WD Pro also though, great game man.

Good luck, takes time for problems to appear so don't consider yourself out of the woods yet. Keep an eye on it.

I guess I could downvote your post if I was immature like you but I don't want to bring myself down to your level. Way to try and ruin this guys NIB experience, real nice of you! How many walking dead have you seen lately with bad playfields? None?

I don't either, but Spooky are good peeps. I'll criticize the games, but would never talk smack about their company.

And if you'll notice I didn't after I reworded it.

Really looking at this Alien myself. I want to see the folks get a few games on it before making the call, but it may just be my next purchase.

How about the peeps at Stern? They are some pretty good peeps too but you don't have any problem talking smack about their company do you? Hypocrite much there Rare?

Jody gets a lot of hate on the forums but he really is a very very fun person who has a passion for pinball. I met him on a tour of just me, my wife, and him (Jody). It was a great experience and I got to see the workers doing what they do best. Nobody looked like they hated their job and everyone seemed happy to host me for about an hour or so.

Nothing personal here. I'm pretty sure the guy you replied to just received a NIB with PF issues (I could be wrong).

A wise man once said "You never have a problem till you have a problem". So TWD is fine until its not.

IIRC its MET, GB, KISS, SMVE, GOT & now AES. So forgive a guy for keeping it real & stating no title is exempt.

I think everyone here likes Stern. We just dont like their lack of action, communication & code. Plus it does seem Stern takes their customers for granted (lately).

Jody earned his reputation and he's lucky it's not worse than it is.

The actions of Stern, as a company, are far different than that of Spooky.

I've made it clear that I have massive respect for almost everyone at stern. My issues are with the people who make the unrealistic schedules for the programmers and designers, and those who make decisions that affect QC....and whoever decided to sell a Stern for $10k-$15k. No hypocrisy at all.

You mean 10K like the TBL that you have on order that you'll probably never recieve from a company that is brand new in the business? You of all people should be ok with that seems like. Talking smack is talking smack, doesn't matter what the reason is. I talk smack about a certain company because their games are horrible imo, and you talk smack on Stern because their quality sucks. Those guys at Stern have been in the business for 30, 40, 50 years. They are why pinball is what it is and they are the same guys who are responsible for making it possible for us to be able to even buy a NIB pin today, but instead of support them you decide to trash them publicly. I'm actually ok with it though because it is what it is and they probably deserve some of the backlash they are getting, but YOU need to not be such a hypocrite about it.

Not sure what sucks more

PF issues or the Bengals

JK who-dey. I'm just trying to break up the fight

Just because Stern kept things together during the lean years doesn't justify or warrant a pass for their behavior and actions in the past few years.

Stern should be setting the example of how to treat customers and how to build QUALITY pins, not how to take advantage of their customers and cut corners to save money, especially after 30, 40, 50 years.

No argument here on that. The issue is someone telling me that I shouldn't be talking smack about a certain company and they are on here doing the same thing about another company.

I know PW its all good bro lol. I do know that you know better though about the Bengals. Now if you wanna say the Reds suck, then yeah....im in full agreement with you there! Who do you root for, the Seahags? Talk about a team that has a history of sucking!

I think he got in at $8500

Your comments about Spooky were a bit unwarranted IMO as well. Saying RZ or AMH suck is far different than saying Spooky sucks. Spooky as a company communicates with their customers and also takes input from them as well.

So as a company I think Spooky is setting a great example and I think Stern should take a page from their book and correct some things ASAP.

All true. And talked about non stop

They aren't the only offenders. I'd put only Spooky in the plus side of that camp

Sorry Panzer but you pretty much do the same copy and paste post every time.

"I wouldn't buy a Stern pin because JJP offers more quality and toys"

I agree with you on Alien now that you see the toy value there!

And if you'll read through all my post, I corrected myself and said just that. Spooky is a good company as far as customer relations goes. Its kinda easy to do that also though when you are a small business, Stern is huge compared to them. Thats still no excuse though and its an area that Stern gets an F in from me. Just because the people at Joe's hamburgers are nice people doesn't mean their hamburgers dont suck. If you ate one of their nasty burgers, I bet you'd tell people that Joe's burgers sucks.

And the cheapest BM66 isnt 10K either now is it?

You are the king of context, aren't you? Let me explain it for you:

1.) I paid $8500
2.) I paid in 2014 after playing a beautiful prototype that was leagues beyond anything Stern was offering in design, innovation, and quality.
3.) It's a NICHE theme of my favorite movie. Stern would have never made this game. I wanted a Lebowski game. Dutch made a Lebowski game. It's as simple as that.
4.) None of us saw the ARA/Dutch standoff coming...so don't act as though the red flags were there and I was too stupid to see it.

I was supporting Sterns when you didn't know what pinball was! I was buying Iron Man when everyone was saying it was a piece of shit with no features, no rules, and Wal-Mart toys. I have 7 Stern games in my collection and have owned many others, which I still enjoy and will recommend to people. I have EVERY RIGHT to criticize their current problems, and have the experience in the hobby to back up my opinions. They're not infallible!!!

You need to look up the definition of the word "hypocrite". Do I say one thing and do another? No.

I actually think RZ is a great game, especially for the price, so I don't think "Joe's" Burgers suck. Haven't ever played a AMH so can't comment.

More BS from Rarehero! Ive been playing pinball for over 40 years DA! Just because I didn't start owning my own machines until a few years ago doesnt mean that I didnt know what pinball was until then. And yes you have the right to criticize anybody you want to and so do I. What you dont have the right to do though is be a hypocrite and tell me what to say, and when you do im going to call you on it! Oh yeah and please stop acting like you're the God of pinball, thats lame as F dude for real.

It's been fun, but done arguing with you. Please add me to you ignore list so you don't have to see me anymore. If you respond to anything I post from now on, I won't see it. Bye!

Oh yeah its great alright!
If that's all pinball had to offer I'd find a new hobby asap! That game is a turd dude!

Thank God! I got enough hypocrites in my life as it is, I certainly don't need anymore!

This surprises many but I dont follow sports at all

I dont even know the rules of football

So I root for anyone but those asshole Rams lol

I do like cheerleaders tho!