Great Band!

Obligatory stern will make this right comment.

Anyone have a TWD premium from this summer/recently? How's it holding up?

So you are basically parrotting info you have no way to verify or even evaluate and is already hearsay. That's what he's talking about... the echo chamber.

Yes thats basically what I am doing. Is there something wrong with when a guy ask if the playfield issues have been fixed if I say "rumor has it the playfield issues have been resolved?" I really do not see a problem with that whatsoever.

I bought one in May. It's 100% fine

I have also heard through the rumour vine that Stern has corrected their play field issues.
This message seems to have been spread to various individuals separately so personally, I am putting weight in it.

So here goes:

If anyone can find issues with any pins made after say Sept 7, ... BRING ON THE EVIDENCE.

This video shouldn't scare you away from buying a Heighway machine. Their level of customer support (from my experience) has been fantastic.
I just linked the video to help demonstrate that all pinball manufacturers have issues from time to time.

Apparently making pinball machines is hard.

Finally had time to check. PF manufacturing date July 16, I also have this weird "Z" symbol in pen on the right side of the manufacturing date.

Zonker?

That's like 3 days ago. I think we'd have to see a month or two of flawless playfield production- or close to it- to be able to say that the issue has been corrected. Till then, its little mystery to me why BW games have appreciated as collector's items- especially those looking for a first or second game- why buy a new game that's got high odds of being DOA when for the same money or less you can own a dialed in classic?

So I recently received my Spiderman VE and at certain angles the playfield looks like it has bubbles all over it. I assume this is not normal???

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Dimples from ball strikes....perfectly normal.

Agreed that the safe play is to wait a lot longer to see how others make out.
I'm just saying that I have complete faith that the issues have been resolved.
I'll be picking up a Ghostbusters Premium in the near future. Happy to share pics/details as to the build quality etc.

Any idea of exactly what the issue was?

I'd say 6+ mos & even then folks need to ask questions regarding manufacturing date & warranty terms.

Ya still gotta worry about distro's & Stern sandbag'n old "at risk" inventory.

Look @ the GB pro unboxing by John's Arcade. His distro told him his game was from the recent run but when he got it the Slimer mech was bogus, the insert had a typo, code was 1st run & the stamp on the game confirmed he was lied to.

Be like Mulder. Trust no one

It's normal unless you don't play your machine.

I played a GBpro at a little game room by my house and it was perfect. No insert ghosting, no chipping, no shooter lane wear at all. The game was a blast to play and at 4 dollars a half hour to play it I don't needs to buy one.

Looks like my wife trying to persuade me to sell my pins...

Has anyone outside of North America heard from Stern that they will be getting a PF swap? Just wondering if the programme is world wide or not.

nothing so far...

Dimples are normal. They look crappy until they are evenly spaced, everywhere. The Venom insert looks more concerning to me.

same with the pro I play locally here, its perfect and is on location and gets an absolute hammering and it looks brand new. Clearly something happened after production the first run production started.

I don't see any ghosting on that insert..just reflections

I don't think he was talking about ghosting. There def looks to be other issues with that insert. Hard to tell from the pics tho.

Yeah, what is that line going through spider man? Is it the edge of a piece of mylar or a crack in the clear? Strange.

Also looks like the bottom edge of the Venom insert is chipped.

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Venom = Tobin?

Looks like the clear has cracked around the insert. Most visible at the bottom of the insert.

Or the clear over that insert has not been applied evenly. Should absolutely not see edges around inserts on a brand new game. Maybe a 20 year old game with hundreds of thousands of plays, but not a new one.

The inserts on my TAF looked much better and I dunno how many thousands of games it saw.

If you're talking about the one at Chief Coffee, you haven't looked very closely ... there are chunks of clear gone, clear is cracked around a couple of inserts (and they're lifting a little), and the saucer on the right is already really beaten up. Shooter lane damage too.

That's about 2 months of play. Albeit in a coffee shop .. but when I was there recently the other games were very busy, and I was the only person that played GB in an hour or so (3 games). Everyone was stuck to Hobbit, WOZ, MM & CV (ST had been sold and switched off).

That's clearly not the kind of terrible wear others are seeing, but it's very bad for a 2 month old game that realistically can't have seen more than 1500 plays, and average ball times are probably extremely short.

I think it is just a photo artifact on that insert. Under the M in The Venom looks to be the photographers top of his head reflection if you blow it up you can see hair. The crack in the insert I think from the pic is just a light trick kinda like the white stripe above the Green with envy insert. I could be wrong though maybe it is jacked up...would need to see in person I think but my hunch is it is fine. Looks to be wax in the mylar groove going through Spiderman.

Hmm that must have happened fairly recently - I spent a great deal of time examining the machine and I looked fine I think I took pictures so will have a look - heading there on Sunday so will take another look. Very disappointing.

Thanks for the detailed observation. In this case the game didn't hold up in terms of attention and physically as well. That's bad news for Stern's market outlook.

Aside from the saucer, where the wear is very obvious just from a glance, when I was looking closely, I was surprised to see no ghosting ... but then I saw 2 or 3 inserts with the clear cracked all the way round, and looking like they were lifting - that's really bad. Also, towards the edges of the pf, there are several chips of clear gone. Shooter lane looks like it's wearing too. The clear, whilst being glossier and thicker than Stern PFs have been recently, does not look like it's of a uniform thickness. It looks 'blobby'.

Speaking of the shooter lane, it's very obvious, as other people have commented on, that the playfield supplier and specification have changed (cheapened). The look of the wood is totally different. It's very coarse and streaks of sapwood are much darker. It appears to be of a much cheaper, lower grade. I'd also put money on it being significantly softer (hence all the stories of warping).

Played a Ghostbusters on location for the first time recently. Couldn't see any ghosting but there was a big chunk out of the clear at the ball drain. The artwork was starting to break away with the clear.

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No bueno.

here is one for you guys on Stern's facebook page, when they said that August 2016 was their biggest month of production ever, sadly probably one of their worst QC periods as well. The response was in relation to the VR set.

Update on my machine with playfield issues, which could be interesting for European GBLE buyers with issues....

My playfield has 4 ghosting insert not out of the box, but after about 50 games. Made pictures and send them to my distributor and Stern. My distributor was on holiday for 4 weeks, got his reaction 2 days ago. From the pictures I send him 5 weeks ago my playfield situation was not bad enough he said. The same day I got a reaction from Stern (by e-mail) that my case was still under investigation and no decision was made yet..... Strange.... Mailed my distributor with Sterns reaction and asked him how it is possible that Stern tells me something different from his story. Still waiting on his answer.

I also send new pictures to the distributor and Stern, because my playfield has gotten worse in the last couple of weeks. Seems like the extra ball insert and the light storage facility insert are sinking into the playfield. If you rub over these insert with a finger you can feel that they are 'sunken'. The clear coat at bottom of the extra ball insert is cracked (you can feel that clearly if you go over it with a fingernail) and it seems the clear coat at the light storage facility insert is starting to crack (see pictures). Here a pictures taken yesterday, what do you think? Should my playfield be "in the program"?

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Wow yours is really bad. If that isn't covered alot of people are gonna be upset when theirs arn't covered. Mines not that bad and if it isn't made right it will be my first and last nib stern.

That has to be covered or they will take a huge sales hit overseas. Please let us know what they do for you.

Good to get Your support

Sure I Will post the outcome when I get a response from my distributor and or Stern!

They wont be selling many pinballs to AUD that's forsure with Stern not fixing that playfield.

Such a kill joy for all

WOW! looks like you may be the poster child for Class action law suit against Stern if you get denied. That whole "case by case" schtick is BS! It should be one ghost, one chip, one crack or defect in play field and you get a new play field. You bought NIB you should get NIB, not NIB with bad play field you may or may not get replaced. Even if Stern fixes your FUBAR play field, the fact of the matter is you have no say so in what you get from them, Stern decides if they want to stand behind their product or not with "case by case" statements, their warranty reads as follows "STERN PINBALL INC LIMITED WARRANTY. Will be free of defects in material and workmanship" Until they actually stand by their warranty for EVERYONE, I am done buying NIB from them.

I'm really confident that my case Will meet the recruirements to be part of "the program". Like you said, if this playfield isn't bad enough to get a swap, which one is.....

Luckely in the meantime I can still play my GBLE for now, it's still a blast to play!

I wonder why your distributor didn't think so.

I asked him what the criteria's are to be considered for a playfield swap and why I would not meet these based on only the 4 ghosting inserts. Again he based that on pictures I send him 5 weeks ago, then the inserts had ghosting, but the clear coat wasn't cracked at that time. I assume that based on the cracked clear coat and the fact that the problems are obviously are getting worse I will get a playfield swap..... I post it here when I get an answer from him or maybe Stern.

should have bought from Ripleys distributor, he would have taken that POS back, and given you a new one. or a refund.

Since when does he decide on what makes the grade/and what doesnt?

Yeah, US$ 8K+ is very accessible!