I totally understand the OPs frustration with these playfield issues. I have had relatively good luck with my 2 NIB Stern's. Almost all of Star Treks's large inserts were cracked/crazed, the vengeance opto wasn't working out of the box and none of the bulbs wanted to stay in their sockets. The inserts were a eyesore to me, but there wasn't anything I could do considering it was common place to have the insert issue. But, thankfully I had little to no problems with my MET pro. These things are too expensive to accept errors in the clear coat.