Same thing happened to the one at PAGG.

Talked to that tech a bit. He's the "rides" repair guy. Pulling double duty tonight.

So....The guy that fixes rides, can't figure out you need to unscrew all the screws on an assembly to move it. Where were you guys? Mental note... do not go on the rides.

Yeah it did!

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

Typical Stern (lack of) quality issues. You're in for more fun too. Pinball Hall of Fame's Tim says, "i can actually watch the new Sterns fall apart in front of my eyes on any given day."

What a comment by Tim

Absolutely! Your Avengers video says it all. I lose more and more respect for Stern with every new game they put out. And here's the kicker: people still buy these things, and even created threads 10 pages long discussing how to use DUCT TAPE to keep the LEDs from popping out on a BRAND NEW $7500 GAME. That's definitely not something to be proud of. If Williams slacked like this there would have been pitchforks and runs on the bank. Not sure what makes Stern exempt.

Hey Neo.... where did you play these Metallicas out in the wild? Sounds like I could take a short road trip and finally play one.

LOL - I had that one happen on Sunday. I wasn't around, but my boy came and got me and said the balls were not coming out of the Mystery Scoop. I cleared them and went back to what I was doing. A few minutes later, his uncle came and told me it happened again, so he turned off the machine.

The next day I decided to check out the kick-out problem. My 6 YO was my assistant. As I took the glass off, he said that also a light rolled down playfield yesterday. Of course, it was in the scoop.

ACDC, X-Men, and Metallica have all shed lights during game at least once. Kinda silly that could happen.

The Stern 'lack of quality issue' is all so overblown. Nothing is perfect. None of them. Not Williams/Bally, not JJP and not Stern. They all have or had their quality issues and always will. I think Stern has gotten a lot better in the last couple of years for sure. Most of it is not even a quality issue. Just cheap labor issue and 99% of it can be taken care of without much trouble. If your looking for perfection its not in pinball manufacturing. Everyone wants cheap prices and perfect pins. Its not gonna happen. If you don't like them don't buy them... more for us!

Normally all you have to do is look at who's doing the complaining and that will tell you all you need to know!

I agree with both of you at the same time.

Stern's quality is pretty poor for the price, and I don't buy them as a result.
No one can convince me that the B/W games had the same issues. I play both. I can 'feel' the difference...

Totally disagree with the comment above. Every new Stern released gets worse and worse in quality. Again we use Tim at PHoF as the classic example of this- "i have to baby sit the brand new Sterns *every day*. I have 1990s Williams and Bally games that get easily played as much (if not more), and they don't constantly break. And they're 20 years old. I have Gottlieb EMs that frankly never break. New Stern games are actually worn out within 6 months of operation here."

These issues usually happen within the first 6 weeks of playing them. All your older pins issues have been taken care of long before you owned them...

The LEDs falling out over the playfield is because they are using wedge bulbs and not bayonet. I'm still puzzled on that decision. It happened on my new TF Combo, but it is an easy fix. You can use copper tape (same studd used for EL wire and stained glass) and cover the wires on each side. The extra padding keeps the bulb in place.

My quality complaint was that one of the metal ramp flaps was significantly rusted and I emailed Stern about getting a replacement and I was completely ignored. I would have rather gotten a "piss off" response than nothing at all. That, IMHO is far worse than quality issues.

Says the guy who doesn't even take most of his pins out of the box Hard to break a pin if you don't play it... Clay and Tim have more experience repairing pins than probably most everyone on this site put together. I wouldn't take their opinions lightly.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Classic.

Not saying there aren't issues just saying most are overblown... 'oh my LED fell out!'

as a flipper, you should demand better quality finished machines to flip

as a flipper, you should demand better quality finished machines to flip

Quality? who really cares... just show me the benjamins!

depositphotos_3147148-Many--bundle-of-.jpg

Step away from the pinball...

They've been the only real manufacturer of games for a decade.We got JJP now so will see if the love affair continues.

I love Stern haters, I've owned four NIB Sterns and have not seen any QC issues thus far. I did have to adjust a couple switches on my ACDC, normal stuff I would still have to do those types of things on Williams games.

I play the crap out of my machines and I am anything but gentle with them...not one issue. Metallica has over 200 plays on it already, again not a single issue and my snake still has a nice toothy smile.

That's my say, Stern will continue to have my support as will JJP.

I am hardly a systematic Stern basher, but I have had to fix more things on my brand new ACDC in 4 weeks than I have on my older Sterns (2003) in 6 years. The thing that puzzles me more than anything is the throwing of the LEDs. Like that never happened in testing? I threw my first LED on game #4! I guess it was deemed OK. It is bad enough at home to have to patch something on a weekly basis, but this is absolutely comical for a route product. Thank goodness that JJP understands the importance of reliability.

The ball speeds are amazing on those games .

and how do you know this?

The WoZ that was delivered close to me had its share of minor issues. Nothing that we couldn't laugh at and take care of but nonetheless some annoying little issues. As far as reliability??? No way of knowing yet...

I would definitely give the quality award to JJP from what I've seen so far but we're only talking about one pin from JJP and not many have even been delivered yet. AND it took much longer than expected. Plus he knows that the first one better be top quality or else... will it continue? Way too early to know much of anything about JJP but so far so good.

You say that as if the stories told here are lies.

I trust Clay's and Tim's expert opinions.Not to mention the hundreds of threads/posts that have been posted here regarding fixes,mods and all other kinds of QC stuff.I'm glad your games have had no issues,that's awesome!!!But if you didn't know anything about pinball and you came on here and started reading you would deduce that Stern pinball machines have some QC issues out of the box.

Not hating, just reviewing what's already been reported.Scott

Ok, but your home games do not get anywhere near the plays of a commercial game.

I know the ACDC Premium and XMEN LE at the arcade here are always down.

I agree with the Stern quality issues. They are not built anywhere near as dependably as B/W and if you think they are superior you are fooling yourself. You can plainly see the how thin the clearcoat and plastics are and many parts that are metal on B/W are plastic on Stern. Plastic doesn't last forever. On my Metallica so far I have had lamps fall out, drop targets and flipper buttons stick. My left flipper button started sticking in on the second day. Fortunately I had replacements in my parts bag. It's nothing I can't handle, but I'm not sure how guys keep these things going on location. Again, I'm not saying Stern hasn't made fun games, just that they cut lots of corners.

I don't know, my WCS94 only uses 555's on the playfield and I haven't had any fall out. Maybe it is the socket they are using is inferior.

The "quality award to JJP" and its not even close.....and no its not way to early....

How do you think Stern cranks out so many pins so fast....a bunch of cheap labor with little quality control....its pretty bad when every time you open a Stern Nib you are just praying you didn't get one of the "bad batch", cloudy play fields, wrong ball guide placement, etc...

I give Stern credit for upping their game, because of JJP entering the market, but the price increases they are seeing now is temporary if they don't get the QC together, the more people that receive their Woz and get to play it, the more people that will demand that kind of quality for the price....period....

I'm still buying Star Trek Le and by then I'll have my Woz...... I expect problems with one, the other I don't...

As a quality comparison, W/B is debatably better.

One thing that is fact though, is only one of the two companies still makes pinball machines.

What would you rather have, better quality, or no new pinball machines in the last 10 years?

I know what I would choose.

I agree that the jury is still out on JJP, but at least they TALK about quality and reliability. No such words, unfortunately, come out of Stern.

200 plays is nothing for a commercial machine... Let us know how it's working after 20,000 plays
To me this is where the Bally/Williams machines shined they were truly commercial machines built to last.

I'll still take Sterns fun pins, great themes with small issues DELIVERED in a couple months any day over JJP's so called 'perfect pin' delivered over a nine year period... and yes it IS too early to completely judge JJP but those of you that are enamored by them they will never do anything wrong in your eyes... isn't it time for you to send in another few grand for pin number three delivered in 2029?

I disagree. A person new to the hobby will come on here and will automatically have a hatred towards Stern. People have a right to their opinions but, make sure they are YOUR opinions. I'm not saying Stern is the greatest company in the world, I just know Williams and now JJP had/have issues out of the box as well.

Just another cheap thing that has been cheapened even more. I agree Stern has made better quality games, speaking from experience it just doesn't add up to cut corners, especially with the (now numerous) competitors.

We are constantly seeing threads on peoples' brand new Sterns having the same asinine problems, I know it's pinball and stuff happens, we all know nothing is perfect, especially out of the box. But man, the whole quality thing is just a fiasco. Is it too much to ask to make some BASIC improvements to things like plastics, clearcoat, etc? That would shave what, $50 profit off each machine? Oh, heaven forbid Stern's profit margin shrinks as they continue to jack up prices without any apparent quality improvements to justify it.

You're right, I will never hit that many games in a home environment. I was just expressing my experience and opinion based on home use. I have no desire to be an op and I am sympathetic to those individuals that run these machines as part of their livelihood.

That is called the internet. No forums around back in the day ; )
So if a game came out with some issues it was just up to operators to deal with.

Say what you want but based on sales many of us are buying them and very happy with the product. I will take a new Stern over any old game. Way more fun, great support . I am on my 6th new Stern and could not be happier. Crash it sounds like your last new Stern purchase did not go well. Fair enough but mine and many others has. Crash which game did you buy that soured you?

Nobody would expect the flippers to like JJP as their business model does not provide a large profit margin over time for the NIB speculators.

No suprise that the biggest speculators love Stern, regardless of QC issues. Like other have so wisely said, when you don't even take them out of the box, quality does not really matter

We could start a stickee:
Neo=Price
Crash= Stern hate
Whysnow=flippers
Houseofpins=Diatribes

Never fails….

You should ask flipper out on a date !

From what I hear, WOZ has plenty of issues ! Pinball machines of all makes have issues.

Yes! Good to see Whysnow finally made it into this thread... lemmie guess, something to do with flippers and speculators?

Yah, I've never had to replace a GI connector in a B/W game ...

I've never seen a clock board in a TZ fried ..

I've never seen magnet burn on an Addams play field ...

I've never had to replace dragon wings on a MM ...

All those pins I've routed were just fine after 20,000 plays. No issues at all.

I have never seen a W/B game worn out ever !

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Detritus

crap product.