Do I need my head examined?

Collectors often sell a given pin, only to miss it later and reaquire it. Sometimes the second example quickly reminds them of why they sold the first one and it, too, is sold soon after, etc.

However, how many collectors have replaced, without any waiting, a pin with another example of the same title, just to explore the idea that, if every pin has a personality, and if your pin’s personality is awful, would replacing it with another example land you a better game with a better personality, one you could keep and live with? Well, as obsessive as that might sound, it’s exactly what I did with my Wonka.

I’m guessing at least some of you have had these same thoughts, so I will share with you what my little experiment has taught me:

1. I added $750 to the proceeds from the sale of my first game to buy the second game, although nearly $600 of that went towards shipping. The second game was billed as newer and without clearcoat issues, so the upcharge seemed reasonable. Am I proud to have squandered $750 on this experiment? No.

2. Mirco playfields have wonderfully crisp, colorful silkscreened art, and they seem to block/polish their clearcoat to the point that it’s way more glasslike than that of, say, Stern. Sadly, though, they aren’t very flat. My two-sample survey shows that they change pitch and level from one section to another. Measure here: dead level. Measure a foot away: leaning right. Another foot away: steeper. Another foot away: leaning left and less steep. They also hammock a significant amount, so your pitch between the flippers will be more lax than your pitch two-thirds up the playfield. Mirco must be skipping some basic playfield drying/stabilizing step at his factory because these things are like potato chips.

3. My first Wonka suffered from frequent SDTM drains from balls exiting the pops – perhaps one in five. The ball would go into the pops nest and I would be filled with dread, wondering if the ball would be tossed SDTM. It was maddening! The second Wonka has been far less punishing this way. Whew!

4. My first Wonka had a plunge-aligment issue that took a ton or time/work to resolve. No one else in the owners club thread reported having the same issue. Sure enough, my second Wonka has no such issue.

5. Both Wonkas of mine have been the LE model, so they have the blue trim. Their build dates are separated by one year. The blue of the second game is darker and heavier. It appears to be a two-stage finish, with clearcoat applied over a base coat, and the hue’s darkness changes slightly depending on the viewing angle. This effect really isn’t present with the first game’s trim.

6. The first Wonka had space enough in the cabinet to accommodate a set of Cointaker mirror blades, which are significantly thicker than a set of vinyl Art Blades. The second game’s cabinet is so snug that there simply isn’t room for the mirror blades.

7. I would say the hardness of the playfields is more or less the same – which is to say, it’s just slightly less prone to dimpling than that of a modern Stern or Spooky. Spooky uses Bader playfields, which, like Mirco’s, are made in Germany. It would surprise me if Bader and Mirco didn’t use much the same production techniques and wood sources. Plenty of people rave about Spooky playfields. My TNA had a terrible playfield that chipped badly and required a difficult repair, so I’m a dissenter. My first Wonka – from the initial run – had significant clearcoat chipping in the usual places; the second game so far has none. Both examples have roughly 400 plays.

8. The Factory Ramp’s wireform return on the second game is misshapen and drops the ball in a way that disturbs its course to the flipper, stealing some inertia. The point: well, simply that wireforms matter and there is QC variation from one set to another.

Conclusion:

If you take anything away from this post, I hope it’s this: don’t do it! Don’t spend your hard-earned money to replace a game with another example of the same game, chasing what you hope will be a pin with a better personality. The second machine’s personality will indeed be different, but on balance it won’t be any better. In some ways it will be better, in other ways worse.