Wonder no more...

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You mean like orange peel? I saw a new Godzilla recently that was really bad in that regard and Stern said it was OK.

I call that the Pushy...Pushy Galore edition.

I'm actually kind of into the teal one.

The cabinet design is so garish there are not many colors that will improve it. The pink cracked me up, though. Made it look like a Barbie pin.

It would certainly get attention on location with that color scheme. I wonder if it would help or hurt revenue...

If there was a pinball equivalent of the Golden Raspberry award, Bond Pro would win hands-down for worst art package. That yellow cab and the ugly backglass are such a turnoff (to me at least).

Bond does not advertise his movements.

Stern is absolutely pulling away from JJP, whose code finishing/polishing reputation is pretty much in the toilet. JJP formerly was the gold standard, polishing WoZ to an incredible shine over 5 years. PotC and GnR are both YEARS overdue for some love. Looks like GnR might be getting updates at last, but that's a slap in the face to the PotC owners who have been waiting longer.

Just the pops, and only on the LE/Prem. Pros fire independently.

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Nope. You don't get a printed manual anymore, and sternpinball.com doesn't seem to have the manual posted yet. I checked for "james_bond_pro_web.pdf" which should be the name, and came up empty.

A complete manual, or just a small subset of the PDF?

One nice thing Gomez did for Bond Pro owners was to make the underwater/flying Bond sculpts they custom made for the Bond Prem/LE pins available to Pro owners as a "service kit" they can buy in the Stern store. He didn't indicate the price, though.

Also, Bond 60th has just the home pin size screen, in the playfield, according to Gomez.

And maybe build out the diorama a little better with a background so there isn't cabinet hardware clearly visible when the light comes on. The Pre/LE one is so lazy.

I do wonder how expensive that sculpt "service kit" will be...

That probably means $1,898.

They put aluminum foil behind the rails on other laser cut rails like GoT. Could have done it here, too.

This has to be a humidity thing. I've bought a LOT of Sterns NIB, straight off the line, all through the seasons and never had a rusted ball in the box. We have very little humidity here or in most of the West it transits to get here. Knock on wood, but I've never seen this issue with Stern balls.

Hmm, possible they had a bad batch and Stern QA "missed" it. I have a Bond machine that's been stuck in Fedex hell, but when I get it, I guess I'll see...

Is your machine level, left to right? Check it with a physical level, not an app. I know on the GotG that I had last, when it was initially a little off left to right it wouldn't launch correctly with the manual plunge, but once I adjusted it just slightly so it was exactly level, manual plunges worked great.

If that's not it, your playfield may be shifted on the pegs in the cabinet to one side. Move it so the shooter rod is lined up with the center of the ball when the ball is in the shooter lane.

Even less likely is the shooter was installed incorrectly. You can loosen the shooter plate and move the whole thing a mm or two so the shooter lines up better with the ball.

Should have just repurposed the Black Knight topper and made it M shaking his head and taunting you when you're missing shots.

Do they drop when you tap them with your finger? If so you might just be hitting them too hard with the ball so they bounce back to the shelf that holds them up before they can fall (i.e. bricking the target). Maybe dial the flipper power down and see if that helps? If not, a stronger spring on the targets will pull them down faster and may also help if there's not a mechanical binding issue and your finger can drop the targets.

Yes. But with rusty balls and drop targets that don't drop on Bond that's the least of the worries here.

Like I said, you also might be able to solve the problem with a stronger spring on each drop target without changing flipper power.

The important part is do the targets fall when tapped by your finger? If yes, then there are solutions to help. If NO then you have a mechanical issue and something is binding.

Probably autotraced. Even lazier.

Apparently it's "Stick"?

That's what mine says.

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I would think that one is probably missing the rubber bumper under the lid so the ball is grinding plastic on eject...
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We'll see how mine holds up with the bumper in place...

Sounds like a road trip to Stern on Friday? Really seems like Stern's problem to solve if you're a Stern Army location with a launch party.

If that fails, maybe Zach from FlipnOut will let you borrow one in exchange for promotion of his business for a day. Would really suck if your Bond launch party had no Bond.

I thought it was a boner reference given Bond's reputation with the ladies. But who knows?

I'd be working on plan B with Game Exchange for promotion exchange or an operator rental (there are 3 on location in the denver area showing one) or something to make sure a Bond was there for the launch party. Really poor form to leave the Stern Army hanging.

Ah, well that's not AS bad. IOUs will do in a pinch.

Man the rusty ball talk on Bond was NO JOKE. ALL the balls had rust on them in the Bond Pro I just unpacked. Made a mess of the silica gel pack, too. Worst I've ever had with a NIB Stern. More cost cutting or bad lot? Crazy.

If you have a Bond coming, make sure you have some balls available because the stock ones will likely be unusable.

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NIB pinballs often have a coating on them to prevent this from happening that you wash off before use, but I don't remember if Stern does it. These are a huge fail, and from the sound of it, widespread on Bond. That's why I suspected cost cutting off the bat.

I hate getting fingerprints on the sides of glass near the channels, top and bottom. No matter how hard I try to hold only the edges with open palms, I invariably get fingerprints on the glass, especially since I take the glass often while making mods. I've been thinking about getting some glass suction cups to eliminate that problem. With Bond, I had a brand new pair of them and decided to use them and see how they were.

They are GREAT. They grab the glass securely, and I don't have to touch any part of the glass. When I want to remove them, I press the pressure release and all that remains is a thin circular mark where the suction cup was, but it's in the center of the glass where it's easy to clean, and ONLY on the top side. Very happy with the result and thought I'd share in case anyone else is super OCD about fingerprints.
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I just thought it was a wry commentary on "classic" Connery Bond's outdated womanizing. A level of theme detail you rarely see from Stern.

Yeah, there are quite a few that can keypost in any thread. It's not limited to a thread OP.

Yeah, I've bought a LOT of NIB pins, mostly Sterns, and this is literally the first time I've ever had rusted balls. Never even had A rusted ball before out of the box. I was discounting the rusted ball Bond talk, but there's definitely something to it, having been hit with it in a big way. 6/6 rusted.