I’ve been trying to buy the one in Melbourne, but I haven’t heard back in about a week. I hope everything is ok and he’s just busy.

I just wired funds to Pinball Sales in Australia to secure one of the last NIB LE's. It should fly its way to me next week - looking forward to it!

I was surprised at how cheap airfare was - about the same as shipping a pin in the US.

It took a circuitous route here traveling the pacific for a while, but 235 is in my garage! NIB!

I asked JJP. I think the Australia machines are the last nib in the world.

It took a year to sell the 650 LE's they made, so I can see why they'd just move on. In retrospect maybe they could have positioned the pin better in the market and sold more, but at this point you could chalk it up to experience. Producing more without guaranteed sales because it had potential is sunk cost fallacy thinking.

I hear what you’re saying. And if was JJP, I’d try to catch that lightning with my next title. This pin has been out for a long time and even with good reviews it just sold out this week.

You’re running a company. You need to decide where to spend your next several million dollars on parts and labor. Are you going to bet on the machine that underwhelmed, even though it could have been a hit? Or will you take the lessons you learned and bet on the next machine?

Rick and Morty (whatever you think of it) sold 750 machines in 4 hours. That’s an order of magnitude quicker than POTC. If I wanted to sell machines, I’d figure out how to catch that kind of wave. An older machine with a cult following is great but it doesn’t keep the lights on.

After playing mine for the weekend, I'm just starting to understand how the systems work. I absolutely love it so far. The conversion from 220V was super easy and I was running in no time. I had my first decent game today - 936K which is way above my second score of 124K.

JJP will send you a conversion kit for a $50 exchange fee so you don’t have to do any soldering.

My action button sticks all the time - I’ve tried loosening the mount, tightening it, rotating it. Nothing seems to keep it working smoothly. Is this common or should I just make a warranty request for a new one.

What 12K prices? I bought mine for 10.5 including air freight to the US. The game took over a year to sell 1000 units. I love mine and won’t sell it, but it’s never going to sell in big numbers.

It literally took over a year - it's simply a statement of fact.

Yes, prices rose in the last two weeks - that's supply and demand for you - any time the supply drops to zero it's going to affect prices. How is that evidence of a large unfilled market demand? It's a natural market adjustment to the new supply level.

It’s fun to speculate, and I suspect none of us will ever know the full story.

And agreed about shitting on games! Life’s to short for that.

Edit: realized you’re asking about the second time. So I’m not sure.

What a coincidence - my tortuga started draining down the middle just last night. The metal shield/deflector was indeed loose. A quick tighten and it's fine now!

I'm not judging anyone - honestly I'm not. I have a POTC with pooling in the playfield too.

Still, I can see why JJP and Stern might look at these threads and think twice about sending replacement playfields. How many are just going into a closet as a backup or being sold? If my playfield needs replacing someday I would feel obligated to use the replacement - the warranty is to make me whole and fix the product.

<shrug>

I have yet to see my pirates light up neon pink. In fact the only time the GI really changes significantly is for effect when you start a multiball, and then it goes back to mostly white with the occasional special effect. Personally I love it.

I think the argument that the playfield gets too dark is way overblown. There are traditional white spots that are always on and always lighting most of the playfield. You can see them in the picture below (not my pic). The pf is all blue but the white spots are clearly illuminating the black pearl, shining on the pops, shining on the pf, left sling, spinning disc, etc. In person there really aren't any places for the ball to hide. They're well placed and you don't lose track of the ball.
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Flex resin is a good option and will tolerate a lot of impact.

I always go for Add Gold so I can stack Tortuga multiball with others. Then again, I'm not a great player and I need those multiballs quickly to score big points

Jesus - I only have one character over 1 million.

Breaking news: pinball machine spotted at pinball factory.

Before you replace the spring, check if the plunger is hitting the auto launch. When you release the plunger it shouldn't cause the launcher to move. Mine does, so I put a small rubber foot (the kind you might stick on the bottom of a small device) under the playfield to keep the launcher from rotating into the path of the plunger.

Also check the shooter tip - if it's broken you'll lose a lot of power. That's happened twice on mine because of the way it hit the auto launch.

Here you go!

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The foot I had on hand was much thicker than necessary, so I cut the top off. Mine didn't need more than a couple mm to clear the shooter.

I had the same concern with mine - it's normal. It should go from left to almost level, but never to the right.

Maybe I'll make mine tilt more to the right! The way it is now it's too easy - I can get a ball in the cannon nearly every time.

You could start with the coil sleeves if you suspect they are worn, and inspect the linkages while you're in there. I'd be surprised if they were already worn out.

There's nothing wrong with using full flipper strength - that's what older machines did when they didn't have an adjustment. Once the EOS switch fires it cuts the high voltage, so you're not going to melt the coil or anything.

Sure, but he’s saying he has to turn the flipper up to make the ramps. In which case I figure why not turn them up instead of rebuilding them? That’s what the adjustment is for.

You're sure the flipper isn't rotating within the linkage from the force of the flip? The link has to be clamped down on the shaft way tighter than some people think.

Correct - it's not supposed to be on the moving parts. The sticky pads will line up perfectly with the plastic ramp if it's installed right.

I highly recommend a ground loop isolator to reduce audio hum. I installed one on POTC, DI, and Hobbit. Of course, if yours doesn't have any hum then no worries!

I'll second the opening chest mod; I'm not a mod guy but this one makes a huge difference. It's actually helpful during gameplay too because it's much easier to tell at a glance if the ball lock is engaged.