I think you'll find I was pretty loud in complaining about this issue!

So has anyone had any luck with stopping ball hang ups in the raptor pit without removing the gate?

So JJP wanted to charge me for replacements screens I didn't actually need on a Dialed in. So seems weird...

Stern:

Total replacement GB Premium playfield, Star Trek board, complete mech for IMDN, no problems...

Neil.

Seems my angle was a lil steep... after raising it a smidge i hardly ever get hung up.

Does anyone have a pic of how the gate is supposed to be?

I was getting ball hang ups there but it was before I set the game up properly. When I moves the machine in place and get it 75% set up, it still happened and to the gate looked crooked to me. I thought it was weird and was going to take a closer look and then the next shot it broke. Just wondering if there is any connection.

I have had good support from Stern, sent me a part at no cost for a machine that I was the second owner of

Don't get me wrong I like Stern a ton

Sad you had a bad JJP experience.
I've had great service.

Never needed Stern service because everything I got was perfect. I had a later run GB premium
Great game

Here are some pics of my JPark on route in San Antonio. Note in the first pic under the left pop the art decal is punctured by the post. 300 games played.

Contacted my distributor and awaiting answer back.

1F9E22C4-5B8A-4237-81EC-49BE25CC27FF (resized).jpeg

87F4D379-DE1F-48F1-A116-CD4E92EC66E7 (resized).jpeg

8B9644F6-2F09-4DE5-A161-2B6C4886709C (resized).jpeg

8D151A34-C4F3-4BBF-9D03-EAFEF39C137B (resized).jpeg

BF8E51FB-EA39-46BF-82A1-A8B0F8D8F83E (resized).jpeg

Thanks for the pictures I appreciate you letting us know the ones who have one ordered.

I'm just wondering what the certainty is that all of those will eventually crack? I didn't see any "pools" on my star posts, but you can see little ripples in around 6 posts on my machine. For the heck of it I looked at Munsters and that had them too. That's sitting at about 500 plays and none seem to be cracking. Close to 100 on my JP right now.

No one can answer for sure. At some point it will happen. Whether it is time or plays we don’t know. And every PF is different. Some have already deteriorated rapidly. Others may take quite a while.

I wonder if this is why stern sends out the pros first to work out the issues. They would rather have the issues show up on the cheaper model than the expensive model. My friend sent an email to stern about this and in a nutshell they should engineering is working on this and feel they are getting a handle on it. Pros seem to be the guinea pig for stern.

My understanding is that star posts get a lot of vibrating from the solenoids in the slingshots. Perhaps this is why they are prone to wear if not cleared right?

The raptor gate issue can be fixed by bending it. You want it to stick slightly farther into the back of the pit.

Fiddle around with it and you will see how to do that, but it essentially involves bending the gate arm (on the right side), so that the gate sticks farther in when at rest.

As you are fiddling with it, you can just have a ball on hand to test if the ball will still get hung up. At some point, you’ll have bent the wire just enough that you can’t make the ball stick anymore on that left post without having it roll out of the area.

Been reading all these threads on pooling/chipping
and my ocd ass just checked all my posts on my GOTG
pro (build date June 2018) and there is some minor pooling around
several posts. Never noticed it before . No chipping so keeping
fingers crossed.

I am no expert but looks to me like they assembled some playfields before all the layers of clear were cured. The pressure from the posts cause sinking into the soft clear which causes it to pool from the bottom up. Just a guess but thats what seems to make sense to me. If that's the case it should be all good once the clear has completely cured. Maybe chipping could happen if these posts loosen up and move when the ball hits them. If I were a Pro owner I would tighten everything up under these 'pooling' areas. As the posts sink they will become loose.

Makes sense to me but maybe i am way off...

Friendly moderator notice:

This is a club thread with club specific rules. This is not a thread to debate JJP vs Stern manufacturer issues.

So far I've had to adjust me dual leaf switch for the 3rd flipper to work some, but after enough manipulation its fine.

Guy who works in the clearcoat industry was on the TWIP podcast today. He said any properly mixed clearcoat should be cured enough after 7 days to "return to service." In his opinion, any clear that is still malleable weeks or months later didn't have enough hardener in the mix and will never stiffen up. In other words, it's as cured as it's gonna get. That's just one professional's conjecture from seeing photos, but it makes sense to me.

Makes sense but how do we know how long these playfields actually cured before assembly? Who knows... and someone else I thought mentioned that clear cures at different rates depending on climate etc. So again who knows. They will figure it out soon but how will they fix those affected... that is the question.

Uh oh Spaghettios.

not me a friend with an le on order has contacted them and yes they know about the issue and engineers are working on it. At least it was caught pretty early.

Sorry to drag JJP into this, but using Wonka as an example: if those playfields are made in Germany by Mirco, it's hard to imagine they're installing star posts less than 7 days after clear is applied. At least one person said he could still mark a JJPOTC playfield with his thumbnail months later.

Stern could very well be assembling less than a week after clear, but their issue looks exactly like the recent JJP issue.

Well if its a bad clear mixture then it a pretty easy fix for Stern... throw out all the remaining playfields and start over. There is no other fix! But again we are all guessing at this point.

They can strip, rescreen and clear an already cut play field. Not as devastating as it sounds but it will take time.

What Will happen if you'd like to disassemble for cleaning or fixing some thing?
What Will Come loose beside the nut and post?

"We have top men working on this right now. Top. Men."

If I was to guess, the first "fix" will be from the assembly side - like a complete metal plate under the slings to disperse the pressure.

Followed by working on the clear itself - but that would take time and they already have a lot of playfields in stock that need to be assembled.

so I'm going back and forth on pro vs premium. At first I was 100% you're crazy if you don't go premium but the more I think about it, is it really worth it? I like the chomping but is that worth 1700+? If this wasn't a sickness, I would say of course not but I don't know - ton of money for it. The raptor pen is cool but whatever, same with helicopter.

Hmmmmmm

This is not factoring in chipgate btw - let's assume no pf....

Head to Head pinball podcast had an interesting interview with Keith. Good insight on design

I think premium/LE is the way to go. I suspect the raptor pen will be one of those things that is underrated visually, but will be a lot of fun once you try it.

It shouldn't even be a question now. Why would you buy a pro the guinea pig of the 3 models. You have to buy premium now. They will definitely have the playfield and other issues worked out by then. Buying a pro is a big gamble unless you wait and but a late build pro.

It isn't worth it, and it never was. You're gonna sell the goddamn thing in 4 months, you need to maximize resale

haha - games last longer with themes I love......but you're prob right. haha who knows.

As for the cracking, I agree about not buying now. Just commenting on pro vs prem.

Haha I was thinking the same thing. Well said!

Amount of dino ball eatings per play would help us a little more and I'm not sure on the number.

What if they already made LE playfields (with issues), kick them down the road to be premium playfields, and make new, better LE playfields? I mean, probably not, but maybe.

Ok so 5 months for themes you really love.
Plenty of time to monetize the dino chomping.

I kid.

If it wasn’t for that back glass I would be questioning it as well. It’s the little thing that helps push me to the premium ha ha

Hey believe me - I deserve it. Not lost on me! I think even 5mths could be pushing it with themes I love!

You guys both might be forgetting people are having these issues with games made well before JP; but just noticing it now.
I'm not going all "its aliens" dude and asking how long Stern has known, but I'm also not going full fanboy and just assuming now that they know (that we know) that everything will just be fixed up nice and tidy.

Its probably all just over blown anyway since it took this long for people to complain. No one was complaining about this with other titles that I know of. Seems like it is just started to get noticed which is good and now it can be taken care of.

More likely they will be resold to a 3rd party as spares

Just notice my game has some posts that have this as well. It was hard to tell but it is there.

I’ll send an email to the distributor with some pictures but I’m not getting my hopes up.

damn. Sorry to hear as I remember you talking about your game earlier

I can't believe how pervasive this issue is.

Yeah it stinks but DAMN the game is fun!

With how widespread it is I really don’t see much being done for those with the games already unless these start chipping away really horribly.

Honest question: is the absolute amount of money lost on resale of a premium greater than the amount of money lost on resale of a pro? That seems to be what you’re suggesting.

Thanks for the tip before I order. Hope the original poster updates the list. They linked to your channel!

.

It's a good question and my ASSumption is it's true. I keep hearing people say they/people are losing a grand on a game resale; which is more than I have ever "lost" on a pro. Now of course that could just be people talking jive for all i know, and since I never buy Prem+ I'm not really hip on their pricing as a whole