And my, how the tide has turned. Happiness here in the LZ thread, with the exception of some tweaks or some out of box issues, and LEs are selling for above MSRP. Meanwhile, GnR $1000 price hikes and no games until summer. I don't care what the GnR fanboys say...I'm really glad I got the LZ and it's going nowhere for a long, long while if at all.

But the value, the value and the lights and all the plastic bullshit toys...lol

This has almost happened to me too. Always thought there should be an additional hold mechanism for glass after the lock bar is removed.

Sorry but this makes no sense. When the spinner is horizontal the ball should not come close to touching the spinner. Otherwise the ball would not go under the spinners as it goes by. The rotation point of the spinner is around 1/4 inch higher than the top of the ball. If the magnet is pulling the spinner towards it, it will be at an angle backward that would lessen the blow or make it avoid the blow all together. The pictures I have seen all show the mounting holes being too close together and the spinner is being pinched in between them. A spinner should be able to me moved back and forth close to an 1/8 inch. Mine seems a little tighter than that, but the ones on my other games including the opto spinners on the Beatles have some play in them like they should.

20210203_213557 (resized).jpg

They are pretty and have a wow factor. But that doesn't keep you hitting the start button.

The Expression lighting thus far seems to be very overlooked. The wow factor is very high there and the design is sleek and hidden.

I think just because people are viewing it as just a souped up version of Pinstadiums. But they are interactive with the game, and that's pretty awesome.

Yeah it is that and a whole lot more. Because the Expression lights are embedded in the side of the cabinet in a routed out slot, they can be angled a little towards the back of the game so they cast a ton of light onto the playfield without being too bright to the player. The LEDs have a frosted cover over the hole they are embedded in that acts like a bulb condom. So from the player perspective the lights on the side of the cabinet can make cool visual effects displays like chasers and sound meters, but at the same time are operating as a light show lighting up the playfield in full color bright GI lighting. So visual effects and lighting effects at the same time. Pinstadium lights are bulky, in the way and have to be pointed down so they are not too bright on the player. They are simple, mindless super bright GI lights providing lighting effects only using built in code from China rather than directly coded for the particular game. Let's hope expression lighting is here to stay.

OK, one more post before bed. I took a close look at the opto spinners in Beatles and LZLE in my game room along with the pictures people have posted of the malfunctioning spinners and the fix that Steve Ritchie posted and have a pretty good theory. I always put precision oil on all of my game's spinners. Over the years I have noticed that all good functioning spinners have a little play back and forth left and right if you hold the bottom edge in your finger tips. The mounting brackets on LZ seem to be a little too close together and there is only a little bit of play compared to the opto spinners on the Beatles. Even still there is more play on mine than it appears there is on the ones pictured here as malfunctioning.

My recommendation is to only bend the brackets and not the spinner unless the spinner itself has been bent for some reason. If you can't move the spinner left and right at least a little bit (1/16+ of an inch or a couple of mm) then you need to bend it further and put a tiny amount of oil if possible while you are in there.

The brackets are built into the ball guides that goes through the assembly. They are held down it appears by the posts on either side of the spinner entrance. It might be possible that there is some play there if you were to loosen those posts and move the guides open a bit. It would not take much to make a difference. For now a little bending should help. I made a crude drawing if people can't visualize what I am fumbling to say. As I mentioned this is just a theory, but I think this is likely the issue.

20210203_220107 (resized).jpg

Looking at the pictures and having lots of experience fixing pinball games. This is probably an easy fix just bend the bracket that the spiner sits in not the spiner wire. This needs to be done before you play any games and bend the spiner. You need enough play in the spiner that it moves freely. I can tell from looking at the pictures the spiner is not backwards. I will be sure to adjust mine before I play any games I bet I will have zero problems with it after that.

Thanks for drawing that. This should help.

Best. Doodles. Ever.

It is essentially a bash toy hybrid spinner. It will take some considerable hits and wondering how to prevent issues with deformation?

I just put a full hour on a Led Zeppelin LE this morning. Last night I got a text from the boss that they just set one up in company headquarters, and to check it out (having a pinhead boss is great!). I’m going to give you my thoughts on this machine, and rate it. I think a lot of the early reviews on these are biased as the only people who can review are the early adopters at this point in time. Here are the opinions of someone who played it with no skin in the game. I will add a review to the LZ LE page as well.

What’s broken: The ball got hung up on that lifting spinner mech a lot… like a lot lot. In my 8 games I had the ball get stuck behind it, at the bottom of it, or beside it no less than 3 times. 3 in 8 games. Even worse, the way it is set up now the ball save does not cause the spinner mech to rise up and down. The game waits about 60 seconds, and then just ends your ball. To add insult to injury, the first 1 of 2 balls in play on the next ball that drains ends your ball. So one hung up ball ruins 2 of your 3 balls. As it is currently setup it is almost game breaking.

Layout: Everything is soooooo far from the flippers. Look at how far back the targets are on this vs. Ritchies other recent games. This vs. BKSOR or GOT LE… the shots are all miles further back on this.

Spinner mech: Shooting the lifted spinner was really satisfying. I thought I would hate the mech but its actually really fun.

Art: This has been beat to death already. In person the blue looks fine. I’m still not a fan of the naked dude background, but it is what it is.
Expression Lighting: Very favorably impressed. I have not played a Guns’ N’ Roses, but this is better than and offers more features than pinstadium IMO. With pinstadium, they are all on and can change colors. With these, they can change colors and operate independently. It’s hard to describe, but for many of the songs the action on these is more like that of the display on an old school equalizer. It doesn’t “light the playfield” like pinstadium, but does provide cool ambience effects. If I had to choose between expression lighting and a physical knocker and shaker, I’d take the expression lighting. If I had to choose between a physical ball save and these, the physical ball save would win. Overall… cool. I’d say they added $200 worth of value if I had to give it a number.

Rules: The rulecard was in Spanish. Took a bit to figure things out but it seemed to be spell Led Zepplin, hit the spinner or the scoop to start various modes. Finish various modes for mini wizard and wizard modes.

Ball times: I played 8 games in the 1 hour I had the machine.

Skill shot: No skill involved, you can hit it every time.

Mechs: After seeing the game in person I can guarantee you that Zepplin was designed to physically lock the ball at one point in time. Guaranteed.
Overall, this is a fun game to play but not one that I see rotating through my basement in the future. It’s a fun game… it’s pinball, but its my least favorite Steve Ritchie game, and he’s my favorite designer.

20210204_060152 (resized).jpg

20210204_060359 (resized).jpg

What? or Que'? Why would it be in Spanish? Was it originally an export one?

Exactly what I was going to say. I usually set my pitch for games at 7+, so I doubt the ball will be getting hung up on anything except the trough.

Thanks for posting the drawing - this is what some of us had already determined and fixed accordingly, but it's much nicer to see a visual representation than read a rambling post (like my last post....ha ha) trying to explain it. The funny thing is, I did a drawing with a close up showing the issue of little/no gap and wanted to post that instead of my rambling post - however, it was so bad I feared that it would be mocked for generations of pinsiders so I crumpled it up and threw it in my trashcan. Luckily, the trash is being picked up this morning, otherwise I'd almost be tempted to post it here for laughs.

Quick update on my spinner: I have 240+ games on my Zep LE since the 3rd adjustment I made with the needle nose pliers (also had added oil) and it has worked perfectly - not a single issue and it's ripping.

Steep and deep baby

Steep and deep..jpg

This is re-assuring thank you for the update

No idea... It's just the rulecard that was in it. I'll have to ask the boss if they have the other one.

No idea what the pitch was and doubt I can get permission to open it up without causing an issue at work so I'm going to just leave it. I have 5 pins in my basement set up between 6.5 and 7 degrees and this didn't feel off.

As to the ball getting stuck, the two places it tended to get stuck were in the device at the bottom lip... it would get stuck if the ball just barely rolled in there and couldn't get out. The ball search bumped these out. Where it really got stuck and caused the major problems was when it got stuck behind and to the right of the device. It wasn't like the ball would trickly down and get stuck so much as it seemed like a ball was going fast and would get wedged back there somehow. Ball search wouldn't find it until it ended the ball and retracted the device. Bad ju ju.

You do realize that the mech does physically lock the ball and takes it beneath the PF while your playing the other ball? It’s like going backstage and music gets slightly muffled until it comes back into play from under PF.

I consider this a physical lock.

Nope... didn't realize that at all. If it's a cool mech that does stuff I'm all for it, but it was not obvious to me.

If rule card is in spanish just flip it over

Little off topic but wondering why Spanish? I could see a handful going to Spain? I cannot see any going to Mexico(I may be wrong?)

French, German, and others but is Spanish really a main language for customer base? Just curious?

Probably because Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US.

Well, I'm just as excited to get my game as I am to find out what fresh Stern hell awaits me with this game. I'm still wrestling with my STh a year later, and every game I've gotten has always had some tweak that needs to get done to make it work properly. It's all part of the journey!

But the ball hangup thing hasn't been mentioned before, so that may be a game-specific thing on the one you played.

That is what I was thinking but not sure why?

I would also consider it physical lock. Albeit not conventional but still a physical ball lock.
Also FYI When the ball locks in Electric magic. You have options for 2, 3 or 4 ball multiball depending on how many of the other eject/scoop shots you can make before magic releases the locked ball.
If you lock a ball in both the other ejects, It will then auto plunge another ball and then you have 4 ball multiball. If you fail to make any of the additional lock shots. You would only have 2 ball multiball. AKA the locked one and the one in play.
So technically these are ALL physical locks

Keep us posted on your success.
The ball hangup is most likely a leveling issue.

That mech does quite a bit, physical ball lock, captive ball to bash off the magnet, opto spinner and a magnet that can sling the ball backwards or forward. All depends on what you have going on in the game. Pretty darn cool!

Forgot, you can also shoot through to hit the Icarus and even the center ramp.

Both of which have to be satisfying shots, can’t wait to get my LE tomorrow!

Rock N F’ing Roll baby...whooohoo!

Just got notice! Game has shipped.
I can deal with a spinner problem, anybody remember the old cracked cabinet days? Ahh, yes...memories.

I finally got to log a solid 4 hrs on my LE last night. I’m really loving it so far, although I’m still hoping for some code update and improvement. I really like the side missions of the tours...hit X# spinners, ramps, orbits, etc. Shooting the combos are a blast too. By far, my favorite shot is ripping the EM spinner up to the middle ramp. The spinner sounds are fantastic.

My game is set to 6.8, and I haven’t had any issues with my spinner mech. However, I did have an issue with my Icarus not raising and dropping...the rod was binding, so I lubed it, and worked it up and down until it loosened up (I think I ultimately shaved the spot of it binding), and now it’s working much better. I wasn’t able to hit the side “ramp” from the upper flipper reliably (only 4-5 times all night)..there were a lot of rejects, and the auto plunge had better success than I did at making it up and around.

The sound needs some tweaking (more bass adjustment) even with the “EQ”, but all of the songs are perfect for pinball!
Needless to say, I can’t wait to get home and play some more!

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention how awesome the expression lighting system is... this game begs for you to turn the lights down in your game room

Now that we have many games in homes, what would we all like to see added as code is developed?

Create a wishlist

Anyone else get notice of their premium coming soon? I saw one was delivered, waiting to hear on mine... I was a day 1 order so hoping to get news ASAP!

Someone posted on Facebook they already received it

There is a premium posted above.....

This is pretty good info and easy to digest.

Surprised it was written by an actual rocket scientist!!! Would've expected it to be complicated if John wrote it...But He kept dummies like Me from asking dumb ass questions! Just looked at mine and am making adjustment.

Game is growing on Me every time I play it!

2 more songs!

I still think they have something up their sleeve for the ? Wizard mode.

I just don’t see what else it could be with the assets that are currently used for main game play and the two mini wizard modes.

Tim really hyped the shit out of it so if it’s playing the main 10 songs in some other fashion it doesn’t make sense.

I’ll be happy with one more song for that wizard mode.

I would really like to see them create more of a tour specific vibe to each of the 4 tour modes rather than just a label and a aircraft flying around. Could be concert posters by city, ticket stubs etc...

Need to get my game to see what else needs polish.

There was some initial concern about the playfield quality after the promo videos showed some wood grain coming through. How are the play fields that you guys got in yours?

No way they do this without SOME sort of pay for play. I thought that'd be the topper but they can sell toppers with flat plastics and some lights for $850 without featuring additional content, so why pay for songs?

Everyone has FOMO with toppers now. It's a frenzy.

I think you are the only person I've seen mention this. Mine too was binding, the stick was too think for the hole. I had to dremel the stick down so it was both thinner and narrower and now it works correctly. I think the design isn't good and it could have been avoided with a better bracket (wider hole) that holds it in place under the playfield.

Maybe maybe not.

Again, everything is centered on playing the 10 complete songs to platinum to get there. If you don’t you have another shot to boost sales to platinum in the mini wizard top of charts again focusing on songs you didn’t complete. The other mini wizard is the 10 songs too.

Don’t see how they can add a 4th game within a game that is centric to the 10 songs.

Maybe that’s all it is and Tim was just excited and over hyping the special must be earned super duper cool wizard mode.

Got When the Levee breaks on the stereo while playing the machine.
Got kids singing. When the spinner breaks have no game to play.

I thought so too...or a slightly thinner rod/stick. It’s a fun, little mech for how simple it is though.

I would think that if you had an additional licensed Zeppelin song - and you paid for that license - you would use that as part of the marketing/sales strategy. That's an asset. Unless you're so supremely confident that everyone will just buy it for theme already.

I know they can't do this because they only have the 10 songs (hopefully 11) and are unable to add any extra songs but it would be cool if after 3 or so starts of the Electric Magic multiball it would start a Moby Dick multiball.

With the music already going quieter when the Electric Magic goes down it would make sense as it would be like Plant, Page and Jones are going backstage while leaving Bonham on stage doing the drum solo.

Even though this isn't possible I can't wait to see what extra rules they come up with for the Electric Magic spinner.

They did it for Kiss and Metallica so I wouldn't rule it out.

I don’t think Stern needs to market anything with a LZ pin because if it has 10 or 11 songs really doesn’t matter in the big picture. LZ pin speaks for itself.

I’m just saying Tim hyped the shit out of the final wizard mode on multiple podcasts and it’s not even in the code yet.

It wouldn’t be the first time of a late add after the release either.

Im going to remain wishfully optimistic!