Did you ever put the metal magnet protectors on this game?

When they curl, they could cause damage like this.

This is why I bought the extended sparky plastic for the airballs and mylared a large area around that magnet. Still it sldnt happen tho.

There was a bad batch of play fields also . When was your made?

There was a batch of faulty playfields around that time of early 2015 from memory, What's the build date on the pin?

Bigd beat me by 35 seconds,

I hope it works out for you. Hard to tell from pic, but is magnet core to high? That could cause it to.

Mine did the same thing. Stern sent me an empty box and I pulled the PF (populated) and shipped it to them and they shipped me a new PF.

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Nope. Defect in a batch of playfields

I believe that is in the time period of the bad batch if im not mistaken

My head decals are also peeling off

Oh man, that sucks and I agree is completely ridiculous to be happening on a new game. Stern should do the same thing they did for Chrizg and send a new populated playfield. How many plays do you estimate you had on your game by the time you noticed damage around the sparky magnet?

My MET Pro LED build date is April 15th and hasn't had any issues in that area yet. I did put the extended sparky protector and a large piece of mylar around the magnet. I'm not sure if my game has a bad playfield or not. No head / cabinet decal peeling at this point.

Interested in knowing as well. Did Stern ever say what are the manufacturing dates of games that used a playfield from the bad batch?

Not sure as it is on route. It was purchased around April or May so probably around April

Yeah that's BS for that to be happening, especially considering the lower number of plays on your game. Stern should make things right and ship you a new populated playfield out at no cost.

My brother's machine is doing the same thing. He contacted his distributor and Stern is replacing the playfield.

When did your brother get his machine? Any decal peeling as well?

I'm so glad I opted for the wooden backbox original version. Bought in June 15 but build date was 2013.

That sux sorry to hear. Hope stern does you right

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I had the same issue, looked just like that. They had me send back the entire game and sent me another one, so I don't know what the build date was, but it was I got it in the spring. I heard that it could be have been because they were made when they were changing factories and they didn't cure for the proper time. My new one hasn't had a problem at all.

How many plays do you think your original MET had on it before the issue occurred?

Had it for probably 2 month, close to 1000 plays I bet. I played it a lot.

April I think. It was after TPF I know that. I am not sure about the head decals, but I haven't looked that closely at the head lately. I will look next time I am at our location.

Mine has a chip right above the magnet. Got it NIB and within a few months of HUO I got the chip (got it the end of summer or so [LED]).

Just make sure you get the same deal - you want to hold out for an exchange of a fully populated playfield, otherwise you're out 40+ hours of work stripping and reassembling.

My build date is April 15th. Does anyone know which build dates were affected?

I have the exact same build date as yours. No issues on my game yet. I probably played a good 100 games on it before I put the extended sparky plastic protector and a large piece of mylar around the magnet. How many plays is on your game?

Yeah my build date was April 16th 2015 and I do not have any issues with the playfield chipping or decals coming off. Granted I probably have less than 500 plays on this game but I'm still concerned as this is right around that April manufacture of bad stuff happening. I sure hope Stern takes care of you on this and I hope this doesn't happen to me.

Mine chipped as well. I took the populated PF to Stern and they gave me a replacement. They were pretty good about the whole thing.

What was your build date?

I have the extended sparky protector as well. I also have Cliffy's carbon fiber magnet protectors on. I don't know the exact number but I guestimate 500 or more plays. I have had the machine since early December. It's my first and only machine and me and the family play it daily.

Mine did the same exact thing. I'm pretty sure it's April 2015 build date. Stern sent me a new populated pf without any problem. Excellent service! The new pf is the best I've seen from Stern.

These kinds of threads is the reason why I never purchased a NIB Stern. I really want a newer Stern in my lineup but I'm just not willing to take the chance. I guess my loss in the long run. I hope everthing gets worked out with your playfields.

I have had several NIB Stern games and very few problems with any of them, I just opened a NIB TWDLE and it was perfect.. Zero issues! Last note, Stern often warranty's things after the warranty has expired.

I messaged Stern on Facebook about the issue in regards to what manufacturing dates were affected. I was told a rather generic response to "please contact your authorized stern pinball retailer for information regarding warranty claims if necessary". Wow...I'm glad Stern is sending out fully populated playfields but considering the price of these games some more information about the issue would be nice.

I'm amazed you can gather up the courage to walk across a street, do you know how many people get hit by cars?

Don't let this issue prevent you from buying a new Stern. This problem is a one off, same with the decal peeling issue. Both have been resolved for a while now. The good thing is that Stern is sending fully populated playfields out to customers with the issue.

So it appears that maybe only early April build dates were affected? Seems like some people with games built the week of April 5th are reporting issues but not those from the week of April 12th? I suppose a different set of playfields could have been used the week of the 12th considering how many games Stern can build a day.

What could cause this, I mean what is different about this run of playfields compared to older runs?

Sounds like some playfields were not given enough time to cure. My own opinion is that Stern was trying to rush some games out when they were switching factories and maybe even cut some corners as that is when a lot of games were having decal peeling issues. Not an excuse and should never happen considering the price of these games.

I think it is more the ink curing on the wood rather than the clear coat curing.

So either way it sounds like the problem is due to the playfields being rushed?

It just seems odd that it occurred right during their transition to a new factory. I never heard of Stern having this problem before or after the move.

If the problem was ink curing in the wood that sounds like the problem is on the playfield manufacturer.

I thought Stern didn't make their own playfields. They outsource it just like B/W did.

As for not buying new sterns they have multiple issues. Look at the GOT node board issue. The peeling decals. If I were buying a new titled I'd wait a few months and buy a huo one with no issues.

Yup, if you can wait its usually a good idea to buy a game from a later run rather then the first. The ACDC premium / LE cloudy lower playfield issue on early games comes to mind. These runs of Metallica Pro's are from a later run so it's odd and frustrating that issues occurred on some of them.