I finally joined the club and ordered a Metallica Premium. While I'm waiting for it, I figured I'd collect/order all the protectors and such I'd need. What does everyone think about Cliffy's magnet protector rings versus just putting Mylar around the magnets? I see Cliffy has carbon fiber magnet rings that won't curl that look pretty sweet, but is it overkill for a home use only game? Thanks in advance for any advice suggestions on protectors.

I just set up my new Metallica Premium and played it for the first time last night. Man, I love it! However, I've only played Pro versions for the past 5 years or so (Love them too) and was surprised that when the raising grave marker on the Premium is down, there is one or two white flasher LEDs totally exposed with a direct line of sight right to your eyeballs, LOL. Man, they are quite blinding. Does anyone make cover mod for those, or has anyone made a cover? I apologize as I'm sure this has been discussed and there's probably something buried in the last 296 pages. Just looking for ideas before I go gung-ho and make my own flasher cover. I just want to tone down the blinding white flashes a tad.

Awesome, thanks! And it was only on the last page too. Talk about timely.

Say, could you please let me know where to find the recommended Williams metal one? I'm a new owner as of November, and I missed the discussion on this issue. It's the only think bugging me on my Met, and I'd love to fix it as you did. Many thanks in advance!

Hello fellow Met owners. Here's an odd question: Do any of your Sparky's heads spin while playing, and have you figured out a way to lock it in place? LOL... my Sparky always end up with his head rotated clockwise as shown, with his tongue hanging straight down. I can rotate his head around so he's looking straight ahead, but after a good game, he's back looking to his right just like in the pic. Not the worst thing in the world, but I prefer his head on straight. Maybe he just doesn't like looking at me.

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Update with fix: I rotated Sparky's head until he was looking straight, then carefully bend his head downward as far as I could (trying to not rotate it while doing so), and injected some hot glue into the hole where the spring goes into his head in an attempt to lock his head rotation in place. After a few weeks and several plays, his head remains straight, and this fix didn't effect the springiness or action of Sparky at all, so I'm happy with the results.

What's the production date of the machine?

That's actually on my list of things to do to my MET Premium!

Way cool ChipScott! Thanks for sharing/posting that.

Right. I've even heard a knick-name for it: "The Borgy Bounce".

I just consider the bounce a "charm" of Borg's designs. Instead of modifying the machine, I've tried to come up with a plan to deal with the bounce before it happens. If I know the ball is going to hit the top of the left sling or the top of that lane divider, I quickly deliver a sharp little forward bump to the lockbar in order to impart a little upward trajectory to the ball, so it's not as likely to bounce directly over to the left and out that left out lane. I consider it to be part of the fun in battling the machine. The Borgy Bounce still gets me sometimes, but it's not as bad as just sitting there and watching it happen every time, LOL.

Here's a maintenance alert for anyone with a Premium or LE that uses the captive ball block (instead of the captive ball) under the hammer assembly. This captive ball block is hidden out of easy view, so we really don't look at it often, but please have a look at yours (and maybe give it a shake with your hand) to see if the two (2) screws which are hidden under the bottom of it might be backing out, leading to the block becoming loose and unassembled (this was happening to my block from a recent mid 2018 build machine). According to the Stern manual, Loctite 243 (blue medium strength Loctite) was supposed to be applied to the threads of the screws prior to assembly at the factory, but as I found, and as you can see, there appears to have been no Loctite applied to the screw threads.

Tip: If you find yourself needing to remove this block, apply Loctite, and reassemble, you may want to give the block a few good sharp whacks on a solid surface to dislodge a surprising amount of chips left over from the thread cutting operations that might be hiding in the tapped three (3) tapped holes.

Keep flippin'

Jeff R.

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I believe they thought the block would allow the magnet on the Premium/LE to more easily capture the ball for the hammer/lock action. The magnet ball capture seems to work good on my Premium, so I'm hesitant to change to the newton ball.

I was thinking, one good benefit of changing out the block for the newton ball is when James Hetfield says "Shoot the ball!", it makes sense with the newton ball, lol.

Just, so you know, the block is made of aluminum, which is way softer than the balls. You can look at the pic I posted and see the balls easily dent the aluminum. The block no longer has sharp corners where the ball hits it. The corners are folded over, and when I had the block out, I filed the folded over portions of the corners off. I've had my MET Premium since the beginning of November, and play it multiple times every day, and the balls are all still nice and shiny despite pounding the hell out of that block, so I'm not concerned about the block damaging the balls. It's quite the opposite. The balls beat the hell out of the block.

I tried the metal post, and it didn't make a difference in bounce backs for me either. However, I did find a fix that has made the left loops shots divert to the pops at least 99% of the time. It sounds rather ridiculous though, because all it was is a piece of adhesive felt that I placed on the wire form behind Sparky, LOL. No joke. It simply keeps the ball from rolling to the left along the wireform and out the left loop after the ball hits the post. The felt is far enough away from the outside loop wall so that it doesn't interfere with left or right loop shots or super skill shots on plunges, and I've never had a ball hang up caused by it in the location I've placed it. On top of all that, you really can't see it back there when the play field is in place. So, as ridiculous as that all sounds, it works, it's cheap, and it's easily installed and fully reversible.

I'll post of picture of it when I get home (I'm at my office for the next 30 minutes), just in case any of you guys that haven't had luck with swapping posts wanna try it, and hey.. a pic of a cheap-o and easy fix like this might be good for some humor at least.

Jeff R.

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I've got a Metallica Premium that was made in mid 2018. Occasionally the hammer magnet grabs the ball and the hammer grab noise happens, and I think it's gonna send the hammer down to lock it, but then the magnet just releases the ball dropping it SDTM without the hammer firing or anything else happening. It's like the whole hammer lock sequence just abruptly cuts off in the middle for some reason. This seems very odd, and it's frustrating because of the SDTM thing. I also never expect it, so I'm ready for the hammer to fire and instead the ball just drops and catches me off guard, LOL.

Anyone else have this happen? Seems like abnormal behavior.

I'm one of them. I bought one Metallica album way back in the 90's, but I was never a huge fan in their mid-late 80's heyday. However, I did used to skateboard back then and a lot of my fellow skaters would play Metallica at some of our ramp jams, so I was well familiar with them. So I liked them, but not a huge fan. But wow, their music is not only suitable for skateboarding it also suits this pinball machine very well, in fact, it's just awesome! I love this machine, and I've grown to be more of a fan of Metallica since I've gotten it. It rocks!!

Having any Metallica is better than having no Metallica.