Haha nope, I’m not going to get used to disappointment (addressing your picture about getting used to disappointment). And while I like chatting on pinside about this, that Mirco dude isn’t that important to me to go all Karen on some Ed from TPF (I don’t know any of the organizers).

I just change my purchase decisions accordingly. Why would I want to be disappointed over a pinball show vendor?! I just won’t buy anything from him or JJP.

I was kinda out of this hobby from 2003 to this year with a flare up a few years ago when I bought a WoZ because I saw it in the Smithonian and liked it. My experience with JJP was fairly good and I was looking forward to their current products.

I got back into pinball after a few visits to Cidercade and because my extensive house remodel, which completes this year, contains a dedicated pinball gameroom so I’m back in the market for a new pin.

I liked GnR but won’t buy one because of the chipping playfields and I was thinking about IJ radcals from Mirco to fix a cosmetic issue on my IJ. I won’t buy either after learning about that guy (who I haven’t even heard of before I got back into this hobby a few months ago).

Yeah, I know he and JJP DGAF because other customers are ok with bad quality, but that’s ok with me. Glad I found out that he is problematic before I bought something from him.

Plenty of better alternatives around and if not, I’ll just not buy a pinball machine duh.

Maybe your life is so centered around this hobby that you accept everything, including disappointment? That’s not me, though.

So you turn to insulting people because they are trying to help you manage your real world expectations? Great way to get back into the hobby.. you're a keeper!

It's not that I don't accept the disappointment - it's if you actually care, you'd talk to the people who can do something about it. Not come on here and whine about it and talk about YOUR expectations while you won't actually do anything constructive about it. They got a contact address on the website if you are too afraid to face someone.

Yep. What little was displayed seemed ok.
Game was a shit show player with volume extremely low.

I was not aware. I retract "flawlessly." I walked up to the game near the end of the show and it looked like someone started a game and walked away. I was switched it to 1.0 mode and a ball kicked out of the lock.

I wonder if this could have been a situation where the ball got lost and not picked up in the ball find. Making the game just sit.

I will play the latest code when I am home in a few days and see if I can recreate this.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

??? Who did I insult? Mirco? You? If you took my comment about your life as an insult, please accept my apology.

This wasn’t meant as an insult. You wrote as if the only course of action is to accept disappointment. Your statement isn’t in a vacuum but in the context that these manufacturers can do anything they want because there are people who buy anything, regardless of quality.

I just wanted to point out that I’m not in that group after you said that I should accept disappointment and I put this in context that this isn’t that important to me to talk to the organizers as it apparently would be to you.

Also, if you are that sensitive, you probably should monitor what you write because it does come across aggressive as well.

About constructive: Like I said, it’s not that important to me to do more than chat (“whine”) on a forum that talks about this topic. That’s one of the purposes of a forum, discussing things and sometimes this comes across as whining. Let me assure you, I didn’t shed a tear, I’m just glad I don’t waste my money.

I also didn’t re-enter this hobby to befriend you, so why do you sarcastically tell me “you’re a keeper”? LOL as if I ever wanted to be kept by a total stranger called “flynnibus”. And yes, that was meant as a minor insult, returning the favor.

I like your moxie. Honest with reasons why. Well done Sir.

I'm not seeing that on the Quicksilver playfield purchased the end of last year, the clear is wicked hard compared to CPR. I deliberately made a hole in an obscure area and did some testing, soft it isn't. All the holes are chamfered for this reason I think.

Hello, I come from Germany. My english is not perfect 20 years ago I bought a NEW Addams Family playfield from Mirco Steffens. A supplier from the USA had reissued it. Mirco bought a few and lacquered them again. I live near Mirco Stefffens. So I went there directly. At that time, he still stored the boards in the basement of his parents' house. He told me that he lacquers the boards himself with clear lacquer by hand! 2-3 times lacquered. So 7000 games on the Adams later I have the usual minidells in the field. But that's ok for me The ball is just very hard.... You can only see it with a magnifying glass. But it still looks like NEW. No chipping. The ball does not roll over the playing field. It "flight" over the playfield. This is the disadvantage (if it is one) of a laquered playfield compared to the original without clear paint

I'm surprised that a US company has playing fields with clear varnish produced in Germany. Is there no paint shop in the USA. Strange
In germany we have 2 years warranty.ONLY the dealer is the contact person or JJP directly. Mirco has nothing to do with the warranty case and should not have enduser contact.

For example: It could be that Mirco's Playfield'S pretends to store the boards for 3 months at 20 degrees and JJP installs them directly in the machine. Or they should may not be stored below 10 degrees in the first month. This would then be a JJP problem because they have not followed the instructions.

But JJP or your local pinball dealer is the only contact person. Mirco is only the supplier. If Mircos Playfield are bad this is not the problem of the customer.
JJP only hush up and sit out the problem and try to fix it without any successful in the background. awkward

Maybe that was after whatever production change he made for JJP to turn out (apparently) more reliable jjGnR playfields starting around Sept '21?

Maybe.

I'm actually concerned it is too hard and went with all silicone washers under the posts. I'll be keeping track of the number of plays, monitoring the situation and will post results.

I don't trust the guy as far as I could throw him but he is the only game in town if you wish to build a Quicksilver. I'm prepared to re-clear coat the playfield at the first sign of trouble and knew this going in.

Micro also sells directly to the public, the problems seen on JJP and Micro's direct sales look to be the same.

Pity as I'm impressed by the art and location of drills above and below the playfield, very high quality in that respect.

The inserts with the "4 posts" underneath is a detail that could be better.

Wow brand new account with only 1 post and trying to explain things to make it right…. Mirco is that you!?

What is AWKWARD is this post. Again - you do realize people are having issues with his PFs that they bought from him DIRECTLY. Not just JJP games. Its an all around Mirco shit bag. Please move on.

No comment..

Just curious if anyone got a chance to yell at mirco as his plane took off the tarmac back to germany.

No but I hear someone got a photo of him from behind as he walked down the gantry to board the plane.

..."as his plane took off the tarmac..." -- It's sad that I read this and picture Mirco's presence actually causing the plane to take/chip the tarmac right off the runway

Can someone explain the “photo from behind” reference? I have read this a couple times now.

Yes when skitt-b fucked people over on the predator pinball , people telling online how they will get him at the festival and nothing happend , someone made a picture of his back and that was it…

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That was so cringe to watch. I'll make sure to seek out the subcontractor of whoever put the lick of paint on my Ford if it starts to peel. And I'll make them answer for it in a seminar about tires after he made it clear he's there to talk about tires. I won't blame Ford for the $7/h labor that overtightens everything while the paint is wet.

The TOTAN 2.0 speaker panel was ugly AF (another cringe), almost CPR ugly, but only almost.

Oh please, not the same at all. The correct comparison would be if you’ve purchased a replacement painted hood from whoever the ford subcontractor is, and then the paint immediately peeled off.

Except - that's not what is happening. How many of those with a beef bought a JJP replacement PF, installed it, and now are having issues? A dozen maybe?

The beef is coming from JJP customers - and to a lesser extent Mirco repo playfield owners.

The problem is the two situations are not interchangable - even if the source of the part is.

And you have the data to be able to say with certainty it’s “maybe a dozen repro owners with issues” I’ve seen Whirlwinds with art ripping up from the cellar, I’ve seen funhouses with huge cracking, pooling across multiple non JJP titles, RadCal with a horrible color mismatch. If this issue was only with JJP product, micro would not be getting hammered nearly as hard as he has and to think otherwise is to be oblivious as to what is happening.

I’ve seen 6 examples less than 10 miles from my house - I have 3 examples in my basement (between jjp and repro Williams including funhouse)

Just saying - to those with no issues you should feel lucky.

Oh an non of the above are GNR

NO, they do not have any of those problems.

Ehh.. re-read the post. I was saying 'replacement playfield' as those who bought JJP replacements.

And I said Mircos REPRODUCTION playfield customers have a valid beef - but the person you replied to was talking about Micro's JJP customers.

Stop interchanging JJP customers and Mirco customers as if the relationship is one in and the same.

Droopy drawers are obviously a bad sign when spending your money in the world of pinball.

Oh, I found the room full of old men pissing on each other. Excuse my while I back out slowly.

I am shocked we haven’t seen a Will Smith- Mirco meme posted yet.

The new account has got to be mirco, lets talk about the rest of the elephant in the room. Not only does he tell you to pound salt on warranties, but, and i have email proof, he steals playfields and plastic sets, many collectors have sent him items which he agreed to return and failed to, lies and has his 2 friends post to try and discredit the donators, then when proof is shown the hes a bold faced lier, tries to have the proof removed or threatens a lawsuit. Cmon people open your eyes its more than a playfield issue. He said right to my face he knows of no problems, we all know hes on pinside, he knows of all the problems but just keeps providing horrible service

or example: It could be that Mirco's Playfield'S pretends to store the boards for 3 months at 20 degrees and JJP installs them directly in the machine. Or they should may not be stored below 10 degrees in the first month. This would then be a JJP problem because they have not followed the instructions.

How does this guy know what the instructions are? And that JJP didnt follow the instructions, i didnt know mirco sent instructions, did you.
What a dope!

I think JJP are tied to Mirco.. I think I remember something about Mirco putting money into JJP when things were tough, and so he is a shareholder…

That was denied by Jack at the show.

What isn't deniable is that this shitshow has been going since around 2015 when clearcoat formulas were changed to water-based ones, the reject rate we were getting at Heighway for our Full Throttle playfields from Mirco was godawful, and some six years later nobody has learned a goddamn thing. It was bad enough that Andrew was seriously questioning whether JJP had cut a deal with Mirco to exclusively get their best work, and everyone else would eat shit.

FWIW, all the new GnR machines at the JJP stand at TPF had black washers installed under the posts that usually have chipped playfield artwork. So this looks more like a workaround.

Water based paints and clearcoats suck.
The less toxic the worse the product is when it comes to paint. It’s a reality.
Basic grades water(weakest),oil(mid level)solvent based(strongest)
You just can’t sanitize everything and expect to get the same durability and results.
If this were a scientific experiment.
Direct print plus water based clear equals higher failure rates for playfields.
You can’t landscape without getting mud on your shoes,you can’t rebuild a motor without getting greasy.
You can’t fake it. You either use real products that hold up and take your medicine or don’t and make things that look nice in pictures but are about as durable as any other water color print.
The shift to direct print has definitely created more titles but at what true cost.

But aren’t some auto clear coats still solvent based?

For example PPG CeramiTech 2k CeramiClear. That one doesn’t appear to be water based. Maybe it’s not used because a garage robot setup may explode with a highly flammable two component clear coat but it looks like these high performance clear coats still exist and are legal.

Here is the ingredient list from the PPG CeramiClear MSDS. That doesn’t read “crappy soft tree hugger clear rubber” to me but “inhale once and die an agonizing death”.

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Robots have plumbing I think that the issue is that if you use solvent based clears with a pot life of 2 hours for example they would not complete a shift without having the material harden within that plumbing therefore a disaster.
You just can’t automate everything.
Automakers have robots spraying these types of clears but it is mass production and no doubt there are provisions,man power/checks and balances in place to accommodate it.
Pinball playfields would not justify that type of expense.
Maybe things are way too fancy on one hand and it’s at the peril of the product.
I am not saying they are or aren’t but it’s worth talking about if you are familiar with coatings.

When he started about “fixing problems” with the software, it set me off. I immediately spoke after kaneda questioned him. I told Chris he let him go a bit easy, & I was expecting a more harsh approach. He said he got what he wanted, and left it at that. Kaneda has grown a lot as a human being.

Well, I haven’t!

So I threw some punches at that c-sucker. He didn’t seem to care at all really...I reminded him that everyone in that room was going to remember how he “handles his problems” and to think twice before giving him a dime. He had brass balls showing his face there. A narcissist in its purest form. I planned on going over the booth to further my questioning, but quickly realized he’s a garbage human being & wasn’t bothered at all how he’s hurt so many in our hobby. Wasn’t worth probably being thrown out of the show & banned. If he had personally scammed me out of money, or sent me a bad PF, I may have went all out.

Fk that guy.

No problems using water based varethane interior gloss to seal wood. Different uv inks & printers over the years. Many different contractors doing finish clear coats. Even Ron Kruzman has worked on my playfields. Omni is what everyone uses in my area over many years: https://us.ppgrefinish.com/PPG-Refinish/Products/Automotive-Refinish/Omni/Featured/MC2910
Varethane used for almost 15 years of direct ink playfield restorations & new playfields: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/varathane-diamond-finish-premium-wood-finish-for-interior-water-based-in-gloss-clear-3-78-l/1000111880?msclkid=53c50e81af0111eca6b9b714cb7b5f45

Well shit, this is going to be a really easy analogy to destroy.

I actually worked in an auto plant for a dozen years. Ford paints their own vehicles, the paint is dry and cured before it hits the assembly line. Ford pays in excess of $30 an hour + retirement and healthcare benefits.

And finally, in 2001 Ford voluntarily recalled over 3 million vehicles because of.... you guessed it... a subcontractors tires (Firestone 235/75R15 ATX and Wilderness).

Why would people buy this shit knowing what we know? He wouldn't even stand up for himself and try to give reasons why his product is still decent. I might as well buy a Yugo.

1989-Yugo-1024x682 (resized).jpg

If you listen to those videos on mute, the message is the same.

I remodeled a kitchen for a very cool lady who’s daughter purchased one of these turds back when they came out.The lady ask me if I thought it was safe for her daughter to drive after showing me the car inside and out .I wanted to say yes but I couldn’t bring myself to lie!
I told her I wouldn’t let my daughter drive around in one and she bought her daughter a new car the following week!

Well maybe is Yugo had more time they would of gotten better.

This is the 1st Honda model sold in the US. A friend of mine had one and 4 of us could lift it up and set it on the sidewalk. We did it all the time when he was at the local bar, he would get a ticked off when he came out!

1st Honda (resized).jpg