My first video was purposely showing how without the added plastic, the ball would have hit the beginning of the wireform on the left and stopped dead. The second video shows more how it mostly serves as a smoother transition between the ramp and wireform.

I know how to play and adjust a game. Id wager this will be slightly modified in AIQ models later down the road. Its not uncommon to need a modified part after the fact.
The subway mech and disc leveling kits are good exaples of this. I believe i also heard about two different Captain Marvel plastics because some were scratching the glass.

Yep I agree. There will definitely be instances like yours where it gets it to the right consistency. I put the flipper fans on mine to. I think they make a big difference when playing longer than an hour.

If someone offered me a premium for my LE what do you think would be the fair added cash difference? No major mods to either.

I want to stay in the club but might move to a premium

In my opinion it depends on if both playfields have had washers under the ball guides since NIB. If both or just one has the playfield worn spots at Antman and/or Thor then cliffys covering damage is not same value as a perfect playfield. So if both were not damaged id say $1600 and adjust from there based on condition of playfields if needed.

I strongly disagree with this. I am not paying $8000 to play Keith Junior and redesign ramps.
I do understand that minor tweaks are needed... This is not a minor tweak and if minimizing it makes you feel better then power to you.

Until Sterns comes out and confirms this is the actual design, then I am not adding any plastics to it.

As shown in the pictures: the ramp was obviously designed differently and the production game came out with a shorter wire form...
Stern needs to confirm why.

Thanks, Mine I lifted and put mylar right away. Doesn’t have any issue. I’ll put a cliffy over the mylar once I get them but that’s just to keep it more protected.

Stern listening to your demands lol

758726705ea4642024e9cb62ac31e176 (resized).png

hahaha

Not to rub salt in a wound but the "premature" playfield wear is why i feel some of these machines have been sitting in the marketplace. Honestly who wants to pay $9k for a damaged practicly brand new playfield. If you were closer id trade you my premium for your LE since both have the known spots fixed right out of the box, i love that yellow powdercoating on the LEs!

My ramp works great. This isn’t a universal problem. And it does seem like a minor fix to me. Do you not like working on pinball machines? It’s kinda part of the experience
of being an owner. That being said...i do my own oil changes. Because it’s easy.

with all due respect, I think you are missing the point:

There is a picture of a totally different ramp on one picture (stern website - it has been posted here, look at it) and the production ramp is different (and causing issues to some players)...

I don't have any issues with maintaining, which is totally different from 'redesigning' a part or component...

Using your example of 'working on your game' and the analogy of changing the oil...
Are you changing the diameter of your pistons while changing the oil too? The answer is no, so why do I have to change or add 5 inches of plastic to my game...

Adding a piece of plexor isn't maintenance or tuning... specially when stern themselves posted a photo of a totally different ramp.

If these ramps have issues, Stern should address it as they did already with the subway and spinning disc.

We get it. You're against putting a piece of 1 3/4" Lexan in your game to improve its gameplay and entertainment. You want Stern to send you a special piece or new wireform with permission from Keith that installing it wont alter his original vision of the game. Maybe a letter of apology from Gary while you're at it? Come on man, you are making mountains out of mole hills.
To each his own but im off to go chain some butter smooth Captain Marvel shots together.

I’m not too concerned on that. I put the mylar and washer right away or it would of chipped. I have cliffys but probably won’t install pym one. I have someone asking about it but not sure the proper cash to say would make up the difference

52670FEB-4C93-4E1D-AD10-6F772A5D4034 (resized).jpeg

Have you reached out to Stern support? I think you bring up a valid question - why did the ramp change from the pictures - but if nobody reaches out, nobody will get an answer.

Yes I did, I am waiting on their response.

good luck to you.

I wouldnt install the cliffy either since you put the washer under the guide, the cliffy is ugly there and makes someone think your hiding the damage which yours doesnt have. Now you got to check the premium thats being offered for wear there and Thor area for damage. If it is damaged i wouldnt trade your perfect playfield LE for a damaged Premium unless theres a big enough money incentive but it would have to be steep cause your eyes will see that damage everytime you play. It might not bother some people but it would bug the shit out of me seeing easily avoided damage. Man i wish we were closer id trade you plus $1600-1700 right now!!!

I actually just took my Antman guide apart today and while there wasnt any significant damage, its still a bummer that you can see it was digging into the clear and would have caused damage down the road. Im pretty sure the groove it made wont be as noticeable once everything is back together and tightened but i thought i should share what damage it DID cause.
Unless thats how Stern planned it to work. Maybe i should have just left it

20210121_120403 (resized).jpg

20210121_121505 (resized).jpg

thanks for the advice! That’s about the dollar amount I was thinking. 1600-1800.

Not certain I want to trade as I like the game and the LE colors. I would still have it if I went prem so I’m intrigued as I want to keep the LZ le too. I’ll decide in the next couple days. If it doesn’t happen with them it’s not a huge deal

I have the same minor damage at the antman rail, with a little flake of clear and artwork missing but luckily it's behind the rail. It's also happened to the rail forming the left side of the Thor captive ball. It really beggars belief that Stern thought that pulling these knife edge guide rails straight into the playfield was a good idea

I also got lucky that it is barely noticeable. Ive yet to tackle Thor but mine seems to be loosely tightened.

20210121_124612 (resized).jpg

Mine came from the factory dug into the playfield as well. I purchased the vinyl repair tool and was planning on fixing it, too late!

4E92E65E-C849-4CFA-B4A0-036CBE6E23FA (resized).jpeg

Mine looked exactly like this. I smoothed it out a bit and put the Cliffy on top. It's a bummer but in the grand scheme of things it's fine.

I did some further testing with the CM-Ramp.
Its fine for like 30min of gameplay, then the rejects are getting out of hand- this was a perfect shot in the clip.
The ramp and the metal flap are tight on the PF.

So flipper strengh plays one strong factor here, but maybe there is more to it.
I found out that my PF is warped more than usual from top to bottom.
Any Idea?

20210121_210809.gif

AIQ PF Pitch1.jpg

Interesting how the ball takes a sharp left turn as sson as it starts up the ramp. Is the metal upward portion of the flap bent to the left at all?

I noticed this on all the other videos as well. the ball always gets pushed to the left as soon as it starts to climb.

looks ok to me, just the right mounting of the metal flap looks poor, but it seems to be tight.
I think I will ask for professional help here.

001 (1) (resized).jpg001 (2) (resized).jpg001 (3) (resized).jpg001 (4) (resized).jpg

Looks like the flap is mounted and seated in such a way as to have its natural position deformed lower on the right side. As the ball travels across that lower portion it eventually impacts the ramp which is raised on that side relative to where the flap leads the ball. This abrupt transition at speed seems to be the source of the sudden change in direction of the ball.

...though my eyes may be deceiving me, it’s tough to visualize even with these great photos.

Double check that the area I circled is "level" with the right side of the ramp and not sightly further back. Your pictures all look good, but hard to tell... maybe looking down on it from above or from behind or use a super small level if such a thing exists.

Capture-1 (resized).JPG

yeah, it looks slightly off of 90° deg, but the attachment points of this metal piece are ok- so i think its on purpose.

IMG_20210122_000730 (resized).jpg

I agree, doesn't look "bad".

Have you tried "waxing" or using something like "Wizards Mist N Shine" on the ramp entry and playfield? That may help the ball "slide" a little more. My game is super fast after using it about every 200 plays.

https://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Detailing-Showroom-Chemicals-Mist-N-Shine/dp/B002U729UA/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

In your video, if you look closely as it goes over the flap, it is getting airbourne before hitting the stainless ramp. Not sure how you can adjust for that? Im gueesing the stainless ramp has a couple of bolts that go through the PF and are fixed underneath. Maybe you can put a couple of washers in between the ramp and the topside of the PF - that will change the angle of the flap so it doesnt bounce? Just an idea.

So, the new opto for the CM ramp turned up today - and after a pretty simple installation, the Avengers are now re-assembled!

Have to say - the local distributor here in Sydney (AMD Coin Op) were fantastic! I reported the problem yesterday, and a new part was sent out immediately along with an offer to have it installed by a technician. Luckily though my 10 thumbed, fairly incompetent hands were good enough.

Had another quick blast in between work meetings - damn this is a pretty special game...

I added the piece of Lexan to Captain Marvel ramp. Just getting the extra ball associated with it seemed to open up other extra balls down the road. Wasted 5 bucks on a score tool. The lexan is too flexible for that to work. I found that hacksaw was the way to go.
The ramp went from difficult and requiring a strong accurately placed shot that still got plenty of rejects to just somewhat challenging. My first game on it with mod was my high score. Went 7 for 7 on gem modes but screwed up Battle Royale. Would have gotten to Thanos if mode was in the code. There really needs to be some mode for collecting all the gems and a high score for most gems collected.

1FFD312C-8529-41BD-8FA0-13DC66EBADA0 (resized).jpegB14F04AC-54C6-4D70-A61C-42D893470EFA (resized).jpeg

Tip: I got my piece of "lexan" from a kids microscope set. Just something cheap from walmart or toysrus will do - they often come with plastic slides which are exactly the dimensions you need. You could probably find what you need on amazon if you search for "plastic microscope slides", but you'll get way more than you need of course.

Can also confirm the marvel shot is a lot smoother - you still get rejects but its slightly less now with the adjustment.

Do you think an old Credit Card (or similar size plastic card) would work, I might try this approach temporarily over the weekend?

So - used a piece of card stock to make a pattern to cut out my Lexan - now how do you fix it to the ramp ?

I used double sided Gorilla tape to attach mine. Bought it and the smallest piece of 0.93” thick Lexan I could find at Home Depot. I was able to score and snap the Lexan pretty easily with a box cutter. I went with 1” thick and 2.25” long, as I wanted the top to be just below the kinked metal rail.

It has made a HUGE difference on my CM ramp - especially on very hard hit shots, which tended to get rejected often. There are still rejects, but I’d say they are shots that aren’t clean and deserve to be rejected. Cannot recommend this mod enough.

Can anyone post a closeup picture of the added plastic piece?

There are several in this topic!

Ya - Gorilla tape is not happening on mine !

I think this is a covered topic, but my search is not helping. Anyone else have the following issue? I get two balls portal locked and down in the subway. Get the portal open, sink the shot, but nothing happens. Game searches for balls for a while, ejects the subway balls, prompts me to select a quest (which is tricky with balls on the playfield), but ends my run if one of the balls drains. It's not all that often I have this happen, given that you need two portal locks, but I feel like it is repeating. Sucks because two two portal locks would set me up for some nice points on a quest.

Verify via the Switch test that all the switches in the portal trough are working

I used the 2-sided Gorilla "mounting Tape"... works great. Just make sure you try to maximize the tape area (for enough holding power) so the lexan piece affixes to the side of the ramp as close to the opto as you can get.

You could easily remove in the future if you ever wanted to.

Capture1 (resized).JPG

My $.02...

Not going to add lexan to the CM ramp. I get I am probably in the minority. I am always hesitant to make changes that make shots substantially easier unless it is clear there is a production/assembly issue that needs to be addressed.

The pics of the proto CM ramp being enclosed doesn't strike me as a smoking gun. It is possible it was changed in production to make the shot harder because Keith felt it was too easy with the ramp enclosed, not because of any manufacturing or cost cutting measure.

If it does come out that it is a manufacturing issue/unintended design change then I'll slap a piece of lexan in there and would hope Stern would offer either replacement ramps or an official fix kit in the future. Doing it prematurely would feel like adding training wheels to me, but to each their own.

Would you say it is a hard game? Possible to complete it in 3 balls?

I'm going to try and 3D print something that actually attaches without taping it tonight....wish me luck

I collected all gems, played computer frenzy and completed Battle Royal on a 1 ball challenge game, so yes, it's possible to complete in 3 balls - if you're good enough. If you're not good enough setting to 10 balls won't be enough.

20210118_141725 (resized).jpg

I really can't see how this is making the ramp easier than intended, especially since the shots I was having rejected the most were the strongest shots in the center of the ramp - those are the ones that SHOULD make it and now DO. Name one other pinball ramp that has a cutout opening just past the ramp flap on purpose. I have to guess that this was done for manufacturing reasons.

In my opinion this is just like the JP Tower shot with those annoying rounded screw heads that scraped the ball. Do you think those were put in at Keith's request? I took those out and put down some mylar without a second thought, because they clearly were interfering with an already difficult shot.

I think this is the main issue, the ramp flaps on the last few games have been flexible enough that they are deforming on impact and creating the issue. I've had the same on the TRex ramp on JP2 and the BW ramp on AIQ. Lifting the ramp and then packing underneath the flap before reseating ramp has solved the issue on both cases.
I don't have a Prem AIQ only a Pro, but would suggest this is the most likely cause of the ball being flicked to the left. I would guess that if you look at the ramp under the flap that is the cause.

Just joining the club now. Sent a deposit over for a Premium to Jason at CGR this morning. Expected February 2021 build.