I think Stern are finally on top of this. Our Munsters has the larger corner brackets, a plywood bottom and a lockdown brace that is bolted in to the corners. Game is definitely heavier and feels much sturdier. Hopefully all the games will have this going forward.

That was for european regulations. Plasma caused issues.

Love all the criticism, and yet, we all know how many here are buying Black Knight 3/WONKA, or both.

You'll get less for your money and you'll like it. *said Humphrey Bogart-style in the Maltese Falcon*

Definitely - of this list - mono-targets. I think the lack of a subway has limited things in a major way in Stern games, but you don’t really notice what’s not there as much - the mono targets are clearly wrong, even to a non-pinball person

Can lollipop rails be bought from jjp?

As a new pin owner, I had no idea this "snaps" lockdown bar was done to save money. It seemed very innovative and easy to use. Seemed like it was done as an improvement, not a cost savings.

Not paying the software guy to finish the code.

How about the fact that more and more cost cutting is done with every new machine but the NIB price keeps going up?

It's almost as if the price of everything is going up.

Pretty good list...Cabinetry and everything i can see and touch...

Like everything else on a pinball machine it is there to distract you and make you drain.

I'd say with the number of people complaining about it behind obnoxious it is doing it's job.

If you want it to be closer to off in home use, you can raise replays and turn off matching.

Cheap Stern habitrails and ball guides.

Not hiring enough software engineers to meet coding demands is more like it. If Lyman isn’t getting paid to finish code at home and he is doing it on his dime, my question would be what kind of work/life balance can he actually have? Or is that when you just take a machine home with you and sleep with it for 6 months like a sordid bad affair? Or is it more like Pygmalion or My Fair Lady where the pin starts out with a rough cockney accent and ends up a refined speaking lady of pinball?

Day 1
Motty fawn day ta ya, guv’na, got a brawss fahthin for a gaim o’ pinball, eh guv’na? Givya two gaims fah ‘alf a crown I will... mott eevin let ya look et me bloooomers fo’ acupa a-shillins, I mott.

Day 182
Good afternoooon, fine sir, How do you doooo? My name is Bride of Pinbot, would you care for a game of pinball to fill your idle time? I can give you one game for a quarter or three games for fifty cents. Would you care to play?

There’s a setting in adjustments to turn it off. I have mine off.

I do the same on my games. Really not much of a point for replay when your games are on Freeplay.

Knock them bronze bitches out and put in a nylon shooter sleeve. Working so far in my Deadpool on location.

I like this change.

All the little kids who visit can no longer run down the line incessantly starting and stopping games after plunging one ball.

Those f-ing pegs that replaced the playfield slide brackets are the WORST!

I guess if your collection only consists of Stern SPIKE games, this would be a plus in terms of eliminating that nuisance.

As mine doesn't, I'd prefer to have all my games' on/off switches conveniently located and opt for a different means of dealing with PITA kids.

I only have one Spike game but I honestly think the new location is an improvement once you get used to it. It's not really hard to reach.

I also think the lockdown bar with the two snaps is an improvement too. Much better at keeping it tight to the machine. The old lockdown mechanisms eventually loosen up and jiggle a bit.

Switching form drop targets to stand up targets. Most designers will always go for drops in their early concepts. Drops are more satisfying to hit and they expose a rubber behind them for some much needed lateral movement in a pinball game. But they're nearly always the first casualty in the cost cutting stage of the development.

Not 100% in 10 years. Sterns have gone up 100% in 10 years.

Especially on Spooky machines.

How about a lack of the playfield prop rod?

Adjusted for inflation, $4799 in 2009 is equal to $5686 in 2019.

Street prices, not retail. I was able to get Spidermans NIB for $3300 and that machine is roughly a Premium in Stern's new tiers. Premiums are more than 2x that now, street, with the best discount you can get. Stern has cut dealer margins AND raised prices over the last 10 years, causing the actual price increase to be more than just raising prices because the best deals are much smaller percentages off retail.

Bk and Wonka both did it in case ya missed.

Without a doubt, for me it is the regular slot screws instead of the Philips Head screws used in the old Gottliebs. This had to have been done by an accountant who saved a fraction of a cent but made the maintenance much harder. I can hear him now. “But we use millions of them!” Penny wise and pound foolish!

Sterns overuse of flat plastics on everything

I agree, the new lockdown bar is so much better! I never understood what complaints about it were.

Ending direct to cabinet printing

Actually you have no idea if Sterns margins have been cut if the dealer margins have been cut or if dealer recommended price were just a joke and margins have gone up for both

Lots of friends of mine disagree with me on that one as well they say it holds the bar tighter which i agree with my problem is that it's kind of a pain in the butt to take off. I always have trouble with the snaps and it takes longer if your in a tournament when your trying to take it off quick just a bit of a nitpick i have.

I would say elimination of fuses on the spike system

The tension eventually pulls the screws and makes it loose and you can't fix it well without moving the holes. The receiver setup doesn't have that issue

Oh, I have an idea. People talk. Dealers talk. It happened. Stern squeezed both ends over the last 10 years, and even if I was oblivious to that, there's still the issue that >100% increase in price from 2008 $3300 NIB Spidermans to 2018 $7200 Premiums now is factual.

This one is leveled at spooky specifically, but DOUBLE SIDED TAPE.

Love spooky, but for the love of god, remove that from your factory. Double sided tape should not be used in lieu of screws to hold ball guides in place. It should not be used to hold side rails on (especially one one end is not bolted in and the le model has less area to tape down). It should not be used to hold 3d plastic wedges that act as ramps. It is a terrible way to put a game together so ffs use screws especially when you already have screw holes.

Also, taping a piece of paper to the back of a rail so that the Rob Zombie cutout has a gradient is a terrible way of doing things. If someone spills something that paper is going to be ruined.

It's the exact same technology used by B/W on their games in the 90's to latch the backboxes.

So far no problems with tension pulling screws loose in more than 25 years.

A> I lower the backbox head a LOT less than I take off the lockdown bar. Probably 100 to 1 if not more.
B> Bally/Williams didn't cost-reduce the durability out of their cabinet wood.

So, yeah, no dice on that comparison. I'm telling you, multiple route machines have a loose latch bracket currently on the route I help with, and you can't tighten them where they will stay. They were awesomely tight from the factory. Not so much now.

I hate fake knocker sounds... They sound unnatural and they also lack oomph. A good knocker should almost scare you when you get it. It should be sudden and violent and loud.

I actually like the snaps on the lockdown bar. I had a lot of trouble with my MonsterBash LE lockdown bar, and while I resolved the issue, I handled it way too much for my liking. Simple snap on and snap off is better. Don't overthink things. Sometimes simple is the right way to go.

I also hate when I can't add a real knocker cos the code cant support it.

Dealers are making $1000 per pro that is solid margins WOZ has gone from $6500 to $11,500 in three fewer years seems JJP just as bad

Still HATE the on/off switch moved to the backbox.

How much $ does this realistically save?! Perhaps there's another reason behind this that I'm not aware of?

See post #69 above.

I already have and responded to it too. My HATE still remains.

I like em cause my kids don’t just flip em on and off as they walk by anymore. My games are tight enough I don’t have to worry about their little arms reaching.

I can’t stand it. Stretch to turn it off as you smear your hand across the glass. I need to clean my glass every other day. And invisible-glass just make the smears even worse! Ugh!!!! Please move the on off switch back!

Some of the other things I can understand, but I like the snap lockbars. They are much more secure and the bar doesn't move around and chip the powdercoat as much.

Closing Williams pinball division in 1999

I hate that none of these cost saving measures have resulted in any savings for buyers