Appreciate the comments and still excited about the game and still believe that Spooky is the best in customer service and communication. Certainly disappointing to see this but truly believe that this hos to be more an anomaly than an indication of their product. Have a Halloween and had zero problems with it other than the original coating which they replaced. Has consistently been good play in a home play environment with occasional/routine/anticipated tweaks here and there

Guys, I figured it out!! It's right in front of our faces, we just can't see it! Clearly Jersey Jack used Willy Wonka's shrinking machine to place sabotagers in each machine and they are creating all of these issues during shipping! Box opens, they run out and take a pigeon back to Spooky to jump into the next box! There needs to be a full investigation, it's so obvious!!

To echo what some others have said I'm thankful for the early adopters working out all the kinks and reporting them to Spooky so they can have everything fixed by the time my game rolls off the line later this year.

Spooky team, it might be time to have a bit of a "come to Jesus" meeting with the QA team.

So some of the holes are of your doing?

None of the holes are my doing. My point was that was 12 holes total, and some are correct but about half are not.

With only so few machines out there and so many showing issues, there clearly needs to be a slow down in work and an all hands on deck to address the construction of these things.

Wow......I'm rethinking things, for the first time considering just walking away from my deposit, I mean seriously. The items raised by this customer cannot be allowed to happen.

Like I said. The game is beautiful, and a lot of fun once we got this sorted. I don't think its something to pull out the pitchforks over, or cancel orders.. but I am a little disappointed that this was a new game.

Just trying to help others who may see similar issues as we did, what we discovered, and how we addressed.

Man I appreciate you all taking the risk in routing these early games, but that switch alignment issue should have been solved on the white wood, not a customer shipped game.

I am sure they are having a QC meeting about all the issues.
Spooky, if you have to slow down some to get QC under control, I wouldn’t mind waiting a little longer for my machine.

And I appreciate your sentiment. I have a TNA 2.0 that needed real sorting when it came in, a remaining issue is when you lift the playfield the stops do not line up, if you pull it out to where they should, the playfield will fall into the cabinet. This is basic geometry of the cabinet and the playfield. Now it plays fine and I'm happy to have it in my collection. But....this is just stuff that shouldn't happen. I really like Spooky, they have been very communicative and answer any question or concern I have....BUT......these are expensive machines, not ordered lightly. From your pictures, this never should have left the factory....period....full stop.

I'm in agreement that the WHOLE Spooky team needs a timeout and refocus on the true tasks at hand and not speed through the process SpookyLuke . We are seeing things that should have easily been caught in the QC process. I'm still in (first time Spooky purchase) and not worried since I see Spooky jumping in on our threads and not shying away like other manufactures.

Stern for instance took forever to redesign a fix for RUSH which I own. I went with a 3rd party fix because I hated STERNS resolution, and they will never address the other issues with the game, but it's still amazing even with flaws. Scooby will be awesome once the kinks are ironed out.

SpookyLuke please slow down and fix the process. As RikeIsland said...I'm sure most of us who are itching for our game would rather wait just a bit longer for better QA then to continue to spit out flawed games that we can't enjoy on day one.

My Elvira has several extra drilled holes where they kept trying to get the right VUK to fire the ball correctly. Then I had to drill a couple more to make it better.

I am considering walking away from my deposit also.I have seen about enough. I guess the good news for me is that the build date for my Scooby
is still at least 4 months out.Hopefully Spooky will find and Fire those responsible for the shoddy Quality control and turn the ship around.

I don't know what to say guys. I am on it I really am. I'm tearing apart the process and diagnosing how these things are getting by. I think we ship alot of really well done games but we need to reach a point where every game is perfect and we know that. We are not leaving anyone hanging and we will get it right. Believe me none of this is taken lightly and it's been front and center in the ship all week.

I think we do a ton of good things right that nobody else does and we also have a few things to work on as a company as does every pinball company. For now try not to write us off as I think we are just coming into our own with our best game ever. We improved immensely in many areas since our previous launch and I think we will continue to improve in these problem areas as well.

On another note, did I read somewhere that more varying music was yet to be coded into the game? Or am I imaging that? I know there are still more villain and character modes planned.

I feel for ya. Stuff like this should not happen. But for what it's worth, AJ at Spooky has been very responsive to my issues and is sending me out a proper length wire harness and replacement LED board, so hopefully I can get my stuff all working again soon.

Yeah, shit happens. I can't tell you how many Sterns that had just came out of the box had issues where the playfield didn't sit in the cabinet correctly and / or the shooter / autolauncher weren't installed right I saw at a fairly recent show. The games were essentially unplayable but they got boxed and shipped. Every pinball manufacturer has their issues, especially on early-build games. At least we know you guys will actually do something about them and provide support.

None of these qc issues are new. Come look in the TNA club to share in the misery with us. I'm 3 months into a dead NIB. AJ is great but this level of QC shit show is unacceptable. Only empty promises thus far from Benton.

Latest response to me was 'We don't really do returns'. So apparently shipping broken, unplayable, non working NIB games is OK in their book.

Keeping the faith here. Feel that you guys are very responsive. Feel bad for the folks experiencing these early QC issues but confident that, having read these comments, you and the spooky team will make certain that they are attended to. Always appreciate the efficiency of your responses on here and always have found direct support/contact quickly addressed as well.

Please be patient, it’s Spooky, everything seems to be like HW/UM. It gets worked out.

Is Spooky's customer service this amazing and well-praised because they have to provide it or people would stop buying their games? Yes, everything gets worked out eventually like HW/UM but at some point, it shouldn't have to be. They clearly fixed their coding and video and animation asset issues with Scooby. They got the quality playfields and cabs. Now is the make or break for Scooby and TNA 2.0 build issues to be fixed. The Come on, guys. Give them a chance!" line isn't going to work on their next game, I worry. I want them to succeed. I almost bought a used TNA 2.0, but I'm way too gun shy now.

The more I hear about wires not being soldered well ( I looked back at the TNA thread as well ), and the more pics I see of said bad soldering, it appears that someone may not be using any Flux on their work?? Looks like wires have been overheated and had poor absorption of the solder. Both indicators of Flux not being used.

I’ll update the group on my NIB experience next Tuesday, whether it be good or bad. Hopefully we can get some success stories in here of happy owners.

Not here to really criticize any game or manufacturer. There's a lot of games from a lot of manufacturers that I absolutely enjoy playing. I do not own but do enjoy Godzilla. I wouldn't likely own a game that I can play at just about any arcade or pinball bar. It does, however, just happens to be the #1 game in the Top 100 which I don't put a lot of significance toward. Just to get some perspective, however, go to the Stern Godzilla Official Owners Club page, and type in QC under keyword to search for posts. Have a quick look around. QC issues are not unique to Spooky, but their response consistently feels top rate.

You're right. But having owned 200+ games over the past 8-9 years. This was a first for me. It looked like someone was blindly looking for a stud.

Agreeing it was a major flaw and should not have been given a pass. As you shared, though, too early to "pull out the pitchforks". You and others got Spooky's attention and I appreciate that for those of us further down the line in terms of game delivery.

Just curious, how many of you here have actually attempted to build a pinball machine from the ground up? Furthermore, how many of you here actually run a company that's currently doing that? Lastly, are you really going to sit here and ignore the issues everyone from every manufacturer faces?

That's one side of this...

The other side is pretty clear as well, are these games even inspected before they get boxed up? How are these issues not caught during play testing? Did someone not hear the sounds a short wire loom being ripped out of the mounting would cause?

That's the other side of this...

Me personally, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Spooky title and if I wasn't focusing on other things right now I'd already be on the list for Scooby Doo. None of what's been put forth to date changes my opinion on this either. That's not to say it doesn't suck for those who are getting games that need additional work, that's obviously not the customer experience anyone wants. There's no justification for some of the issues put forth either so I'm absolutely not defending Spooky on this one and the person who got the game with the multiple screw holes in it should get a completely brand new game with free shipping for both the replacement game and shipping the previous game back but that's an extreme example to me.

Building things is hard, a lot harder than most seem to think it is. Building things at scale is extremely hard and the more complex of a product you're building, like a pinball machine, the amount of things that have to go perfect are significant. While Spooky isn't out here soliciting advice I can't help it, they really and I mean REALLY, need to find and hire a quality manufacturing engineer. That won't fix 100% of everything, Stern is proof of that for sure, but it should improve things substantially.

Last thing I'll say on this is I am a little disappointed to see some of the same issues continuing to be a problem for Spooky. I have absolutely zero clue how the financials work in pinball so I don't know if Spooky can spend their way out of these like you can in other industries. What I do know is their spectacular customer service, and make no mistake Spooky has amazingly spectacular customer service, won't give them a "get out of jail free" card forever and it seems like that grace period is getting ever so closer to its end.

I had a really bad experience with a new ACNC, then my Ultraman. Issues continued throughout Halloween/Ultraman/TNA and same shit with Scooby we will realize.

I do not consider it spectacular customer service to be responsive to messes made by the company themselves. Spectacular customer service would be delivering a product that has basic QC.

Pinball machines are hard to make.

Good employees are hard to find.

Spooky could use some assembling employees with an attention to detail. Being mechanically inclined is also very important.

I would love to work there.

I wish I didn’t have to keep explaining this. The weld spot is BAD!! How can I move the wire form towards the ring at the weld spot!! Not trying to be a jerk but it CAN’T be done! This is the last time I am going to comment on this. And how can I play it? I would have to play it with the glass off.

Look at the damn picture I posted. You tell me how I can fix it. My daughter had brain surgery yesterday and I am done. I wanted my daughter to be able to play it before her surgery.

Whoa Nellie

I played one on route for the first time last night and I have to say I wasn't sold immediately. The launcher had a little bit of trouble getting the ball out reliably, but I'd say my main complaint was with the responsiveness/power of the upper playfield flippers, especially the bookcase one. The two-stage flipper actuation felt a bit sloppy compared to my Godzilla (slow, I guess?) and just didn't feel very satisfying. I also got a lot of rejections from the center ramp onto the upper playfield, but that's probably a skill issue more than anything. I'm not very good, lol. Not meaning to be a wet blanket or anything, and I only played 4 games so this is definitely not a final opinion or anything, but I had been hoping to have a better initial impression. I'm sure I'll give it more plays in the near future, hopefully it grows on me like Rick & Morty did.

I am still in and still believe in Spooky. At this point though there are enough production issues that shouldn’t have happened that they must have some type of company wide production meeting or something and slow down the line and take their time to do it right. Rushing only costs them more money in the long run anyway. I am willing to wait longer.

You have the faith of a lot of us Luke, especially since you keep coming on here. This is just QC and not taking their proper time IMHO. Like I said every new pin has unforeseen issues. The only issue that’s bothering me so far is those 12 drill holes. That is one that should not have left the factory the other couple of issues we’ve seen on here just happen in manufacturing. Just don’t let things like that slip by.

The issue is scale of problems. So we've had like 50 machines or so sent out only and how many of those so far have we heard of QC issues? Quite a few. Same thing happened with TNA recently, a small run, and lots of reports of problems.

Now comparatively, yea the bigger manufacturers have issues but to the same extent? Doubtful. When you have LE runs of a stern being 1000 machines, then many times more prem, and pro models, a single launch run at Stern in one month is likely outputting more machines than what these smaller companies produce in 18 months. Now with many times as many machines, if QC was same level, things would be a dumpster fire in stern discussions but really they aren't. Yea a bad machine and problems happen, but again it's proportional.

Glad your daughter's surgery went well and glad to see that Spooky is sending you a new green ramp. Hopefully you will have it up and running again when your daughter is home and a bit recovered so you can enjoy it as a family.

Anyone have any insight into this?

Ahem, there are going to be issues on the first 100 games. Everybody relax. Spooky simply does not have the 40 plus years of manufacturing experience that Stern has to guarantee perfection straight out the gate. (*) ALSO, don’t try to get early numbers if your not willing to do some tinkering. Walking away from a deposit on this game because of a few early QC issues is frankly batshit.

(*) now ask me how many NIB stern games IN A ROW I’ve received that were fucked up in some way. Answer: SIX IN A ROW.

Have some perspective ya’ll

Here's hoping 66 was one of the 'front and center' pins this week. It arrives tomorrow! I have all the confidence that any issues will get resolved though, so it's all good.

I just spent a bunch of money on a Bronco and the manual transmission has a wonderful grinding noise. I have more faith in Spooky than Ford.

I have zero experience in manufacturing so take this with a massive grain of salt. I do however have a lot of experience in a complex environment with huge ramifications when mistakes go unmitigated.

I think the problem could be that when mistakes are happening, for whatever reason, people aren’t raising their hands. There’s no way that someone on the line poked that many holes in a playfield and didn’t know they effed up. The initial mistake could be a training issue, an engineering issue, or just a plain old brain fart. Doesn’t matter. The overlying issue I see is that it got literally covered up vs flagged. To me that’s a culture problem - people need to be comfortable that mistakes will happen, and clear that shining light on them is the only way to improve outcomes in the future. In aviation we are not only encouraged to “fess up”, we are required to. It’s why flying is as safe as it is. Pretty hard to fix problems if they are getting swept under the rug.

Anyways, this may already be the case at Spooky, I have no idea. In fact, it would surprise me if it wasn’t. In either case pumping the brakes and reiterating that to the crew is probably a good idea given some of what we are seeing here.

Now…if that playfield went out with the blessing of QC and everyone in the know - that’s a different animal entirely and a road I’m not willing to go down yet.

The music in this one is really cool. I belive there are already about 10 different custom songs in the game with alot of inspiration from the original tracks. We still have more that are not implemented yet as well that you will see popping up in the character modes and wizard modes as well as the first scheduled addition the scooby snack multiball.

That’s what I try to remember. Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! She may possibly go home today! She’s doing really good. Kids are amazing. Us adults unfortunately have the ability to feel sorry for ourselves.

Again appreciate those who have supported my daughter and family. All the upvotes I got about her made my daughter smile. Nice to have caring people in the world.

13D92457-E8EA-4B8F-B070-48327071792E (resized).jpeg

I built a Williams Indiana Jones basically from ground up. Few issues but on my next restore I’ll know better and can do it better and quicker. Glad I’m 709 so the issues are worked out by then hopefully. I was first on tna ce and had small issues like missing ball plate and washed out backglass but nothing major and Spooky shipped the parts fast.

BallyKISS1978

Keeping your family in my thoughts these last few days. Regardless of any troubles you had with the early Scooby, I'm sure it will become a beloved family game as your daughter recuperates and ya'll spend time together playing it.

A brief personal story: In 1988, I was 7 years old and suffered a depressed skull fracture. I had weeks of reconstructive brain surgery and loads of boring, bed-ridden recovery time. My extended family pooled resources and bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System. They had been out for years at this point, but my household wasn't video game friendly and I had only seen them at friend's houses. The pure, unbridled joy that console brought throughout the recovery process in immeasurable. To this day my NES is proudly displayed in the living room and still works perfectly. I can't glace at it without thinking about overcoming that early obstacle in life and the love my family gave me.

Sending you, your daughter and the rest of the family loads of love. Don't sweat the early issues on Scoob - it will get sorted out. People you don't even know are cheering for a rapid recovery.

Your point is valid and I agree however there is no way Stern is making 1800 games in one month, they're good but not that good.

Crazy how some people are selling their spots for losses. I have faith and will continue to have faith in Spooky and my CE 1069 will come with no issues for me and my family to enjoy! First NIB!!

Despite the recent issues, I am really excited to be in on this (first Spooky pin for me) and see your team's creativity. Mostly I am hoping for audio (lines or songs) that make me smile and laugh when I am playing. My WOZ, which I am selling to get Scooby, still does that after all these years.