Outpost Kodelia and NinjaCamp have released our first few mods for Scooby Doo! These mods focus on updating some of the non-sculpted plastic bits on and around the upper playfield to refreshed three dimensional detailed pieces. Check out the listings below.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1326-ninjacamp-mods/08272-scooby-doo-mine-spotlights
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1326-ninjacamp-mods/08270-scooby-doo-sculpted-upgrades

Collection (resized).jpg

We will likely have a few more to announce later as well, but we wanted to get these out to you right away.

Thanks!
Kaydee @ OutpostKodelia

I like the mine lights definitely better than the standard spotlight look. Signs are cool as well.

Thanks

Secret passage signs are cool

Cross-contaminating Scooby thread with GTF jokes?? haha

It's definitely a nice-looking mod, but I've always kind of scratched my head at the mod signs like this one or the one for ACNC. Why would there be a sign for a "secret" passage? Hahaha. "Hey, look over here at this secret thing." But again, it's a nice piece, though!

This thread has me stressed about ordering a scooby with all these issues and board issues I’m hearing about. Is it really that bad to bail out now? May just stick to stern and CGC from now on for nib. Idk anymore but don’t want major issues I can’t fix.

I saw you have your spot for sale…still not sure?

Kind of in the same boat as you. Mine is due in the late June / July timeframe and I'm having reservations after keeping on top of this thread from day 1. Don't get me wrong, I really want this pin / theme but I'm getting tired of the minor to somewhat major surgery (removal of upper playfield) that has been needed. Granted, folks have chimed in that got theirs with zero issues at unboxing but it certainly doesn't look like a guarantee. So, I'm on the fence. I realize if I transfer my deposit I'll take a hit of at least $500 but thems the breaks I guess. Again -- I'm rooting for Spooky and this game to really go the distance but one can't deny the amount of issues that have cropped up that have kept folks sidelined and frustrated (and yes, I know all NIBs do have some issues) which have required Spooky intervention after unboxing.

Yeah, if you're looking for something that comes guaranteed not to have issues right out of the box pinball (from any manufacturer) is not it.

Everyone says that you need to be ready to work on NIB pins but you guys are right about wanting to bail out, I did (changed my mind, didn't have a deposit on it) and I really want Spooky to be successful. How about the guy who's VUK was installed 180 degrees in the wrong direction..? I thought Spooky mentioned about having better QC...? I have had 2 CGC remakes in the past and both have had zero issues out of the box, I'm I lucky, maybe. At least Spooky will help you out and answer the phone, try that with Stern or JJP.

Depends on how much more your nerves can take on whether you should bail out now. Mine is due in August and my feeling is starting to be

"why throw more good money at this?" Clearly the quality control issues are not getting better.

I can confirm that the errors showing up at boot should not have any impact on your game, and can be ignored. They are benign; it's just the operating system being too verbose about its startup process.

I’m good at fixing things, shouldn’t have to on nib other than some adjustments but minor things are fine. I’ve fixed old Williams and been around the block. I know it’s not perfect making these. Now if they are having new boards fail several times with little plays this is a major issue and I would say they need to stop and have all hands on that. I can’t fix proprietary board issues and that’s something that could make it a boat anchor and sink the ship. Hope I’m wrong and have had zero issues with my tna ce knock on wood. Love tna that’s why I’m back with scooby. Also had Rick and morty just didn’t like gameplay.

So I hear this a lot but being one who likes to dive right in and fix things it does not deter me.

However the problems I continually see Spooky having with their newer releases really does push that envelope…

I don't see any way we aren't going through with ours. The wife would be crushed if I told her we weren't getting it. We have played it and really like it and cannot wait for more code updates to make it better.

That being said not thrilled with all of these more detrimental issues being posted especially Svenop as his seem the most serious.

I will also say that I am fairly certain that there a lot more owners out there with little to no issues than ones with but I have no scientific data to back that up.

And yes good luck getting anyone at Stern or JJP to help with issues. Same for CGC - if it wasn't for LTG you would hear nothing from them as well - just my opinion also not speaking for others.

Check your plastics, ladies and gentlemen. Last night I discovered yet another issue on my game. After reading a post on here about the "hand" plastics on the apron, I noticed that my #60 that I got 5 weeks ago, shipped out without them. I never realized that anything was supposed to be there (after all, they aren't huge), but then I looked at pics online, and there they were.

AJ is supposed to be shipping those and the mounting hardware out to me soon, but what an odd thing to slip past QC. I'm going to study online pics and compare everything to my game to make sure there isn't anything else... but a manual would be great for that.

Spooky good about shipping missing things. I had a few missing minor parts on tna and shipped fast. Took stern 1.5 yrs to ship the Godzilla plastics I ordered and paid $200 for.

Oh, for sure. Their service has always been good. I've always gotten parts in a timely manner. That's not the problem. It's just the amount of issues that pop up on the new games. I love their games, and have bought 3 NIB, but unfortunately, I'm no stranger to said issues.

This is the most important part! No NIB game is going to be perfect 100% of the time, the real difference between Spooky and the others is that Spooky WILL fix the problem right away and will bend over backwards to get you the stuff you need. I have a friend with an LE JJP GnR and he has multiple PF and part issues and so far JJP has only replied with radio silence, for years. I had an issue with my second hand, out of warranty, Rick and Morty and Spooky quickly replied got me up and running and sent me a free replacement part even though I fully expected to pay since I was out of warranty.

Honestly, someone needs to make a damsel Daphne mod. Scooby isn't the same without Daphne in some sort of peril.

#62 here. Just checked mine and it's missing them too. Never would have realized. Thanks for the tip.

Happy to report that I’m 3 for 3 NIB Spooky pins with no real issues, ever.

“Pinball is hard”.

You think playing is hard- try designing, licensing, building, marketing, etc. a $10k (averaging here) toy that caters to a small bunch of OCD anal folks that are very vocal.

I am no expert in the pinball business (other than buying and owning a bunch of these toys), but I do have some observations.

#1. Most of us on Pinside are very passionate about pinball- love to play, buy, sell, evaluate, bitch, complement, etc. Apparently there are many pinball buyers that just want to spice up their game room and don’t care about Pinside or any other pinball forum.

#2. We complain about theme/no theme, price, reliability, #s of mechs, #s of flippers, boring/not boring/flow/not flow game play, code, flipper feel, etc.

#3. We are so lucky to have pinball at all. I sure as s**t would never never start a pinball company.

#4. I own 3 Spooky games, almost all of the Stern Spike 2 games, several JJP games, 2 AP games, and an Alien. I have had to work and tweak them all. They all bring something different to “the table”.

#5. We listen to podcast experts who can be very derogatory. These folks are top players/dealers/arcade owners and are extremely knowledgeable. Just like me and you they have their opinions, which are usually not kind to non Stern games.

#6. Case in point- I was really excited about Ultraman but did not even seek one out to play it because of all the bad press. This game has an operating system that apparently is already obsolete (?) and the code was very buggy. I finally played one and now I happily own one. Will I get my money back on it? Don’t know/don’t care (by the way, I am very sensitive to the idea that most of us have a very limited budget and can only get one or two games- yeah UM is probably not for you).

#7. Four years ago I caught the pinball bug and researched the crap out of my first purchase. I talked with Trent A. (top dealer and player) about what to buy, thinking there had to be an obvious #1. He told me to buy what I like- best advice ever. I bought a BM 66 which I still very happily own and play.

#8. So if you like/love Scooby- go for it and don’t look back. Spooky spent a lot of time (just like the other manufacturers) researching, testing, and developing this game. Yeah there will be some issues, but as my engineer pinball playing son has reminded me, “all pinball machines can be fixed”.

#9. As a departing note on this too long of a thread, play a SD if and when you can. Scoobies are now out in arcades (which quite a feat these days). My daughter took me and wife to an arcade in Baltimore where we played one. Wife really liked it (no surprise!). I initially did not like the shots, but starting dialing them in and kept dumping in quarters. Yes, I have one on order. Regrets? Nah, it can’t be worse than Ultraman!

It ** wasn’t** though.

See - that’s how “things” start. The VUK wasn’t around the wrong way. It can’t be.

The coil had the lugs at the top. Another guy had the lugs at the bottom. It really makes no difference to the operation.

It’s like the photo of the “stuck balls” from the other day. If people weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t have read the guy staged all those stuck balls. Now I have some guy telling me “Scooby gets a lot of stuck balls, I saw a photo!” Lordy me.

Spooky do have their share of problems for sure - as do everyone else. Like my BM66 that the ramps weren’t attached, and the cabinet fell apart. And my MMR power supply that caught fire. And my Maiden that blew node boards.

rd

^^ lol they’re not though.

Most podcasters are pinball enthusiasts with a microphone. Not experts at all.

There are a few exceptions - like Raymond Davidson who was World #1 player - but often a lot of podcast content is just an average persons opinion. Shouldn’t be given any more weight than a post on Pinside.

rd

Your stuck in a vacuum here. Go read through the last 10 pages of the Elvira thread to get an idea of how bad things could be…. Long story short every NIB has the potential to have issues. If thats scares you off buy preowned every time from all manufacturers.

True, however performing numerous projects on a NIB is not too sweet IMHO. For comparison, my Godzilla Prem has over a thousand plays and never had any issues or needed tweaking. I think it is fair of the consumer to have certain expectations of a NIB, and to simply say "suck it up buttercup, its a pinball machine," is missing the point.

THIS^^

I think the general rule that a coil can't be 180 due to it simply generating a magnetic field that pulls the rod makes sense. However with my vuk the lug base was resting against the switch underneath. The switch has 3 terminals and one termin was poking through the lug base and resting against the diode. The metal mounting bracket for the switch was also very close to the coil wiring attached to the lugs which you can see in the photo. Looked like a potential for a short. (The mosfet associated with this coil was blown) I thought it was the cause of my problems. It makes sense to have the lugs opposite of the switch to keep the wiring spread out and to avoid shorting. Specific locations would have a safer mounting orientation. Unfortunately the with the new coil mounted in the better orientation we still had a blown mosfet. AJ is working on a potential cause for the mosfets going again on the same 2 coils. I'm sure Spooky will get it sorted

20230407_152929 (resized).jpg

If you head over to the godzilla thread and find posts during the shipment of the last prouction run you will seen that plenty of godzillas did not ship the ways yours did. Power supplies wired wrong, buildings making grinding sounds, you name it….

Im only pointing this out to reiterate that if any of this scares you or anyone else NIB isnt for you because the potential is always there. The months of sleepless nights worrying about if you game will ship with a problem you cant fix can be avoided by purchasing a used game that you can see setup and play. Sometimes these games can be had at a discount and sometimes they are more than msrp but you saved yourself a whole bunch of worrying which is worth something.

Did the new code come out last week?

No. Excitedly awaiting for the post though...

But if you buy a good working preowned machine, don't transport it or play games on it, because both things can also result in issues. Ultimately pinballs are commercial equipment that have migrated to predominately the home market, but they still require by design more maintenance and care than a television set or a washing machine. It is part of pinball ownership, and for every pin that comes in with no issues, there is one next to it that does. My Ultraman has had no major issues at all, solid build. Some minor design issues (exposed LED strip, right orbit switch), but nothing like no fuses between the transformer and bridge rectifier my system 11s had. Most of what you need you can get help on, I am keeping a list of things to check on Scooby when I get mine due to folks posting their experiences and the help they received here. And yes, in a very few cases, you might have a lemon - but dealing with Spooky is better than some other manufacturers for sure. The only way to be 100% sure is not to buy pinballs, and play on location. Is that really an option?

BTW the controller on my brand new washing machine went out, luckily under warranty (try getting them to service something out of warranty). I narrowed the problem down to two relays on the motherboard, but they coat the motherboard in a plastic so had to get service to bring out a new board (two trips, one to diagnose what I already knew and one to bring out the part) for two $5 parts. They are making hundreds and thousands, and this time I got one with an issue that I could have even fixed except for their motherboard design.

Dude... You have 22 pins, and are worried about issues? If you self service your games at all, you'll be fine... reading this thread, you should have at least taken away spooky will fix your problems... good luck with some other manufacturers (ask me how I know).

New sculpted 3D hands are our next planned mod for SD. So if you happen to get a game without them, other options are coming.

As I mentioned above we are not cancelling.

I actually just got my very first ever in 20 years NIB game. My CCRSE (yes I wanted an LE but couldn't justify the price bump) and so far no issues.

That being said I don't get all the hoop-la about buying a NIB. So what but then again I had never done the whole NIB thing. Should I have issues with a NIB yes and no. You spend this much on a game it should be flawless. Is it, no. If there were PRO pinball people and massive enthusiasts building every game and you were willing to wait 2-3 times longer than you already do for a game AND you were willing to pay even more than we already are then yeah your game might show up flawless.

The fact is (not getting into wages and labor and the what not) that these games are ASSEMBLED by regular everyday people most of which probably don't give a rat's a$$ about pinball, you, their job, or their quality of work. They are there because it is a paying job and just going through the motions. Do you really think anyone building your car gives a crap about it - they just want to be paid. Do you think the lady at Starbucks making your $10 coffee everyday gives a crap - they just want to be paid.

Does that make all this right or ok, not really but its how things are and will be for the rest of my time on planet earth. I either deal with it or don't, I either buy pins or I don't. I am currently dealing with a WCS issue that is a PITA and I am most likely selling it to move on and be done. Some of it is my fault and my inability to fix it, other part is thinking you got it fixed elsewhere only for it to fail again (not blaming anyone here). I am going to lose my shirt on getting rid of it but it is how it is. I either fix it on my own no matter how long it takes or how much it takes or I move on from it.

While I am not happy to read about some of these issues and some seem kind of ridiculous I also know there are lots of happy Scooby machines out there and we can't wait to be one of them. Do I pray none of these issues hit me you bet I do.

I have more faith in Spooky getting people straight than I do any other company but again they all have your money and guess what at that point they don't care - no offense Spooky.

Yes but the question is will they work with the sculpted apron that Back Alley is releasing as some are getting that mod as well.

That is a very good question. Back Alley has pulled it from their site, so I can't even speculate until I see a pic again. But since this is part of a mech that won't be changing with their apron, I'd say the odds are good they will work. And if they don't, I can always put together a variant that does when the time comes.

Cool I am sure many people would be interested in pics once you have something for all to look at - some of us like mods, lol.

Thanks

Sculpting as we speak!

By all means, if the thought of having to fix something wrong with a NIB game stresses you out, bail. Pinball is supposed to be fun. But counting on having a stress free experience with Stern/CGC is wishful thinking.

From my time in the hobby, just off the top of my head:

X-men LE games had aux boards that kept blowing. Metallica had its hammer magnet board melting on early run LEs. Rush Premium/LE owners have been struggling with Node 10 boards blowing over and over again. R2D2 toppers not working at all, or breaking 5 mins into initial use.

That just covers some of the major issues that impacted multiple customers, I am sure there are many more.

I still buy NIB Stern pins though, and I am buying Scooby, because I trust they will address any issues that come up.

Okay yeah... based on that these should work just fine. Thanks for the pic!

Quick update - after multimeter testing, it was determined I need three new coils and a new board. Should be shipping today or tomorrow.

Once I replace the three coils and new board, I will report back to the group.

I guess that is good news.

My question would be how this got out of the warehouse like this or did it get damaged in transit, a freak thing or what. Spooky give you any ideas?

Scooby is my first NIB…I’ve closely monitored this thread from the start…read all the concerns, issues, fears, fixes, triumphs and joys of early ownership…I’m not going anywhere…am holding on to my pre-order spot and looking forward to being an owner. Come what may…so stoked to own this pin!

So apparently the rear drop bank coil (that was unplugged from transit) overloaded the other coils and the Warden board to short out. The thought is that while the game was initially on, the pin didn't know if the drop bank needed to be reset or not, and kept trying to fire off. That's the story in Layman terms.

Interesting. Thanks for that info. Guess its something to check once the game arrives before powering on.