I have played both and both are awesome. If you are getting the LE at or slightly above MSRP then hell yeah go for it, but if it is thousands more then MSRP, I'd so no and just wait from a prem then being you already have a pro. However between the two models I do like the tower and Mega mechs, bridge I can live without.

I ordered the pro as I thought the added complexity would be more trouble than not. The features are cool, but not cool enough to pay more and risk them breaking down. Probably the only thing I will miss is the loops changing directions with the building. I'm going to mod it out with toys (Stern sure went cheap with it!) but I don't think I'll miss anything else.

Depends on the price. The LE may hold it's value. Don't forget the rotating stand ups.. I think the upgrades on this game are awesome!

The LE/Premium has cool extra features but I prefer how the Pro plays. Quick and clean like you said..
Fewer ball hang ups less waiting for balls to lock and relaunching balls, etc. And I like the quick spinner loop over the turning target mech on the right. I don't think I'd upgrade unless I was getting a favorable deal on the LE.

Had a Pro and upgraded to a Premium now.

For me the Premium is better.

Both Versions are huge fun.

Does anyone know when Stern Art Blades will be available for purchase? Eager to get them so I can install my pinstadiums

For those of you using the insider connected does it tell you how long your games are? I had a 1.4bil game and felt like it was a long game of pure pin enjoyment, and thought it would’ve been cool to see how long that game was next to the score…for home use.
I can see on location showing someone their gametime was 1.5mins long might sting for a buck, but it could also be rewarding seeing 10-15mins and them (& others) feel the value of a dollar etc… Maybe a score threshold setting to only show gametimes of scores over X mil or high scores or something… or maybe it’s just a good bad idea(;

Just posted my speaker adapters to thingiverse as promised. These are still available on my Pinside store for $25 a pair, but you are welcome to print them yourselves and save me the bother! The picture included is actually the older version. The stl posted is updated to fit a larger variety of SPIKE 1, SPIKE 2 and SAM games... Once again this is for DIY and recommended for SPIKE 2.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5182150/apps

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scorbit lets you scroll through your game and on all games except spike 2 it has a view of modes and jackpots etc...

Neil.

Ball guide on back loop bending in. Is this something someone with limited tools and experience can correct? Assume I'd have to disassemble the whole back and then try to bend the guide back a little (by hand?).

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Wow, that's weird. I have no idea what would cause it to start bending in like that. It wasn't that way when you got it?

But yeah, you'd have to take off the whole metal guide that runs around to the beginning of the loop entrance. Not hard, just time-consuming.

Definitely wasn't noticeable like that. I will say that as I examine the machine when cleaning there are a lot of different plastics and other parts that have wiggle room in them and aren't aligned how you'd expect them to be.

Bummer that this isn't a common thing with an easy fix because I'm pretty much on my own here and this is my first pin.

Commercial grade double sided tape. 5 min job.

I can give it a shot with my regular double sided tape. But even if I had commercial grade, how do I get the tape into place?

If the tape held, I'd be concerned about the tension pulling the art sticker from the backboard. If the tape didn't hold...well you're back to square one.

Yeah, if just approvals are needed, Toho shouldnt take long. Maybe extra time in designing something dynamic (heres hoping thats the case if they take long).

except it doesn't eliminate DMD or BB glare.

This is unneeded expense. The new games you can just turn the BB brightness down to 10% during gameplay, and on older games, I just pull all the bulbs except 5 to 7 of them. reduces glare by 87%.

for room lighting, sure it eliminates that. But most of us around here have very dark gamerooms, so we don't have room lighting. The issues are BB and display glare, not room glare.

I have your fans installed and still notice fade on longer games, would love to have a little more headroom in the coil strength settings. I just think they’re under-powered a bit for the game, maybe saw the different coils and settings on Godzilla as stern learning / evolving but I’m probably over thinking that lol.

It does greatly cut down on DMD and BB glare. PDI is awesome!

Wow, how long are we talking, and which flipper(s)? The fact that the machine has a mix of coil sizes makes it important to know where you're getting fade. Godzilla is pretty slow to ramp up even without fans, but with fans you shouldn't be feeling any fade at all. The highest temp I've seen even with cooling on a Stern is in the low 120s. Most people should be in the 110s or less cooled. You usually don't feel actual fade until the higher 130s, although it can manifest as missed or bricked shots in the low 130s. So, color me intrigued.

Referring to AIQ in my comment, not Godzilla. Just the lower flippers are weaker in long sessions even with the fans, the upper flipper isn’t a big factor for me and I don’t have a fan in that one. I don’t watch the clock, I just change games or take a break when it’s noticeable.........sorry I don’t have better data for you!

AIQ makes a little more sense because it ramps up faster than Godzilla. But I'm still surprised you're feeling any fade at all when cooled. Karl DeAngelo has run those on streams for 2 hours straight and...nothing, and he's pretty hard on flipper coils. I know you don't have a timer on it, but would you say your AIQ sessions were longer than 2 hours?

With the fans in AIQ, played up to two hours and things still felt pretty solid. Though right now my left flipper is randomly getting stuck and some power loss in shots.... Need to investigate. Either way, the fans have greatly helped with avengers for long play

Flipper sticking sounds like the coil stop is broken/loose. That or the EOS switch blade is catching.

Green spotlight definitely was needed, for mine anyway.

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Cool stops or tightening that part... Forgot the name, that holds the flipper bat in place. I can hear the coil disengage and re engage while it's stuck. Been so busy that the 5% of the shots where it's noticable I just let it slide...I should though fix it. Tomorrow.... Tomorrow...

Possibly, I will try to pay a little more attention to the time the next time I go deep on the game. When it’s freshly cleaned I sometimes lose track of a LOT of time just enjoying how well it shoots.

I agree with Hipponotic. Anti-glare glass is one of the best visual improvements you can make to your pin. It’s impressive. After seeing the difference, my friends added anti-glare glass to their pins. In my humble opinion:

Best visual improvement: Anti-Glare glass (PDI being the best, however, the most expensive).

Best sound improvement: Adding an under-the-cabinet subwoofer. Pinnovators makes a great interface board.

Best tactile improvement: Adding a shaker motor.

These three significantly increase gameplay enjoyment.

Can someone explain the "changing ball paths" for the building? Does this mean that when two or more people are playing, it raises to let a ball out the side? Or does it mean , that when the building lowers for a multiball, it spills the balls out from various places like behind, to the left and right, etc. I saw a video doing this, but mine just lowers and dumps them all from the upper middle at the same time. Thanks.

I'm kind of beyond flipper fade. Tonight during a multiball after playing it for about a half hour, the lower flippers had to be hit perfectly to even get the ball to the top of the playfield, let alone up a ramp etc. Anything not center-hit on the flipper just trickled up lazily maybe 6-12" and then back down...really starting to bug me. My LE is stock and I'm wondering if there's a fix for this since it seems people are getting mixed results installing new coils,fans, etc.

Answered here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-godzilla-official-owners-club/page/104#post-6671055

When lock is not lit right ramp feeds right flipper & left ramp feeds left flipper. When lock is lit building lowers by 1 floor so right ramp feeds left flipper & left ramp feeds right flipper. Lock lit means building shots go up to roof, then when 3rd ball locked building falls and balls are released forward to the flippers. Maybe try taking the glass off and rolling the shots by hand to get a quick feel for how it works.

When the building lowers to lock balls for Godzilla multiball, it redirects the ramp shots back to the same flipper instead of alternating.

^answered above delete ^

Not to hijack the Godzilla thread with more AIQ talk, but I've played my AIQ premium (which has PinMonk flipper fans on the lower flippers) for 3+ hours basically non-stop multiple times and I've also had my single longest game of pinball ever on AIQ at 90 minutes and I have not noticed flipper fade with the fans. I did notice it prior to installing the fans.
I haven't done a temperature check, but I have opened up and felt the flipper coils after long playing sessions and they are not too hot to hold.
For long playing games, I do recommend them.

That doesn't seem normal for only a half hour, especially since Godzilla is one of the slower machines for coil heatup. Did you change any settings on your flipper coils?

Have you checked your EOS gapping to make sure it's not triggering until each flipper is near its maximum?

I assume this is uncooled. There's no "mixed results" with the coil cooling fans I sell. All of them dramatically improve coil performance longevity. But this doesn't sound like a cooling issue, but some kind of problem with setup.

Some things you can look at for flipper power questions:

1) What pitch is your game set at? If it's higher than about 6.7 or 6.8 then maybe try lowering it a bit.
2) Try bumping up the left flipper power setting a bit. I bumped mine up by 5 from default.
3) Check the rivets on your coil stops to see if they're loose
4) Rotate the flipper rubbers 1/4 turn and clean the playfield
5) Check left to right level of game

The right ramp isn't a super difficult shot but it isn't super easy either. Being a bit off line on it will cause a miss that comes back down. Flipper fade likely isn't the issue after just 1/2 hour of play.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flipper-coil-cooling-fans

Hey just got this. I also put in a center post. Plays great. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the feedback

It looks like you can go metal on metal there. Clean both sides with alcohol and gently pull it wider to set the tape in there.

Can you lift it over the back rail? It doesn't look like it even needs to be out front.

Don't have the game yet, so I can only go by the pic.

I’ll check mine, but that bend looks intentional to me. Without it, loop shots would crush that building.

On my Pro that metal is flat against the backboard.

Not sure how that wld happened unless it wasn't installed properly or tighted enough. Can u move it by hand?

Godzilla in any form is absolutely amazing imo but in home environment the premium/le just adds that much more to the full experience . It adds more ways to approach things and who doesn't love jump ramps and moving buildings and different ball paths.....this is littlery what the enthusiasts have been asking for from stern and we fiannlly got the whole package. If u can get le for msrp or close then y not? This game is a instant classic and gonna be sought after for long time. I have yet to hear really anything negative about it ....when's last time that has happened.

Is anyone else having an issue with balls getting stuck behind the jump ramp? It looks like the jump ramp is aiming a little left, if I could rotate it clockwise just a bit, it would solve the issue

Yep, I just let the ball search take care of it usually it comes loose with the pop bumper fire.

You have another issue. It’s an EOS switch adjustment issue, broken coil stop, or maybe something else.

If your EOS switch is not making consistent, solid contact when the flipper is at rest, you’ll get these limp noodle flips that go nowhere.

Yes, rare occasion on a soft launch. I try to anticipate and nudge. If that doesn’t work, as stated above, ball search usually resolves

In addition to EaglePin s suggestions above, you may also want to go ahead and just change out the coil stops on your lower flippers (can get them from Marco, PBL, etc). Those stock stern coil stops are notoriously of poor quality, unfortunately.
Most critical maneuver I've made since owning my GDZ was lowering the pitch to 6.8°. It didn't feel any slower, but the loops, ramps, and just about everything else just seemed to flow so much smoother compared to the higher pitches.