You can always dab it with some silver touch up paint and probably will never notice. That said, it's a bummer to be so excited to get something and find it flawed.

The damage to the sides of the playfield look like they dragged against something hard multiple times. I don't even know what could have caused that in the factory. Seems like a pretty freaky bit of damage that I haven't seen before. Give your distributor a call. I wouldn't get too upset until you are told that they won't take care of it.

By not holding Stern or JJP to a higher standard, we start making these sorts of things ok. They're not ok. Now, it's not a major flaw that will be noticed over time, but someone in the factory should have pulled the playfield when it was damaged and a new one should have been used for shipping.

If I bought a brand new cell phone and the back casing was gouged, I would hardly ever notice since I put a case on it, but it's not ok for a phone manufacturer to let that sort of physical damage go out.

Yes, damage like this was more common in the 90s, but those were commercial games primarily. With the home market being so large, tighter QC needs to be in place.

I guarantee you that a playfield with damage like that would not have left Spooky's doors, and his margins are MUCH more thin than what Stern works with.

Now, it might be unreasonable to expect a whole new machine from Stern, but I would expect that they will try to make it right in some manner. Maybe some freebies or accessories. But this should be made right and not just ignored.

Right. What I'm saying is that there's a balance. The issue should be brought to light to Stern, and Stern should offer a solution or compensation of sorts. Stern needs to hear from the buyer that this sort of damage on a brand new game isn't ok, but that we're also open to reasonable solutions. Brushing this under the rug would be bad, because then there's no accountability, but a reasonable solution should be accepted.

Yeah, and that's how it should generally work. Once there's no acceptable solution offered, then you're free to go off on the company. Always give them a chance to explain or put things right before blasting them in public.

I'm going to be unboxing my GBLE shortly. If there's any glaring flaw, my distributor and Stern would know well before anybody on Pinside.

I have bought three NIB Stern games (AC/DC Premium, Iron Man, Ghostbusters LE). While I understand that nothing is perfect, especially in pinball, I do think that the cheapening down of parts and the dodgy QC is disheartening. I had A LOT of issues on my GB LE. I emailed Stern and let them know in a very polite manner. I just wanted them to know that I had received the game in a pretty rough condition (I've detailed those elsewhere), and the reply was totally robotic. "If you have any problems, contact your distributor."

I fixed the problems myself. I broke out the soldering gun and the tools and fixed my problems. I didn't cry out or raise much of a stink, but I let people know I had problems. And honestly, I'd prefer not to buy new again. There's just so much risk in it. Going forward, I'll probably look to buy used until Stern re-establishes a solid record of quality.

I don't expect perfection, but I can usually find something VERY close to it by buying used. That's my route going forward.

My Ecto Goggles didn't work (solder needed to be re-flowed on the wiring and connectors on the optos, bracket was bent and didn't line the optos up right), left ramp wouldn't register a shot, two of the PKE rollovers didn't work, pop bumper exit didn't work, one-way gate was too long and would get stuck on the Ecto Goggles, Slimer wasn't registering correctly, my left Scoleri target wasn't level with the playfield (stuck up about 1/8" from flush), right scoop was bent down and a ball couldn't enter, and a few other smaller things. It was well beyond the realm of things just needing a little adjustment. I think it got skipped in final inspection.

I bent it up by hand. It's a bit of a brutish method, and there's probably a more "official" way, but it worked fine for me.

I have gorilla hands. I'm sure you could definitely adjust with screws and washers.