Humidity?

That’s Stern quality for ya....minor but should not be happening NIB. Kind of odd for sure.

I don’t have that issue on any of the 3 NIB Sterns I bought in the past year. Strange that all of yours have this.

It is odd. Are you near the ocean? What other (non-Stern) games do you have?

I believe it. Here is a picture of the leg brackets I took off my GB Premium when I upgraded to the corner brackets...

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It possibly could be that Stern got an order of parts from its hardware supplier that were/are defective from the supplier in that the chemical conversion coating, or zinc plating, or cadmium plating was not performed to specifications.

Three or four years ago, Boeing Aircraft in Seattle received a large batch of nut plates that were not treated properly (supplier error) and started corroding after installation in the airplane. Hundreds, if not thousands of nut plates are riveted all over inside and airplane structure and are used to attach all kinds of parts. And some of them are buried deep inside. Boeing had several planes in the factory that had to have all of the defective nut plates removed and replaced with new nut plates that were proper.

THe best way I could relate this to pinball is if you had to crawl inside your cabinet and replace the back leg bolt brackets without removing your play field.

It was costly for Boeing and the supplier. The supplier was permanently banned from doing business in the future.

For Stern, this would be a cosmetic issue and not a safety issue. My money is on Stern's supplier sending out junk and Stern, and ultimately the retail customer takes the hit.

This is a nut plate.

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All four of my games have been that way too but it wiped off and has never returned. I thought it was strange also.

My money is on Stern switching to a cheaper Chinese manufacturer to get a deal on bolts.

I just watched a video of stern talking about QC for droptargets they batch test 20% of the order, if 3% is out of spec they refuse the entire order. (Don’t know if I believe that)

I have had GoT Pre since day one. In the bsmt with a dehumidifier running all year. My hindge bolts are shit. The backbox ones look a little better, the front bolts look ok (for now)

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They're just using the cheapest supplier they can find, like everything else they do these days.

Where things should be stainless steel, galvanised or nickel, they are either not, or very low quality.

Basically this; but they make sure to increase prices and cut features as much as possible as well.

NIB buying from Stern at this point just makes me shake my head... but I am glad some are taking the plunge to at least get some HOU games for the future...

Agreed.

Stern purchased the least expensive part they could find and this is the result.

As an aside, to all of you NIB buyers, when time comes for me to buy an HUO example I will expect that these items will have been replaced or refinished. I take $150 off the final purchase price for each bolt I see with surface rust.

And I charge $200 extra to every Stern whiner.

I'm hardly whining. I just want them to use materials worthy of a 5K-15K machines.

Want will never equal reality with Stern. They are the king of going cheap wherever possible.

Time for a wire brush and satin spray paint.

Better to just replace it. The rust is blooming out from underneath the coating on many of these parts. It will happen again.

This is really, really cheap steel.

Stern = Alpha Romeo ?

Stern: Putting the "K" in Kuality.

Contact them or your distributor for replacement parts.