There's dimpling, there's major dimpling, and then there's cratering.

The latter is a new phenomenon, the middle case is becoming more and more common. This is not normal for pinball. Certainly wasn't in the past, and shouldn't be acceptable now.

This was argued about nearly 2 years ago when it started getting really bad with GB. Most people denied it back then, but I think most realise it's now a real thing.

Explanation back then is the same now. It's young wood that hasn't been aged (dried) nearly long enough. Hence also some of the terrible 'ribbing' that's been seen lately.

If you accept this - like other cost cutting - ultimately you will be sorry, because the cost cutting will get worse and so will the end product. Imagine if there hadn't been some push back against the appalling playfield and cabinet quality that Sterns have sometimes displayed recently.

If you're a fan of Stern who for some reason wants them to 'win' and others to fail, or at least not gain market share, you're also shooting yourself in the foot. The fact is, there is competition now. If Stern (or CGC - who have also been suspect re: pfs) are given a pass, eventually it will get bad enough that people won't want to touch them, and even if they improve things, they won't be able to shake the reputation. IMO they came perilously close to this already.

You think we'd have seen a better featured, more complete Iron Maiden (certainly the best Spike era package) if people hadn't been so vocal and dissatisfied, and there wasn't competition? No chance. We'd have seen a pile of crap. Would they have hired all the new talent, at no doubt considerable cost? No chance.

I doubt they used anything that was any worse than anyone else was using at the time, and all CCs are 'cancer causing'. Main difference these days is that the VOCs are designed to off-gas more quickly, rather than leeching out of them for years.

People think formaldehyde has been eliminated from adhesives, wood glues, and treatments, but it hasn't. Albeit there is less of it. Cheap ply (like the stuff Stern use for their cabs) is absolutely rife with it and other nasty stuff - hence the distinctive sickly sweet aroma that they keep for years.

That Italian games (Zacc) had some kind of weapons grade nasties in them and that a number of the line workers died very quickly is just an urban myth AFAIK.

The wood, both cabinet and pf, is just really top notch. At least it is on my Farfalla. Mine might have seen relatively little use, but everything inside the cabinet literally looks like it just came out of the factory. Everything except the flipper bats (which are total crap) is serious quality. The standard of the plastics, prints and metal beat anything else I've ever seen easily.

Must have missed the link / thread to this testing ... can you post it?

AP use Mirco pfs. Though it's been suggested that they may stop doing that, and hinted by some they might use Churchill - who are obviously lower quality.

They've produced a lot of problematic playfields lately, though, and they are clearly inferior. We've never seen Mirco playfields with the ribbing, planking, heavy dimpling, cratering or with multiple ghosted / raised inserts. Plenty of Churchill pfs like that. Mirco certainly aren't perfect, but they are better.

If they didn't have a better product and reputation, I doubt AP would have gone for a more expensive international supplier rather than a cheaper, 'industry leading' one just down the road from them.

Though nowhere near as bad as some of the other pictures, that's easily the worst dimpling I've seen on a Mirco pf, on that Houdini.

I rather suspect that now he needs to supply so much more, some corners are being cut (in light of the clear chipping issues on DI).

The BM'66 is pretty bad, as is the Star Wars (which has both reasonably heavy dimpling and ribbing). Some of the bigger depressions on the BM'66 are worthy of being called craters. IMO this shouldn't be acceptable.

It's good in theory, but a lot of bamboo (ply) flooring warps badly. Probably due to shitty processing. But still, I'd be wary.