I am thinking of adding a shaker to the game, never had one before but I am wondering if it is worth it on this game?

Yes, it’s 1000% worth it. It’s integrated really well.

Is there a part number for the new ramp cover?
cheers

not to my knowledge, sorry, I just emailed Pablo at Stern and he hooked me up. BTW my experience with his service has been great, sure he does take a few days to answer in between emails but he always does respond - I am sure he is swamped with service request so I respect his time and the reasonable answer time -. Nonetheless, he sent me the cover and other things I needed for my game. Awesome service.

Man, no chance that the next SW release adds an extra couple of ms to hold that up-post down. My OCD will kill me to have the PF not 100% level.

The attached pic happened in my "pin/kid hauler". Do you know what that did to me???

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I wouldn’t be able to function!!! Just knowing that is happening will keep me awake tonight!!! Lmao!!!

Don't think I didn't consider pulling over to let a touch of air out of that front left.

Thanks to everyone for helping with the TK diverter assembly. Moving that around wasnt hard at all. Now I think I just need the new ramp cover and stern responded right away and its shipping today.

Is there any special way to get the current cover off? Sorry if Ive missed it in the thread

removing the cover -easily - requires that you lift the PF bringing the back of it outside the cabinet. I posted a picture a few posts earlier on how to do this with clamps...

You might still be able to get there without doing this, but I find this to be utterly complicated... You will eventually need to get to the back of the PF for other reasons so knowing how to lift it up fully was important to me. YMMV.

I assumed the new ramp cover was just a different white material for the left ramp? One that would generate more speed?

Same material. Different shape and no riveted deflector to avoid interfering with the ball.

It's ok, I wouldn't say it is a "must have" at all. I had a spare shaker, so I installed it and it's fine I guess. After having one installed now though, I would not purchase one just for the game. This shaker is going back into another game I have when it returns from a temp trade with a friend.

thx. may reach out again when it comes!

I was order 10261 and got mine april 3

I fixed mind by increasing pitch very slightly

Replaced the black t-molding with red while on a Teams meeting. Next is Revenge from Mars.

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My kids are going to flip. No Demogorgon bomb for a month. I have a complete set of spare parts so that my pin isn't out of commission. (But my spare lockbar is button-less)
Taking parts to get powdercoated. Actually, taking my Star Wars parts first and using the lockbar from Stranger Things on Star Wars. You can play Stranger Things without the button, but not Star Wars.

My kids and I decided on Plum Crazy (Prismatic Powders). In addition to the common items, I was going to do shooter housing, coin door and speaker panel, but my kids decided against the speaker panel (Yay, because I don't have a spare and it would have been another $160 to buy a spare)

This pin has brought my kids (13 and 10 year old girls) into pinball. Mind you they've had access to machines all of their lives but they never got into it. (Not even when I had CV, MM, ToM, Scared Stiff, MB) This game did (because of the theme).

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Demo bomb is the least used feature on mine. Use the button all the time for ball swipe (prem/LE) and wouldn't be able to live without it TBH...

Should look nice!

Siderails and legs could be great in red too

I like that there are just a few gameplay features unique to the Premium/LE. It should makes scores fairly comparable across all versions, right?

a) lock 2 balls during MB to get 3x scoring (Pro: 1 ball, 2x)
b) swipe a ball for non-TK MB modes (Pro: no swiping)

Agreed.

I rarely use Demo bomb. Kids use it every game. I am always "saving" it, but never use it. (Only time I use it is on an outlane drain just to get the points)

Finally found an le man that was hard . Got a topper and shooter rod coming too , hopefully I find that uv kit

one of my narrow target decals keeps falling off. cleaned black target and installed new ones. Anyone try an adhesion promoter or glue?

Premium game its the right target on left ramp entrance.

I had a big problem with this very thing. after cleaning the target w/alcohol, i tried super/gorilla glue and that stuff just gets too brittle to last. i tried this tacky glue I bought at Michael's and it seems to have done the trick. hundreds of plays without the decals popping off.
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edit - go with @chuckwurt's advice if you have replacement decals. I used this junk b/c I ran out of replacements.

Would love to see how this turns out!

Two days ago I pre-ordered a UV Kit from the next run that says 4-6 weeks. Best to pay and pre-order if you want a guarantee of getting one.

An alternative is the Pinstadium UV kit. My game came with them and they certainly do a nice job in the meantime.

had no issues if cleaned with isopropyl alcohol and then apply the new plastics.

Holy mother of PITA, Batman!

I have the ramp cover here, but if that's the amount of work that it takes to put a damn ramp cover on, I will probably just put it in the coin box for storage.

It’s a good game to cut your teeth on. I got a Stern JP premium recently and couldn’t believe I didn’t have to adjust anything. So glad I got my STh first. Taught me how to get in there and work for it. Now JP is like a vacation.

I'll post pics. It might take up to 4 weeks as I am taking my Star Wars parts first (shop said they take about 2 weeks).

OK....so my latest foray into this game. I had 3 nagging problems.

1) Left orbit eject hitting top of sling sometimes - Chuck mentioned that this was because the up post was coming up before the ball completely cleared.
2) Right orbit hitting top of sling sometimes
3) Pop bumpers suck - Not a Stranger Things issue but a Stern issue

I think I've fixed 1 and 3. Take note, I have craploads of spare parts. So what I am able to do is the exception because of that. But maybe my experiments can help you.

1) Lowering the PF on the back left didn't work. And it just annoyed me because it was making my PF out of level. So....here is what I did. I took the up post assembly out. (the 3 x 1/4" wood screws and unplugged the coil) Took the top retaining bracket off and removed the compression spring. I had a spare in my parts. So I cut a bit off of the bottom with the idea that it would slightly weaken it which would make it push the up-post a fraction of a second slower.....and holy crap. It worked.

2) Right orbit was hell. I tried maneuvering the lane guide, but I had similar issues. Sometimes the ball would not ride the lane guide and it would hit the top of the sling. I tried and tried. Adjusting the lane guide. Adding a larger rubber run to that post that Chuck did and I couldn't get it 100%. I'll settle for what I have with it. At this point as long as it doesn't drain I can live with it.

3) The pop bumper action just sucked in this game (and frankly all Sterns). I like lively pop bumper action. When the ball would go in there, I'd barely get a hit or two. I examined the assembly and noticed that the post of the bumper skirt was catching on the spoon. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to operate smoothly. Often if the skirt post went to the edge of the spoon, it would stick there. So back to my parts area I went. I found 2 new spoons. But these were Bally/Williams spoons. They are every so slightly different. I replaced the white spoons and I had to really adjust the leaf spring (because the WMS spoons are shallower) with my switch adjustment tools. (99% of you don't have this, a small needle nose should do). The WMS spoons operate smooth as silk. My pops are wonderful now. Lots of action. No sticking skirt post. Wow!!! IF YOU DO THIS OPEN THE DOOR. You don't want to short from a coil lug to the switch.

Update : I went to Marco and Pinball Life. It doesn't look like they distinguish between the spoons anymore on Pinball Life. On Marco they show the legacy Williams spoon.

What exactly is “swipe a ball”

You aint kidding. Everytime I think I have the tk diverter right I realize im off. Just going to wait until stern sends the new cover then work on it. Thanks for all the links to posts.

Wondering if my distributer can just send someone over to help me because I suck at fixing shit.

Replacing the ramp might not be necessary, in fact, I probably did not have to do it but since I had 1/3 of the PF off the table I figured that it was a good opportunity to improve it as per what I had read on this thread and what chuckwurt had recommended, so I went for it...
You will need some woodworking notions to get it done, I was aiming for a clean job not a hack job such as adding glue and toothpicks into the hole. I am not that kind of guy, I also think ahead, whenever I sell this game I can sleep at night thinking that I did my absolute best to keep the game in perfect shape. I will never do a hack job on anything, that is part of my personality and how I keep my OCD at bay.

So long story short, you can simply add the cover and see how lucky you are, you might be good. I just did not want to be toying with the ramp and the diverter EVER again so I went full in. My ramp was not fully forward, it was shy by about 1.5mm now it is at the max it can ever go....

If you are not inclined to do it, do not do it... lots can go wrong really. I just happen to have woodworking skills and lots of tools and this was very easy for me, I have also experience fixing electronics and playing with expensive things in my grandpa's shop -he was an electronics engineer-, building my own computer, fixing electronics and soldering since 8 years old. So your mileage might vary, I am a tinkerer.

I am not sure how other people feel about tackling this job, so good luck!

In a nutshell, it is not terrible difficult. It takes good attention to detail and patience and knowing what you are doing... if you are not confident, better not to practice on a 10K toy.

I am really loving this game now that it is playing well! Only complain I have is some of the sounds are just plain awful, for example the skill shot sound, I find it very unpleasant. There are other sounds in the game I do not love.
I find the game a little bit too dark - moodwise - sometimes, I get it ... it is about the monster and what not but it would be nice if the game had a little break now and then and have some more happy modes to separate the darkness from the happiness and lighten things up a bit. A lot of the modes are a bit violent.

All that to say my favourite is Quarter Hunt, it is upbeat and you get to hear some happiness in the kids voice, the rest of the modes are a bit of a downer, wanna see momma mode yikes, and find barb... Geee, not really interested in seeing that.... yeah sure it can be disables in the options but that is not the point.

The games makes this up by having great fun but simple shots, no Keith Elwin BS complicated rules and absurd combos, just plain pinball fun... Sorry Keith, I do not like your games. lol

Anyway, that is my point of view. Peace out!

Thanks for that. All i have done so far is mess with the 4 screws holding the diverter assembly in place to try and get it the perfect distance away from the wall. I also checked the height of it as chuck had mentioned. When the cover gets here ill check that out as well

I had to adjust the switch for Burn It Back on my Pro, but otherwise it’s been perfect so far (knock on wood). My thoughts after the first 40-50 games:

I love the music more than I thought I would. I may still swap in 80’s songs for a few modes, but what’s in there now works really well. The callouts seem fine to me, but I’ll definitely swap out the “X is lit” callouts (thats what the inserts are for, ha). Needs Eleven saying “bitchin’” in there somewhere. And definitely needs a few Erica callouts. “You can’t spell America without Erica”.

The shots are all awesome, there’s not a single one I hate. Right ramp is tight but I’m getting dialed into it. The gameplay really reminds me of IM, which I’ve been missing. Fast, high-adrenaline multiballs. Smooth and repeatable ramps. I like the right orbit shot, now that I’m playing a game that feeds back to the right flipper and not the top of the slings.

The left lock target on the left ramp should have a sign, “this way to right outlane”. Missing that ramp with the right flipper punishes me pretty regularly, as it should. On the other hand, the drop targets are way less punishing than I expected. It’s pretty easy to recover from a quick rebound, since you’re expecting it.

I’m looking forward to getting my UV kit, so I can switch out all the violet GI for white. I really don’t like colored GI. Joyce’s face shouldn’t be purple. I love the Pro cabinet and translite artwork. It’s season one, which is the only season some people are familiar with, and the best one IMHO.

Overall, my favorite Stern in a long time, and I think it’s fair to call it a “flow monster”. The left orbit ending at the right flipper is awesome. Looping “Burn It Back” is awesome. “Man, that’s pretty cool.”

Holy cow, so happy that a Pro model came up for sale locally and not a premium, or I would've bought it. Premium sounds like such a bitch to get working right. Feel bad for you guys who have to spend all that time adjusting instead of playing.

Ironically my SThLE replaced my IM, which I owned for 8 years.

in my short experience in the pinball world, there is no way around it... if you think you will get in the hobby unscathed not fixing anything I would say maybe to think again? there is always something to fix or replace... I think that Chuck and I are probably a bit extremist and if you follow Stern's PDF on how to repair this you should be fine... we went above and beyond, in my case replacing the ramp fully and filling up the holes, etc... that is another level of OCD...

Just for those out there considering a premium, do not be scared. I would not own a PRO.

I Put this strip on my ramp to see the effect and now a straight shot goes in the mouth everytime. Before the strip it would rarely go in. Guess I need to remove the Demo spacers as mentioned elsewhere? Does lowering it take away/minimize the shaking feature?

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Didn’t say that nor do I think that. But jeez, I certainly Haven’t owned a game that needed all sorts of tweaking just to play correctly. Sounds like the early Rick and Morty games that needed all sorts of tweaking and fixes out of the box.