Hello Stranger Things folks! I recently joined the club with a ST Pro that was previously routed that I'm fixing up.

One question: Does anyone have a Stern Stranger Things key fob plastic they'd be willing to part with? I have factory W/B, Spooky, and Stern key fobs hanging from the coin door locks of all my machines in my gameroom, except for ST, as the goodie bag (where the key fobs would've been) was long gone, and not having a key fob on ST is bugging my OCD.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, that's interesting. I've got the decals, so maybe that's all there is. Might have to get creative with a key fob.

Man, those Slime Balls are killer!

Welcome to the club! Oh, and also, get ready! Pins tend to multiply (sometimes rapidly)

Hi gang. I apologize if this has been covered before, but I'm installing a set of "CLIP" plastic protectors on my ST Pro, and I have these two rectangular shaped protectors that I can't identify a location for.

Does anyone know where they go? Maybe they're Premium/LE specific?

Thanks in advance for any info..

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Yeah, probably for something like that I figured. Thanks Zach! I'll stuff them in the coinbox.

I really like his 3 flipper games, but I think you just might be right here. Those combos in TWD are flat out awesome.

Question: The stock lockdown bar action button is supposed to be clear correct? I'm the third owner of my STh Pro and mine is red, which I figure someone swapped with the clear.

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Here's my take (Cut to bottom line for quick TLDR summary): Rick and Morty was released at the exact same time as Stranger Things was released. I could only buy one, so I signed on for an R&M. I still wanted a Stranger Things though, and I like the ambiance of the Premium with the projector and I thought the TK ball lock and shaking demogorgon was cool, so I figured I'd grab a premium in 1.5 to 2 years, as Stern would surely make a popular license like Stranger Things for their typical 3 year production run right? NOOOOOOOOOO, they would not. For whatever reason.

When it came time for me to order that NIB Stranger Things Premium, Stern was pretty much done making them. I didn't know this, so I held on waiting for subsequent production runs, but all they made were Stranger Things Pros. So then I figured, I guess I'll just buy a Premium used, but I and everyone else who obviously thought the same thing were now in a competitive market for the scant amount of Premiums made, which drove up the prices of Premiums and then made LEs not seem like such a bad deal, and that seemingly made LE prices even higher.

So I was like "Screw It, I guess I'll sit this out. I don't want to pay these prices". Then a local Stranger Things Pro turned up for sale with a UV kit installed, and I was like "Screw it, I guess I'll buy a Pro to pass the time with and maybe get a Premium down the road".

That's how I ended up with a Pro. Is it fun? YES! Would I rather have a Premium? YES! However, due to this shortened Premium production run and my unwillingness to pay the current market value for a Premium, this is what it is.

TLDR summary: Having a Stranger Things Pro is better than having no Stranger Things at all.

Yeah, LOL.. I didn't even know this "Snow Ball" existed. I can come close to sniffing Isolation #2, but that's as good as I can do so far. Where does one encounter these Snow Ball video assets? It looks cool, especially on the Premium/LE with the mirror ball graphics on the playfield screen.

Some people install a playfield protector from this company: https://www.playfield-protectors.com/

Some disassembly and reassembly of the topside playfield components are required when you do this. I'm sure you can find posts with pictures and maybe videos on YouTube if you search playfield protectors.

Even though I suggested the playfield protector, I do agree with MaxAMillion on this one. I had one on my AC/DC. I found it collected debris beneath it easy, so I was always lifting it to try to get the smallest of things out from under it, and one time I scratched it on the underside with my fingernail or something, and that scratch was very noticeable, so I just said F it, and cut the protector out with scissors. In addition to the housekeeping issues I mentioned, it did play weird to me.

I bought a previously routed Stranger Things Pro that had a whopping 26,000 plays on it, and the playfield was pounded nicely flat, with really consistent nice orange peel patina over the whole thing, and all of the inserts survived with no ghosting other than some minimal ghosting around a few inserts that never strayed past the black key lines and appeared to be stable. So with enough plays, the dimpling really does even out nicely, it just takes a while. That being said, there are a few playfields that seem softer than others from the get go, but evidently the Stranger Things Pro I bought had a pretty good quality playfield in it. With the amount air balls this game gets, I reasoned it was probably a good idea to buy a well used example to verify playfield quality and not have to worry about me putting dimples in it and leave it to someone else (in my case a few thousand paying customers, LOL).

I think it was a pinbar type place somewhere in Ohio. I'm the third owner. The first owner was the operator. I could probably find out specific info from the second owner. I was just amazed it was in the condition it was in when I looked at it, and was happy to see the playfield in good shape, dimpled flat (including no raised inserts), and not trashed. I thought to myself "I don't have to worry about dimples at all with this one", not that I worry about dimples anymore, but you know what I mean. I could just tell that my meager home usage will have no impact on wear and tear after it survived its tour of duty.

I found Barb! Unfortunately, she was a little under the weather.

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I equipped my STh Pro with I/C as I like trying for the goals/achievements of all the Spike 2 games. My game was previously equipped with Cleland's sound mod. Cleland's sound mod does certainly add lots of ambiance to the game. Without it, I gotta admit that it has less personality and seems colder. I've been having fun with the I/C features though, so it hasn't bothered me that much yet, but in a perfect world, I'd love to have Cleland's sound mod back.

Stern burning through their supply of projectors and not wanting to group purchase an additional $100,000 worth, probably explains the production stoppage/shortage on Premiums and the early retirement of Stranger Things in general. It's also one reason I have a Pro. I just didn't like the idea of a ticking time bomb projector in my machine, and no "current" option for a replacement. I had a feeling the projectors in these things are gonna end up like the holograms in Creatures of the Black Lagoons. Almost all dead after several years. With Creech, people provided a few different options after what seemed like a long wait. Maybe the same will happen with this projector, and maybe it'll happen quicker than the Creech hologram solutions, but then again, maybe not.

Does anyone have an extra one of these ball gate assemblies under and to the left of the demigorgon? Or know where to source one? I can't find one anywhere. It's Stern part no 511-2968-00.

Evidently the operator who had my Stranger Things Pro had issues with it and discarded it. I thought I'd ask before I custom design something. Even if you have a broken or bent out of shape extra, I'd be interested in it.

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Thanks! I'll try Terry tomorrow.

Terry is inquiring with Stern, but warned me that it may take a while as Stern is slow and their parts sales cage is pretty disorganized. So, that's not entirely encouraging, but probably explains why it's such a pain or impossible to get spare parts from Stern these days.

If you need one, it might be a good idea to email Terry, and tell him you talked with Jeff Rumsey (me) about possibly getting one through Terry at Pinball Life, and to have him put you on the list, should Stern find a stash of them in that part sales cage.

In the meantime, I'll start customizing some existing gates I have and/or I'll try to design and fab something up in the machine shop where I work.

dupe post

I accidentally broke that little opto off and managed to solder it back on. It can be done with the sharp edge of a pointed soldering iron tip or the sharp edge of a chisel tip. It's scary, but doable. I soldered mine back on as I figured I'd find no replacement.

I figure they've probably had their fun with them for the past couple of years and are trying to cash out at max market value, which they might've missed at this point, but they're probably not too far off on the downward slide.

Cool! I've been looking for that wireform myself.

I did, during a full playfield tear down. I swapped in a couple of purple Cliffy post sleeves which are much more durable. You pretty much have to tear everything down to replace them. It's not fun. If someone has a shortcut, that would be great, but I think you'd need some interdimensional technology that doesn't exist yet.

dupe

No. I looked for a pro decal set back in June of 22 and came up empty everywhere. I put in an order for those decals, ramps, and some other stuff from my distributor back then, and it's been no news so far. Clearly Stern doesn't support its most recently released games partwise worth a shit, and Stranger Things is no exception.

The sad part is they might actually have the parts in their parts crib, but I've heard from someone in the know that their parts crib is so disorganized, they probably wouldn't know if they did, and they really don't seem to want to be bothered to dig through it all. Hopefully they remedy this issue.

Quite a bit of dismantling is required to get to those post sleeves. I just started removing things, making a list on a piece of paper of the order I removed things, then when I finally got to the posts (after removing most of the playfield components), I replaced them with long wearing Cliffy post sleeves, as I didn't want to do that all again for a long time, if ever. Also, while I had everything off of the playfield to get to that point, I put a complete set of plastic protectors on. I then reassembled things in the opposite order that I took things apart.

After owning my Stranger Things Pro for 9 months, I finally got to Send It Back and finished that mode, and almost got to Light The Fire for the first time. So close. Beat my prior best combo champ score of 99 while I was at it. This game freaking rocks.

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Have you seen Medisinyl Mods laboratory set of mods? That's the obvious answer. It completely changes the character of the playfield into what it should have looked like all along.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/medisinyl-mods-stranger-things-no-list-until-fully-revealed

A friend obtained a Stranger Things Pro last year with low plays, and when I went to look at it, one of the orange mode inserts (Where's Barb) had sunk all the way to the bottom of the routed pocket, so watch out if you think you have sinking inserts.

You might have to go below the playfield, remove the light boards, heat the insert up to soften any remaining glue (or maybe not as there seems to be a lack of glue), then use a flat topped wooden dowel or some other object, to push the insert level. A lot of time when I do this I clamp a flat metal block to the playfield with a long reach "C" clamp that I bought just for playfield repair use to ensure I can't over push the insert past the playfield surface. After I get the inserts back to where they're supposed to be, I lock them in place with a syringe filled with water thin super glue. This method has worked for me, but as always, your mileage may vary.

Please do report this to Stern if you can. I don't know what they're using for glue over the past few years, or what problems they may have adequately applying the correct amount of glue required, but I do see inserts sinking, raising, and on one occasion - just lifting and completely falling out, way more than I'd like to see.

Edit: Be aware that I do have a friend who is the utmost knowledgeable person when it comes to pin repair, who says that if your insert completely pops out, you should never use super glue to secure it (as it is inflexible and may crack, and also can deteriorate inserts, and if you get it on top of the playfield it's problematic to nearly impossible to get off) and he dictates that you should use Goop instead. Goop is more flexible, gap filling, and if you get it on top of the playfield it just rubs off. Also, to resort to not damaging your playfield, leveling by hand is recommended with something like a small granite block block from an old countertop instead of clamping an object to the top of the playfield, where if you over clamp, you could cause a whole 'nother problem.

It's really rare that it ever starts on my Pro. It almost seems like a code bug that it's so rare. Adult content is on.

Hmmm.. did not know that. Thanks for the tips!

True indeed, I have a Premium kit in my Pro, and I added LEDs behind the graphic windows in the metal apron, which makes for a nice look. But as you said, at this point, not sure it's easier to find.

I'm tempted to pick up a Premium, but I've already got a Pro, and I've got the thing dialed in and I absolutely love the way it plays, so I guess I'll just sit on the sidelines, maybe pick up something different.

Congrats to all the new people joining the club, I love the modes on STh, it's surprised me and grew to be one of my favorite pins (or "tables", for you table people out there).

And a jumpy Demogorgon too.

Unfortunately, in my experience, there is no easy way to replace those post sleeves. I had to disassemble almost everything around the Demogorgon to get down to the base level of the playfield to get at those posts. After going through all that work, I replaced the post sleeves with purple Cliffy sleeves, as those things have pretty much lasted forever for me on all my machines, clean up easy, and look good in the colors offered.

Hello fellow Pinsiders, I've got an older Stranger Things Pro, but I would assume this issue applies to all models. I've had this Pro for more than 1.5 years, and I've been loving the game and I've been meticulous about it's leveling from side to side and front to back, and I've been really happy with the way it plays.

However, with the newly introduced "Demogorgon Challenge" mode, an annoying issue had popped up, and it's especially annoying at parties when I'm having guests over and we're playing a multi-player Challenge mode: I find that almost every player will have at least 1 or 2 balls will roll under the Demogorgon ramp (which stays down 100% of the time during this Challenge mode), and those balls will perfectly perch themselves on the tiny gap between the front of the downed drop targets and the drop target cutout, and they'll just sit there for the entire mode. Then when the mode is over and the ramp goes up, they just stay there. A quick forward jolt to the cabinet frees them for the next player so they can begin their round.

Does anyone else have this same issue? I raised the level of the drop targets when they're down all the way up yesterday, until there's no more adjustment left in the drop target leveling screws, and that didn't solve it. I then raised the rear of the machine by rotating the rear leveling feet 2 full turns. That didn't seem to help either. I really don't want to unlevel the machine side to side by the amount I think it would take to get the balls rolling sideways off their perch, as I think that would negatively affect gameplay.

I guess one answer is to not play this challenge mode, LOL... but visitors to my game room love it, and it's a fast fun challenge for groups of people. Another answer is to play better and not knock any balls under there, and a third solution may be to live with it. Just wondering what folks are seeing.

Thanks in advance.

I made a clear plastic cover for that area on mine. I got tired of that happening quite often.

After 26,000+ plays my original run Pro has a nice even orange peel to the entire playfield surface, so it does even out the more you play it, so play away!

And yes, it was previously routed, I've put less than 1,000 plays on it. A local guy had it for sale and I saw it, and I was surprised that the playfield on it held up awesomely for 26,000 plays, so I bought it figuring that at this point the playfield was pretty much indestructible in my gameroom. Everyone's mileage may vary of course.