Thanks for the tips. I'll get one ordered.

Seeing as how you only own 1 game - a new Stern TMNT, and you have a single wire on a coil that needs to be soldered on, I recommend getting a standard soldering iron, sponge, some solder, and maybe a solder sucker. A simple kit will let you make your repair then easily stash it away for the next time. There are plenty of operators and bar/arcade techs that make it happen with this level of tool. It simply plugs into the service outlet of the game. The Hakko is a wonderful piece of kit (It's the one that I have) for bench/board work and would be THE one to get if you had a larger collection with some older games that require more frequent soldering and board work but it is overkill for what you need right now. The power supply for it is awkward to place inside the game so I also have a simple soldering iron like this that I use when working on the games directly. That's my 2 cents.

https://www.amazon.com/Weller-SP25NUS-25-Watts-Soldering-3-000mm/dp/B00B3SG70K/ref=sr_1_4

I agree with this. I have a nice Hakko with a base station, but using it inside a pinball machine is challenging because of the base station (which has some power conversion stuff in the base). Get one that plugs directly into an outlet or an extension unless you're doing fine/detail work on a bench or have the playfield on a rotisserie, this kind of cheap soldering iron will get you going.

Here's a series of videos (this link is only to part 1) that I watched when I started soldering about 10 years ago:

-- you can skip over much of each section and just watch for technique, but there's some good information in there that will make you more confident and give you all the basics before you begin soldering.

One more note: don't worry about the small amount of smoke that comes from soldering. It's not going to give you lead poisoning. Now, don't go huffing solder fumes, but it can be safely done indoors without wearing a mask. Maybe open a window if you're soldering much more than a few joints.

Once you get more confident (watch those videos!), you'll notice other bad solder joints underneath your playfield and you will proactively reflow those bad joints as preventative maintenance instead of waiting for them to fail, become disconnected and possibly create a short.

I also made one and it made the Donny shot register 100% and a bit faster and smoother for flow!

TMNT is #2 on Pinside Top 100 today (where it should be!)

Too good and pretty of a game to not have been in the top 10 for a while.

A couple thoughts:
1 - wow, what a difference the premium showing up made in the overall score
2 - is it wrong to think we'll suddenly have an influx of negative reviews from those that don't want it that high?

Straight edge to check and play the game by purposely shooting the dimension x targets to verify no more airballs.

Rob

Yes, could everyone head over to TMNT Premium top 100 thread and give it very high marks, if you feel so inclined. (The TMNT Premium is the machine that has it listed as number 2. The naysayers who don’t own the machine have falsely knocked the other 2 way down.)

That should help keep it up at the top where it definitely belongs. Those that own TMNT know what a gem it is, those that don’t give it false ratings to bring it down. Thus the quandary of the so called top 100...

It really is a top level game in every area of scoring. Name one game that has it more together than TMNT in layout, software depth, artwork, packed playfield, lighting, toys, sound, music, call outs, animations (except April), etc. There just isn’t a competitor hitting all those marks, imo.

I love TMNT (it's the only pin in my home) but I think it is a stretch to include the animations in that list of amazingness. I think it is completely fair to knock TMNT for animations, particularly those involving April. She never looks quite right. I'd say it's just my two cents, but many others have called this out too.

The animations are “ok” but they’re much better for Team Up. Not sure if they get better as I’ve only gotten to Team Up twice.

I believe a lot of the animations are done without mouth movements to allow for other language translations.

Prepare yourselves.
I’ve begun my own 3D model replacement of April. Will author my own alternate footage replacement for the April shots of her in the channel 6 backdrop and on scene in the street. They will be awesome. I am using the zombie yeti artwork as the primary reference. My Jean Grey:

0498A93D-2741-4CBD-B7C1-FDFDC3A5B0E8 (resized).jpeg

My premium showed up on Friday!
Love it so far and starting to get the hang of it.
High score for the first night was 72 million but I feel like anything over 30 is a solid effort.
Build date was November 23rd and my playfield is perfect.
This game is gorgeous.

Does anyone besides PU make an airball plastic for the right ramp?

This feels like reddit wall Street bets all of a sudden

Finally got extended time on both pro and premium over weekend, a real nice shooter! I never judge a game completely without playing it and that’s what matters. Nice job Borg!
Owners should be super happy - I’ll be catching up a bit on it. Only 117 pages to go..

How does one re-light pizza multiball?

Play team up

After you play “Team up” multiball you can start “pizza” and “Turtle power” multiball again...you just have to re-qualify them.

Beat me to it.

Basically just exhale like you're blowing out a candle in slow motion as you connect the solder to keep the smoke away from you. Soldering technique.

Or just use lead free solder.

Hey Guys,

I haven't installed the latest software update. Did the update resolve the turtle multiball glitch that causes game to freeze and restart? Just had my son score major points when it froze again during turtle multiball. Apologies in advance if this was already covered in the thread.

It happened to me once on the latest code. Only once though.

It still happended once or twice but not as much as with prior versions. With newest up it should at least reduce.

Let's call a spade a spade here.

Most of the animations are fairly good, but some of those April animations do look bad. Unfortunately, Stern usually never goes back and fixes things like this. I honestly thought these might have been placeholder animations when the game first shipped, but they were never changed. It's only a couple that could really use improvement, so why did Stern not listen to customer feedback on this?

Rob

Honestly I haven't noticed April animations. I really only see Mode Starts and 1-2-3 Foot. But I'm not a huge TMNT fan, so it honestly wouldn't bother me.

I think most of the animations are great, the extra ball and replay animations are a couple of the best I've seen, April doesn't really bother me.
Overall I think they did a great job with the animated package.

I prefer the Stern animations over the low dvd quality of the 1987 custom code by far. Id like to see a Out of the Shadows custom code attempt see what somebody can do with it, could possibly be as good as JP2 custom code. I actually really liked the movie but i also like all the original movies, i seen TMNT 2 in theater opening day as a 12 year old so im a sucker for anything TMNT still.

Try turning the flipper power down a little bit. It's set too high IMO...any orbit combo will send the ball flying on default settings

Agreed, the animations on the modes are good. April doesn't bother me, but I understand why it gets criticized because its a close up of her face and she is talking but her mouth barely moves and it is out of sync (thinking of the Baxter mode).

So I'm debating on my next machine. I either want a TMNT pro or a deadpool pro. I know I'm looking for yes men by coming here and asking, but I'd like your thoughts on this? I hear the game is "hard?" Keep in my I love The Walking Dead and my favorite thing is getting killed in that stupid game.

Are the shots too tight? What makes it difficult?

Had them both at the same time. DP didnt last long, it got boring and shots werent great except snikt shot. TMNT once get shots down is a adrenaline rush and fastest pin ive played ever! The right ramp is alittle hard to dial in being close to flippers, the left outlane can be tough until you get use to when to nudge, lair shot is a bit tough but easier then Star Trek away team shot, and the speed of the ball when it comes past the upper flipper from the right ramp is so fast it takes a bit to get the timing down and not watch the ball just wiz by. Thats my take on TMNT vs DP.

EDIT- I see you have a ST premium. I had a ST pre when i got my TMNT. They felt very similar layout to me but flipped the upper ramps and side shots to other side. TMNT made ST go by-by pretty quickly.

Ive played about 150 games, not a ton so take the analysis for what its worth. In terms of difficulty I would say that the game in general is very fast, if you are hitting your shots, the flow is amazing. The timing of hitting the center ramp and inner orbit can be difficult with the upper flipper when the ball is traveling extremely fast around the outer orbit, but this seems to just take practice to get used to the timing. The ramp entries are not large, but they arent too tight in my opinion, however, if you brick a shot, the game will punish you for it. This can happen on the left ramp a lot if you miss the entry and hit the dimension x targets which activate the pizza spinner, the ball will hit the spinner and put you out of control. If you aren't clean with the pizza parlor shot, it is susceptible to SDTM drain. Overall I feel like the general play is fast flow mixed with quick catch and shoot gameplay.

The other aspect of the difficulty is reaching the final wizard mode. It requires you to accomplish some specific goals that are pretty challenging, the two that come to mind are max krang combo and triple mondo jackpot. These relate to hitting consecutive inner orbit shots from the upper flipper. They arent impossible and are made easier if you can accomplish them during multi ball (triple mondo has to be completed during MB), but getting them and the other goals done in a single run is going to take some time for me.

I own TMNT but Ive also played more than my fair share of Deadpool. Here are a few of my disjointed thoughts. Both games really capture their themes, both games have solid layouts with satisfying shots and they both have solid rule sets. The biggest difference to me, is that with TMNT, making a mistake is far more likely to end up in the drain. It's not really that the shots are tight exactly, I think its just that the game tends to kind of funnel the ball to the outlanes, especially the left one. The left and right ramps are pretty steep, there's really no safe exit from the pops and a ball that goes halfway up the "centre ramp" comes back with some serious horizontal motion, usually into the LAIR. Luckily a half made Krang Loop shot usually has enough steam to make its way back to the upper flipper.

With that being said, I think dialing in any machine is important to make it play "properly" or at least to make it play the way you want or think it should. I think TMNT takes a bit more work to dial in than Deadpool but thankfully there is room to do so.

I currently own both but tmnt LE and DP pro. I think Deadpool is a lot of pin for the money. Tons of fun shots, great and unique layout plus pretty long play times. Tmnt is face, furious and a great rush with a fun theme. I don’t think you can go wrong with either. The only way I move my Deadpool is if I find an LE or Prem for a decent price

I love both games and I own a TMNT Pro. No one has mentioned theme/atmosphere so I will. Deadpool is a darker theme, w/ call outs criticizing you and whatnot. TMNT callouts are gentle and geared more toward a family atmosphere.

TMNT definitely has more difficult shots and punishes you for missing the easier shots.
It's an odd combination, family friendly theme mixed with brutal & punishing game. This is the reason I think there are so many TMNTs for sale lately.

I had Deadpool LE and currently have TMNT Pro. I'd rather have TMNT Pro hands down.

DPLE is beautiful. Has cool music. Shoots a little clunky. What's clunky? I missed shot just kind of drifts around the pin. Not a huge drain risk. Katana ramp is great. Disco shot is great on Prem/LE. Not so much on the Pro.

TMNT is fast, and tough but fair. They nailed the theme and package. Different Turtles give different perks, but still it's cool to play as your Turtle of choice. Multiballs change depending on collected pizza toppings. Multiball is fun. 1-2-3 Foot is my new favorite combo along w/Krang Combo.

With DP, every game kind of feels the same to me. With TMNT, it seems a lot more varied: The Turtle you're using, the skill shot, the objectives, the modes. They're just more varied and more fun.

To get thru the first round of Deadpool villains is fairly easy IMO. You play those a LOT. They're really very "samey" feeling. Mechsuit multi ball is not-stackable and strictly for points, which makes it kind of pointless, ironically.

Where is the building mod from?

Medisinyl Mods
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/-medisinyl-mods-tmnt-mod-development-thread-

Yup, and the callouts, grunts and very forced jokes of Deadpool really wear on you after a while.

Cool piece of TMNT art. Limited and Timed Edition up on iam8bit today through the 17th. I'm getting one for my game room with my TMNT arcade and LE.

https://www.iam8bit.com/collections/prints-and-posters/products/turtlemania-by-aled-lewis-lean-mean-green-a-tmnt-limited-edition-art-print-series

TMNT_AL_Carousel_1 (resized).png

TMNT_AL_Panel_1 (resized).png

TMNT_AL_Panel_2 (resized).png

TMNT_AL_Panel_3 (resized).png

Where we started / where we're at
miller_tmnt_topper_GIF.gif
IMG_6582.jpg

IMG_6584.jpg
IMG_6583.jpg
TMNT_topper2.jpg

Wow, that looks really good.

Looking Good. Looks very similar to what I did, I just need to figure out how to hook up to the flashers or pops

E26A6FC4-458A-43F2-8BC8-3705D1A40355 (resized).jpeg

Okay, just heard from my distributor and shocked that the TMNT topper here is $1485.00 plus shipping!! Not the distributor’s fault, just Stern’s greedy asking price. It is insane pricing to say the least and disappointed in Stern sticking it to us, their customers, so badly. To compare, Munsters or Blackknight toppers were $625.00 here and both do animated circles around the TMNT topper imo.

Questions:

1. Does anyone know what this topper does? I think I once saw a list of routines in software programming, but can’t find it. Does anyone have access to that post and would you repost it?

2. To all owners: is it worth this outrageous price for $60 worth of plastic? In other words, would you do it again, after having it on your machine and playing TMNT with topper installed for a while?

3. Do you think it really adds to the gameplay or do you even notice it anymore?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Looking good, looks similar to what I did as well

233C434E-19B3-493B-A874-E92D44541731 (resized).jpeg

Where did you get the man hole cover ? I want to make my own topper also it looks awesome.

Thanks all for the compliments guys. Now to figure out how to secure everything.

This is the manhole cover which is a actually a costume shield. There’s a 12” and a 24”. This is the 24”.
https://www.amazon.com/Rubies-Costume-Teenage-Mutant-Accessory/dp/B01CYN0VD6

Does anyone have the burning building mod and Pinstadiums installed together? I don’t think there a enough room for both but I was hoping someone crammed them both in there.

I do, just need to move the right side pin stadiums an inch or so closer to the shooter.

IMG_20200810_160805 (resized).jpg