Makes sense, I've heard about that with games with magnets. The guy I bought the machine from said he had just put 8 new balls in the machine before the sale... do you think it likely for them to get magnetized within 150 or so games? Also, if it's magnetization why would the auto launcher seemingly work well for the first 1 or 2 plunges and then not afterwards?

But regardless it sounds like a worthwhile purchase as even if it's not it, it will probably be something I need in the future. Thanks!

EDIT: Also, do you think something smaller such as https://www.amazon.com/Screwdriver-Mechanical-Electrical-Demagnetise-Demagnetizer/dp/B07H9YC4DJ/ref=sr_1_2 would do the trick or do I need something bigger like the one you linked?

For me around 200 games is about when I started noticing the balls not making it around once in a while. Then it just gradually gets worse to the point where multiple balls will back up in the shooter lane.

EDIT: It's probably more about how often you are getting TPMB and less about number of plays. So, if you're not getting that multiball mode very often, then it's less an issue which is a perk for not starting that mode. Play for just raising your training levels, Neutrino multiball and glider points (avoid the pizza parlor) and you can extend the life of your eight expensive metal balls!

Gotcha. My wife gets that pizza multiball quite a bit. It's also one of the most fun modes in the game so I really don't want to have to actively avoid it lol.

So the thought is that if I get a ball demagnetizer and use it every 150 - 200 games it would greatly extend the life of my pinballs?

Yeah, that probably would work; you're just degaussing one ball at a time. Not that big a deal, probably, but I have five pinball machines with magnets and it's just easier to degauss a machine's whole set of pinballs at once.

That degausser has paid for itself over time, too, because while others simply swap out balls when they get magnetized, I can keep using them longer. I only replace my pinballs when they start getting scratched up, and TMNT tends to magnetize them way before that point, more than any other machine I own.

You've convinced me, I bought the plate demagnetizer. Especially if the guy truly did just order new balls and they're magnetized after 3 weeks (granted it's our first and only pin so it's been getting decently heavy play). With having the premium which has 8 balls it sounds like I can just set all 8 balls on this thing at the same time, pull them away, and they'll all be demagnetized? Or is it better just to do a couple at a time?

Also, on a side note, I know how to remove the main 5 balls from the machine, but do you know how I would go about force ejecting the 3 balls that are held inside the turtle van? Thanks!

Polaris balls are made for this issue. Not against degaussing, and understand not wanting to swap balls as often, or wanting to use super shiny balls in heavy magnet games. All good whatever your choice but Polaris balls are another option.

I open the turtle van door with my fingers and catch the balls on the way out.

You can, and probably should, just buy balls that do not get magnetized. That’s what I did. No issues since.

The degausser will work well. I put a small cloth on top and set 6-8 balls on it, and turn it on for 10 seconds or so. That’s all it takes.

As for the van, I just pull down the door with my finger.

Obviously since I'm the 2nd largest seller of Polaris balls I'm biased, LOL but yes, this....and the degausser is a great idea and will also work well probably.
Whatever works for you is what you should do. Cheers.

I think they are saying they would like to be able to choose the mode, which is different to being able to randomly change it

Hate to be the actually guy...
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...but it's the dimentionX targets that change the selected episode. The left and right one to move them forward or back. I think it's clockwise and count-clockwise on the inserts, but I can never remember which way. I sometimes play that way, but they are such dangerous shots.
...but your right, you can control them. I personally think a 'select your episode' feature (like say aiq style) would slow the game down too much; there's already lots of pauses in the game.

It's not 100% random. You can change them, ....very risky... but you do actually have control over which one is chosen. ...if you have nerves of steel.
Very risk/reward though, which I appreciate. It also makes it so your not playing the same episode over and over, which would get monotonous.

....
Speaking of code changes (which apparently there's none in the pipeline unfortunately (coming from one of the dev. team)), I was thinking about the foot123. I don't hate it as much as many people here, I think it's great thematically getting attacked with the foot soldiers getting in the way of your progress. ... but I was thinking the callouts should've worked with that a bit better. ...just a few like, 'dude, the foot soldiers are blocking our way'. And when you re-start it from the right ramp after it times out (there's a grace period) something like 'oh no, the foot are back'.
...not that I think the code will get this kind of treatment, unless say it gets vaulted in the future maybe--but after the sale to get rid of stock, it's hard to see right now.
Fingers crossed on a code update for some score balancing still though in the next couple years. Team Up and training values need desperately to go up in value.
....
Great to see the new owners in here though. I still love this game, even with all its warts.

I'm about to join the club with a premium tomorrow and I'm pumped!!!! I'm an 80's guy and I love the turtles

I'm still at work, so I can't deep dive into this thread at the moment, but I'll ask these here for now....

- Top mods to do?
- Top tweaks I should perform out of the box?
- Does anyone have a topper they'd like to sell me?

Apron decals available on Pinside.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1267-cento-creations/09521-teenage-mutant-ninja-turlesapron-wall-decalssold-as-a-pair

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I may have a topper. Depends if mine sells with the game or not.
I like turtles very much but need to move a game.

I've had a TMNT Pro for 2+ years, and have put over 2000 games on it.

I really like the Stern Art Blades. The Mezel Mods Technodrome and radioactive ooze are awesome. Green Silicon Flippers look and play better. Shaker and real knocker on mine as well. I just recently got the Katana shooter, and don't love it as much.

Welcome to the club. If your Premium is new, you should look out for the van diverter coming loose from its coil mechanism, which will prevent gameplay because the machine can't pre-load the Turtles van with the three balls it normally holds. It happened to mine after <10 games, and similarly for others on this thread.

Look back a couple pages at this post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-club2020-cowabunga-its-pizza-time/page/228#post-7857952

....and the replies from myself and others, specifically this one (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-club2020-cowabunga-its-pizza-time/page/228#post-7858732) that links to a guide for the repair: https://o.pinside.com/6/f7/0d/6f70d0f590de09d0dd7d172dcb570065e0aa213a.pdf

Thanks. This is a store demo unit with about 180 plays on it, all in the showroom. I played three games on it today before sealing the deal and the van (and everything else) worked as it should, I think. The reason why I say I think is, is the glider supposed to work all the time or just during modes, etc? I was pressing the action button and it didnt move, but I saw it move and release the ball on its own during game play. Either way, I'm not worried as it comes with a full factory warranty. It's probably just me not being familiar enough with the details of the game play yet.

There are definitely times when the glider stays fixed... I'd have to play a game to confirm (or dig into a rule sheet) but maybe it's after starting the Foot Combo, or when powering up your weapon?

Action button will be lit purple when it is available to move the diverter.
But yes, there are times when it is not controllable.

Welcome to the TMNT club. You are gonna love it.

I will recommend
reflex mod's pipe mods

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1428-reflex-mods/07202-tmnt-pipe-mods-for-wire-ramps

they are absolutely beautiful,
there are also some "goo" canister flaster upgrades (don't know who makes them)

and of course I have to recommend my own "Pinbawlers" armor to protect that side art near the buttons

(TMNT specific)
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1463-arcade-cabinetscom/08786-pinbawlers-flipper-button-wear-protectors-for-tmnt

(generic)
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1463-arcade-cabinetscom/07922-pinbawlers-stern-and-sega-flipper-button-wear-protectors

if you want some hinge art I have some nice magnets too, only 3 left and I don't expect to make more
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1463-arcade-cabinetscom/07770-pinbawlers-stern-tmnt-magnetic-hinge-art-logo
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Shameless plug for a free mod:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tmnt-stern-the-1987-code

Hey guys. Sorry to bring this back up again:

Thought I had fixed the "auto plunger" issue by demagnetizing the balls (purchased a plate demagnetizer). After demagnetizing it seemed to auto plunge just fine. My wife has been playing more than me and has probably put another 50 or so games on it (my father in law came over and helped as well) and when the 2 of us sat down last night to play again it started doing the same issue, all auto plunges were only half power or less and wouldn't make it around the loop.

The big issue with this is that there's a documented issue that if this is happening and you're in turtle power multi ball the multiball will never end as the game needs to launch the balls back up into the turtle van as you lose them. We've experienced this a couple times now where it would just keep feeding balls over and over, and the only way to stop the ball from coming is to catch it and manually plunge or shoot up the right ramp. I was hoping to keep this a secret and just fix it but I had to break my wife's heart (not literally lol) last night when it was acting up again and tell her what was happening, which made her realize the high score she had recently set on the machine was due to error (she thought she had got some special mode or something and was just killing it).

Anyhow, I recorded the plunger in slow motion and it looked like it was striking the balls just fine. I figured there couldn't be any way after 50 or so games these balls were magnetized again, but didn't know what else to do so figured i'd try. Took them out of the machine, held a paper clip up to them and no reaction so figured it probably wasn't it but since they were already out of the machine might as well run them over the demagnetizer anyways.

Low and behold, reloaded the balls, fired the game back up, and voila, auto plunged like a champ on every ball for the 15 minutes or so I played.

So now I'm a bit confused. The balls didn't seem to be magnetized, and i feel 50 games is a very few amount of games to magnetize a set of balls to make the auto plunger not work, but running them over the demagnetizer seems to have fixed it. Unless it's just coincidental (big coincidence) and there's some sort of power issue with the plunger? I don't know hah.

Anyhow, any thoughts on this? I'm thinking of maybe just picking up some "better quality" balls that are supposed to be less prone to magnetizing. Saw Polaris carbon balls mentioned earlier in the thread. I have no way of knowing what balls I have in the machine now as they came with it, but the guy who i bought it from whom I have no reason to believe is a liar had said he had just bought 8 new balls for it when he put the listing up, so they should have plenty of life left.

If I do go with carbon steel balls, will this effect the pizza spinner in any way in this machine? About how many games would you say I could expect to play without magnetization issues with them on this machine?

Sorry for the lengthy writeup, and appreciate any feedback!

don't have much experience with prem/le but i would just switch to hard magnatizable balls. It does not matter if they are new or not, if they are normal balls they will eventually magnetize. How fast they magnetize depends on how often you get direct magnet contact. Like on the spinner. Also you may want to have a look if the plunger is centered and good contact with ball when shooting up. The paper clip may be a indication, but i think they are not so much magnetized, but it may be enough let them stick together a little bit, get the ball off track. Maybe you can check the ball through if is putting out the balls with too much or less force and they are still bouncing around when the auto shooting begins.

not sure if the carbon balls do have an impact on pizza, but you may get some balls flying off a little more early. But as i understand the carbon balls will be more immune to stay magnetized after contact to a manget that normal balls. Also shock (2 balls hitting together) may reduce the little magnetism that stays.

The way I check is I take out all the balls and set them on a level surface (the floor, a table, etc.) and I try to use one ball to slowly pull others along. When they're magnetized, it's not like you can pull them all in a chain like a snake -- if they were charged that much, the game would be completely unplayable. It's also not always every ball that gets noticeably magnetized.

I've just made peace with my TMNT that I need to degauss the balls pretty much every time I open it up for any reason (dust on the inside of the glass, adjust a switch, etc.) and that seems to be just often enough that I don't have this issue anymore.

The 1987 code you made takes the game to another level! Well worth the install

Thanks cabal and bwalter for the feedback!

Cabal, I did take a slow motion video and it looks like the auto plunger is hitting evenly. I'm also less inclined to think it's a "contact" issue since after opening the machine and (whether this next part was the issue or not) degaussed the balls it seems to auto fire consistently... for at least 50 plunges from last night. If it wasn't making contact right I can't imagine it would magically fix itself for so many in a row without fiddling with it.

Bwalter, yeah you may be right. being my first (and only) machine it's been getting quite a bit of play so that may be leading to this issue faster than "normal". Next time this issue creeps up (probably next week at this rate) I'll try putting them all on a flat surface as you mentioned and see if I can get them to attract to each other.

Still wouldn't mind if someone could chime in on the carbon balls and how they play on this machine. Is it like stated that they might not magnetize to the pizza spinner multiball as well (or at all)? Definitely wouldn't want that. But if it still plays relatively the same but keeps me from having to degauss them every 50 games that would also be nice.

The carbon balls will still stick to the magnet and each other when it’s activated

I am running our Polaris balls in my TMNT and I have zero issues. Just my 2 cents....they work great, they work like they should.

I have been running titan pinball standard pinballs have not had any issues they work well.

New Premium is all setup and I'm loving it!!! But something is missing from this picture and I just can't quite put my finger on it....

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Yes you need a topper

Nice lineup up. Honeymoon aside, how is ranking to your others?

You really seem dedicated to have these turtles like your balls Get normal magnetism resistant balls.

Titan regular (non shiny):
https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=57&product_id=69

Or

Marco non magnetized standard:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PB116-5

I’m currently using the titan standard in the link above and have had zero issues since. I just ordered the Marcos with the black Friday deal and plan to try those in a few months to see if there’s any difference.

Or...from us and every purchase benefits pinside as well. Lots of choices.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1521-no-gouge-pinball/08940-ball-baron-ninja-polaris-amp-hi-standard-balls-free-shipping

jrcmlc Thanks, say you post a few previous times as well and always down to support the site. I just placed an order for 10 Polaris balls (have the premium so I need 8).

Any ideas on shipping times currently and potentially getting before the holidays? Also, about how many games(ish) would you expect these to last in TMNT? I heard carbon gets dinged up faster than regular chrome.

Your balls are packed and ready for USPS, tracking is in your inbox. Thank you for the order!

Previous to my Turtles purchase, I ranked them as Bond #1 and then GZ and DP would alternate 2nd and 3rd based on what I was in the mood for. Bond will always be # 1 for me, but now that I have Turtles, I'm thinking Bond, GZ, Turtles and then DP. TMNT may go up to #2 once I actually figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. Right now I'm just aimlessly flipping and having a blast doing that.

sweeeet set up. I have a similar lineup and enjoy the mix.

Generally asking - how long have you owned TMNT, did you beat the wizard mode, and how long did it take you? I know answers will vary but I'm curious what different players experiences have been. This is a home pin dream theme for me. I've only played on location but love the depth of this game.

I’ve had my TMNT six months. I haven’t gotten anywhere near any wizard modes. The game is tough, the shots brutally tight. High score is only 35M.

While the theming is top-notch, I think I’m gonna sell mine and make room for something else. The challenge is just preventing me from enjoying it. If I were a more-skilled player, I might feel differently.

1 month loan/home, meanwhile some big scores & going deep in it, never beat the WM...
this b*tch is a real ass kicker (but its nice as it, and of course better know before buying it, while the theme is child friendly but the game is not for sure)

Let me know if you do, I might be a buyer. A couple years ago I drove to Bozeman (~3.5 hour drive) to play this pin at a mall of all places. I don't think it saw much traffic but I put up the GC at 34 mill. Never got very far in the game though

I bought a Pro NIB when it first came out and felt the exact same way. I had it a little over a year and finally got tired of getting kicked in the nuts.

My kids remind me often that they miss the game. I am picking up a premium tomorrow that only cost me 1k more than what I sold my pro for.

This one is sticking around. It IS a great game, it is just really punishing.

I think I finally got 26M one game. LOL

I’ve had my premium for about 10 months. There’s a lot to do in the game which gives it a lot of last ability. It is a brutal and tough game, so it’s good to have another pin to go to when you need a breather. I took a near 2 month break for awhile just playing GNR and GOT instead, and neglecting TMNT. Then around September, I started playing religiously, like way more than almost any pin I’ve played - it was very addicting and I couldn’t stop. That did come to a halt when I got Venom, but besides that I have a new fond love and respect for TMNT.

That said, I’ve made it to Cowabunga (final wizard mode) once, but that was early on in ownership when my balls were magnetized which made the game easier. Since realizing my balls were magnetized, I erased my scores and haven’t made it to Cowabunga since. But I have been very very close many times. I’ve done final battle quite a few times and other achievements like getting a turtle to level 4 (which feels almost as rewarding as making it to a wizard mode). The modes and wizard modes in the game are very well done with good rules and integration.

All in all, TMNT is climbing the charts of my personal favorites - it very well might be my favorite Borg game.

Love GoT. Great replayability in being able to choose a house and stack modes with different multiballs. I think GoT and TMNT are similar in the sense that you get a lot of mileage out of the pro version. I have the benefit to play a lot of pins on location. Looking for a tough one for home.

I think I've pretty much narrowed it to TMNT, JP, or GoT. I've put the most time in on GoT. Going to spend a few hours on the other two When I take my dad to Radioactive Arcade in Aiken next weekend. If you were to give up GoT or TMNT which one would you part with?

Man, that is a tough one. GOT pro is awesome; and I only recently got the LE because the price (w-topper, blades, color dmd) was stellar, almost that of a pristine pro. Believe it or not, ball times on my GOT are shorter than TMNT (for the most part); but I have my GOT setup difficult with no extra balls. But, it’s easier and faster to progress in GOT so setting it up harder makes sense. Besides hand of the king (one of my favorite modes in pinball), TMNT has more to do and better modes. Team up isn’t remotely close to as good as HOTK, unfortunately. If I had to get rid of one today, or wanted to sell to buy another game, it would be GOT, but it would be very close. And if I were choosing between pro models, I would probably stick with GOT - I just couldn’t live without the extras of TMNT premium, where I could with GOT since the pro plays better.

The glider, van lock, and crane toy make that big of a difference for you with the premium? Good to know. I agree, Hand of the King is such a fun mini-wizard mode and nice reward for getting halfway to Iron Throne. I usually have decently long ball times on GoT. Just love the way it shoots and post passing is dreamy on the pin I play.