I'm in for a premium but going to change the T-Molding to green. To me I think it looks far better than the red.

TMNT-Premium-Cabinet-GREEN (resized).jpg

John is that you? I bought your old T2 on KLOV.

I want this game badly, but trying to figure out where I’d shoehorn it in my already tight lineup. If I do get one, I’ll be doing the same. I’m guessing that‘s the “bright green” color on t-molding.com

Thanks. I actually just finished building it and been collecting like crazy during COVID. Definitely another addictive hobby that my wife questions.

Hey there! Great to hear from you... thanks for the info on the color. I agree, looks like "bright green" to me.

For sure the green T-molding is more on-brand. I'd definitely change it out, too.

I’ll just set this here...

Konami 1992 vs Stern 2020

4CC7B4C4-A9AC-42F8-B3EE-6B894FC4A4DA (resized).jpeg

A guy on eBay is selling repro’s. Just bought one. Makes a nice game room piece regardless.

ebay.com link: 0

Or you can use the Turtles in Time topper... if you can find it. I don’t think anyone’s making repro’s of this one though.

677CA053-5A9C-477D-8895-31A6921B2079 (resized).jpeg

EF1D5090-09EF-4304-AC4C-A52FDE3B63A6 (resized).jpeg

Are pro’s still shipping mid June? May get one, just need to pick a distributor.

The Stern one is like Drac-April with those radically upturned collars.

I mean, come ON @Xaqery, isn't this embarrassing? Have your art guys trace it if they have to. To have such a great overall package dragged down by such terrible art on a prominent character is a shame. The POCKETS on her outfit are even wrong. You still have time to fix it. 2020 Stern has 4x the resolution 1992 Konami did to work with and somehow Stern's still looks washed out and just completely...wrong.

TMNT_April_Comparison (resized).jpg

Taking @Eskaybee's comparison one step further, compared to the original cartoon, ALL the April art shown in the Stern pin still blows. April sometimes pops her collar in the cartoon, but they don't stand straight up like dracula's cape. She's also STACKED. Much more than I remember. Obvious in the capture from the first episode of the cartoon I used above. While the original and Konami game renditions are close, the Stern one looks like a completely different person we don't know drawn by an anatomy-challenged artist that thinks boobs are like sandbags, so they just left them off the character.

Supposedly. Short Pro run June, LEs July, Prem Late July/Early Aug. Socially distanced line stations are supposedly going to slow output until Stern figures out how to work well within the new station restrictions.

I second this. The rest of the art is SO good—this really stands out.

Game changer. Yep the bright green “Galaxian” moulding now makes me think I might get the premium rather than the pro. Thanks so much for posting. Anybody ever taken old t-molding out? Would hate to ruin the machine. Start from back of backbox and go slow?

Edit: just checked on my DP. seems to be easy to grab the join at the bottom of the backbox and go slow. Would like to know if someone has done this before.

Maybe Stern used this as their character model. I wish theyd just get the rights to the arcade game sprites. I mean, its Konami. Konami would sell you their own grandmother.

Screenshot_20200603-233542_Google (resized).jpg

Kill it with fire!!!!

Easy-peasy. Just do it.

Add a blowdryer to soften the molding up a bit and it's even easier.

I’ve done many old arcades, and it’s probably easier on a new game. I use a thin blade to lift up the edge (look for the split, likely in the top or bottom) and slowly pull up without tearing it. Some small wood pieces might come out with it but that’s normal and not going to ruin anything. Installing new is a bit trickier, but not difficult at all. You just need to make some cuts at the curves/bends otherwise it’ll never stay down. I also use a rubber mallet to pound it in as I’m going along.

thanks. Will look so much better. Excited for the premium now. My first pin with pizza.

Stern. Take note. You will lose premium sales by having red trim. It’s not the artwork. ZY has down an awesome job on all 3. Love my DP. Just ditch the red trim.

I have two girls in the house who won’t let red and purple anywhere near each other. They tell me there are some things you just don’t do....

I would rather have 2D animations similar to how Aerosmith was done, only drawn by Zombie Yeti over the 3D models to be honest.

thanks @vireland. Very helpful.

Elvira has good flow, it just doesn't reward you for it - yet.

Rob

not sure if they meant to pop the collar, but reminds me of Dracula or people from 2007.

imgcache (resized).jpg

High guys,

was wondering if it would be possible to 3d print the glider?

of course this is not identical but maybe near enough?

Ninja_Glider (resized).JPG

With enough supports you can print anything

The prototype on the stream was definitely printed with an FDM printer, so I don't see any reason why you couldn't.

On the April thing, Dwight addressed this in the Pro Stream:

"All the Characters started with Zombie Yetis art. Then we ran them all by Nickalodeon. Between Nick, our artist and ZY all our characters are what they are and they are all approved"

So I read that to mean that any changes to the art would require re-review by the licensor. So not an easy fix, unfortunately.

That's the first thing I caught as well. You could see the lines. Definitely printable IF you have the design.

Yeah and remember we're in the MeToo era so making April look too "curvy" is probably frowned upon.

ah sorry forgot to add it to the post before:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4424620

I'll give it a shot tonight or tomorrow and see how it goes! Kind of an odd layout so it would need a lot of supports, I have an SLA printer I could try on too, which might go a bit better.

yes while creating it i thought "that will need more support than material for itself"

Red on the premium seems like a case of "different for the sake of different," but sometimes all the same color just works. It's not too late for Stern to ship the premium with green. Even if they've ordered a bunch of red, it can probably go on another game in the near future.

did you see the new stern JP topper?
you pay 600$ to get a new mode in game with the topper.
https://shop.sternpinball.com/products/jurassic-park-topper

now im sure TMNT Prem/LE will get a "special feature"

If anyone is trying to grab an LE, I just heard from Game Room Guys this AM and they said they have a couple LE's left.

Yup still had some yesterday too

That's the kind of shit that make me stop buying from a company. I dont want your stupid topper so I dont get the full game for my thousands of dollars? Piss off with that business model.

I hear where you are coming from BUT Its all in how you look at it. The Pro and Premium code, even in its current state, is very robust and by the time they hit 1.xx I dont think anyone could say the game is incomplete. Buying a topper with additional bonus material/integration is just that, a bonus. I dont think anyone that forgoes the topper is being cheated of anything.

The bad taste in my mouth isn't about this particular offering, but the combination of Stern's reputation for incomplete code at launch and also selling a software enhancement at additional cost. To be fair, JP2 was and TMNT appears to be much more feature complete at launch so maybe they're fixing this. I don't know about ST since I wasn't interested in that machine in the first place.

My concern is that software resources were already stretched thin at Stern and the development of DLC will only exacerbate that issue.

Have they righted the ship as far as launch code quality?

This topper price has definitely made me think twice about buying anything NIB from stern from here on out.

Yes a Stern LE should come with a topper. But given JP3 LE does not, you have a choice to buy it or pass. Where is the anger coming from? It looks ok for $150, but at $600+ I sober up and say no. I will spend the topper funds on a third party topper. Making lemonade out of lemons.

Stranger Things UV kit and JP topper are making me think how Stern is planning to try and screw me on TMNT.

Third party topper won't get you the code. Similar to Stranger Things where you don't get the plastics from anyone else. Stern is smart, they are marketing the Pro TMNT as it can't lock a ball in the Lair but it only can't because they removed a $1 part and then decided a software timer is impossible.

The UV-Painting in the ST is not a "BONUS", its already there! The game is not complete without this UV-Kit.
And thats just the beginning.

I want to give my money to stern, but right now i feel like they are shitting me. Be honest with your customers!
I'm not even talking about the unsolved Playfield issues... Clear Coat being so thin, that the woods fibers are feelable through like on my JP.
just watch the latest machine in my next post.
please note that the R&M PF does not have such issues at all!

For real, you can feel all the inserts and I've seen them change ball travel.

Ah, but what will the new code/mode be? I'm guessing it will just be another multi-ball mode. Which if it is just another multi-ball, then it's probably not worth getting worked up about. But on the other hand, if it WAS a really awesome mode with custom animations and something cool going on, then we'd all be mad we couldn't play it!

But my money's on it just being a bonus multi-ball mode.

It doesn’t really matter, prices are at an all time high and continuing to rise, now we have hardware locked dlc, c’mon you can’t be buying into this.

This is what the Pro, Prem, LE tiers are for, allows your customers to make informed multiple thousand dollar purchases, don’t start to add even more code locked into hardware on top of these tiers that’s just pure greed.

The point is that Stern doesn't think your $6100 is enough for a single switch. They would rather make two different machines with two different sets of rules than give you one dollar of value so they can use to try and get you to pay $2k more.

Edit: They should make the Premium/LE more exciting and not limit basic features of the PRO.

I want a TMNT Premium but will wait well down the road now, as I want to see if I'm going to be ripped off on a DLC cash grab with the TMNT topper.