My friend has a Beatles. When I step up to play, all of the bubblegum colors fade into the background. I like this pin. But I grew up watching The Beatles in black and white. Their two shows on Ed Sullivan were black and white. Except for the occasional color photo on the cover of Fab Four magazine (or something similar ) the early Beatles were mostly black and white. The movie "Hard Days Night" was in black and white. Most of the photos on the backside of their albums were black and white.

If Stern were to get a wild hair and produce a few Beatles in black and white, I think I would have to jump on that.

Got my Beatles in May. My drop target re-set ledge just snapped as well. It will be an easy fix once I have the part.

Would be curious to hear how many of you have had this happen so far. Not complaining or upset. It's a pinball machine. Shit happens. Again, just curious how common this failure is.

I just had one snap the other day on my stranger things 4 bank set. Was super annoyed when I pulled it apart and it was a piece of thin plastic as the catch ledge. Ordered a few extras when I bought one to keep a few on hand.

I’ve replaced the center 4-bank ledge twice on mine in less than a year. It’s a 5 min repair when you have an extra on hand but definitely annoying. Neither of the other 2 ledges has broken.

If it is something currently made of plastic, maybe Kerry at Mantis could make them of metal. What do they look like?

I'm sorry to hear that so many are still having this issue of snapped ledges. Well, a few weeks ago, the replacement that I made out of plexiglass finally gave up the ghost, but at least it lasted longer than the original part! I did have the warranty replacement that I received from Stern when the original broke, so I immediately put that one on, and no time was lost.
After doing so, I began to think about how that part could be improved. I also reached the conclusion that a metal one would be the way to go, so off to the workbench I went.
I figured I could a fashion a replacement out of aluminum, so I went to the big home improvement store and got a long piece that was the same thickness. I had to trim off some of the height with my Dremel, though. I used a small drill press to drill the screw holes, and then used a file to add the bevels and smooth out the edges. Here's the result (the original is on top, of course...)
alum ledge (resized).jpg:
It is much studier than the original part, and it works perfectly. If I could figure out a way to mass produce these, I would do it in a heartbeat.

The Topper is getting a little extra attention today!

The suspense is killing me.

Get a small bench drill press ( pawn shop ?) and a drill press vise (harbor freight) Stack up 4-5 pieces of metal stock and gang drills the holes using yours as a master part for a drill guide.

Makes me wonder why Stern cheaped out with breakable plastic.

You could also use polycarbonate instead of plexiglass ( breakable acrylic ).

The Topper is reminding us that it's a special day for Ringo.

I had a request for a Beatles topper. If anyone else is interested, these are two piece, powder-coated metal. The backdrop on this one is gold, but if you have a request for a different color, I can work with you on that.

2 (resized).jpg

IMG_9638 (resized).JPG

IMG_9644 (resized).JPG

looking to add a Diamond Edition Beatles to my collection if anyone has a lead

thanks

Here's one recently listed in the Pinside marketplace (in my backyard, Philly). Inexpensive for a diamond version. Nevertheless, I think that the gold edition is the only sensible version. To each his own.

Screenshot_20210726-203258_Chrome (resized).jpg

ah didn't know, thought that 14k was insane and I could find a better deal, oh well...

were there any issues with the playfield run on these? or any issues in general I need to be aware of coming out of the box?

None here. Beautiful playfield, not one issue in the 1+ year I've had mine. There is a known issue with airballs. Happens when the ball is on the dropped target bank when it resets. A kit from Stern to fix issue is available thru your distributor. 5 minute install. works great.

yes- some did have playfield issues. my gold has a little pooling. Not enough to bother me, but some might freak out. The game is a blast to play.

My F-O-U-R had that happen within 6 months of purchase. I fixed it myself, and it has been fine since then. Hope it doesn't happen again though!

You may find this of some interest:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-beatles-beatlemania-official-owners-and-fan-club/page/22#post-6372756

Looking for a Beatles. Let me know if you might sell or trade. Thank you!

My Beatles Platinum arrives yesterday.

Driver puts it on the back lift gate and lowers it. I stop him right there. Hole in box that is taped up. I said I need to look at it. He says no need cause the box is taped. Like, really dude.

I start to open the box in that area…gash a few inches long up the side of the machine.

I tell him I’m rejecting it. He’s trying to convince me that there’s nothing wrong with it. So sad to send her back. I was so looking forward to playing it.

Anyone have any experience with something like this? What is the turn around time for Stern to repair it?

I find it hard to believe that this game ranks only #83 on Pinside. It sure didn't get a lot of love due to the price when it was released, but the artwork, the redesign of SeaWitch and the theme should bring it into the top 50.
If you love this game, and have not given a rating please consider doing it.

I don't think I should rate it because I haven't played any other pins. Still poppin' and spinnin' away - just over 3900 plays and 12 billion points. Over 100 games of 10m+; half a dozen games of 30-39m. High is still 50m when I managed two Taxman multiballs. I love the Beatles pin, but I don't have any modern pin to compare it to.

Does anyone else have issues with the jackpot opto at the top of the playfield? Mine constantly goes out of alignment.

Beatles Pinball Retro Hawaiian Shirt

Hello:

This is my first post to Pinside!! There are four sellers on ebay selling this shirt. I just ordered one.

I'll post a follow up when I have received it.

Beatles Pinball Retro Hawaiian (resized).jpg

I think my wife is going to make me move it to another room, but dang is this machine fun!!!! Only issue, trying to dial in the manual plunge. It often rattles out and doesn't make the upper orbit. Any tips??

20210927_181806 (resized).jpg

Time for a dozen roses, maybe? .

Just join the party yesterday. Awesome pin.

Having few issues thou:

1 - my pin was NIB with the 1.15 code (is this the latest? Pinside shows 1.10 as latest which does not make sense)

2 - I have the metal protector but no FAB or FOUR protector for flying balls out of the box. Is this something I should buy or ask Stern for it? I found the FOUR protector to but not the FAB (which actually does cause more flying balls than thr FOUR).

3 - the inner/outer post with no rubber can damage the balls? Where is a good place to buy and what is the size it will fit? 3/8? I saw a pink one posted here before. Links? Just wanted to make sure the rubber will not interfere with the lanes and also with the SJP drop.

4 - anyone does change the strength of the flippers? Does it helps with the flying balls? I have all on factory now.

Thanks

1 visit Stern.com and see what the newest code is
2 contact Stern and they will provide the air ball protector.
3 won’t damage balls. With a rubber on the post the ball will exit out lane on skill shot and drop lane. Don’t put them on.
4 standard is fine or adjust to your preference.

By all that is hopeful and holy, I really, really want to see an update that eliminates the uncollectible extra ball bug! This is a great nugget, thanks for sharing!

Congratulations and enjoy the new machine, we love ours!

1 - Stern website also shows 1.10. But my machine shows 1.15. I sent an email to Ster to clarify
2 - I did contact them, will wait for the response. I saw they had a kit that will include a FOUR drop targets acrylic, but funny enough my major issue is with the FAB drop targets (sometimes the ball will hit the glass pretty strong). Just trying to avoid damage to the playfield long term
3 - Ok, I was not planning to, but wanted to feel what was the consensus of the group.
4 - I do not like to change factory settings unless there is a good reason. if not going to change the number of air balls I will get, I will keep like it is.

P.S: Also, my 25c coin recall button came inverted. I tried to fix it but the C washer that locks the button in place is different from the other machines and much more tighter and smaller. So plyers do not work. I asked Stern for a replacement part.

Thanks

What you mean by the uncollectible extra ball bug? You mean that even when it is lit and you hit that, you do not get an extra ball? On mine I never saw this happening. But I did not get that far yet
(high score 10M for now).

Yes, if you earn an extra ball, don’t collect it before you drain, the next ball still shows an extra ball light, but you can’t collect it… It’s a known, frustrating bug that’s been commented on in this thread many times, and many including myself, have registered it as a bug with Stern. If there is a new code release on your machine, I am hopeful they’ve corrected it.

There is both an airball protector for the ‘FOUR’ targets, and a ball diverter that prevents an airball from rolling across the plastics to the left outlane, that goes over the ‘FAB’ targets. (Post #585 for pic) Make sure you have both.

Scott

On my machine, if you don't collect the EB and drain it's no longer lit on the next ball.

Did you change a default setting to allow extra ball memory (or something with a similar name/concept)? If yes, then the bug is in that setting.

Yep

Don't bother putting rubber on the inlane/outline posts. I tried it, and it actually made outline drains worse. The ball tended to hit the rubber and bounce out way more than it did without rubber.

Also, I wonder if there's an alignment issue with the FAB targets on some gamea, as I don't ever remember getting airballs off them much at all.

This is my version 1.15 ... contacted stern and no answers yet. Purchased last month so maybe a new version that will be released soon?

20211014_181256 (resized).jpg

Some pictures of the playfield (got the metal divert piece but not the protection on top of four).

20211014_181335 (resized).jpg
20211014_181341 (resized).jpg

Also some quality control issues:

20211014_181308 (resized).jpg

Beside those small problems I love the pin.

I agree that normal rings on the outlane posts really don't work.

However, there was a post (sorry - I looked and can't find it again) that had the smallest ear bud tips/covers placed on the posts. I looked through the junk drawers and found some black ones.

I tried that and it worked like a charm! I can do pictures if anyone is interested.

I actually just did that. Found some old Samsung replacements earned rubbers and added. Worked perfectly and did not altered the inlanes or SJP drop or Skill shot.

20211014_185355 (resized).jpg
20211014_185400 (resized).jpg

What version code are you running that claims to fix the extra ball bug? When I light EB and drain, it does not stay lit for my next ball.

One thing you may want to consider changing in the adjustments menu is the timer for each of the song modes. I foud 30 seconds was simply too hard to accomplish a song mode. I changed mine to 45 seconds and can now complete song modes at least every once in a while.

Can anyone upload the 1.15 code for us? I wouldn't mind trying it on a spare card. Thanks!

Not sure that's a bug.

Seems deliberately hardcore. Collect it, or lose it.

I thought the bug was it would light an extra ball but not reward it if you roll through the lit EB rollover after you max out the extra balls on default settings.

Yeah, that metal one over the plastic was totally unnecessary on mine. I did need the four target airball protector though.

Stern will send FOUR protector acrylic but the FAB air balls happen, not a huge issue with the game level and metal protector. It’s pinball.

1.15 is likely the setup for Insider Connected.
Will be staying at 1.10 to keep the album mix mod.

My point is there hasn’t been a fix of the bug. You have to adjust settings to carry over the EB, and then when you do……you can’t collect it!! That’s the bug, it’s been documented and called out several times in this owners thread… hopefully the 1.15 code on new machines means there is a fix…because the public code is obviously 1.10…