I can only imagine this would have a selling ratio of 1 per machine manufactured.

Make it so he is a shot and not a shot blocker. I would think the easiest thing to do would be for the place that sells the licensed Wolverine banks to come up with a new design that still works as a bank (for normal novelty sales), but perfectly doubles for a Wolverine replacement on the pin. Win / Win.

Am I the only one who loves the Big Wolvie where he is? He is big and makes the beast shot challenging along with Magneto and Cyclops ramp shots. The magnet being up front and close to the flippers really throws you for a loop and keeps you on your toes. I say leave the guy alone-he is perfect (;

Well the question is...where is he?

Pro mounting? LE mounting? Busted LE mounting (ramp hits his claws)? Busted LE mounting 2 (elbow drags and catches balls)? Modified LE mounting?

I would honestly prefer it if he were designed to be mounted the same in every machine and not be an intrusion on shots that he wasn't designed to intrude on. Basically, not be a busted train wreck of a custom designed toy.

I don't think anyone in Albuquerque has this machine. Boy that is lame. I will have to check him out in Texas.

Id be happy to be a tester.....

I think challenging modders to make a better Wolverine is too easy...

I challenge all modders to make a worse Wolverine! Now THAT would be tough!

Id buy one...... i dont mind about position or where the toy is at, im more worried about how durable it will be in the long run. Barlog toy would be a good start for research, seems like most arent falling apart that ive seen.

In another Wolfie thread I was willing to help at least raise it up so it does not get damaged.

What about the Titan series 12" figures? Are those big enough?

After reading this, I set about taking up the challenge to make the existing wolverine as good as it can be.

I personally like him as he is , size-wise, he does'nt get in the way of any shot, I can only blame myself if I hit him unintended.. Beast/Gambit shot is meant to be tough, thats the fun of it.

I modified the claws, slimmed them down , cut open all the way to the glove, looks so much better. They do have air bubbles trapped in there so any big holes need to be filled with epoxy and can then be sharpened for paint afterwards.
While at it I molded the yellow raised straps on his gloves also, like the comic figure has.

After that drilled out his eyeballs, the flasher inside will give the eyes the colour you choose

After this it was paint, metallic blue for the suit and gloves, and the an overal detailing, comic style, sligthly dirty as he is still the animal , I could still add blood on the claws , and the inherent splatter of turning the bozo's into hamburgers.

IMG_3684.jpgIMG_3681.jpg

Magneto got a nice metallic violet on the cape and armor, and a dark purple velvet cape, the red was replaced with more vibrant red , also in the neck area, and then a dark lord looking face.

IMG_3711.jpgIMG_3709.jpgIMG_3705.jpg

I really see no need to buy or develop another set of figures, Stern should have just made the LE 's this way , for the extra it originally cost a few hours would have made the difference.

Nice paint job. I don't often see people get the shading right, you did a great job. Opening up the claws make a huge difference too. I wouldn't add blood to the claws personally, kinda corny, and you did such a nice clean job, I wouldn't ruin it with something like that.

Thanks Aurich , you've seen my sparky's , so it was a nice change to be able to do this to one of my my own pins instead of other people's machines.

I know from experience the pearl colours really pop under a matte rubberized coat,maling it look soft like skin and cloth , that protects him also.

And agreed the blood could be corny, I was hesitant to do it so leaving it for now, but if excecuted wel it should be okay ..

here's a better visual of the in progress claws

IMG_3665.jpgIMG_3666.JPGIMG_3667.JPG

That is an excellent job, and your right, if all the games shipped with that level of detail on the figures, i bet we woulda heard alot less bitching about the size as well...

Those look outstanding bravo !

..and of topic but pearl blue trim is the looker for me, legs still need some tlc.

IMG_3654.JPGIMG_3652.JPG

That looks great too ... you have good taste my freind..

Ah! I wondered how you were getting that effect, smart.

That's the reason I didn't buy this machine in the first place. I could not get over the toys. They look like the topper of a superhero shampoo or bubble bath.

If you build it…they will come.

I couldn't have described that better !

agreed, If I was'nt in the position to modify colours on the trim and toys myself , I would have probably passed it up too, they are truly bad looking out of the box ..

Id modify my existing wolverine to make him that cool... but then when the back rips off again ill be super bummed and back at square 1. Yours looks rad though!

the back ripping off, Is that a common issue with them?

Very common from what i can tell, that and the belt area breaking off. When the back starts to go, he starts to list. Im on my second wolvie and the second already has a small rip in the back.

That sucks

I think there will be more motivation for a mod / retrofit when Stern no longer has replacements available, even if they are currently at a premium and not perfect. My first one was a remount (It was remounted when i bought the machine) and i must say the game play and flow was a bit better in my opinion with wolverine remounted. I don't know if the remount lends to the back wearing out faster or not however, but my newest one is standard mounting and having the wear / strain seems similar on the back.

The Wolverine toy isn't meant to take the abuse it does. It is really a shame that Stern would make something too fragile to take the hits it does. I think the figure needs to be mounted on something that can take the abuse. Something more solid but with an area cut out for the switch and mount. Could probably be 3D printed.

Agreed it needs to have a little flex to help absorb some of the abuse but not sure how a hook up like that would work. I like the way the Pinball Refinery Wolvie looks but still the lastability problem remains unfortunately. I put a ton of Mylar/vinyl on him and that has helped but it is kind of a bitch to get it on there just right.

If there was a new base under the existing one, that would work. This thread has a lot of shots of the bottom of the figure along with some ideas and even an offer by TMezel to try to make something if someone sends him a broken figure to use to design off of.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/x-men-pro-bash-wolverine-broken/page/2

We need to work together as a community to fix this issue that stern has stuck us with. I have a design in mind that I am going to work on once I am finished with the basement. I want to do away with the figure completely and replace it with a plastic column that would encapsulate the existing metal post. It would mount like the figure, but be more solid to avoid it breaking around the mounting holes. I would then mount the small wolverine figure I have above it or on he plastic post itself. Will hopefully be able to mock it up in a few weeks.

before remounting I sandwiched wolvie's plastic mounting area with 2 rubber pads inside and out, to give him a little more flex over that metal post.

hopefully that improves things, but order a a spare because unlike most I really like his current size and position ..

That paint job is absolutely stunning. I have seen several paint jobs and this is the best I have seen. Your depth and color choices are great. It reminds me of when I was a teenager. I would sit for hours painting Dungeons and Dragons figurines with detail.

Try a 7 inch figure cut it off at the hips.
Epoxy the arms in place - back fill body.

Can you take a thin strip of black deadening foam (doubled up) and add it on top of the belt to take off some of the pressure from the ball hits?

Awesome paint job Steiger. Thumbs up for the figures and the color on the rails.

He's done some really kick ass Sparkys for people already.

Can't wait to get mine - I'm going to have a field day repainting my Wolverine and Magneto!

Having said that...

What's the issue with the Wolverine? Does he get in the way or something??

I say we put a small tank with weapon x in it. Then put a stationary target in front of it.

image-381.jpg

I wish i had the necessary skills to aide in molding / sculpting / creating something that could help in this, but alas i really dont. im really good at testing stuff to see if it breaks though. I break stuff real good.

lol, that's actually a sharp idea. If it was lit up nicely could look pretty good.

Interesting idea, would probbaly require replacement of the switch and post assembly. otherwise it would have to be pretty large and even more shot blocking id imagine, but entirely possible

In thinking about this more, changing out the large post with something else may be the way to tackle this and build around it as opposed to trying to work with that massive metal shaft sticking out of the playfield. There are many ways to go about this that would work and probably better then whats there.

This is a heroclix weapon x, much smaller

image-767.jpg

If someone can send me one I can try to raise it.

Iknow someone here has to have one not mounted in their machine. I am buying some stuff from pinball life to try and put a yellow wide target in place of the figure. I am not sure how it will work, but better than me breaking my figure. I won't buy another.

I guess if you research how much it would cost and do a kickstarter, why not? If you look, you can find the original design of Wolverine that Borg had, it looked like it could hold up to the abuse better and would not have the problems that the final copy has had.