I just joined the club late last week with a premium. The balls included with mine were so so. Luckily I had some ooh shiney ones laying around. If I had no extras, they would be ok I guess. I definitely would get some premium ones though, why drop all that money on a new game then cheap out on some crappy balls. PBL is out of stock, but Titan has some.

The ramp on the premium I got last week isnt completely flush either...works perfect! Congrats! Its such a great pin.

I have the one from pinball life. Highly recommended.

Same issue. I started to look into it a little. The doors are opened by a single coil that pulls a bracket with 2 arms on it. Im guessing the holes are a tiny bit off, and it pulls one side a little harder than the other side. I havent played with it much to find a fix, just started looking into why it was doing it.

I also ran into an issue with the BG ramp on my premium. I got this machine about a month ago and it had the BG ramp fix installed at the factory. 400 games in and I now have a nice cut in my playfield where the ramp flap hits the playfield. Whenever the ball hits the ramp, it goes down and touches the playfield. Well, all that ramp hitting has caused it to dig in. Not happy.

The foam is perfect still. It stopped the rivet from digging in. But since the flap sits above the playfield, the constant ball hitting it into the playfield when it goes up made it dig in is my guess. I put some mylar on it now, just sucks I didnt notice it earlier. I wasnt looking for that, I had been watching where the rivets were.

It did have mylar, it just ends right before the ramp flap. I tried taking a pic, but its hard to catch it right without taking things apart. You can see right at the tip of the insert there is a line, that is where it dug in. Right above that you can see the line for the mylar.

IMG_20161014_173939 (resized).jpg

Ouch. Apparently Stern has them for sale, just not on the website. Also, there is a different one available on ebay for $150 shipped from the UK.

Yeah...I had planned on ordering a cliffy but never got around to it. After I saw that, I have one on the way now. Sucks but could be worse I guess. If I ever got really anal about it, I could easily fix it. Little sand paper and a few drops of clear.

Well at least I know now that the mylar was misplaced. Kinda sucks it was something so simple like that. Hopefully other people see this and check theirs before any damage gets to bad.

I agree on the video. Its long but worth it. I watched it probably 4 or 5 times, and it really helped me understand the game.

1) Call/email your distributor. You said you bought it NIB, but not sure how long ago. They may just send you a new piece. But if not, they can get you a replacement.

2) Check the switch for the door assembly below the playfield. Its a microswitch that activates as the shaft turns. On mine, 1 of the screws came out and the switch wasnt in the right spot anymore.

Ive never had a problem with Game Room Guys. They have some of the best prices and when I had some issues, they got parts for me as quick as expected without much fuss. They said they would make it right, but you wanted instant gratification. Stern would have drop shipped you the new ones, takes a few days, but it would have been fine.

I have times where the ball barely is affected, then other times it throws it hard. I think its just a matter of timing of activation and where the ball is and its direction of travel already.

Mine will sometimes throw the ball up riot or SDTM, or straight through the left outlane very hard. But most of the time it doesnt. Playfield angle could be part of it. I have mine at 7 or so.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/for-sale-the-walking-dead-le-bicycle-girl-led-mod

It says expired, but he is still making them.

I second the Cliffy for the BG ramp. After that, shaker and external sub. Everything else is eye candy. IMHO, those three are the only "must haves."

Ive had my TWD PRE for a little over a year, and still have never seen siege or LMS either. Been in horde a dozen times or so. Factory settings. I consider myself an average to slightly above average (depends on the game...lol). I have a few machines, but TWD keeps me coming back over and over. The fact that I cant do everything each play session keeps it a challenge. Such a great game. The fact that it is 22 in the top 100 shocks me tbh, its way better than a lot of the games above it. Cant wait for Clelands update.

Someone asked about the flipper bats, just wanted to give a heads up, they will only work on a pro. On the Prem/LE if you put something like that on, the crossbow will hit them when it tries to swing out.

The cliffy's isnt to make the shot smoother, its to stop the ramp digging into the playfield. Yes it is a must. Mine came with the "factory" fix with the foam on it too, but after a few hundred plays, it was already digging into the playfield. For less than $20, its cheap insurance.

I did not remove the foam. The amount of material added under the ramp is very minimal, so it doesn't really affect the angle hardly any at all. I saw no change of smoothness before vs after. I had no issues before, and no issues after. At least now my playfield isn't being dug into by a rivet head though.

I absolutely loved Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro) when I played it. I've been considering buying one even though Im not a huge fan of the band I liked it that much. However, I think #the_walking_dead_le is one of the best games around. The ruleset is amazing and deep, and its a challenging machine. I never get bored of playing it. Getting to horde with the shaker, sounds and lights pulsing...you can feel the game sucking you in and it actually feels like a fight for your life. I dont think you can go wrong with either one. IMHO, TWD is a better pin (as of right now...who knows how IMDN will change yet, it took years for TWD to get as good as it is now).

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-6824-1X

If you are getting SDTM out of the pops, its a setup issue. I never have that happen. Prison, well, sometimes it happens. Most of the time on mine it doesnt, but occasionally it does. Same as it does on Metallica. A short ball save timer or a you hit no switches after the magnet activated timer would have been nice. It doesnt happen that often though. I would say I get more pissed off at the well walker magnet throwing the ball hard at the outlane and draining it. That happens way more to me than off the prison.

For most people giving it a tiny bit of lean to the left (instead of being perfectly flat) helps with the pop issue. There are other ways to do it though, its been mentioned in this thread a bunch. Some add a ring, some add some velcro.

I have the blood splatter decals from pingraffix on the plastic ramps, they look really awesome. I also have the 2 bloody hand print graphics that were linked many years ago, and they are decent. These are the ones: https://amazon.com/gp/product/B005LLMCU4/ I can take a pic later tonight if you want. I have them on the back side of the glass over the instruction card area.

I put mine under the glass so they dont get all messed up or have people play with them.

Another cool trick is to look at that part with your phone camera. If the emitter is working, one side will have a light in it. You cant see it with teh naked eye, but the camera can pick it up.