Thank you

And look twice if not thrice. I was packing my game and looked for the keys, couldn't find them, spent 2 hours looking from them everywhere while cursing myself for not leaving them on the hook, until I reopened the door and looked again and found them sitting there.

For some reasons they blend with their backgroundd

I think we’ve all did this once.

splitcms is asking on my behalf.

I've looked thrice, and while I am (admittedly) terrible at looking for things, the backbox keys are not inside the door nor anywhere else in the cabinet.

JJP has been contacted.

Thanks everyone!

I too am curious about flipper power. Recently noticed that both of mine will whine a bit when held. Power seems to be a little decreased, maybe related to it being hotter in my garage?
Also it universally seems quite tough to hit that captive ball sufficiently. I think it’s probably intentionally that way, but I’m always tempted to increase flipper power a bit from defaults. My machine is leveled to bubble just touching the second line. Open to any suggestions!

Check the end of stroke switches: if they close prematurely, you have weaker flippers.

My advice is increase in small increments. Least amount of boost to make it play right.

My Wonka ended up with +2 on the bottom flippers, tops at defaults.

Also do general flipper troubleshooting - can you freely manipulate them by hand without any undue friction? If it's grabbing the coil sleeves might need replacing, or the plunger might be going into the sleeve at an angle.

100%. I adjusted mine up a couple of clicks from the factory setting, which gives it just enough power to reliably send the ball up the ramps even after playing for an hour. But the moral of the story is use the least powerful setting necessary, which saves wear and tear on the machine in the long run.

Don't be scared by the big warning sign when you open that menu. Coil setting is a great way to tune up a game, and the quality of electricity plays a role so it's not uncommon to change these settings even thoughout the year.

Thanks for all the responses, will experiment a bit! Is a low whine noise when flippers held not necessarily a problem sign? I can't recall observing that on any others, but I've been in this hobby less than a year and haven't really tested that specifically.

In general, is there a good reference (thread, or site) for "when to replace flippers"?

Don’t know the exact sound you’re getting but it’s common for flippers to make a little hum when held.

There are good guides for rebuilding flipper (just google that). Although if this is a home use Wonka you won’t have to replace the flipper or rebuild them for years, if ever. Just change the rubber when it gets worn, and check on the mechanisms under the PF every once in a while and make sure everything is sound, intact, the end of stroke switches are adjusted well. After a few years you may think about changing the coil stops. I think there is a good video on JJPs website about flipper maintenance.

If you mean that you thwack the captive ball decently but it doesn't register, check to make sure there isn't foam behind the front face of the standup switch at the back of that little alley. Most standup targets have foam to reduce airballs off of them when hit, but it's not needed and isn't supposed to be there for that target, but some of them got it anyway. Easiest way to get at it to remove the foam is to take out the two screws that hold it to the playfield and slide it out from underneath. But remove the captive ball from above before you do this - you'll see why if you forget!

Vid's flipper guide and Butch's JJP flipper videos are both great resources.

I didn't need to rebuild my flippers on Wonka until 8169 plays.

If the key is not hanging inside the coin door, we can sell you a replacement lock which will come with its own key.
Keys are not available separately.

Replacing the lock is simple, but will require a security bit to remove the 2 screws which hold it in place.
Harbor Freight sells a set of bits for $5.00 or so.

If you want to order a lock, please put a ticket in at http://store.jerseyjackpinball.com/Support-Form/ and we'll take care of it for you.

Also, if the machine was vertical at all during transportation, that means the keys could be in the back of the lower cabinet or hanging around some harnesses dangling from the playfield. Make sure you look back there as well.

Size T20 Torx security bit.

LTG : )

Lloyd to the rescue, as always!
And these are definitely carried at Harbor Freight, Amazon, Lowes etc....

Anything glaringly obvious about the drilling-out process that I should be aware of?

DO NOT Drill out this lock!

Simply remove the 2 screws that hold the metal plate in place.

Yes. don't drill anything.

Remove the two screws on the speaker panel. Careful of wiring. Lower the speaker panel. Then remove the screw holding the cam on. Then remove the nut holding the lock body on. Reverse the process to put the new lock on.

The nut holding the lock body on. I use a 7/8ths deep well socket to remove the nut and put it back on. Don't over torque it putting it back on.

LTG : )

See...glad I asked!

Thank you.

Me too.

Picture is what your lock looks like.

LTG : )

DSC00651 (resized).JPG

Thanks. I've switched out a bunch of these for keyless options...just never had to deal with anything in the backbox before. Appreciate the fast response.

I’m a little OCD about it, I change out my coil sleeves and stops every 500-1000 plays, at least on Wonka, it’s the game I play the most. Nothing feels better than fresh flippers. I used to power up my flippers by a few points (per recommendation from here), but I think one of the latter updates took care of the weak flipper during multiball issue (at least for me).

I thought I played my Wonka a lot lol. I’m close to 2000 plays. Holy cow!

Yeah man we're at "payoff" stage (12,500 plays) now.

I bought a spare playfield, plastics and mylars cause I will never sell this thing when that day eventually comes without it
(That said it's holding up very well and looks great)

Is the ball not rolling high enough to hit the switch, or not hitting the switch hard enough? I adjusted that switch to hair trigger - if the ball rolls up and just gently kisses it, it'll register.

I feel like glancing or my numerous slightly weaker hits simply don’t make it all the way up, but perhaps the switch could use adjustment.

I do believe it is intentionally designed to be a bit harder to trigger than other games, but I have wondered if perhaps I need to adjust anything. The inside ball is at a slightly off angle to the newton ball given the width of the tunnel and the gravity pulling it leftward, but my newton ball is firmly fixed and so I don’t readily see any adjustment to make. I still activate it decently in the game, I’ve gotten up to 4 tickets (with a liberal set of extra ball scores in settings) but the captive ball is so often unsatisfying to hit, and pretty difficult/impossible to do ever off the right flipper.

The Hobbit, Ghostbusters, and other captive balls I’ve played feel SOO much easier to trigger. I looked for foam but didn’t see any back there. Maybe I will try to make it a hair-trigger distance on the leaf switch. Thanks!

I'd love to add a Gobstopper shooter rod and have read through numerous comments about the various options - including some who've had issues with different models.

What's the Cliffs Notes version on which one I should buy?

Cliffs (resized).jpg

I have the some stuff from Hooked and its great. Looks like it came with the machine. I did have to buy a different barrel spring. Not sure that is something everyone needed..

https://www.hookedonpinball.com/store/c34/Willy-Wonka-Pinball-Mods

I prefer this from modfather. To me it looks most like the gobstopper from the movie.

https://modfatherpinball.com/products/wonka-everlasting-gobstopper-shooter

I am joining this club today ! Couple games in, it looks like him and I are gonna have a good life together !

PXL_20220629_005126092 (resized).jpg

Difficult game, steep learning curve, great rewards/payoffs. Our favorite right now for sure. Congrats!

How would you compare this game to WOZ? Which one is enjoyable to play through code/profession/etc??

Trying to narrow down if I should get WOZ or Wonka. I have played both at location so have not gotten the ability to play in depth.

Wonka all day

Funny, I just sold my WOZ and bought a Wonka. I played the hell out of WOZ for 4 years, he left the house with 1500 plays all done by me. WOZ is a one of a kind, deep, complex, full of strategies and surprises, it's also a hard unforgiving game aka a drain monster but I enjoyed every second of it. It's a very stop and go game, flow isn't his forte as you always need to think about your next shot and ball control is the key.

Wonka it's too early for me to tell, I barely played it on location, but it definitely has the Lawlor butter smooth shots so that's a good place to start.

Yes, I just saw you closed out your listing (actively contacting ones without driving distance right now).

Great assessment about WOZ. Seems that game for sure forces you to be more strategic.

As for Wonka, I already put a deposit on TS4 thinking I’ll still get it, but will find one near me and play it for sure. Worst case I’ll see if I can have someone take my slot to get my non-refundable deposit.

I’ve already played Wonka and liked it very much (also big Wonka movie fan… except for Johnny Deep!! Booo). I know Wonka is deep and so is WOZ.

You were able to buy a spare CE Playfield from JJP?
I called last year and they said they weren't selling them.

I bought it a long time ago while the game was in production.

WOZ was frustrating to me, but beautiful. I really enjoyed the light board project but Wonka is the keeper.

I'm used to the stingy scoring of WOZ and DI, how is a 2 million score at Wonka ?

Is that normal or do I start believing in my amazing chocolate bar skills ?

Hi , if i flip to the right ramp half of the time the ball goes that fast that it flies out of the ball rail….but lowering the coil is also tricky (to weak for some right ramp shots).
Any suggestions?

There's a cover that is supposed to be on the ramp to prevent this from occurring. Is that cover on your game? This picture I attached was provided by LTG some time ago. Hope Lloyd is OK with me using it here.
Do you have this piece of plastic?
r/
Mike

11adebfcd937fff39ab17d70cbbc76f255f2ea5f (resized).jpg

I'm 800 games in and I average around 5m a game. A bad game is under 1m. But in the end, it doesn't matter, because you can have a blast playing this game and end with..."who cares" number of points!

I'd put your hands on one before you buy it if possible. I tried one at Pintastic this weekend and HATED it. It was too small for me. I've played another one elsewhere which was 3x bigger and much better. But your preferences may vary.

Not even a comparison unless you just want to look at it. WOZ looks good! Wonka looks good and was designed by the best pinball designer alive, shoots really wee, lots of flow. Not easy but one is my favorite pin (Wonka), the other is in my collection but just sits.

I’ve got 1500 plays on mine with a GC of 33M, and anything under 10M gets me angry. That being said there are days when breaking 1M seems impossible. If you’re not hitting shots it’s a punishing game. But it’s not as bad as WOZ. I look up expecting 3M and it’s at like 60k lol.

Have you updated the code? I bought my machine and it was on 1.32(I think) and scoring was much lower. After updating to 2.03 I saw a pretty large increase in scoring and easier modes.

So I have 2 problems on my new game :
- Shooter lane : The ball oftens hit the rail and goes back in the hole. I tried reducing the coil power, but on one setting the ball hits the rail and goes back in the hole, on the lower setting the ball doesn't have enough power to go up
- Gobstopper hole : Most of the time the ball doesn't register when it gets in the hole. I don't know if it's suppose to go straight down the hole and that's where the switch is, my ball sits on the "cup" right under the gobstopper hole. It get sorted out during ball search, but it takes a while until ball search starts.

I appreciate the help, thanks.

Are you saying the trough is failing to eject balls into the shooter lane properly?
That happened to me once on a WOZ and this was fix: https://www.pinplay.com/5/adjusting_the_ball_trough_on_woz.html

Any switches reporting errors? The subway appears to have an opto that should be picking it up. It's also possible the coil sleeve for the subway VUK is a bit too long and causing a ball hangup - that was an early build problem on Wonkas.

I have both, and I love both almost equally. As others with experience have said: overall, Wonka is just a bit more fun to play in the long run. WOZ is a bit more of a jaw dropper when someone sees it for the first time (still a great deal of fun to play).