I was wondering if anyone here has played the new stern avengers pin and can honestly compare it to to the “fun” factor of this pin. Because in the end that is what matters to me most. Only JJP pin I ever played was my buddy’s Wizard of Oz red ruby. It still has the stock light boards , and yes, it has issues. But it is a cool , different pin compared to his other Williams , Bally, Gottlieb, Atari, and Sterns.

I have on order an avengers premium, but getting a little frustrated by the delays in production (pushed back possibly as much as 5 weeks) as well as issues people are having with their Stern LEs. If I cancel my order, I’m out $1k, can’t do that, but I can change my order at no extra fee. My wife likes the theme of Willy Wonka and I was thinking of changing to this pin if they have it in stock and Dan muster up the extra cash.

What are your thoughts? I know they are completely different , but the theme for both of these is what my wife likes. I’d like a GNR, but my wife cancelled that idea, course the distributor doesn’t have that title in stock anyway yet.

Well from the responses, which I appreciate, it sounds like I need to call and see if they have one in stock and change my order.

Ok, so showed a few videos on YouTube to my wife and she was impressed with this pin. Plus going with the recommendations here, I cancelled my order for my avengers premium and ordered a Willy Wonka LE. Will diversify my collection for sure now. My small collection will exist of 1 Stern, 1 Bally, 1 Williams, 1 Gottlieb, and as soon as the delivery truck shows up, 1 JJP!

Ended up buying the distributor’s last Wonka LE that I had ordered my avengers premium from!! Thankful as well, could not afford the CE even if I wanted to.

Will do! Excited about getting this Pin and seeing the light show on this game in person. The virtual “check” hopefully will clear tomorrow morning and then they can get shipment going.

That was epic! Crazy how the flipper rubbers move. Never realized it. Always like those guy’s videos. Can’t wait to get shipping info on my game and set it up! Plus, will make sure to update to the latest code if it needs it.

Hope to hear something this week for shipping on my LE. Hope hope!

Paid the extra cash over my original full price payment for an avengers premium (cancelled that order) last Wednesday through my checking account. Money finally came out of my account Saturday but hasn’t posted into the distributor’s account. All going through quick books. Invoice says paid in full however. So much for modern technology. He says it’s normal (never dealt with this before so a little stressed) and expects to see a deposit hopefully today. Once he receives the funds, my game goes out for delivery!

We will see how long it takes to get from Nebraska to North Carolina.

YAY, finally have a tracking # for my New Wonka LE! I guess the truck picked up the pinball from the distributor Pinball Pro, but has not updated the tracking info (still says pending). Seems on par right now like the post office. Hopefully it gets updated at least by Monday, not sure how long it takes to ship from Nebraska to North Carolina, but maybe I will be playing this pin by the end of next week!!!!

My new LE Wonka is in route! Should be hitting Kansas City soon from Nebraska than hit I-40 for the long haul to NC. I was thinking of ordering either the “factory looking” game blades from tilt or mirror blades, any opinions?

Plus, I like the mods the mod couple offer, any issues with the flipper covers??? I had hooked on pinballs sword covers on my stern black knight and the swords actually came off and fired at the knight! He sent replacement double sided tape but I had to add carpet tape to hold them on the flippers.

Really excited about this pin after reading everyone’s input here. Hope the truck driver is more like Smokey and the bandit and keeps the pedal to the metal!!!

It arrived!!!! LE s/n 258. Now to get my coworkers to help me carry it up 15 steps to the spare bedroom!!

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OK, got the game up the stairs and it is beautiful, but a little flawed, had one 2-3" wood screw in the bottom, not sure what it is for, also a 1/4" long machine screw and wood screw, didn't see anything off on the play field. Will have to open the back box and see if anything is missing.

so far I have 3 issues.

1st had an error code on initial boot up, was a switch open on L/H ramp, was a connector loose under the playfield, quick fix. Verified all other connections are now fully seated. YAY

2nd issue is the ball getting stuck when the ball goes into the gobstopper hole. It stops just before dropping to the VUK 92% of the time and you cannot shake the machine to let it go forward, the ball stops just out of reach for the side kicker so ball search does no good Any suggestions on an adjustment??? This makes the game just about unplayable so without a fix, bought a real expensive dust collector.

3rd is the lock down bar, very hard to get it locked. I have adjusted the screws up and down next to the glass and this does not seem to help, not even sure if it was fully engaged when I first pulled off the glass. Any suggestions on this one??? The cutouts in the lock down bar are about .10" too high for the bar to lock in. Never had a game ever with this issue.

4th issue is the update. Game came to me with code 1.09. I tried an to install 1.31 following the instructions on JJP website using unbooten, or whatever it is called. When I installed the flash drive on the dongle by the coin door, there was several errors listed on the screen and it asked for a system factory reboot, I hit the flippers to confirm, and now it says code 1.31 is installed????? Odd, I don't think it installed it. Any help???

And another thing, this game did not come with an owners manual, is it meant for you to download it only on your computer/tablet??? My sterns, bally, williams, gottliebs all had physical manuals.

It was defaulted to 19, moved to max at 22 and it now works 100% YAY!!!! I thought it was an alignment issue of the mechanism. YAY

The mech is just actuating low. Mainly the L/H side, so if it just push up now on the moving mech when I move the lever, it locks! I'm OK with this for now. Will need to adjust the entire lock bar mech monday when I'm off of work.

Thank you so much for the help!!! My wife really loves the light show, the blue metallic powder coat, and his theme is perfect for us since we grew up with this movie. Even better is the camera, she didn't know it was there and was surprised on it taking her picture for the high score!!!! SOOOO glad I cancelled my Avengers Premium order for this, this is a class act pin, even with the minor hiccups. Still unsure if I'm really running code 1.31 or not since I had all the error issues. Is there a way to verify?????

Thank you again!!! You guys did a great job on this pin!

My game room now. Loving the diversity.

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Yep. That’s what it says. Just odd with so many errors before. Game on!!

My build date says July 2019. Guess it sadly sat waiting for me to buy this pin from Pinball Pro. Comical, my latest NIB pin is actually over a year older than my Stern JP that was my first NIB pin made in March 2020.

Something awesome happened tonight right before I went to bed. I turned on the new Wonka pin, once booted up, my wife ran in and wanted to play. We have only had this game a few days and presently I was the champ at 1.1 million points. We are casual players. She played a few games as I watched and cheered. She never scored more than 500k but always had fun. I encouraged her to play 1 more and then for us, magic hit. My wife hit various multi balls one after another, and got one or two Golden tickets. She was freaking out.

She ended with 1.4 million and was sweating and giggling the whole time.

After she finished she said she was so happy we switched the order from Stern’s avengers to Wonka. This made me happy. I can’t wait till my coworkers come and try this pin out. It’s hard to master, fun to shoot, and enjoyable without making you pissed when the ball drains.

Just my two cents for today.

Just put mirror blades on my new Wonka from cointaker. Great addition for sure. I originally ordered the JJP ones, but those won’t work. Guess they changed how they make their cabinets after WOZ. Mellissa at cointaker mailed next day FedEx Williams ones and they worked perfectly for this machine since the backbox hinge bolts are protuding like the old Bally/Williams DMD games.

Could not be happier with the results and the customer service

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The mirror blades fit fine in wonka, there was a bit of an issue just getting out the pivot bolt of the backbox hinge since this is a new game and I did need to move the play field over just a bit during the install, it is easy to move once the playfield is up leaning against the backbox.

I used carpet tape, as I've done on all my mirror blade installs, and glad I did, the screws stuck out just a bit that prevented the play field from laying down flat. On a good note, when lifting the play field for whatever reasons, no issues at all. No scratches etc. Brightens the game up nicely and adds more depth to an already awesome playfield.

This is an actual setting??? Where is it located in the menu settings and what does it do?? I need to get home and find this!

I’m not sure about game play but having all the bells and whistles on any game to me is worth it, just like on Stern’s pro vs premiums, but resale will help being an LE on just about any pin.

Which manufacture did you get?? Think there is at least two. Was thinking about the modcouples version. I’m thinking about modding mine. So far only added mirror blades but since this game is a keeper, wife plays it daily, might as well add a few mods here and there.

I believe you need to adjust the side release coil strength to 22. Not the VUK since you need it to kick to the VUK. Mine was default at 19 new in the box. Same issue you are having. Adjusted the side coil to 22 and game has been perfect ever since.

Someday I’d like to upgrade to code 2.0. Keep hearing it’s a great improvement .

My 11 year old Mac apparently can’t open the files from either of the links posted by JJP for their install. I can downloaded Willy Wonka 2.0 file no problem. It’s the other two apps like unetboitin or Rufus or whatever it is called that don’t seem to work for me that you need to arrange it on the usb. Keep getting an error on each that they can’t open a file. This sucks. Wish it was like a stern and you just downloaded the file on a usb instead of needing extra software.

Keep trying to get my wife to use her new ish PC I bought her, but she is reluctant to and says it may slow her PC down with the added programs. Guess I will forever be stuck on code 1.33 unless she falters or I go to Costco to by a PC.

I will print this out and see if this helps me out.

My wife did finally use her PC and dowloaded the code 2.0 and USB software as noted on JJP's website. The install I think worked????? Lots of errors originally listed while the code was installing. Game comes up now as 2.0 code install but states some errors that go by very quickly on start up. Could this be a difference between machines, CE, LE, SE?? I have an LE. BUT, the games seems to operate correctly to include the Wonkavator. Wife played a few games on it and liked the improved scoring and light show.

Anyone else have error codes during install yet were able to play the game? Should I try to follow the install for my old Mac and try the install again??

Need to maybe take a picture of the error codes because I couldn't read them initially without my reading glasses, and they disappeared before I could get them.

Art blades are great on some games,(yes , wet method is best ), recently restored an Addams family and they looked great, but I’m still all about mirror blades. Can’t see myself changing those out on my Wonka. That’s what I love about this hobby, never a wrong idea, just personally preference.

The playfield moves side to side with a good amount of clearance , so no real issues. If you have to raise the playfield , and are concerned with scratching the mirror blades or art blades for that matter, pinball life sell nice protectors. I use them in all my games I’m working on or restoring just as a precaution. Can’t hurt.

Here is a picture of mine. Mirror blades fit nicely and look great.

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Shows the gap, can lift the playfield without issues.

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