My Magneto switch was causing balls to get stuck on the switch. I noticed the end of the switch wire was stuck on the jailbar assembly spacer. I removed the spacer and used a dremel to cut a grove so the wire can go up and down freely.

dremel.jpg

Wow...I'm looking forward to getting my game but now I'm scared as f*ck ....not that I didn't expect this kinda crap....but was hopeful that QC would be figured out by now. Guess not. *sigh*

Well if they double sold it you think they would have contacted the person who had the order in 2nd to offer them another number. Reading this thread sure seems like there are more then the usual issues with these NIB games.

Actually, I doubt it was a wiring issue. The leaf switch can be adjusted so either contact makes contact first or both at the same time.

Yea, welcome to owning a pinball. Not sure what you guys all expected. B/W games had similar issues when first shipped. This is what happens when you buy something like a pinball machine.

I agree issues like parts broken in the bottom of the cabinet are uncalled for. But most these issues are just how things are and instead its expectations that should be changed. Adjusting switches? Moving wires? These are just how things are.

I'm not new to this game, Mark. I've had plenty of NIB Sterns and the QC has gotten crappier over the years. I don't expect much anymore lol

Here are my NIB experiences so far:

Family Guy - PERFECT

WOF - PERFECT (and Canadian clearance closeout price!)

BDK (2010 run) - Plastic apron and pegs when I was told BOM was the same as the 2008 run. Some wires hanging too low caused the ball to get blocked on the left orbit. Doesn't sound too bad, but I had to take apart SO MUCH STUFF to get back there to fix it. Translite had bad ink/defects. Fluorescent tube ballast was buzzing loudly.

Iron Man - Monger lid not leveled properly, caused airballs...otherwise good.

Avatar LE - Same prob some are having w/ the Magneto lock...wasn't assembled right and fell apart into the bottom of the cabinet.

Tron LE (didn't get this NIB but it is new-ish) - Crazy insert LED interference problem...still waiting for a proper fix...the one they sent me made the issue worse. Easily tarnished chrome side rails.

Transformers LE - Flippers had wires going thru the mechs, when wires were moved - the flippers were adjusted all wrong. Dirty grimy ball in the Bumblebee area. Bumblebee car scratched up plastic during shipping. Optimus wouldn't register hits correctly. Megatron trough issues. Infamous Drop Target catapult problem. Ironhide playfield wouldn't play right due to Ironhide toy dragging on backboard. Bad 44 sockets caused flickering LEDs, a bitch to replace due to having to remove entire flipper mech.

To be fair - Stern's customer service guys are awesome and have always sent me new parts when things go wrong...but man, when I'm spending this much money I don't want to have the "hood up" more than I do on my old games!!!

If 11 is not spoken for, perhaps you could remove the serial plate from yours and they could send you the 11 serial plate and a label to send the 12 back to them.

Wolverine #29 out of the box. No issues. Absolutely a work of art.
Have about 10 plays on it, everything working fine here. The clear is amazing. Best art package in years.

Ughhhh just noticed my playfield was signed by Python

I just compared it to my SM and you are correct. It was wired correctly but they were not adjusted properly. The inside blade is supposed to be touching first and it was not. The outside most blade was touching first.

Your list is pretty extensive. I'd have to say "wow" to some of that.

My list:
AC/DC Premium: When first opened, perfect. Canon flasher burnt out 3 times before I put an LED in and its been ok since. Flipper rubber popped off lower PF, hair spray and reattached, good. 5 red LEDs burned out in lower PF GI. Replaced with cointaker double brights I already had. All-in-all, pretty much as I expected.

TFLE: No errors. Issue with megatron ball lock occasionally. This is not a QC issue, but more of a design issue I believe. (Nothing is broken).

Tron LE: perfect, nothing

Shrek, Spiderman, Batman Dark Knight, Avatar Pro - these were all perfect.

Xmen LE: Wolverine hits were not registering reliably. 30 secs to bend a switch and its fixed. I didnt like how the left flipper was taking so much effort to flip. Adjusted leaf switch and its fine. All else seems ok other than SW.

Hit the scoop and had night crawler mode start. Machine proceeded to freak out. NC popped up, ball stayed in scoop, and DMD went bonkers. All sorts of weird characters in the top left corner of the screen. Saw a happy face. # sign. Various letters and numerals. Saw the stern logo at one point. Went on for about 30 seconds, then I hit my flipper buttons and the ball popped out. Got to play the mode! It was fun.

Drained before completing it. Best part, which I think was a nod to Addams Family. NC said, after I drained "best 2 out of 3?"

My game does the same thing at Nightcrawler start.I will call tech today.

So I had to adjust my Iceman ramp last night.. turns out it was pressing down on the Wolverine toy during Magneto multiball and as a result the Wolverine shot wasn't registering.

Interesting. I noticed the claws were hitting my iceman ramp too. I don't know if it interferes or not.

I recently saw a TRON LE where the chrome legs had all rusted ( due to environment ) but the chrome Bally/Williams legs adjacent were fine!

Going to be very interesting to see if WOZ pins have so many QC issues.

Yeah.. my ramp still hits the claws but not as bad now. I'm thinking I'll apply some heat and try and bend the arm down a little bit.

.... or come up with a totally different Wolverine all together.

Here is a video of the start of nightcrawler on mine.It will start if I hit a flipper

http://s392.photobucket.com/albums/pp3/bballfan/?action=view&current=VIDEO0014.mp4

I'd be down with that. I find him a touch too large, he blocks my view to Storm and Rogue shots. I am short though. Maybe I need to play on standing on a stool.

I don't blame Stern though. My guess is he was smaller to begin with, and Marvel said "Hey, he can't be smaller than Magneto, he's our money printing character. Make him bigger. No, bigger. BIGGER. Okay, that's good now".

What the F*$$#! This is absolutely unacceptable. How could they have not found this during testing?!

Does anybody else get a sound when the ball rolls over the outlane switches?
Please let me know.
Jim

I don't get any sounds from the outlanes but they work.

I called earlier on the Nightcrawler problem but he hasn't emailed me on where to send the video yet.He claims its a switch on the nightcrawler but I tested all of them before I even played it.

Great game but man.. the QC sucks on this one.

My dmd goes crazy at the start of night crawler also. It scrolls super fast through a bunch of gibberish before the mode starts. The first time I got night crawler I didn't even notice because I thought the machine was broken.

I have seen Nightcrawler 4 or 5 times now. No issues, except that Wolverine makes hitting the left Nightcrawler from the right lower flipper very hard.

It has been reported that maybe people have different versions of the software. 1.0 vs 1.1. Mine came with 1.1 installed. No nightcrawler issue that I'm aware of.

I have 1.1, and the funky issue with NC.

Any switches showing active in active swtich test mode that shouldn't be?

My night crawler does not do any of that. It just starts.

No lessons learned on either side. We keep buying. Stern keeps blowing the QC. Shame on all of us.

I know. We would not have these problems if they were releasing Dallas or Little House on the prairie pins.

Nope, all looks good.

Weird though, cannot enter the XMen game specific tests.

yea. That code is not implemented. Lol.

I talked to Stern and sent them my video of the Nightcrawler problem.He said it is a programming problem and they will fix it in an update.What I don't understand is why only a few of the LEs are having this problem.If you aren't having this problem when NC is starting do you have a flipper up?It will only start the NC feature and stop doing crazy stuff when I flip.

Hows about there person not having the issue dump there bin and post it here for others.

I just saw that Nightcrawler issue on mine for the first time as well, only the 2nd time I got Nightcrawler and didn't notice it the first time and I remember watching the DMD closely to see it. It must have something to do with something else going on during the game that causes it sometimes and not others is my guess, maybe depending what mode you in currently, # balls locked, who knows.

But man the more I play this game the more I LOVE it. Way cool and Way deep.

Holy crap! That's crazy! It's like the DMD is going through every image/animation in the display ROM. Doesn't look like a CPU issue since some of that is characters, symbols, etc.

Half Pint Multiball!!!

I had the spinner magnet just stop working on me for a couple games. Turned it off, looked at the fuses than turned it back on and its been working fine since.

The apron is waayyy tight against the lockdown lever/receiver. I had to yank it pretty hard to get the playfield up. had to push it hard to get it back down too. And had to push the lockdown bar pretty hard to get it to latch. Need to stratch the apron hooks out, or put a washer between the apron and the hook next time I have it up maybe.

Other than that I'm pretty happy. A few small scrapes, but nothing much. It looks sweet.

I haven't bought machine since my LOTR in 2005. Had apron and hook issues with that too, caused my shooter rod to be off center. Actually the whole playfield was off center I guess. Stern machines do feel weak to me, but all I have for reference is my STTNG and its a tank...

XMen machine plays so smooth though, everything is like butter. Little to no air balls, missed shots don't really go flying through the air or out of control, ramps are fast as hell. I did have one ski jump off the storm ramp, that's going to need something. But even that was really smooth and solid lol.

I'm very happy with everything besides the price. Honestly I think the Pro would be worth every penny. I paid a little of 4000$ for my LOTR NIB, and I always felt it was worth every penny as well.

New Nightcrawler code is all done as of today. Big code update next week. Can't wait to see the new goods. I'd like to see multiball stacking similar to Medieval on X-Men. The game is amazing and I am loving it.

WOW, this is a bug for sure. Looks like it is fixed in the new code update next week. I hope there is an option to set the % of the mode starting. If it does get added I hope it works! I made my TRON Xtra ball @50% and never even seen it

It is an excellent game. So far my only wish is for a ramp cover that goes lower on the right ramp. Left orbit to flipper with speed hit to left ramp = X GAMES ski jump into the black wood. If i actually make that shot I want it to go thru the ramp FAST! and get my points and combo hopefully.

Do you think sterns team of techs that assembles the games gets better as they do a couple? Will the qc on the pros be more consistent?

I had two minor issues that were easily addressed.

My scoop was not firing balls back out except during a ball search. Pulled it out (these Sterns are so much easier to work on) and found that the switch was grazing the scoop bracket and I adjusted it.

Wolverine was registering maybe 75% of the time. While I had the PF up, I tried someon's tip of just bending the swicth bracket down a little. He works perfectly now.

The only thing I don't like about this pin is how poorly the magnet and disc effect work. They really need to get that disc rotating a bit before the 4 balls are released. Right now the disc remains static and the 4th ball usually does not make good contact with the magnet before the spinning starts... so it just falls away and you don't get a cool spinning effect at all.

I agree, the 4th ball only sticks 25 percent of the time.

All it would take is a slight rotation of the disc before they get released. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in a code update?

Overall things seem good with my table / I'm happy.

But...

1. I have a dead pixel in the DMD and a replacement is on its way.

2. The Spinning disc magnet makes the banging noise due to play in the motor / gear assembly as stated with another pin in the posts.

My pf looks like a golf ball now by wolverine magnet. Dimples everywhere.

Just unboxed tonight and play a dozen games. No issues on major mechanics or cosmetics.

I did notice the outlane no sound as another poster mentioned, wolverine doesn't seem to register hits in certain modes but the magnet still works in front of him so I think code just doesn't have sound effect in a few modes, and had a few airballs with auto launch onto the top far right back sentinel plastic. Two in a row in fact - yes I suck at pinball.

Also, anyone notice in a few modes ghosting or random lights? I was collecting xmen, started a villan mode and two lights by left scoop appeared to turn on so I shot for it. Made it and nothing happened. It's like some modes lights are randomly going on but when you shoot them nothing audio or video seem to happen. I'll isolate it more tomorrow.

Should Mylar be applied around wolverine magnet?