Marvel Super Heros Review!
I finally had the chance to set up the machine and wouldnt you know it there was a problem right out of the box!
I installed the Metal legs (4 Allen Head Screws each) then I inserted the smaller then standard size Pinball into the Playfield then mounted the Backbox (2 Allenhead screws) thats all there is to it.
I made a pre-Powerup inspection of the Playfield and saw that the Right side Flipper was Up way beyond its normal throw
I figured that something was very wrong and that its assembly must have been damaged during shipping.
I decided to turn the machine on to test the Buttons, lights etc.
On Powerup all appeared just fine with the start button, sounds and Volume control and the nice Light show.
The Left Flipper worked just fine with the Flipper moving solidly with each press of the flipper button.
The Right Flipper however just stayed in its awkward looking Up position.
There were no sounds from the solenoid as well so I thought that maybe a wire had become disconnected.
Well 15mins into setting up my new Pinball machine it had to be opened up for examination.
I flipped the machine on its back on a table to expose its belly. A simple matter of removing 18 screws and the bottom Pressboard panel came off.
I was greeted by a wonderful array of plastic mechanical assemblies designed just for this machine to accomplish what other companies have done with their tried and true metal designs.
There is a really cool One piece 3 PopBumper assembly powered by One solenoid and a really neat One piece 2 slingshot assembly that fires both slingshots (in Unison) also with one Solenoid. Very clever little pieces that remind you of Pachinko assemblies.
There are numerous Leds and Poorly designed switches and all are controlled by a very small PCB board ! Very impressive for what it has to do.
There are also 2 Flipper assemblies very similar to other pinball machines and each assembly consisted of a (Plastic Bracket) enclosed Solenoid a typical plunger/spring and a pawl assembly which connects to the Flipper shaft and Flipper.
In an instant I saw the cause of the non working right flipper.
The Machine must have been dropped very hard at some point which caused the Right Flipper Solenoid Bracket to be ripped from the playfield!
The playfield is made of a type of press board not quite wood not quite paper. In order to mount the assemblies small plastic inserts are pushed into holes where they expand to tighten as the assemblies screws are turned
into them. Sort of like drywall anchors. Well these 4 inserts along with the Solenoid bracket were pulled right out from the force of the machine being dropped. The small wire clamp that holds the right solenoid power wires was also yanked out by the assembly when it came off of the playfield.
When the Solenoid came loose the plunger came out leaving the flipper to move freely which is how it came to rest in its near 12 o Clock position.
With the plunger out of the Solenoid there would be neither sound or vibration or any other tell tale sign that the assembly was activated by depressing the flipper button.
Some of the playfield insert holes were damaged from the force of the solenoid being pulled straight out so in order to make a quick and easy repair I simply filled the holes with Gorilla Glue reinstalled the inserts and let them set enough for the screws to take hold. Once they did set I remounted the solenoid bracket and turned down the screws slowly until they became very tight. I reinserted the Plunger/Spring, reconnected the wire harness clamp the same way as the Solenoid bracket, powered up the machine hit the flipper button and Flip, Flip, Flip the Flipper worked just as it should.
I thought it best to go over all of the machine switches now that the bottom was off so I flipped the machine upright and removed the Playfield glass. (Plexi)
Remove the front 3 Top moulding pieces (11 screws) and the Plexi slides right out.
Rolling the Ball over all of the switches I noticed that 2 would not register?
The Playfield is made of a Pressboard and covered in a Plastic sheet (Mylar?) with the artwork. It is not perfectly flat and what was happening was that the Playfield would rise around these 2 switch buttons just enough that when the ball would pass over them the buttons would not be pressed down hard enough for the switch contacts to meet.
The solution was to elevate the buttons by recessing their mounting holes from the bottom of the playfield about a 32nd of an inch. Doing this would allow the buttons to rise above the playfield at about the same height as the working buttons in order for the ball to make good contact. As it was these 2 buttons sat nearly flush on 3/4 and below the playfield surface on 1/4 of their face. Now they were evenly above the surface,
I rolled the ball over them and the switches registered every time! When I get the chance I will replace the stock plastic, designed for this machine switches, and install "real" micro switches. The switches are the weak link in the machine as they are horrible in design and will most likely be the cause of many owners throwing out their babies when they fail and not knowing why their machines just dont work anymore,
I also resoldered all of the wire connections as they were really bad as well.
Once everything was put back together I had a chance to play the machine and it was a lot of fun. There is a good rule set (Instructions as how to play/ Object of the game) You must defeat the 5 villains to save the world.
Each Villain requires a certain shot and each must be accomplished a certain number of times in order to beat him. Once all 5 are defeated you must go against Dr Doom hitting him 10 times in Save the world mode to win.
Its not easy as the center outhole is very large for the smaller size pinball so the ball drains often. I think adding a post will correct this problem.
The sounds are few but great with music,speech and sound effects.
There are 2 play modes one is Normal which is 3 ball and modern machine sounds and there is Classic which is 5 ball and Electro Mechanical pinball sounds such as Bells! Very cool idea.
There is a volume control and a small LCD screen which has both text and numbers for Scoring. It also keeps the Highscore in each Mode.
The gameplay is OK if your just hitting the ball around for scoring but it is really fun and hard if you really try to beat it by completeng all of the modes and Saving the world!
The Flippers are not strong as compared to other Pinball machines but they are strong enough for this machine as they can shoot the ball anywhere you choose just fine.
I took many pics and even made a really detailed vid but the camera was acting up and most of the pics came out grainy or blurred as did all of the video footage!
Next time I am upstate ( Where the machine is )
I will take video again so that I can make a movie which is much better then my babbling anyway.
Anyway here are some of the pics that sort of came out. I labeled the bottom of the machine but it may be hard to read the small text in such a small pic.
The Machine artwork is very detailed and well done sorry about the bad pics.
You may be able to see that some of the playfield board came up with the solenoid screw inserts on the solenoid that I am holding in my hand.
The pics were taken just as I removed the bottom of the machine so you see it as I saw it with the damaged solenoid just as it lay.
Reply With Quote
幸運わんわん Luckydog or Yukiwanwan in Japanese 
Originally Posted by luckydog
