Star Wars in the house!
Alright gang, my Star Wars finally arrived today from iMatrix (via fleabay). The box was well sealed with duct tape, and banded in two places. It arrived in very good condition, with only a small puncture in one side.
Upon opening the box I found the machine, wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap, a box (which contained the glass, also in a layer of bubble wrap inside the seperate box), a small 'cube' of duct tape (with 500 balls inside), and a fold-your-own cardbox box to use presumably as a collection box if you don't have a 'real' one. Also were 2 photocopied pages supposedly showing instructions, however the copies are so faint as to be unreadable.
The machine came with an 8 amp transformer which had, of course, broken loose during shipment, but caused no damage - the bubble wrap was securely taped snugly around the machine, so it had very little room to move. As a side note, there were no feet on this machine at all, so I'll need to improvise something or build a cabinet, as it obviously isn't stable at all.
The machine appears to be in decent condition, iMatrix obviously repainted the cabinet with el cheapo black paint, with no cabinet touch up or hole-filling done. My office reeks of paint at the moment, but at least it isn't rubbing off yet. The machine itself has no broken parts, and was '10 foot' clean, meaning from 10 feet away it looked good. However, the ball tracks/glass/frame were FILTHY, to say the least. I did some preliminary cleaning, but wanted to try the machine out, so it will need a more thorough going over during the weekend.
After checking the connections, cleaning up the worst of the crud, and getting the machine stable and upright, I opened the box of balls. They all were clean, perhaps polished, with no sign of rust or scratches anywhere. I filled the hopper with most of them, kept a few to play on, and fired up the machine.
All I can say is WOW. From the moment I saw R2 move around and the movie clips play, I knew this was a smart purchase on my behalf. All of the lights work, absolutely no marks/issues/worries with the cell, and mechanically the machine is in perfect shape. At this point, my son (11) and I started firing off some balls. I hit nothing for about 20 minutes, so my son took over and promptly hit 7 7 7......so Luke Skywalker took us into our first fever! Not 2 minutes (and 15 rounds later), he hit 3 3 3 (Leia) for another 15 round fever!
Needless to say, he was excited, and even went to far as to say his hand was getting tired holding the shooter knob, so I took over. Another 5 minutes go by, and what should appear? Yep, ANOTHER fever, this time all 999 (Yoda)....... so there's another 15 rounds of winnings! After that fever we decided to call it a night and here I am with this review. I may never play pachislo again after this, and we're just getting warmed up!
As a side note, this has to be the loudest machine ever, even on the low setting. Thankfully, I have some of the volume controls from autoslot, and will have them on by Sunday.
That being said, here's my review of Star Wars/iMatrix (shenhung on Ebay):
Communication: 5 - immediately sent invoice, and tracking number as soon as it was available, also I won the item last weekend and it was shipped Monday morning. Can't beat that!
Shipping: 5 - Shipped from Canada on Monday, at my door in Indiana Friday. Can't beat that!
Packaging: 4 - Box was well sealed, undamaged, and components were seperately wrapped, however a single layer of bubble wrap around the machine isn't confidence inspiring, even though my machine was undamaged.
Condition: 3.5 - While intact, the transformer was loose from its mounting, and the machine was, in a word, D I R T Y. Mechanically, all lights work, shooter works fine, and all ball ways pay out/work as they should. El Cheapo paint job - would need to be sanded smooth and redone unless you're mounting this in a cabinet.
Operation: 5 - Everything worked out of the box, all wings/doors/video/R2D2 and etc work as should. No malfunctions of any kind and really like the 8 amp transformer (which uses a grounded 3 prong plug)
Overall: 4 - A little more attention to cleaning (or ANY would be good), and either not painting the cabinet or at least sanding it smooth first would be an improvement. The packing was adequate and the machine was boxed very securely, I did like the fact the glass was removed and packed seperately. The machine cleaned up nicely, had nothing broken and is a blast to play. The instructions were a joke, but I really didn't need them thanks to all of you on the forum. I would not hesitate to purchase another machine from them, the product is in decent shape, shipped fast and has no issues at all.
See ya'll later, I've got balls to play with! :lol8: :lol8:
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幸運わんわん Luckydog or Yukiwanwan in Japanese 
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