# Unboxing a pinball machine: Aerosmith Pinball Machine **Source:** Straight Down the Middle **Type:** video **Published:** 2017-04-11 **Duration:** 26m 49s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_cijmLUro4 --- ## Analysis Zach Sharpe unboxes and begins setup of a Stern Aerosmith pinball machine with his 11-year-old son Dominic, covering assembly steps (legs, head bolts, cable management), factory inclusions, initial inspection, and a brief gameplay test. He discusses minor quality observations and planned modifications, with casual banter about the band Aerosmith and pinball mechanics like tilting. ### Key Claims - [MEDIUM] Some people have been having problems with circuit control board components on Stern Spike hardware managing LED and power distribution on Aerosmith machines — _Zach Sharpe expresses hope that his unit won't have this issue during unboxing segment_ - [HIGH] Modern Stern Spike 2 systems are significantly lighter than older machines — _Zach Sharpe observes while setting up the Aerosmith machine legs_ - [HIGH] Stern now includes a metal protector piece on playfield as standard factory equipment that previously had to be purchased separately from Pinball Life — _Zach identifies and praises the inclusion of this protective component during playfield inspection_ - [HIGH] Aerosmith pinball machine allows song selection like Metallica does — _Zach confirms this feature exists when Dominic asks if the game has selectable songs_ - [HIGH] Stern pinball machines ship with oiled balls that don't appear clean from factory — _Zach observes the factory balls look 'nasty' and notes he plans to replace them with Titan competition rubbers_ ### Notable Quotes > "My main man, Dominic, my 11-year-old son, is on the camera. So thanks, buddy, for doing this for me." > — **Zach Sharpe**, Opening > _Establishes co-host relationship and personal context for the video_ > "Some people have been having problems with circuit control board components on the Stern Spike hardware that manage LED and power distribution... I'm just hoping that's not the case for this one." > — **Zach Sharpe**, Early assembly > _Flags known hardware reliability concerns with Spike platform_ > "There's nothing like the new smell of a pinball machine. Well, pizza smells good. I like pizza." > — **Zach Sharpe**, Leg assembly segment > _Humorous aside highlighting the sensory experience of new machine unboxing_ > "Before we started here, this shows how somewhat dated the theme is. He said what's Aerosmith?" > — **Zach Sharpe**, Mid-assembly > _Commentary on Aerosmith IP relevance to younger audiences; theme is from 2016 release_ > "I do like how these power cords come out of the box instead of tucking it all the way back in there" > — **Zach Sharpe**, Unboxing accessories > _Positive design detail observation about factory packaging/accessibility_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Zach Sharpe | person | Host of Straight Down the Middle pinball podcast; performing unboxing and assembly of Aerosmith machine | | Dominic | person | Zach Sharpe's 11-year-old son; camera operator and co-host for unboxing video | | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Aerosmith pinball machine being unboxed; Zach expresses love for Stern products | | Aerosmith | game | Stern pinball machine being unboxed; theme is a 1970s rock band; song selection feature confirmed | | Spike 2 | product | Hardware platform used in modern Stern machines; noted as being lighter than older systems | | Straight Down the Middle | organization | Zach Sharpe's pinball podcast/YouTube channel where this unboxing is being published | | Pinball Life | company | Aftermarket parts vendor; Zach purchased cup holder from them; previously sold protective playfield metal piece now included in factory | | Titan Competition Rubbers | company | Supplier of replacement pinball set; Zach plans to install their 'shiny balls' in place of factory balls | | Metallica | game | Stern pinball machine with song selection feature similar to Aerosmith | | Bally | company | Legacy pinball manufacturer referenced for head latch system design history | | Williams | company | Legacy pinball manufacturer referenced for head latch system design history | | The Hobbit | game | Stern pinball machine; Zach mentions experiencing a shipping damage issue with this game previously | ### Topics - **Primary:** Pinball machine assembly and setup procedures, Factory quality and component inclusion in new Stern machines - **Secondary:** Stern Spike hardware reliability concerns, Pinball machine modifications and aftermarket parts, Theme IP relevance and audience demographics - **Mentioned:** Pinball playfield design and protective components, Game features: song selection and customization ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.75) — Zach expresses enthusiasm for the machine, praises specific Stern design choices (metal protector, power cord placement, hex bolts), and anticipates a positive review. Minor concerns about potential Spike hardware issues and factory ball quality, but overall optimistic tone. Light-hearted banter with son contributes to positive atmosphere. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Zach Sharpe planning follow-up content including machine review and 'special little thing' for Aerosmith where community involvement is requested (confidence: high) — Zach closes video with: 'That's Zach Sharpe from Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show' and references upcoming review and community participation element - **[product_strategy]** Stern has added metal protective piece to playfield as standard factory equipment, addressing wear issue that previously required aftermarket purchase (confidence: high) — Zach observes: 'Usually you have to buy it from Pinball Life... But they included it in the factory settings, so that's really cool.' - **[product_concern]** Circuit control board components on Stern Spike hardware managing LED and power distribution have reportedly caused problems on some Aerosmith machines (confidence: medium) — Zach states 'Some people have been having problems with circuit control board components on the Stern Spike hardware that manage LED and power distribution on their Aerosmith' and expresses hope his unit won't have this issue - **[technology_signal]** Modern Stern Spike 2 hardware is significantly lighter than legacy pinball machines, affecting assembly and handling (confidence: high) — Zach notes: 'These modern Sterns and Spike systems, especially Spike 2, are just a lot lighter' --- ## Transcript What's happening everybody? It's Zach with Straight Down the Middle Pinball. It has arrived, the Aerosmith Pro. We're going to unbox this bad boy and I'm going to mod it out. We're going to have a hell of a good time with it. My main man, Dominic, my 11-year-old son, is on the camera. So thanks, buddy, for doing this for me. All right, so unboxing a game. I probably don't do it correctly, but I'll just wave around now. I probably don't do it correctly, but this is the way I do it and it works well. All right, so the easiest way is to get it lined up so that you can put the legs on it. So I'm going to take the front off of here with a knife. You just have to be careful because the last thing you want to do is cut into the game itself. Usually there's a barricade there, so it's not bad, but just be super careful. Oh, of course. That's not good. That's not good? Mm-hmm. We're back in there. All right. So you're wanting to do it right here so that you can put the legs on, pull it down, put a stool up behind it and get them back legs on. Now my only hope here is that this thing plays right out of the box. Some people have been having problems with node boards on their Aerosmith and I'm just hoping that's not the case for this one. That was probably loud for you guys because it hit the microphone. Sorry. You guys okay? Alright. So we've got the bottom. The legs are usually in here. You'll have to follow me over there. Alright, we've got legs probably right in here. Let's take a look. There's two legs. Two more rocks. There's nothing like the new smell of a pinball machine. Well, pizza smells pretty good. I like pizza. You like pizza, don't you, Dominic? Dominic's still young enough where all he likes is cheese pizza, though. I'm going to put the top legs on first. So what we want to do, what I do with all my machines is stick them to the floor all the way to the bottom so that when we put those back legs on, we'll even those out as well. So there's my front legs. My back legs. usually I get up pretty high. And it's easier to level them up when they're on the floor here. So that's what I'm going to do. Now there's not an exact science, but once you do so many, you get the feeling of where they need to be. be and that for you guys can see that's about where I put mine and I don't know what the grade ends up being whether it's six and a half or seven or six I'm not sure but that's about where I am Exciting stuff, isn't it? I'll match them up. Now keep in mind that I'll match these up even right now, but once I actually get them on the machine and get it set in, there's probably going to be a little bit of a slope to the floor, so I'll adjust then. So we'll sit the back legs out of the way. We'll get these front legs going. Once I find the bolts... I found where the leg bolts are at you guys with such a freaking dummy the leg bolts are already in the machine. Don't laugh at me, Donald. In the machine already. It's a good place to put them actually. It would be better if they already made it. If they would? Already have it made. We can't ship them with the legs on. It would take up too in its face and it would be dangerous. Some of these guys, whenever they do, like if you were a selling machine and they come pick it up, some of them leave the legs on, they just strap it to the side of the, on the inside of the box truck and it scares the hell out of me. I wouldn't trust that, because those legs, they can and they will bend. Thank you Now I am adding a cup holder that I got from Pinball Life Did you used to have one of those on the walking dead? Yeah. So I'm going to put that on here before I put the leg on. Dominic, you ready to hear some Aerosmith? Not really. Dominic, before we started here, this shows how somewhat dated the theme is. he said he said what's Aerosmith? Aerosmith is a band. A rock band. you you Thank you. It doesn't matter. Okay. You're doing good. Alright, so now we're going to pick up the back end, and we'll put the painted in a stool under so we can put the back leg on. Alright. Just like that. What's nice about these? Well, I guess nice is the word. They're a lot lighter. These modern sterns and spike systems, especially spike 2, are just a lot lighter. Alright, so when Tom first and second have to see anything, we'll go over and make sure there's no hiccups or anything. I didn't, didn't, didn't. Not that we can talk about your whole lot, you didn't tell me. Don't get so much out of me. you you I'm going to put the back legs on the dog. Alright, so I'm taking the balls out and putting them back on these. Ooh, that's pretty. And hopefully, Gray and I will be able to play the hell out of this game and give you guys a good review on it. It was so hard, this thing got delivered around lunch time and I had to come home from work And uh, wait for the guys to drop it off and it was hard because all day at work I was thinking walk this way and dude looks like a lady. That looks like, that's, that's by Aerosmith? Yeah. Oh I know what walk this way is. Yeah. I've had that beat in my head. Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, Ed Boon, ba dum ba dum ba dum. What? That's right. What? That's it. Well I guess the theme is pretty good if we've got an 11 year old that knows it. I mean I listen to songs like that on the radio when I'm on the car. Yeah. It's good. Dominic's a rock star. Alright, so now I'm going to take the stool out and let it sit on its legs. its legs. Can't wait to see what the inside looks like. Right. Aerosmith is on its legs. So now what we going to do is we going to cut this so we can allow the head to come up Now on this game it probably in a coin door but traditionally in the past Bally Williams used a latch system with two lugs in the head Then Stern came along and used this hex which I really liked and then which game was it one of these games I have bolts just five eights bolts in the back to hold it which I like to and now I don't know my walking dead or the Star Trek somehow the hex or an Allen's wrench and I wasn't as crazy about that so it's like hitting the champagne bottle on the side of the boat okay let's see first pretty complicated like all the I just want to make sure not to scratch it. Let's see what's in the box. What's in the box? Is it money? Well, it's not money. I've spent a lot of money on this. That's all I know. Okay, so in this bag you're going to have two things. This is I think for a bill validator. If it's in an arcade and it takes all our bills. And your power cord. I do like how these power cords come out of the box instead of tucking it all the way back in there whenever you're... Oh my gosh, that smells good. It does smell good, doesn't it? It smells like a new shoe. Ah, the smell of expensive pinball machines. It smells like a new shoe kind of smell. You know what? I agree with you, buddy. And I like the smell of a new shoe. I do not like the smell of your old shoes, though. all right so here's another tip for you guys I love me some stern but single ladies balls you guys look at that that's nasty now they do come usually with an oil on so if I clean them up they would probably do substantially better but it doesn't look like stern balls are there still I don't look clean them up and see what it looks like but I've got a set of shiny balls from Titan competition rubbers that I'm gonna put in there. There's my head bolts. There's your head bolt. So the nice thing is they are not the the Allen's wrench so I'm glad about that. And then tilt bob we'll use that here in a minute. Is that for testing if you've tilted? That's right, it's set up to work for the tilt. I don't believe in tilting. Well, nobody wants to. You don't believe in nudging, though. You think nudging is cheating. I mean, you do know. Well, I mean, it's just, I'm just kind of icky about it. Now, try telling them, guys, it's part of the game. I don't know what's wrong with it. Here we go. So we're going to pull this head up, latch it into place. But before so, there's some paper like this right behind here. You just want to make sure you get all of that. Okay. There's two shipping things in there. Now, you're going to check to make sure that there's no pieces lodged back here. There was in the Hobbit. The Hobbit had something like that. She's gonna watch it. When you lift up, make sure that that back glass didn't jar up. So I always try to feel to make sure that that's good before I lift it up and it comes crashing down. That looks nice. Also, you want to make sure that back set of cables goes down instead of pinching any of it. There's plenty of stuff in the playfield we're gonna have to take out. But for now, why don't you come back here, darling. Okay. We got a weird looking jester guy. We'll get that in a minute. so that is nice that they're just 5'8". These don't have to be super tight. They're not gonna really work their way out. That's gonna be snug so they hold that head up. Okay, that's good. Little loosey on that one, do John Youssi? Show this. So this actual one was built right here. It was built on, well now you don't have to get wild on me. There you go. It was built on March 20th, 2017. That was about two weeks ago. That's quite a while. Yeah, sometimes when you get them out of the box, they are brand spanking new as if they shipped out three days ago. So, now what we're going to do, Dominic. Yeah. You can get back in your position there. We are going to open this bad boy up. You might have to watch out, buddy. It's going to... This glass is going to come your way. Back up. Just pay attention to the camera. That's all. There you go, dude. Thanks, buddy. All right. Looks like some dusty glass. It doesn't. It'd probably be clean. That jester is still creeping me out though. The jester is creeping you out? I don't like it. Wait until you hear him talk. Alright so there are a couple of things in here that we want to make sure to get rid of. The pinball calendar 2017 from Stern. Alright so this says remove cable tie and foam before operating the game. You already did that, didn't you? No. Table ties here, foam is there. Oh, it's not going to be in the way. Let's cover it with this. Not a lot to uncover on this thankfully And instead of using a knife there maybe I can be careful You don you bought a brand new machine You don wanna mess it up Wire cutters or side snips is probably the way I'd go for this in all reality. But I'm being silly and I wanna get it done so. Well, unless I have to do it. Is this like um, ACDC where you can choose your song? Uh, yeah. Actually it is. It's on Metallica. Either way, good games. Yeah. There you go, Don. Thank you, Nightmares. Aw, he has a box. I don't like boxes. I always just make sure that all the bulbs on the top side are plugged in. The nice thing about Stern, once you get in here, they put these, usually these spotlight would fall out, but they put this, it's almost like a paper clip that holds it in place. That is really nice. A quarter of the day, men with boxes creep me out. All right, so this is all good. and I just just make sure that nothing is loose or anything all right now if you want to back up we're going to so that looks good this all looks good the side here doesn't look like I said it doesn't look bad so what we're gonna do right now we're gonna get this bad boy in place Oh, that's nice. I like that. Come in here and show them, Donnie. Actually, instead of buying this piece now, they put this piece on there. Usually you have to buy it from Pinball Life, and for those of you who have a Sterner or Bally Williams that doesn't have this little metal protector, you need to get it because the ball will, over time, damage the side there. But they included it in the factory settings, so that's really cool. That's really cool. The clip belt looks good. Okay. I don't know if someone is in the water. All right, so if you want to back up what we're gonna do now is We're gonna get this bad boy in place and then we will turn it on and then we'll go from there. Well We'll get this thing fired up and first things first watch this We turn it on here It's going through some... it looks like good. Alright. So it is working. Alright. Here, dummy, you hold this. Let's run through this game. So the top right here we've got the Translight LCD. Greg and I are going to review this thing so I won't go over it much but first looks the clear coat looks pretty fantastic. I like that guy. He's going to haunt your nightmares tonight. And for the rest of my life. And we have the tools! We have...oh! It's Mila time! Shhh! Ghostbusters? Shhh! Okay. So let's play a game. You want to? Well, I guess. Alright. You want to do the only pressing start? Heck no, man. You're playing the first game. Sounds good. Alright Dominic, get it going buddy. Now you pick your song. That's really loud. Yeah, it's going to be loud with the glass off, but that's okay. Go ahead Oh, cool. That doesn't look nice. That's a toy box. I'm not a toy. That's it guys, check out a review of this coming up, as well as a special little thing we're going to do for Aerosmith, where we need your help. That's Zach from Straight Down the Middle. you _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a2eb0292-3b89-42b7-99d2-dc000325841a*