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DIY $20 Spider Upgrade/Mod in 11 Steps For Stern King Kong Pro Pinball Machine!

Wild Dog Arcade·video·11m 18s·analyzed·Oct 5, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

DIY $20 spider pit mod tutorial for King Kong Pro Edition machines.

Summary

Wild Dog Arcade presents a detailed DIY tutorial for adding a moving spider animatronic to Stern's King Kong Pro Edition pinball machine for approximately $20. The mod recreates a feature found on Premium and LE versions by mounting a spider figure on a flexible Lexan arm that bounces with magnetic interactions at the spider pit. The 11-step process involves cutting Lexan, removing playfield components (ramps, plastic guards), drilling and mounting hardware, and reassembling the playfield.

Key Claims

  • Premium and LE King Kong machines include a spider animatronic over the spider pit magnet that bounces with ball interaction

    high confidence · Creator directly contrasts Pro version (missing spider) with Premium/LE versions (includes spider mechanism)

  • The DIY mod can be completed for approximately $20 in materials

    high confidence · Stated in title and opening; creator claims 'you can do for about 20 bucks' this modification

  • Lexan is preferred over acrylic for this mod because it flexes without cracking

    high confidence · Creator explicitly states: 'Make sure it's Lexan because Lexan will flex good...Whereas like if you use acrylic, you'll probably end up with some cracking'

  • Pro machines are the budget-friendly tier from Stern, missing art, decor, and mechanisms compared to Premium/LE

    high confidence · Creator states: 'the pros are more of the budget friendly games from Stern. They are usually missing some art and decor and mechanisms'

  • The mod provides less animation quality than the factory Premium/LE spider mechanism

    high confidence · Creator notes: 'It's not going to be quite as good as the real one, but for about 20 bucks, it's hard to beat this one'

Notable Quotes

  • “Many of you know the pros are more of the budget friendly games from Stern. They are usually missing some art and decor and mechanisms to make it a little bit more budget friendly.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host @ ~0:30-1:00 — Establishes the product tier differentiation strategy for King Kong Pro vs Premium/LE

  • “Make sure it's Lexan because Lexan will flex good...Whereas like if you use acrylic, you'll probably end up with some cracking.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host @ ~2:30 — Critical material specification for mod success, emphasizes why Lexan is preferred

  • “It's not going to be quite as good as the real one, but for about 20 bucks, it's hard to beat this one.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host @ ~1:20 — Manages expectations about mod quality relative to factory component while highlighting value proposition

  • “Some basic hand tools and the ability to cut a little bit of Lexan you can do this mod to your own King Kong Pro Edition machine.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host @ ~11:40 — Emphasizes accessibility of the mod to average machine owners with basic tools

Entities

Wild Dog Arcadecontent_creatorKing Kong Pro EditiongameStern PinballcompanyLexanproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator providing detailed DIY instructions to offset product feature gaps in budget tier, enabling self-service upgrades to Pro machines

    high · Wild Dog Arcade dedicates full tutorial video to inexpensive workaround for missing spider feature on Pro Edition

  • $

    market_signal: Pro Edition machines are sufficiently popular/affordable that owners actively seek upgrades and mods to match Premium/LE experience, suggesting strong Pro market penetration

    medium · Creator states 'many of you know the pros are more of the budget friendly games' and dedicates tutorial to this audience segment

  • ?

    product_strategy: King Kong employs three-tier feature distribution with spider animatronic exclusive to Premium/LE versions; Pro version lacks this mechanism entirely, creating clear value/cost justification across tiers

    high · Video demonstrates spider mechanism is present on Premium/LE but absent on Pro; creator frames mod as way to add missing feature to Pro machines

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
Are you afraid of spiders? Well, today you're going to face your fears. Face your fears. [Music] [Applause]
0:27
In today's video, I'm going to walk you through a do-it-yourself mod that you can do for about 20 bucks to your King Kong Pro Edition machine. Now, many of you know the pros are more of the budget friendly games from Stern. They are usually missing some art and decor and mechanisms to make it a little bit more budget friendly. One of them is the spider pit. So on a premium and LE machine, there is a spider over top of the spider pit magnet and it basically bounces up and down with the ball. It's got a little mechanism to do that, but you can do for about 20 bucks, you can do an own your own mod to a pro machine to give some sort of that interaction. It's not going to be quite as good as the real one, but for about 20 bucks, it's hard to beat this one. For those of you that aren't that familiar with the King Kong Pro Edition, this is the spider pit. It's a magnet that will grab the ball, sling the ball around, and do some things. But the premium and the Elliot has an additional spider over top of it. That's why it's called the spider pit. It will interact when the magnets there. It'll bounce up and down. It's actually a mechanism. So, it has another additional mechanism in here to do this. Your pro machine won't have that, but for about 20 bucks, we can add that. So, I'm going to walk you through how to do that. All right. First step is getting the spider mounted onto the Lexan. So, the first thing I did was I took the Lexan and I cut it down to 127 mm by 13 mm. That's roughly about a half inch by five inches long. I did this on a band saw. You can do this with a variety of different things. Saw, scroll saw, anything you want to do. Uh the key is getting a 3/32 inch thick Lexan. Make sure it's Lexan because Lexan will flex good uh it without cracking. Whereas like if you use acrylic, you'll probably end up with some cracking. So Lexan is the preferred choice here. Next step I did is I took the cabinet latch lock plate from a magnetic latch. You can get these anywhere, Home Depot, whatever. Grabbed that, marked the Lexan itself, drilled a couple of holes for the screws I had. And then I screwed it into the spider through this plate. So the spider gets mounted uh nicely on there. So when he flexes around, he'll stay where he's at. Okay. Now that your spider is actually mounted to the arm, we're going to move on to putting it into the actual gate. So, the first thing you want to do is get a couple of tools. Phillips screwdriver and a/4in wrench. There is a little clear plate that you're going to want to remove. So, 1/4in wrench on the hex underneath and just a Phillips screwdriver. There are going to be two of these you're going to need to remove so you can access the plastic underneath. [Music] There, that's the plastic that you want to remove. Set it aside. Keep the screws. You'll use them later. All right, let the fun begin. So, in order to get at these two screws you need to remove, which is this screw and this uh hex post, you actually have to remove the ramp. This hex post is actually screwed on with a Phillips screw on the bottom side. So, you can't get to it. You can't secure it. So, you'll need to remove this piece of plastic and the ramp. So, here we go. [Music] So, there's a little spacer under there. So, keep track of that. Don't lose it in the game.
3:45
[Music] Okay. There are two pieces sandwiched in here. Lower piece and upper piece. Put them aside. Save them for later. All right. Next, we want to remove the ramp here. This nice wire form. It's held on in two places here and right here. Uh, it'll just slip out of the back. This is an 1132. So, you just basically remove the nuts.
4:09
There's a nut and a washer under there, so don't lose that washer.
4:19
Same thing with back here. Two nuts, two washers. This will just then lift out and slide right out of the back. All right. This ramp is actually attached to this plastic, too. So, you'll need to do the same thing here. It's still the same 1132.
4:41
So now that that's loose, keep in mind there is an actual washer underneath here. So this one has two washers, one under, one over, and then the nut. To remove this piece of plastic, there are actually just three screws. The rest of these are held on with screws from the bottom. They will come off with the plastic. So remove these three Phillips head screws.
5:07
All right, these three screws are really long. They actually go down into the playfield, but that will allow this plastic to come right off. So now the plastic is off. And you can see one of the posts I need to work on has a Phillips screw on the underside. So that one will need to come off next. So let's remove this hex standoff. quarter inch wrench and a Phillips.
5:32
[Music] So, keep in mind you got a hex standoff, a washer, and then a screw with a washer underneath. So, next we're going to need to mark and drill the spider arm. So, the first thing you're going to want to do is put this plastic back on. Use one of the long screws to find down the hole. So, that way you can keep this aligned. So we can mark this appropriately. [Music] So next up, take your spider. We're going to position the spider. So these holes are not going to be necessarily 100% on the actual mod. So I peeled off one side of the protective layer, so I can see through that. So just kind of put your spider where you think it should be. Looks like I've got the main part of the body kind of hanging out over that. Mark your holes so you can go and drill that.
6:35
So that'll give me a guideline of where to drill those holes so that you can sandwich that in there when you put it all back together. All right, I've drilled the holes in the mating piece here. So they're just lined up. They're a little bit bigger than the hardware. Uh, one thing, don't forget to remove your clear protective film on there. So, next step is we're going to mount the spider to where the hex post is. So, don't forget that. So, you got this hex post. Phillips goes through the bottom. Going to have a going to have an acrylic sheet go on here.
7:15
And then the hexost can go down. You may not have enough room for this washer with the original screw. We'll try it. Oh, we do. All right. So, now we'll just take our wrench and screwdriver and actually tighten it down.
7:35
We're not going to fully tighten it down. All right. So, now place your plastic back on it. Rotate your spider to where it lines up with the other hole. And that's where we're going to want to tighten it down. So, [Music]
8:05
all right. Now that the spider is actually mounted to the plastic, let's put the plastic back in place here. So, put it back on. And then take the three long screws and let's resecure them in place. One of those goes through the the new plastic for the spider.
8:26
There's some play in this, so you'll have to wiggle it around to get the holes to line up and then tighten them down.
8:39
[Music] There. Spider's mounted. So now we can put together the rest of the items. All right, let's reattach this ramp. So washer, metal, washer, nut.
9:02
Okay, that one's done. Let's put the other rail back on. [Music] All right. So, the other rail, these will just go into some tabs on the uh mating bracket up there. It' be pretty easy. [Music] And then drop get them in there and drop them back on to the alignment. So, remember original nuts. So, washer, nut, washer, nut.
9:32
[Music] Okay. After that, we're going to be putting back on the outer pieces of plastic. So, you've got clear spacer colored plastic. [Music]
9:51
All right, you've got one step left, and that's put this pterodactyl piece of plastic back on there. So, get your plastic, get your screws, put them in. [Music]
10:07
Voila. That's the spider on the spider pit. So, we'll see. We'll turn it all on and we'll do some play testing. All right. Playfield's back in place. Game is on. So, let's get this spider working.
10:31
There you go. Watch. So, there's the interaction you get with this aftermarket mod. [Music]
10:48
That's it. It's pretty simple, isn't it? Some basic hand tools and the ability to cut a little bit of Lex and you can do this mod to your own King Kong Pro Edition machine. So, please like this video and subscribe to us here on YouTube. Also, if you like live pinball play, we play here on YouTube and on Twitch on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. So, hope to see you then.