(Topic ID: 46645)

Mini-review of Pinballcenter "transparent" rubber!

By Frax

11 years ago


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    #1 11 years ago

    Bought a set for my Tron, missed a good number of things I needed for the FULL set, but I got all the major stuff covered.

    Do you like your games to play fast? Do you like your flipper rubbers to catch the ball almost as if they had sticky fingers? Do you want your slingshots to play like someone put a Jagov Kicker in them? Do you want to see rubber rings on a pinball machine glow?

    If you answered yes to all or some of those, you're probably going to be interested in this stuff. These are some WIERD rubbers. I replaced most of the stuff I had on Tron last night. The only thing I didn't get was a few of the vertical posts and the mini-bumper-posts. I would estimate that these rings are "harder" than black rubber. If for instance (I don't know actual numbers, just making a comparison!) you say on 1-100 scale, higher is "harder", that white PBL rubber is a "40", but black Wico rubber (off a NIB stern) is a 50, then I would say this stuff is like a 57-60. There's that much difference.

    It plays FAST and brutal, and it can bounce a ball from a held-up flipper out of the Tron scoop all the way up into the pop bumpers if it hits the flipper just right. The slings are so stiff and tight that I'm actually going to have to close up the gap on my switches, because the slings aren't soft enough to allow a mid-speed ball to trigger them, whereas on black rubber it would trigger almost every time they were touched! When they DO go off, it's usually a pretty violent interaction. I haven't played it enough to say for sure, but I am a *bit* concerned with it potentially causing a lot of airballs.

    I shopped out Tron last night, so my disc is nice and clean, and the transparent rubber is back in the disc area, which is a LOT brighter now that it lets all that light through. This is really the strong point of these things... if you want a bright playfield that plays like a tough black rubber set without leaving all the scudge and gunk and darkness, this is for you.

    My only other thought is that these rubbers are so hard and fit so tight to equivalent sized black rings, that I am moderately concerned about their durability. I did have one small ring snap when pushing it down over a post last night because the ID of the hole wasn't a good match to the equivalent size rubber, it was smaller. I put the other ones that went on post on with a pair of needlenose pliers and it was fine, but just trying to roll the thing on the post....it snapped.

    Pictures incoming!

    #2 11 years ago

    A few pics. I can post more tonight when I get home.

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    #3 11 years ago

    i'd like to try those, it does look good on tron.

    #4 11 years ago

    One other annoying thing while it's on my mind...Pinballcenter doesn't stamp the ring size on the rings. Just "PINBALLCENTER" in fairly large lettering and their logo across from it. If you use em, make sure you put the text on the bottom side of the ring and rotate it out of view if you can.

    #5 11 years ago
    Quoted from Frax:

    Do you like your flipper rubbers to catch the ball almost as if they had sticky fingers?

    no, that sounds like it would erode your playing skills if you got used to that.

    It looks very nice, though.

    #6 11 years ago

    Not sure if I like it yet...but seems like a pretty cool idea...

    #7 11 years ago

    Love the idea... but having my games play that differently than outside the home would be a concern. My son and I compete a lot on locations.

    #8 11 years ago

    Really like the look though. Almost a fiber optic or EL-wire look. Great look on a Tron for sure.

    Looks like silicone rubber, probably stay a LOT cleaner for a lot longer.

    #9 11 years ago
    Quoted from ChadTower:

    Love the idea... but having my games play that differently than outside the home would be a concern. My son and I compete a lot on locations.

    That's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. IMHO, being able to adapt to different playing conditions is really critical for tourney play. Even as different as it was playing last night, and it not being level, and the disc shooting out a million miles an hour, I still had a "decent" game last night only having played 2 games... I had Flynn, Clu, Zuse, Gem, and Disc all lit solid, one shot to start Quorra, and lightcycle and extra ball lit on my third ball....then I drained.

    #10 11 years ago

    To me, those GI LEDs are showing through overly bright now, the rubbers look pretty cool, think I'll get me some for Hulk

    #11 11 years ago
    Quoted from mufcmufc:

    To me, those GI LEDs are showing through overly bright now, the rubbers look pretty cool, think I'll get me some for Hulk

    That could be adjusted. There are so many LEDs out there now that pretty much any lighting effect can be done with enough trial and error.

    #12 11 years ago
    Quoted from mufcmufc:

    To me, those GI LEDs are showing through overly bright now, the rubbers look pretty cool, think I'll get me some for Hulk

    It's the iPhone camera. I tried to use the HDR effect on there, but didn't work so great. It's definitely brighter than it was, but my biggest issue in terms of lighting on my game is actually....LED flashers. They are CRAZY bright, and the cointaker one down in the arcade/ZEN area is just way too much. During disc multiball with them all going off, and the GI going on and off every time you hit a shot, it's pretty bad if the room is dark.

    Trust me, I look at most people's pictures of their fruit-loops conversions and just shake my head.. I'm not one to make things overly bright or colored with a bunch of stuff that wasn't intended. If it ends up being too bright, I'll try retros instead of frosted and use those ones somewhere else.

    #13 11 years ago

    I have them on my congo they look and play awesome.

    #14 11 years ago

    Might be dumb question but is Pinball Center the only source for these at this time?

    IOW, is there any USA source for these?

    3 weeks later
    #15 10 years ago
    Quoted from BagAJellyDonuts:

    Might be dumb question but is Pinball Center the only source for these at this time?
    IOW, is there any USA source for these?

    Wondering the same thing. Any one in the US?

    5 months later
    #16 10 years ago

    Yuuup!

    http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3185

    I bought all types and I'm trying them out on a few games soon.

    #17 10 years ago

    Cool but is it me or do these look like c*ck rings?

    #18 10 years ago

    maybe thats where the idea came from

    #19 10 years ago
    Quoted from pinmods:

    Cool but is it me or do these look like c*ck rings?

    Definetly you.

    #20 10 years ago

    That's Cochran.
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    #21 10 years ago

    Frax,
    Sounds like these have the hardness + of black rubber (so not as much bounce) with the "stick-ability" of white rubber.

    Curious if these are what PBL is selling?

    Looks ABSOLUTELY AwEsOme on your TRON + a perfect fit to the title / theme!!

    Pin - K

    http://www.kimballspinballs.com/products.html

    #23 10 years ago
    Quoted from Pin_-_K:

    Frax,Sounds like these have the hardness + of black rubber (so not as much bounce) with the "stick-ability" of white rubber.
    Curious if these are what PBL is selling?
    Looks ABSOLUTELY AwEsOme on your TRON + a perfect fit to the title / theme!!
    Pin - K
    http://www.kimballspinballs.com/products.html

    Yeah....excecpt I sold my Tron back in march, right after TPF? Biggest. Mistake. Ever. I guess indirectly, in a way, it might end up allowing me to get Mideval Madness, so I'm going to try and take solace in that for the time being. Never expected to see this thread again, that's for sure..

    I don't know what material PinballCenter is using, but after seeing Superbands in person at Jared's place, I don't believe that they are polyurethane. They're something else, some other formulation of a harder rubber. Pinball life is selling Superbands, which ARE polyurethane.

    #24 10 years ago
    Quoted from Pin_-_K:

    Frax,
    Sounds like these have the hardness + of black rubber (so not as much bounce) with the "stick-ability" of white rubber.
    Curious if these are what PBL is selling?
    Looks ABSOLUTELY AwEsOme on your TRON + a perfect fit to the title / theme!!
    Pin - K
    http://www.kimballspinballs.com/products.html

    The ones at PBL are the pinballcenter ones. I just got all of the sizes needed to switch my Metallica over to the transparent rings as I really like the look of them. I will get some pics once I get them changed out.

    #25 10 years ago

    Just ordered transparent rings for my Starship Troopers, as well as a crap ton of different LEDs to try out, cliffy protectors, and cliffy post rubber. The crazy thing is, I have owned this game for two years and have yet to see the slightest amount of wear on the cliffy protector areas.....but better safe then sorry for the next few months/years. SST has the best clear coat of any game I have ever owned. I have noticed similarly nice clears on other Segas...Hmmmm.

    1 month later
    #26 10 years ago

    Just looking for updates to people who have tried this rubber. I see it's for sale on pinball life's website and have a few in my cart.

    Good? Bad? better etc..

    2 weeks later
    #27 10 years ago
    Quoted from TZBen:

    Just looking for updates to people who have tried this rubber. I see it's for sale on pinball life's website and have a few in my cart.
    Good? Bad? better etc..

    I'll be starting an on going review of these as of today.
    I've had them on my ACDC, No Fear, Shadow and Doctor Who for over a month now.
    Uploading a video to youtube right now to introduce them...

    My thread...
    http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/review-pinballcenter-clear-rings#post-1348189

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