I think I just had a heart attack. Once my wife sees this we are going to have to re-shop STTNG! CRAP!

lol...Eddie, I was kind of wondering the exact same thing. That was the first thought I had when I saw how shiny they were. AFAIK, Cliffy's sleeves are an extruded plastic, so I don't think it's the same, but I could be wrong?

I was wondering if the colored rings are going to be shiny as well or if they will have a matte finish?

Cool. I was hoping for shiny, but gotta see how they look on the game. Can't wait for actual rings instead of just flipper rubber!

So here's a fun question that's only mildly relevant... has anyone tested the durometer of Pinballcenter's clear rubbers? They're tough as nails and don't have any of the downside of black/white rubber, but can tear/pop if stretched too far beyond "spec". When I had it on Tron it was impossible to get the mini-post rubbers on the posts without breaking them.

The ones from germany are way too hard to be silicone.. it felt like it was about 30% harder than a "normal" black ring, and played fast as crap....I was actually worried they might tear posts out of the playfield if they were wood screwed in and not t-nutted..

"In response to other rubbers, slings are in the works to add to the Saturn line up. "

I was under the impression from the inital posting that you guys were going to be making these in all standard ring sizes... if that's not the case, then bummer, because it's a total miss IMO. That's the reason I never bought colored rings from Gene, because it was always like he was missing one or two stupid sizes in any given color that I'd need to do a full set and it's a pinball machine, not a pinstripe suit.

If this material turns out only to be viable for flipper rubber, bumpers, and shooter tips... to me at that point I'm just like....who cares?

Okay, I'll make sure to order a few extra sets for each game when you have full sets that I need in stock.

Slings is a good starting point to test out how the ball plays against the three different types though, so I guess there is that to consider..once you get some inital stuff out I can order and try it out, then order full sets when the color I want is available.

I am so digging all this competition right now. It's gonna be so stupid nice to finally have a choice on rubber parts aside from "Break too easy" white and "make everything dirty" black from the usual suspects....

Well crap! I have my tourney this saturday. Too bad it's in a public venue (even though I talk to the operator directly lol) and so close...

Okay, that just sounds wierd.....so the "ifpa approved" thing isn't just referring to this brand of rubber, but to a specific durometer? I mean is PAPA going to change everything to THAT or what?

*Edit* LOL, anyone realize this just totally turned into a competive fighting game thing? "Oh yeah, well convex buttons are better! What, you don't use IL!?"

Thanks, that was the most helpful thing posted on the thread so far.

Josh - (I'm a Josh too so typing that just looks wierd...god..) Okay. I agree. Good example, right now we have white Pinball Life rubbers on slings and purple flipper rubber on our Twilight Zone. I think if you put a regular high level IFPA/PAPA player on my game, they might have a coronary trying to control the ball LOL. And this purple crap has characteristics that are different than other purple flipper bands I've had before..it's bouncy as crap as expected, but it's also "grippy" where it will just sometimes snag the ball towards the tip and let it go straight into the outhole instead of bouncing away as expected.

I'm all for leveling out that kind of playfield on a tournament level. Sounds good to me! I wasn't aware it was directed primarily at flipper rubber, now I am, and that's cool.

Bowen - I can see it both ways, it's really dependent on the circumstances though. I'm hosting a tourney at a local movie theatre this weekend, and I promise you none of those games will be leveled, their tilts fudged with from what they normally are, or have new rubber on them! ADAPT OR DIE!

I guess what I should've said is that in my own house, or where I have tournaments, I'd prefer for there to be a consistent way the flipper rubber acts without having to sacrifice the color. We are running tournaments and leagues in our area with a LOT of people that quite frankly, do not, and likely will not ever care about "advanced flipper control". I'm more of a on the fly type player myself and when I'm forced to control the ball a lot, I'm in trouble lol. Probably explains why I'm generally more comfortable on EM's than anything else.

That's why I was kind of confused about the whole thing though. It's not like IFPA would be able to dictate to all tourneys to use the rubber or risk their IFPA points, or they would likely lose a LOT of players real fast. It would've made more sense *to me* for PAPA to be the endorser, then have it on all their games or something....because I can tell you that unless that specific durometer is available in other colors, I'm not putting maroon rubbers on my purple flippers on STTNG. Might look okay on pink flippers on Future Spa though.

really need those transparent purple bats and rubbers for my Purple People Eater STTNG.

WOW! Holy overdefensive response batman! Yeah, you can kiss that order goodbye until other people can demonstrate these things have a durability that's something more than wet TP since you clearly are unable to do anything other than attack what people are saying.

"I prefer to stay behind the scenes and focus on what I do and not get caught up in all the drama."

And yet, here we are. People report valid concerns one time with the product and you just crapped all over yourself.

Run. Quickly. That will solve it...

"even if the durability is 'less' than rubber (when to change a flipper rubber is highly subjective anyway.)"

Okay, but what happens when they start selling "normal" rings made out of this stuff?

I don't want to disassemble my STTNG because some stupid ring or post bumper died after a few days. Pretty clear now why they're starting with flipper and slingshot ring sizes....they're the easiest to replace!

"I guess breakage on a few of these is an issue where breakage on the gum rubber ones which happen often is not!"

Jesus christ.. I appreciate that you guys are willing to resolve and replace the ones that are wearing too fast, but what the hell is the deal with all the backhanded comments along with it?

Can't tell any of us that you haven't been in this business long enough to know that rushing something out the door is going to create more problems than simply leaving some demand waiting a few days.

And for the record, I've never...ever...had a gum flipper rubber break on my games. Yellow, red, black, blue, purple, green...have used all of those and never had one break. Not in my home, not when games go to TPF...