You guys aren't making the arrow lamp inserts for the playfield by chance ? It is harder to find those then the plastics and if you do they are pulled out of a game, damaged and overpriced. If you can make a small run please message me I'd be happy to pay a good amount for them. image-176.jpg

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Just FYI a guy on eBay has some used ones for $75 after contacting him he will only take money orders or cash. He got kind of pissy when I questioned why I should trust him to send a money order so I passed. He claims somebody else already is going to buy them this week and is sending a payment so he doesn't care anyways. Seems funny he would say that he has reran that auction a couple of times and if they are sold why was he offering them to me? I'd say scam could be wrong but too many red flags with him.

We don't make inserts. We order them from the original factory in Chicago, from the original tooling. The problem is, the tool for these (and all) inserts are huge multi-cavity molds. The huge injection machines they are loaded into are about the size of an RV. In order to run inserts, and get their attention, we have to give them orders in the magnitude of 50,000 - 100,000 pieces... plus a dozen color changes... all in the same order. Enough for 8-12 playfield runs. All the inserts at once.

Even with that, they take 6 to 9 months to come along to cast our insert order.

The bigger kicker is a minimum run is 500 pieces, the smallest they will run. They won't even mount the tool without that. And with 10 pieces per casting, that's only 50 iterations of the machine, then they have to tear it down and clean it all out again. They hate it. They charge us through the nose for those little runs (like $4 per insert).

Lastly, inserts sold as parts - sucks ass. A very very tiny market. Mostly because the inserts are not a drop-in part. They need to be shaved about 1/16" just to be at playfield surface level. Even if we dove for a 500 minimum, floated $2000 for them, waited the 9 months for them to be made, and got them here - we'd be lucky to sell 25 of them per year...

Maybe if we run F14 playfields someday, we'll be ordering that tool mounted and casting many thousands of inserts from it (with color changes) to fill all those F14 playfields. At that time, we'd have many, at a decent price, and likely a small overstock. We could sell a few loose ones at that time. But it's no time soon. Maybe in years to come.

KEVIN
Classic Playfield Reproductions
http://www.classicplayfields.com

Thanks for the reply have you guys looked into 3-D printing to make playfield plastics for your own use? I know copyright laws may still hold people back from offering them but didn't know if that's a option yet one could look towards on parts like these.

Got my F-14 plastics set, thanks.

It's crazy how dark the blue is compared to the plastics on my 28 year old pin!

I know, probably doesn't help...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-tomcat-playfield-reproduction

There IS an F-14 playfield coming!

Just to give some perspective on what Stu is saying... I remember we used to have a graphic at the web site during the BOPP playfield release, showing how much of a problem blue-shifting is on old pinball parts. So I went and found it. I've posted it below.

Two good examples are shown. BOPP and F-14. Fathom was another good example, but it's not shown here. Blue inks tend to head toward "green" over the decades. Sometimes leaving you with "ocean" or "teal" type colors instead.

Blues tend to have transparency to them (as inks) so the white behind them gets involved in making them look "solid". In the case of F-14 plastics, the blue point was mixed with backlighting in mind. This was to prevent a washing out effect when the bulbs come on. Light those suckers up! They will appear 5-10% deeper when not illuminated.

Traditional blue shifting

KEVIN
Classic Playfield Reproductions
http://www.classicplayfields.com

It looks like it did help big time hopefully works out thanks!

I got my f-14 plastics yesterday, they look great, thanks again!

Just ordered 7 new arrow insets from mr.pinball the blue ones are not available but I think mine can be salvaged a couple reds were beyond repair so glad I could get them. Funny guy on eBay with the trashed red ones who only took money orders searched for 20 years I've looked for three months guess he isn't on this site.

Got mine the other day. Just opened the box. These things look fantastic! I thought the blues on my old plastics were still looking pretty good. Are the blues on the new plastics truly what the originals used too look like ?

Also realize that the old washed out blue plastics matched the washed out blue on the playfield.
Damn !! I need a new playfield now. Thanks CPR !!!!!

Ordered my set of Diner plastics

Thank you (now get me a Diner playfield)

That WOULD be sweet...along w/ a mirrored backglass.

(hint...hint, Stu)

LOL....

Just thought I'd keep "pushing your buttons" Stu.

Just hoping all this happens sooner, rather than later.

Ya can't blame a guy for trying.....

I was going to ask about the diner BG as well. Passed on an nos translight for the mirrored version. Can we bug Rick? What can we do to help. I am soooo ready to order one.

Arrggghhh - just got my F14 plastics Friday and also have to say the same thing, massive difference - damit, damit, damit, damit, damit...

Hi Stu,
Just got my Diner plastics and they look great!
I don't think I'll get to installing them soon; any tips on storing them so they don't curl/bend? Store them sandwiched?

Is the Diner backglass licensing timeframe/process going normally? You sound aggravated, but is the process aggravating, or is something going poorly here?
Thanks, and Thanks!

Just got these in the mail thanks again for the post link.

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Need to wet sand one more time 3rd clearcoat may do one more but came out overall pretty good minor lift from orginal lacquer near tomcat guys head. If a reproduction was available I would have not done all this but I just couldn't wait any longer. I did not bother trying to recreate the digital shadow art near the kickers but I think it blended in good if you did not know the game doubt you'd notice. I'm not a artist at all so did the best I could.
Made a flip a gram of the work done before clear coating the blue inserts were a pain in the ass!!
http://flipagram.com/f/RrLLOhn5yc

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Sorry Kevin
I jumped the gun....was my first time ordering from CPR...I am just so used to paying extra at end of a delivery.
I Knew there were Canadians involved but i didnt know it was Canadian company. eh!
Anyways everything shipped fine and no extra fees's

Kevin/Stu,

Any chance that you guys will be making playfield plastics for Jokerz any time soon?

ChrisG78,

Awesome Flipagram!

I thought my F-14 was in rough shape. You should be proud of that job!

I like it better without that stupid digital shadow art anyway.