I have a machine I'm looking at and, in fact, we're probably in the final stages of negotiating. One minor issue is a broken plastic under the top right flipper (the one with that says Klingon Assistance). littleshopofgames.com has it listed, but out of stock, for $19. I know color might be off, but buying a whole new set of plastics seems like overkill so are there any places that might have this item?

This will be our first pin so I was curious what essentials I probably should buy? I was going to buy new balls, NVRAM upgrade, wax. Anything else?

I was pondering plastic protectors (like these: http://www.pinballdecals.com/PartsByGamePages/STTNG_Page.html) as well so I could worry less about broken playfield plastics. Not soon but I was mulling over a plastic playfield protector as well at some point.

As Picard says in the glorious pin I hope to pick up, Suggestions?

Yours looks quite gorgeous! Woo laser canons! I have never seen those in person or otherwise. Is it a pretty cool mod? I've heard it doesn't make ball launching that much easier (and, if not, I think I may add some too at some point).

The TNG I'm picking up does have at least the NZone cliffy. I'm not sure how clean the inside of the main cabinet is, though the boards look good and the playfield (apart from the broken plastic) looks good to my perhaps inexperienced eyes It plays just wonderfully! I went to play it the same day I went to Pinballz in Austin and his TNG was the best machine I played of all the machines I played that day. He seems to have taken good care of it generally.

He's done at least a partial LED conversion. I'll probably finish up as the first thing I'll upgrade. Want to get a shaker too and, of course, eventually a ColorDMD. Even the Mrs., who thinks pinball machines are entirely too expensive, thought the ColorDMD was awesome

As far as the plastic, yeah I'll happily take you up on that! It'll probably be a few weeks before I have the machine in my possession if all goes well, so I'll wait on that just in case. I really appreciate that though! The only way I could otherwise find it was to buy a whole set of plastics.

Speaking of, do you use or recommend the plastic protectors? I see there is one specifically for the one that's busted so I'm thinking it would be a worthy investment?

Sorry for the wall of text hah, as you can tell, I'm excited!

Hmm I'll have to check on the subway protectors, though he just recently rebuilt the flippers I think, has cliffys. Ball plungers hmm...I guess I'll need to get the machine first before I know what parts to get and such.

You mentioned ROM - you just referring to the ColorDMD ROM or another one? There's one floating around that has funny sayings by the cast (at least in attract mode) right? Totally want to get that. ColorDMD is on my list but pretty far down. STTNG's price means I'll have to wait to do anything that's non essential for a little while.

Ah so they do! I looked there twice already and didn't find them. Finally just searched for "Klingon" and it was the top post Well glad to know I have some options. I was worried it was going to be hard to find.

Sweet Jesus! (I think that was a quote from First Contact as well, yeah?). That looks quite incredible!

Looks like you got your flippers from here? http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SRCH Do those flippers with the superbands play any differently?

I haven't seen a TNG with mirror blades until yours. How much to they interfere with working on the playfield? I was wanting to get a back-wall decal. Wasn't sure about mirror blades yet - do they help brighten up the field a bit (always hard to tell from pics).

You've put some fantastic work into yours, but, I have to say, the beer holder is probably my favorite mod

Curious - how would one go about adding LED GI's like that? Sounds like more than just replacing an incandescent bulb with an LED one?

Wow that EL looks better than I thought! I was pondering those, but I really like wireforms for the metal look and didn't want to detract. Those have me thinking twice! Sub and shaker are both also on my list though they'll be a while.

@pezpunk wow that mod looks quite involved! I was more referring to the flex-heads you mentioned to illuminating the playfield? I might get around to lighting up the toys but, woo, after seeing that mod, I may wait until I'm brave. I don't even have my TNG yet

Getting really excited about having one though after seeing all these awesome suggestions and blingied out TNGs! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

Ah ok. So you just stick them existing sockets then?

I don't know the exact specifics since I don't have one It tried to explain this myself without getting marred in details, but the FAQ page does a better job than I could (see http://ledocd.com/faq.html):

"LED OCD connects between your power driver board and the controlled lamps. It monitors and interprets the signals that would normally control the lamps, then adjusts the control based on your configuration.

More technically, it re-drives the lamp matrix at 250 Hz (twice the rate of a Stern SAM machine, and 4 times the original rate of a Williams WPC) in order to eliminate flicker. It modifies the duty cycle based on your configuration to control brightness."

Basically, for leds a higher switching frequency means less flicker.

I was looking around for those, but only really found them on eBay and surely there is a better route to go?

Oh hah right, derp. Didn't see them when I looked TNG up on IPDB, but there they are!

LEDOCD is absolutely on my list. I'd buy one now but the deal isn't final on the TNG I want. Otherwise it'd already be in the mail