Original post - "If you feel the same, post mods you've found in games and removed."

Every other post - "Not all mods are bad"

Yeah I'm sure that wouldn't distract me at all while playing.

But then I have to remember the worst mod offenders don't play pinball.

Was thinking I didn't have anything since most of the games i buy have been sitting neglected for decades, but realized I've got one! Bonus points for the non-connectored wire getting caught on another mech

14932382848711275719471 (resized).jpg

1493238308555648870921 (resized).jpg

There is a lot of truth to this statement. I can't count how many times I have seen someone post pictures of their pins with horrible mods and way more often than not, the high scores on the game are the factory default scores or barely just above them.

That and when they go to sell them they post they are HUO with 30 total plays on them.

Is that speaker wire?

Yep!

Holy crap..... I can't believe how beat up that ship is!

Hard to guage by high scores. I'm not always that great and actually tend to reset high scores fairly often. A better guage is thise 3 year old HUO modded to the max games that advertise only a hundred or so games... heck I rack that up in my first week of ownership.

Goes to LEDs in the cannons on the ship body. Hook to a nearby flasher and makes it look like the cannons fired.

They get that way. Worse than the trunk in TOM.

LTG : )

Not if you suck. Mine's perfect.

Here's the old thread for my Stern Stars.
Some genius modded it by adding a third flipper and an extra spinner. Yes, an extra flipper and an extra spinner.
It did not play well. Flow was awful, the extra flipper worked but aimed at nothing, and the extra spinner was just in the way of everything.
Removed those and patched the holes in the playfield, fixed the wiring, and it's been playing fine since.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fs-stern-stars-and-bally-capersville

The tortuga spinner was bare metal

Those have to be 2 of the worst uses of LEDs in a pinball machine

Those Games with those colors.....Blasphemy! Off with your heads!!

Im still blinded!!

Just had to remove a mod from the Mustang I bought. A Matchbox Mustang car was hot glued to the spinner bowl over the right inlane. It looks fine, but it totally blocked the view of the "R" inlane insert and you couldn't see if it was lit or not. Certainly had an impact on gameplay because you of course want to be able to see the insert to complete FORD.

Anything that blocks "Ford" is o.k. in my book

So there is another TOY thread going around on here, and this is my favorite "toy" for Pins, rather fitting for THIS thread

pasted_image (resized).png

Removing another mod from Mustang now that I bought mirror blades at Allentown.

These metallic foil poor man's mirror blades have got to go.

20170508_115609 (resized).jpg
20170508_115601 (resized).jpg

Is it still considered removing a mod if you're just replacing it with another?

Actually this is right on topic with the original post in the thread.

Putting Mods on my TZ 20 years ago was unique, innovative and fun.

I am still pleased with it, all though I am sure others are not.

As this thread has popped back up, I took a look around the marketplace and Ebay for Pinball
Mods.

I was shocked...Ill be honest, I didnt realize the state it is in.

Being a cheap Bastard, when I wanted to ad a toy Mod to an Elvis recently bought, I did as I always do, I hunt
for something right, and "Cheap", and Modify.

I never think to look for a Toy Mod made for a game first.

In seeing the stuff out there, there sure is a lot of over priced Junk!

Holy Shit! Are people buying these?

On the other hand, we do have some hardworking and Talented Pinsiders doing Brilliant work, with
thought, and effort.

But come on Gluing a $2.00 Toy to an Angle Bracket, and selling for $30...! Yikes!

Yeah there are some brilliantly designed mods out there:

Some are originally creative mods: Arcade Cabinet, WOZ Red Smoke Witch, Eli TRON Ramp Kit,

Some mods are great improvements to stock items: Hallmark Enterprise is a huge improvement over Sterns cheap looking model

But there are some downright terrible mods, a lighted twinkie comes to mind as one of the most recent "mods" and I use that word loosely, that I saw and thought "Holy sh*t that's just junk" then I saw the price $99 and laughed hard

I'm a partial modder.

I put LED's in my LOTR, but I used appropriate colors where warranted and mostly warm white everywhere else. No rainbow / clown puke action and I think it looks great.

ColorDMD and anti-glare glass are musts. Fan of the shaker too. I'm a fan of nicely done target / stand up decals as well. A shout out to Cliffy and his offerings. Cliffy should be an OEM supplier to the manufacturers.

Agree with others there are a number of worthwhile mods which look like they should have been on a machine right from the factory and there are quite a few others which look horrible. I try to pick and choose wisely...

The problem is -- everyone is doing this but everyone's opinion is totally different about what's 'wise'. Nobody is "right" -- there's just a lot of different opinions.

Can we all agree that cliffy protectors, colordmd, anti glare glass and led bulbs are not what this topic is about?! It's about unnecessary junk cluttering the playfield.

Yeah, it's the hot glued on geegaws & tasteless "upgrades" that cause the most angst among mod haters.

LED bulbs are a big part of this thread for sure.

Gryszzz says he against mods but the evidence proves different.

Maybe you're right, I have seen some over the top color matching

People mod for different reasons. Way to much generalizing going on here.
I say "Mod and Let Mod" but then I live in New Hampshire where the state motto is "Live Free or Die".

I don't know if it's my glasses or my eyeballs, but the common, cheap, blue LEDs that you see on cheap electronics nowadays are really uncomfortable for me to look at. If I buy so much as a usb charger with a blue led it gets electrical tape over it.

It's obvious that not everyone shares this phobia, but I can barely look at machines where the general illumination has been replaced with blue LEDs.

(Even in photographs, where the blue doesn't bother me, I don't understand the point. It just washes out all the playfield colors.)

This topic is encouraging discretion through constructive criticism

Best part of this topic is all the "Mods" suggested below the posts in the marketplace LOL

O, I like tasteful mods, but do agree the shooter rods and a few led cab add-ons are hideous...

But...I say people do what they want with their games, whatever makes them happy. It's their game, be happy with it and screw those who disagree...

Not uncommon. The Blue-Red-UV hue is especially hard on the eyes, and more so as we age.

I am a bit concerned about some overuse of Blue Flashers and UV flashers on some peoples eyes, especially over time.
I think of being temporarily blinded by wrongly used LEDs in flashers or in GI, and what this might do with long term play at home, and say, in the dark.

Keeping the flashers that are closest to the flippers....where we concentrate our eyes, shouldnt be too much brighter than incandescent. I recently played a Xmen, and COBS were used in front, Blue, Automotive or Emergency vehicle, that I had to step away.

You might think its cool now...I hate to think about the kids. You wouldnt have them staring into a cars headlight.

I have the same feeling about blue LEDs in some instances. For me it's especially jarring to look at blue LEDs on a plastic that normally has a condom bulb on it, like a ramp plastic showing a shot is lit, or in large inserts. I don't think GI bothers me, but I don't have any games with blue GI. But I can remember when changing the green lock lights to blue in the Baywatch guard shack - awful! Also a few other games I tried blue in a jackpot or whatever insert.

Im almost always using the lighter, Ice Blue, at every chance as a substitute....Much easier on the eyes,
and when doing water on a Backbox, Ill mix the two.

There was an article I read in Readers Digest that talked about how harmful blue light is to us. LED screens emit blue light that can cause headaches and insomnia.

So it's understandable that some might be sensitive to blue LEDs.

Many of the posts are not constructive criticism.

Although I will agree with the argument about the custom shooter rods feeling "awkward". Nothing wrong with them, but when I have had to use them, it was enough for me to know this is not for me. I did put a green lighted round one on my WoZ. Feels fine, and since it is smooth and round, easy to keep clean.

My opinion is (just that) Cliffy, ColorDMD and "Glare Guard". My game room is a darker (no natural light) area and a glare guard to keep the DMD from reflecting is enough. Unless you intensify it with -> -> ->

Absolutely. If you put bright, stupid color blotches behind the translight it looks awful twice, the backbox and the reflection.

Loved New Hampshire when they really believed that concept. But look at what is going on in the universities and towns around them and it is becoming a license plate slogan. Pretty soon it will just say Vermont

I find it very constructive

I think it looks like something from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

close-encounters-9bfdeb6b (resized).jpeg

Not really that strange of a phobia. It's called "photophobia". You can get blue-blocking lenses that can sometimes help. But you wouldn't like our ZIP One audio codec, and at $2K they are not cheap.

ZIPStream R2_Front_Carousel (resized).png

Some of it is. But any statement that says "you should not..." without backing that up with some valid reasons as to why just seems.....weak.

I see the same thing quite often with pin reviews.

9296e9df35dcbfaf6e4c1becbc61e0ba (resized).jpg

Judging by the Star Wars thread, when those machines hit the secondary market they're going to be loaded with junk

Its not LEDS that are the problem if the bulbs are being changed like for like, so replacing all incandescent with a good quality warm white LED is certainly better for the game less strain on the boards etc, the BIG problem with LEDS is when people go JPOP on their games discolour the entire playfield that T3 above is the perfect example of how NOT to LED a game, looks like JPOP threw up all over it.

It's always disappointing walking up to a nice-looking pin and realizing someone's gone and stuffed it with crappy strobing cold-white LEDs.

I like some mods... speaker lights and acrylics, scoop lights, matching art blades and led flipper buttons (one color that matches the artwork colors). Sometimes a small sign is ok too.

I also like flipper guard side rails and ColorDMD, and some toppers but I consider those upgrades.

Never liked putting stuff on ramps, changing the apron, adding action figures or making half the playfield hard to see.

That interesting as I would say Toppers are mods.

Which brings up a question I had after seeing a couple sell quickly in the market place this past week.

Matt McKee, Laseriffic and all 3rd party toppers? Mod? Upgrade? Accessory? What is the non modding consensus in here regarding after market toppers?