I'm interested in some for JP, but I notice not all sizes that JP calls for are available (1/2" and 2 3/4"). What is the recommendation for the sizes that aren't available? Go the next size down or next size up?

I'd love to see some colored versions of the fatter, shorter post rubber sleeves. I don't know if they're just not prevalent or what, but I've never seen colored ones of this rubber from any manufacturer.

Per the Pinball Life page for the standard black version (http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=66):
5/8" OD (outer diameter); 5/16" ID (inner diameter); 1/2" High.
Stern/Sega/Data East Reference #545-5151-00

I just had a crazy idea... If I go based on the inner dimensions, I see that you have a 5/16" ID ring... Couldn't they be stacked up to the needed height on these posts? That could look nice and certainly opens up possibilities with these posts for now. Plus you could alternate colors in the stack for a cool effect...

I like it! Of course, I'd still love to see an actual post rubber at some point, but this works! Depending on the title, it could be fun to alternate colors in the stack.

Except when manuals are wrong. Not that I have a lot of examples, but JP has at least 2 mistakes in the manual with regards to the required rubbers. If you went by the manual, you'd have one less standard post sleeve than you need and an extra slingshot sized rubber that the manual indicates is somewhere in front of the t-rex... It's probably best for an owner to at least confirm if the manual is correct.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression that the original Titan colored rings are made out of a rubber that's more similar to standard rubber rings, and not silicone. I guess it's a matter of whether or not the silicone rings will last significantly longer, and if you find the other benefits such as potentially easier cleaning to be worth it to you. I think any accumulated dirt on them would wipe off pretty easily.

I think a lot of the dirt on playfields comes from standard rubber rings rubbing off on the ball kind of how rubber soles of shoes can leave skid marks on hard floors, but I could be wrong about that. I would think the silicone rings would be much less likely to transfer material onto the ball, so my hope is it results in a generally cleaner game. I guess that remains to be seen.

I'll be installing a full set in my JP for an expo over the weekend and will report back with results afterwards.

I received my order today and will be installing this evening.

With just handling some of the rings, they seem well-made and the colors are vibrant. I have some orange, red, yellow and light blue. I stretched a few just to see how they compare to standard rubbers and they feel comparably stretchy. I think they'll stretch over posts and install just like standard rings.

The main difference just on visual inspection alone from standard rubbers is that the silicone rings are much slicker whereas the standard rubbers end up with more of a matte/chalky look to them. I'm curious to see if there's any noticeable change in overall gameplay.

I'm particularly interested in seeing how the post sleeves will affect play in JP vs. the Cliffy posts that I current have installed. The Titan Competition sleeves seem less rigid, so I'm betting they'll be bouncier, maybe closer to standard rubber and the gameplay may end up closer to the game designer's intention.

More feedback to come.

Thanks,
Jim

EDIT: Oooh, I just noticed that the rings have an identifying inscription on one side. No guessing what size they are or having to hold them up to a size chart!

I finished up my installation. All rings were replaced, with the exception of two tiny post rings I missed when putting together my list. I love the colors!

Installation was a breeze. They behave just like regular rubber rings for installation purposes. I haven't played yet, but will report back after some play testing. I did manually roll the ball around the pf and it seems to get some good bounce off of these rubbers.

By the way, I ended up replacing the metal posts with star posts and avoided the ring stacking I had originally planned. The plastic posts look a lot better and hopefully won't negatively impact play.

Here's a couple pics from my phone. I'll get some better pics with a DSLR when I can convince my wife to take them.
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JP calls for 2 3/4", but I went with 2 1/2" and it stretched out just fine and isn't too tight. I know mine was just a 1/4" difference, but maybe 3" would work for you?

I've played a few games and will post more, but I've got a good impression so far. They're definitely bouncy, probably moreso than the older rubbers I had.

The post sleeves are definitely bouncier than the Cliffy ones. The ball ends up airborne a lot more now when hitting the posts at high speeds, though some of that is likely also attributed to tightening up the screws in the flipper assemblies. I'm not sure how this behavior compares to the standard rubber post sleeves in JP since I haven't had those installed.

I'll have to wait until I get the game set back up at home before thoroughly inspecting wear and telling the final play number, but the rings in my JP held up over the weekend at the Louisville Arcade Expo.

I checked audits this morning before the expo opened today it was at 443 plays and the dirt on the rubber was not bad at all. Here are pics from that time.

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I wish I had gotten a flipper pic, since I've only had black rubbers in this game prior to this and wouldn't have noticed dirt on the black.

At any rate, rather than keeping it dirty through today, I decided to give them a quick cleaning. They wiped off really easily. I sprayed a dab of Simple Green on a rag and they all cleaned up in a couple wipes.

JP ended up with 586 total plays over the weekend at the Louisville Arcade Expo. The Titan Competion Silicone Rings are still in-tact. I just got the game set back up at home and don't have the energy for a close inspection at this time, but will post back with pics when I get back to it.

Hmm... I'd like to see the small Stern/Data East posts, but now that I've swapped them for star posts, I could see myself doing that on most of my games that have them... Not sure how prevalent they are on SST, which I also have, but it definitely has a small flipper.

Of course, I'm just selfish and want to have compatible rubbers for all MY games, so submitted for your consideration is the thinner Gottlieb flipper rubber (for my Super Mario Bros.).

I finally got around to taking more pics and inspecting closer. The rubbers held up great at the Louisville Arcade Expo. I had 586 total plays and I wiped the rubbers clean at the beginning of the final day. What you're seeing here is the dirt accumulated after 143 more plays on the final day. I expect that by this point the ball trough, bumpers and other areas the ball makes frequent contact with were transferring dirt onto the ball so the dirt situation was probably exacerbated by that. Even still, I don't think the dirt accumulation was that bad.

The only thing I noticed from a wear perspective is that the sling rubbers appear to have developed a permanent indentation where the sling arm makes contact. I tried photographing this on both slings. I don't know what the implications of this are. It might be fine staying this way or maybe the rubbers should be rotated periodically to reduce wear to the same spot.

I personally like the way everything plays with them in. The ball sure did get crazy up near the 4 upper posts, though. The ball saw a lot more air when hitting those than when the Cliffy posts were installed. I kind of like that aspect. Again, I haven't had regular rubbers on the posts, so don't have feedback for how the Titans compare to the regular rubber there. I did have regular rubber everywhere else, though, and I feel like the Titans are maybe bouncier (in a good way) though some of that could be attributed to aged rubbers.

Overall I'm happy with the product. Any changes to gameplay that I'm noticing are positive changes in my mind. I love the colors and can't imagine wanting to go back to boring white or black after this (Though I understand people may want to keep the look original and may buy black or white silicone rings, but not me. ). I also love the easy cleaning and what I perceive to be less dirt build-up as a result of these not transferring material onto the ball the way regular rubbers would.

Here are some pics.
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I think it's just dents. When I rotate the rubber up to look into the dents, I still see the edge line where the two mold halves met. They're not deep dents by any means.

The only other thing I can think to point out about the slings is that I'm a half inch under what's called for. That means they're pulled slightly tighter than they might be otherwise. That may contribute some to the tendency to dent, but I have no way to know for sure.

I think it calls for 2 3/4" which isn't a currently available size from Titan. 2 3/4" is what I had installed when I had regular rubbers in. 2 1/2" didn't feel too tight. For me it was preferable to 3" which I felt was a little too loose.

Well, I replaced some metal posts with plastic posts, so my kit wouldn't be stock...

No one is saying 600 is the limit... I expect they'll hold up much longer than that.

Awesome! As soon as they're available I'll replace the rubbers in Super Mario Bros.

Wouldn't gitd rubbers require light to "charge" them? Even then, wouldn't that charge be relatively limited? I wouldn't think they'd be very visible under normal gi unless the game blacks out during play. That's not to say they shouldn't be made.

Can't wait! These additions are going to allow me to re-rubber Super Mario Bros (Gottlieb flippers) and Starship Troopers (mini flipper and several short posts).

I put some left-over orange flipper rubbers I had in SST and they look great in that game since it has a lot of orange highlights in the playfield, so I may do SST up in orange rubbers, but will consider some different colors for different areas.

I'll have to think about colors for SMB. Green comes to mind, but red and blue might be better.

One observation I had about post sleeves: I replaced a couple of them on SST with Titan posts and noticed the ones I removed were firm, like the Cliffy post sleeves. They were black, but I'm not sure if they were stock or if they really were Cliffys. Are there standard post sleeves that are a firmer plastic or something? I'm just wondering if some games call for firmer post rubbers and some might need bouncier ones. I guess at the end of the day it would come down to user preference. I, for one, have been liking the bouncier posts in JP and like it so far on the couple of high impact posts in SST.

Man, I need to find the time to figure out what I need for some of my games!

Then I have to figure out colors!

Hmm... I haven't looked at kits and how they work, but it's almost like you'd want to see an editable list of everything with color drop-downs prior to adding it to your cart. If you wanted to break something out into different colors, it should give the option on each line of adding a new line of the same thing so that you can change the color/quantity. Just a suggestion.

I think I'm in the same boat as you. I want to say it's that I haven't had time to figure out what I need for a game rather than being too lazy, but having a kit in the system makes it that much easier to go ahead and order even if I don't install it right away.

Edit: Alas, none of my other games (already have them installed in JP) currently have kits. Looks like it's on me to get these figured out.

I'm officially doing Caribbean Cruise as my next Titan rings game. I just picked up one in need of a teardown, so it will be a good time to catalogue which rings I need.

The playfield has a lot of pink on it, so pink rings would go, but I think I want something a little more contrasting like yellow to accompany some of the yellow accents. Any opinions?

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It looks like Gottlieb System 3's (not sure of others) might call for a non-standard post sleeve. They seem to be slightly fatter and slightly shorter. I was taking apart Caribbean Cruise to catalog the rubbers needed, and noticed these posts. I then looked at Super Mario Bros and they look like they might be similar, thought I didn't take one off to verify. They're yellow on CC and black on SMB.

According to Marco Specialties:
Yellow bumper post rubber sleeve is 1/4 Inner Diameter x 1/2 Outer Diameter x 7/8 inches high.

This is different than the Post Rubber Standard, right?

I don't have the CC manual, so don't have a part number from there, but Marco lists it as Gottlieb #A-26648Y (though I see this same part number on their 1/4 inner diameter x 7/16 inch outer diameter x 1-1/16 inch tall posts...).

Anyway, I can probably get away with using standard posts and cutting them down if needed, but it would be something to consider as a potential new rubber.

Edit: I noticed 7/8" posts are an option when building kits. One feature that might be nice is if the kit contains a type of rubber that's not currently available, it would give a notification that X was not added to your cart because it is not currently available.

Arg! Nothing like ordering and excitedly waiting a couple of days until delivery, only to get my order today and realize I didn't add the right number of rings to my kit AND even though I was pretty sure I did, I totally forgot to order the standard post sleeves as stand-ins for the shorter Gottlieb ones, and I even noted that I was going to do that in the previous post! Totally my fault.

On a positive note, I had a couple of standard post sleeves left over from my JP order and figured out that they will work fine in place of the shorter ones. At worst they just get compressed a little when screwed down, but no modifications are necessary to make them fit.

I would say there's no reason to rush on the shorter post sleeves, I'd be fine filling out my 2 Gottliebs with the standard ones, but it might be nice if when ordering a kit that has the shorter ones, it notifies that they're not available and gives the option to sub in the standard posts. I suppose a "standard post sleeve" version of the kit could just as easily be made and noted in the comments.

Thanks for the great products!
-Jim

I finished my Caribbean Cruise. The Titan silicone rings look great! The pink is a good match for this game. I put some yellow in for many of the rings, but they would have looked good in all pink, too. The flippers and post sleeves are pink as well as a few other rings.

Note that I used standard sized post sleeves and they fit just fine. The posts are the exact height of a standard post sleeve, so I'm not sure what benefit the shorter ones are other than being slightly fatter and maybe affecting the movement of the ball a bit differently due to that.

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Right when you're checking out and before you pay if I remember correctly. There's a box for coupon code.

It would be cool to see a pic of the shipment if it's literally over a ton. You could fill a room in your house and have a rubber ring pit to jump around in!

JP calls for 2-3/4", and I had 2.5" and 3" Titans to try. I felt like the 3" was too loose. The 2.5" was my preference. Maybe Sega spaced the posts out slightly differently to where 3" would be a better fit than on a DE?

Will adhesive stick to silicone well?

Good luck with that. You'll get inconsistent results at best going that route. I've worked with 2 part casting silicone and the results, even with the exact same type of silicone, when trying to adhere uncured to cured can result in peices that easily pull apart. Sometimes it makes an inseparable bond, but there are a lot of factors, like contaminants and cleanliness of the cured silicone that affect it. And what's Matt supposed to do, give you a small sealed tube of caulk with every stand-up target pad and wish you luck? I don't think that's going to work.

I don't have much experience with the variety of stand-up targets available, but are there enough differences that a one size fits all wouldn't be feasible if going the route of sliding it over? Just something to think about, I guess.

Am I misunderstanding what you're asking? Aren't most all Titan products available in all colors? I bought pink post sleeves for Caribbean Cruise and recall having a lot of color options when purchasing.

So everyone needs to being buying Titan rings!

I still need to populate more of my games with Titans.