The new machines will not have Pinball Inc ramps in them.

To be honest, both. We use a much thicker plastic than original. We've sent out over 30,000 ramps in 11 years. Less than 25 have ever failed in the field. The new MM machines will at best have the same thickness as original. Don't get me wrong, it's all about economics and I don't blame them. If they do 1000 LE's and say 1000 Standards and save just $3 per ramp (two ramps plus moat) that adds up to $12,000 savings just for the two ramps not including the moat.

Most likely the new MM machines will not be exact as the original so our ramps would most likely not work as a direct replacement in the future.

Look at the ramps Stern uses, those are very thin and they save around $10 per ramp compared to what we would make. In a home environment they do well enough so it's not like you're getting something that will break in the first year or two.

FYI, one of the biggest factors in ramp failure is florescent lighting. It will "dry" up the plastic quicker than any other factor making it brittle.

My comment was "cheaper", meaning cheaper than ours (see other post).

The first Fishtales we made were very different from the current ones. We found that the first ones were indeed a pain in the rear to install because we ended up way too thick.

The AFM Lobster was made using two different molds. If that's the one your talking about you should have received a small white spacer which would make the install simple and easy.

The MM peasant ramp was something that no one ever bothered to contact us about. It seemed it was thrown out on the forums but we never caught it because we really don't have a lot of spare time to spend on forums. Finally someone contacted us directly and all it took was 10 minutes for us to figure out that it is NOT the exit grove which caused the problem but it was the ramp wall at the exit being slightly flared outward. This flare was cause by our flame polishing where we flamed the inside first then the outside. Now we've reversed the order and no more issues.

It should go without mention that if there ever is an issue please contact us directly, our customer service department is not any of the public pinball forums.

We've been doing this 11 years. Like everyone else making parts from scratch we're not perfect but we do everything in our power to make sure we have the highest quality ramps available.

Cheers,
James