I was chatting to a mate today at a tournament where the titles were Star Trek Pro and Mustang Pro. He came second (which was a massive surprise for him) and the #1 piece of advice he gave me was to get a Stern machine (I only have a HS currently). I know I need to get good intuition/muscle memory-thing going with Stern flippers if I want to play better in these sorts of events and I just can't trust location pinball to be good enough to do that.

I've never been a big (new) Stern fan, but while trying to think of a game that'd be both appropriate and cheap (compared to a NIB Pro anything) RBION popped into my head.

So my question is: Has the construction/feel of Stern flippers changed much (if at all) since RBION?

The added benefit would be to tweak my controlled play given I'm more of a flow/fast and loose player, but my main concern is getting used to the lighter and snappier feeling Stern flippers vs. older Williams ones.

And if anyone can make suggestions for other games in a similar price range which would be decent. Thing is, thinking about that era of Stern machines, most had fairly unattractive artwork and/or basic playfield layout. At least RBION is hand-drawn.

Thanks, all!

PS. Non-essential question that I figure I'll just throw in here: What's a suitable price for a HUO (or even just a good condition, but sighted) RBION, either in the US or Australia? Checked bostonpinball's page, but that's eBay prices.

Fantastic, thanks for the input guys!

One of the main reasons I thought I'd ask here before assuming was that the flipper rebuild kits for Stern games seem to be universal, from late Sega to today (as in, there's no differentiation between any Stern "eras"). Figured that meant flipper control remained static over the last 10-15 years or so, but it looks like it hasn't... unless there's a way to get that newer Stern flipper feeling on older games?

Sub-question: What would the difference be between Stern flippers from the Whitestar era to today? Bats? Because like I mention above, the mechs appear to be identical.

Oh, so I could make it feel like a newer Stern machine easily enough? That's good enough for me! Keep in mind, for this topic I'm referring to just how the flippers feel, not shots, build quality of the playfield and parts etc. And as mentioned earlier, obviously the newer machines play a LOT faster than the older ones with whatever PF coating they use these days.

Edit: Crap, should've picked up on this. So even though they use the same mechs across the board, there's been a change in the coils they use for the flippers? By the sounds of it though, it's no big effort to update them to the newer ones like you've done.

Yeah, if I wind up getting one then I'd definitely be getting the new coils. Would they be the main difference between how the RBION flippers feel and, say, Star Trek?

Oh, and by following vid's guide on replacing flippers, I've actually bought a WPC flipper rebuild kit for my High Speed to replace the factory standard System 11-era ones. It's been a while since I've played a WMS pin that has fresh mechs on it, is it possible that upgrading to the WPC flippers could improve my control on new Stern machines?