Let me know what you think of the Cointaker kit when you get it in - I don't want the colored GI bulbs they have, but don't know if there's any other piecing together I'll want to do vs. the other sub-kits. My first mod needs to be finding a manual! I haven't seen any toy-type mods for the shrunken head.

Jay - not sure if this is what you may be looking for, but I added these RBION target decals to my machine and it made it look a bit nicer, IMO. I got these at PinballLife. I've attached a link to these for your review. Have fun!

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2426&parent=108

Brock aka pinball_customs just made a very nice Shrunken head shooter rod. I'm sure he'll chime in with a pic or else you can find his custom shooter rod thread for all other mods.

I like the color changing led in the scoop arrow. I also have a green led in my scoop like how terry at pinball life has his.

I am currently making toppers for a few games.........Ripleys would be a cool one to make........hmmmmmmm let me think of one.

I don't know of any, but it really needs one by the scoop. The only ugly part of the table. Love that game.

Hi, here's the shooter:

http://forum-img.pinside.com/pinball/forum/?bb_attachments=167347&bbat=19131&inline&fullsize

Not officially for sale yet but I'll let you know when they're made public (need to take care of some backlogged orders first)

Thanks

- B

Put a super bright RED flasher inside the shrunken head..

I think you need to search for some figures for it...ie, a tiki god, a penguin,bigfoot. Just improvise...I think they would look great...mount them on a elevated peice of plexi atop already existing post....little bling bling, but nothing permanent to kill the original factor of the machine.. A tiki topper outta be easy and cheap

Don't buy LED kits! They charge you 3x what the LEDs would cost if just bought them individually. That said, RBION is fantastic. The one thing I did to mine besides LEDs, is that I put a color changing LED from Pinball Life in the Ripley's scoop shot arrow. Looks like it belongs there and fits the crazy theme perfectly.

Do you happen to have your bulb inventory that you used? Just curious as my RBION is my first pin and I'm not familiar off-hand with the common bulb sizes & types yet. Did you just wing it as to what lights you wanted to replace by a visual check of the PF, or use the manual for reference at all?

Does anyone do the whole back row? I wonder if that could get just too bright.

I might still have that list. I just went through the bulbs myself initially. I matched all the colors to the inserts with the exception of yellow and sometimes orange. Yellow isn't yellow and looks like a muddy brown. For yellow inserts use white LEDs. Orange LEDs under orange inserts will give you a slightly different orange than a white LED under an orange insert. I used both to differentiate different oranges. I used single Pinball Life LEDs. Do not use Ablaze 3's or anything else, they are way too bright. My RBION had LEDs along the back wall when I bought it, but I took them out and put regular bulbs in there. I do not like LEDs for GI. RBION looks much better with regular bulbs back there.

Is this true? I've never priced out the kits before. It would seem to defy logic. Shouldn't you get a discount when buying a bunch of LEDs at the same time?

Thanks for the advisement, Les. My buddy is using some frosted LEDs for GI on his table, I might check and take a look. He says they're not terribly bright. I'll have to check the insert bulbs and flashers and see if I can get a list going.

I think the idea might be for their time of taking inventory and matching the right styles/colors/etc to fit each table, but surely I could be wrong.

It is true...try pricing it out. I fell for it once...never again. I have since done my other 3 games individually. They are charging you for the work of putting together the kit initially. Ever wonder why the kits NEVER list out all the LEDs you are getting? That's because they don't want you to take the list and buy the LEDs seperately because they would lose money compared to you buying the kit.

Look at cointaker's insert kit for RBION for example. It is $64.95 for just the LEDs. I spent less than $30 shipped to do mine individually.

Actually it's more fun to make your own kit anyway.. you can play around with different colour ideas (under clear or white inserts). It also really doesn't take very long to make a list. Maybe 1/2 hour? I did it once for my Batman Forever while I was at a show (My BF pin was on the show floor).

Not the same game, but an example of changing colours on inserts would be my Iron Man. I changed the ramp inserts (100 - 400 thousand) from all white to a progression of white, yellow, orange and red. Looks much better.

This is not true for the kits I have looked at for TZ from Cointaker. Kit came out to a tad cheaper...not much. Enough to buy another LED or 2. It was not more for sure though

EDIT: Damn I don't have the .doc of whats included in TZ or NF kits....it's at home.

EDIT2: I would however do an inventory check as soon as you get them. I have had bulbs left out of kits.

So I am assuming you're using Super Brights? 44/555 are 1.19 each. 30/1.19 = 25.2. Are there only 25 insert lights in RBION? Looking at a picture just the continents, jackpot values, and jem thinggy there's 26 insert lights. Rough count there's at least 50 inserts. 50X1.19= 59.5 If I divide that by 2 I come up with roughly $30. No shipping included of course.

Bulk they change to #1 per bulb. 50 X 1 = 50.

Dude, seriously, can you hook me up with some LEDs at your discounted level?

Like Ablaze 3's, Superbrites are way too bright. They are a waste of money for inserts, brighter does not equal better. They look ridiculous and seriously affect the playability of the game.

Ablaze 1's. $.39 each and even cheaper with a quantity discount. There are something like 60 inserts in RBION's playfield. To be safe, call it 65. 65*$.39 = $25.35...before any quantity discount. Add shipping and you are still under $30.

Oh ok...so we talking apples to oranges then. Apples being you don't like the kits because they have different bulbs in them that cost more, and you feel they are too biright. Fair enough, although to jay I would say minis are too dim, make sure you do a test.

As for the oranges, this isn't actually a fact then?

"...It is true...try pricing it out....That's because they don't want you to take the list and buy the LEDs seperately because they would lose money compared to you buying the kit.

I would still argue that is true. If kits truly are cheaper then the companies shouldn't care if you buy the kit of the bulbs individually. Why then would they not list out what you are getting in the kit? What is the big secret? That doesn't make any sense.

Ablaze 3's, superbrites, they are way over the top for the vast majority of inserts out there...especially on RBION. LEDs should make the insert "pop" not look like a 70's disco gone wrong where you need sunglasses just to be able to play the game. Most of the inserts on RBION are very small circles or squares...Ablaze 1s light up those small areas extremely well and at a fraction of the price.

Well I don't know why companies do anything. My guess would be the fact that companies want to sell things in bulk. And people are probably more likely to say "just give me all my bulbs now" instead of counting all their own and writing down each kind etc etc. Maybe, maybe not, i don't work for them so I don't know.

Again, fair enough on your using minis or 1s, on RBION. You have the game and I do not, so that will probably help Jay out a lot.

But back to the kit issue...I mean you said it has 60 inserts.
The insert kit uses super brights
The kit includes 60 or so lights
Super Brights cost 1.19
60*1.19> $65 kit price

That's the problem I'm having. Or are you saying the kit includes cheaper bulbs maybe? For the smaller inserts?
That works out to $71

The 60 inserts was an estimate from looking at a pic of the playfield. I don't know exactly how many it has off hand. What I am saying is that if you buy the LEDs you need individually, instead of in a kit, you can save yourself a lot of money. The kit only comes with superbrites. If they did a kit with Ablaze 1's, it might be a different story, but they don't. Superbrites are not needed...way overkill...especially for RBION. A lot of people seem to have developed this group mentality that LEDs should be as bright as they can possibly be and that couldn't be farther from the truth. I have played games with Ablaze 3s and superbrites under the inserts...they play terrible. You get a strobe effect on the ball and the LEDs literally blind you they are so bright. Why pay $65 plus shipping for a kit, when you can get something very comparable (even looks and plays much better IMHO) for 1/3rd the price?

Right, stay away from the kits because you don't want/need superbrights. The lower power bulbs are better + cheaper.

See that wasn't so hard was it

Right.

"Don't buy LED kits! They charge you 3x what the LEDs would cost if just bought them individually."

They put the kits together with the most expensive, unnecessary LEDs they can to charge more. They don't give you an LED list so you can purchase other LEDs individually instead and they make unknowing people think that these kits are what they have to have because that is all they offer.

*sigh...we were so close.

What about LEDs for the backglass and GI? I'm assuming those are rip offs too?

For superbrites...absolutely. Unnecessary. Ablaze 1s totally get the job done if you want LEDs in the backbox. I have them in my Congo and they look great. As for GI, I already said I don't like LEDs at all in GI, I really wouldn't want even brighter LEDs. It looks bad IMHO and affects gameplay.

This is my simple message. If I am Joe Bagodonuts who wants to put LEDs in my pinball machine, I find an online retailer like cointaker to buy LEDs. I see that they sell a LED kit for the pinball machine I am looking to put LEDs into. Now, being just an everyday guy who doesn't know any better, I am going to think, "this is what I need" and buy the kit. I was there, I was this person, I bit and bought the kit. What I didn't know at the time and the average Joe doesn't know and/or realize is, cointaker makes the kits with the most expensive and unnecessary LEDs so unknowing people will pay more money than they need to for LEDs for their pins. All I am saying is that the average Joe shouldn't just think the kit is the only option for what they need and drop down the cash without thinking. They should buy the LEDs individually, get the product they need and save themselves a lot of money.

It completely depends on the game. My TOTAN came with Ablaze 1's in the whole machine, and it looked like crap. I ended up swapping out about 95% of them for superbrights, minis and Ablaze 3's. I also disagree with the notion that Ablaze 1's are best for the backbox. I've done a lot of backboxes, and I've come to the conclusion that superbrights are generally the best LED for this purpose. They have the perfect level of brightness, and most importantly, they have a good dispersion pattern which helps to reduce hotspotting. In the cases where a full superbright conversion yields too much light, you can always swap some of them out with Ablaze frosted or minis.

They are just really overkill and unnecessary IMHO, like 92 octane gas for an everyday driver car or expensive bottled water when you just need a drink. Does it get the job done...sure. Can you get the same or better results with cheaper options...absolutely. It all goes back to the "brighter is better" mentality that some people have. I have seen countless games with Ablaze 3's under every insert and in the backbox and it looks horrible. In a dimly lit room, these games are unplayable. These game owners will say to no end how great their games look while others just shake their heads in disbelief. I am a pinball player first and foremost, a pinball admirer second. If the superbrite LEDs affect gameplay negatively from how the game was meant to be played, I don't want it in my game. That's me, to each his own. Ablaze 1's for me, are the perfect mix of playing the machine as it was meant to be played while still benefiting from popping of the inserts and features that LEDs can provide. If people want to pay 3x or more than they need to to LED their pin and potentially make the game damn near unplayable...that's their choice. I just want people to realize there are other options (potentially better options) besides the singular mystery "kit" that some vendors offer and some people seem to think is the end all, be all.

Topper mod Im working on - going to try and light it up when the idol goes: http://cl.ly/3831390o173g3n1q3B3B

Ok we are having fun here but the whole negative spin is a little much. Look up LED threads and there are probably hundreds with knock down drag out love/hates either way. Therefore, it's kind of hard to blame cointaker for putting these kits together. They are not putting "brighter" LEDs in the kits to jack up the price. They are selling kits that use Super Bright LEDs, which I'm guessing are their most popular sellers. I just did my NF and I don't want minis, ablaze 1s for anything, tried them and they are dimmer than 555 bulbs. I needed super brights and could have dealt with ultras in a place or two, it's all personal taste (Although usually I do not like Ultras).
What Les is saying probably makes sense for RBION because of those small Letter inserts and Continents. The main thing is to just try a bunch of them and see what you think.

EDIT: And I totally agree the kits are not the end all be all. They threw in some flex 44s for me and in once spot they were good, in other spots horrible.

Les why not post a picture of your RBION lit up with the led's you have chosen. I would also be interested in that list of led bulbs that you used in your RBION. Thanks

Ever found a way to LED your PM?

Watch out, they all want to grab your shooter rod!

(that looks awesome, by the way, if I had an RBION I would go for that, and i'm not usually one for cosmetic mods)

I could do that. Game is in the garage right now, but it isn't too cold here, at least as far as Minnesota cold usually is. I will see if I have the list. I think I might have put it with the game manual in the coin box.

I am not normally one for cosmetic mods either, but his Congo diamond shooter rod was really cool. It matches perfectly with the diamond theme in the game and looks like it should have been there from day one, so I couldn't resist.

Hey thanks, man!

*edit* and thanks to Les too!

Can someone please make a huge cut out lighted head of Jack Palance please?

Hell yeah. get the fam together, order up some pizza, kick back on Friday night (I believe) and watch...good times.