(Topic ID: 206600)

Super bands crazy expensive vs Titan

By rockrand

6 years ago


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  • 56 posts
  • 30 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by kdunbar
  • Topic is favorited by 4 Pinsiders

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    There are 56 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
    #1 6 years ago

    I have been discovering the fun world of color bands and been buying Titans which are great but I want some translucent bands for a game and can only find super bands costing three times the price Of Titans,2/1/2 inch sling shot ring is around 3.50 to 4.50 and Titan is 1.35 are there any translucent bands cheaper that are in varied colors,I believe pinball life has some in clear but no other choices

    #2 6 years ago

    I thought Titan had full translucent stuff? Live a little you deserve it pay the extra. Both are good products.

    #3 6 years ago

    I have Titan translucent on the SBM I'm working on, their web site shows translucent, maybe just not your specific size?

    https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/polishing-up-a-silverball-mania/page/4#post-4155908

    I'm sure Titan_Pinball will chime in, they are avid pinsiders.

    pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

    #4 6 years ago
    Quoted from rockrand:

    I have been discovering the fun world of color bands and been buying Titans which are great but I want some translucent bands for a game and can only find super bands costing three times the price Of Titans,2/1/2 inch sling shot ring is around 3.50 to 4.50 and Titan is 1.35 are there any translucent bands cheaper that are in varied colors,I believe pinball life has some in clear but no other choices

    Id like to see SB vs Titan clear rubber comparisons. When I look at Titan's site, it looks like their translucent rubber is opaque and not see through, like super bands.

    #5 6 years ago

    I think the op is looking for colored translucent.

    10
    #6 6 years ago

    Super-Bands are cast polyurethane, hand-molded one ring at a time, each needing hand-finishing and cleaning. The custom urethane formula is dispensed via state-of-the-art casting machines under an ISO-9001-certified quality system. They are made in Pennsylvania, USA. They look different, and far outlast any silicone rings. Some people see the value in high-quality American-made polyurethane rings, others don't. The price is indicative of production costs, not over-inflated margins.

    16
    #7 6 years ago

    Superbands salesman much?

    I prefer Titan over superbands. Superbands feel dead; don't have the same bounce as rubber.

    Back to the original post, Titan has translucent rings. They are sometimes out of stock, but if you email them, they can give you an estimate on how long it'll be before they come back in stock. They are very active on Pinside and have their own product thread. I highly recommend them.

    #8 6 years ago
    Quoted from FatPanda:

    Superbands feel dead

    Starting to agree. They slow the ball down WAY too much and they add a lot of spin to the ball when you shoot. Theyre too sticky, especially over time it seems like.

    #9 6 years ago

    I have to agree with FatPanda and @chitownpinball
    I was a huge proponent of super bands until titan brought their product to market. because the super bands are hand molded, there exists variance from piece to piece and with the flipper rubbers if you put them in upside down, they look odd (one side has nice squared off edges, the other (the top of the mold) is not evenly rounded

    super bands were a step up from the saturn bands (which I believe were also polyurethane, and also failed incredibly fast), but do not give the same type of [bounce] that ABC rubber or titan does

    18
    #10 6 years ago
    Quoted from FatPanda:

    Superbands salesman much?
    I prefer Titan over superbands. Superbands feel dead; don't have the same bounce as rubber.
    Back to the original post, Titan has translucent rings. They are sometimes out of stock, but if you email them, they can give you an estimate on how long it'll be before they come back in stock. They are very active on Pinside and have their own product thread. I highly recommend them.

    Yes, actually since I came up with them and manufacture them. Unlike others, I choose to not actively promote the product on Pinside constantly, and I sell only through distributors. My post was relevant to the original post discussing pricing differences.

    #11 6 years ago

    all of them play terrible. Discover the world of real colored rubber. Sure they look great, but gameplay is effected so much, it's not the same anymore.

    #12 6 years ago

    I'm glad there are options nowadays and use both. Kudos for doing this and making jobs.

    #13 6 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    all of them play terrible. Discover the world of real colored rubber. Sure they look great, but gameplay is effected so much, it's not the same anymore.

    Where do we get more than Black,white,red,and yellow?

    #15 6 years ago
    Quoted from newmanoconnor:

    Where do we get more than Black,white,red,and yellow?

    Where do we get more than Black,white,red,and dirty yellow?

    corrected that for you

    #16 6 years ago

    I like Titan, but still prefer white ring, red flipper, and yellow sleeves
    .

    #17 6 years ago
    Quoted from DrJoe:

    Yes, actually since I came up with them and manufacture them. Unlike others, I choose to not actively promote the product on Pinside constantly, and I sell only through distributors. My post was relevant to the original post discussing pricing differences.

    Well then, I'll stick my foot in my mouth

    Kudos to you for doing this! I still prefer Titans over superbands for consistency and play-ability.

    #18 6 years ago
    Quoted from newmanoconnor:

    Where do we get more than Black,white,red,and yellow?

    gene used to have colors of normal rubber, so someone out there has them.

    and if you are talking flipper rubber, Pinball life has like 10 colors of real rubber to choose from.

    #19 6 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    and if you are talking flipper rubber, Pinball life has like 10 colors of real rubber to choose from.

    I don;t know if they do anymore...seems it's all PerfectPlay whatever the shit that is

    #20 6 years ago

    i just restocked not to long ago. I have a drawer just for flipper rubber. And only use real rubber. I keep on hand.

    Thin versions of

    Blue
    red
    white

    and standard thickness
    Blue
    Red
    White
    Orange
    green
    purple
    yellow

    #21 6 years ago

    Must be missing it on the website. But anyway yeah all those colors were around before this fake shit.

    #22 6 years ago
    Quoted from TheLaw:

    Must be missing it on the website. But anyway yeah all those colors were around before this fake shit.

    I can't find colored flipper rubber (other than red, black, and yellow) on Pinball Life anymore. It seems as if you want color, you have to buy Perfect Play or Super Bands. I find Perfect Play a little too bouncy and Super Bands dead, so neither of those work for me. Titan works alright, as they seem to have just about the same bounce as rubber, but there is a little difference in feel which still makes me prefer regular old rubber.

    It seems like all distributors are switching to silicone and/or polyurethane rings in various colors and they're dropping the rubber rings. I guess almost everyone only cares about looks and not how flipper rings play nowadays, and it seems like they're fine with that judging by some recent "I suck at playing pinball and like it" threads.

    I feel like I should just call up Steve Young and order a huge bag of regular red flipper rubber so I'm set with the flipper feel I like for a few years.

    I'm going to go yell at some clouds now.

    #23 6 years ago

    I thought different colors of regular rubber had different hardness and so a different bounce. Is that not the case?

    #24 6 years ago
    Quoted from bam10:

    I thought different colors of regular rubber had different hardness and so a different bounce. Is that not the case?

    not really.

    Red plays the same as all the other colors. White is slightly softer. Black is a lot harder.

    #25 6 years ago

    Superbands have great color but I also don't care for the feel. Titan's clear is not very clear but does look good lit up in places like slings. I use Titan rubbers everywhere in my games except flippers. I like the colors and how they stay clean. I tried all kinds of flipper rubber but back to regular rubber. Others were okay but regular rubber just feels right.

    #26 6 years ago
    Quoted from jawjaw:

    Others were okay but regular rubber just feels right.

    But don;t you end up wasting like 20 hours a week cleaning all your rubbers?

    #27 6 years ago

    I know this has been said before, but there are a lot of shit traditional rubbers out there that don't hold up or break when you install them. From some of the very popular vendors. Thus the push to go with synthetic material.

    However you can't go wrong if you order Marco's PRW brand as they are the best on the market.

    #28 6 years ago

    I love the PinballLife PerfectPlay bands for flippers and now they have a few rubber band sizes. I use their (pinballcenter.eu) translucent rubbers for everything else.

    #29 6 years ago

    I'm trying them all to get a feel for them. I enjoy the look and color of superbands and use them on some of my flippers. Have perfect play on Twilight Zone flippers and they seem quite nice to me. Really like Titans, and have them on a couple pins though I feel the translucent kinda looks like surgical bands on my Funhouse slings.

    #30 6 years ago

    OK, reading through some suggestions in the thread.

    I, myself, am looking for CLEAR flipper rubbers. Not translucent, not opaque, clear. See-through. Super bands seem to be the only option for this. Every other company has "transparent" or "translucent" and they look like a frosted window.

    Examples of not clear:

    http://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts/pinball-rubber/flipper-rubber/2027/flipper-rubber-premium-transparent?c=2336

    https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4014

    https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=33&product_id=52

    Example of the only TRUE clear I can find (and have now but dont love):

    https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3172

    Is this just a camera thing? Are the examples from the other companies just photographed poorly to make them look non see-through?

    #31 6 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    I know this has been said before, but there are a lot of shit traditional rubbers out there that don't hold up or break when you install them. From some of the very popular vendors. Thus the push to go with synthetic material.
    However you can't go wrong if you order Marco's PRW brand as they are the best on the market.

    ponside

    Seem to have this issue with mini post rubber. Happ and Pinball Life. Some just break too easily

    -2
    #32 6 years ago

    I get all my stuff from pinballlife but only because I am ordering other stuff. If I just was placing an order for rubbers I would go to titan. I feel like sometimes the pinballlife rubbers are slightly fatter in diameter.

    Who wants boring ugly white or black rubber. PUKE! I find the silicone don't play much different and look way better. People are splitting hairs here.

    #33 6 years ago
    Quoted from Djshakes:

    I find the silicone don't play much different and look way better. People are splitting hairs here.

    No way. Wrong.

    #34 6 years ago
    Quoted from Djshakes:

    Who wants boring ugly white or black rubber.

    Perhaps the same people that choose not to led color puke their games.

    #35 6 years ago

    I’ve been slowly transitioning over to Titan on every restore and major shop job. I like the way they feel and the colors are great even though I use white 90 percent of the time. I do not care for the super band rubbers as I feel they aren’t very flexible or stretchy. Slings aren’t very reactive when used on them

    #36 6 years ago

    For a location game, unless you use quality gum rubber, silicone rings are a tremendous (as in many times longer) life expansion of the rings. We've gone from replacing rings every 2 or 3 months to every 2 or 3 years. These are games that run 24/7 on route and 99% either require a simple cleaning of the silicone rings or a rotation to even the wear of heavy use rings, like with the slingshots. And of course we rotated original rubbers before switching to silicone about 3 years ago.

    https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-product-competition-silicone-rings/page/10#post-2419248

    For games wth complex playfields like White Water, the investment just in maintenance alone is invaluable.

    #37 6 years ago

    I use Titan on all my games. I really love it and I agree that it’s different feeling on the flippers than traditional rubber is. One thing I have been considering is using Titan everywhere except the flippers and using rubber there.

    I may just do that next week.

    #38 6 years ago
    Quoted from Chitownpinball:

    OK, reading through some suggestions in the thread.
    I, myself, am looking for CLEAR flipper rubbers. Not translucent, not opaque, clear. See-through. Super bands seem to be the only option for this. Every other company has "transparent" or "translucent" and they look like a frosted window.
    Examples of not clear:
    http://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts/pinball-rubber/flipper-rubber/2027/flipper-rubber-premium-transparent?c=2336
    https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=4014
    https://www.titanpinball.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=33&product_id=52
    Example of the only TRUE clear I can find (and have now but dont love):
    https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3172
    Is this just a camera thing? Are the examples from the other companies just photographed poorly to make them look non see-through?

    if superbands are your only option. Might want to think about not going clear. they change the gameplay a lot. Easier to catch the ball, easier to do a lot of things. it's actually a crutch for crappy players. do you really want to change your gameplay that much?

    #39 6 years ago

    Superbands 4 life.

    #40 6 years ago

    Titans look and feel better but they won't last worth a damn on location. Super Bands on the other hand will. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    if superbands are your only option. Might want to think about not going clear. they change the gameplay a lot. Easier to catch the ball, easier to do a lot of things. it's actually a crutch for crappy players. do you really want to change your gameplay that much?

    I disagree. Some things may appear easier at first, but when you spend a lot of time with them you begin to realize other things are much harder. For instance, dead flipper bounces/bounce passes will barely work with Super Bands if the game is too shallow. Also, getting the ball under control when it's wild is much more difficult as well--with Super Bands, the ball likes to slip off the flippers and constantly stay in motion with these rubbers.

    Players who care about their skill level and have multi-game setups will equip some machines with Super Bands and others with standard flipper rubbers to learn and be comfortable with both play styles. There is a big difference, but one is not inherently easier than the other.

    -1
    #41 6 years ago

    Leave it to the smart ass to NOT answer the question.

    I've googled my ass off trying to find any colored rubber OTHER than flipper rubbers. They aren't around.

    #42 6 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    gene used to have colors of normal rubber, so someone out there has them.
    and if you are talking flipper rubber, Pinball life has like 10 colors of real rubber to choose from.

    Thats why I mentioned just rubber, not flipper rubber.....Still searching. But thanks for the advice @captainneo, You've always been really helpful.

    #43 6 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    if superbands are your only option. Might want to think about not going clear. they change the gameplay a lot. Easier to catch the ball, easier to do a lot of things. it's actually a crutch for crappy players. do you really want to change your gameplay that much?

    Quoted from akm:

    Some things may appear easier at first, but when you spend a lot of time with them you begin to realize other things are much harder. For instance, dead flipper bounces/bounce passes will barely work with Super Bands if the game is too shallow. Also, getting the ball under control when it's wild is much more difficult as well--with Super Bands, the ball likes to slip off the flippers and constantly stay in motion with these rubbers.

    All of these things make me crazy.

    I can't stand anything but rubber on the flippers. I bought a few pairs of superbands and the like when they were initially rolled out, but after playing games that had them I decided never to install them on any of my games.

    Everywhere else on my games I will experiment, but ONLY rubber on the flippers.

    #44 6 years ago
    Quoted from dothedoo:

    All of these things make me crazy.
    I can't stand anything but rubber on the flippers. I bought a few pairs of superbands and the like when they were initially rolled out, but after playing games that had them I decided never to install them on any of my games.
    Everywhere else on my games I will experiment, but ONLY rubber on the flippers.

    I personally prefer traditional rubber and rotate around with different colors to change the bounce/feel of the game (black, vs blue, vs red, etc). However, I was mainly responding to the comment about Super Bands being "a crutch for crappy players". I think if someone is worried about their skill level they are probably playing in competition regularly, and in that situation you want to be comfortable with all styles of rubber. Otherwise, play and use what you want.

    #45 6 years ago

    I use all superbands, plexus on my playfield , mirror glazed balls, and teflon on the spinners and pop spoons.

    My games play CRAZY fast to the point that when I go play other machines I can score big cause its like playing in slow motion.

    #46 6 years ago

    it all really comes down to personal preference

    I've played games that have super bands on the flippers and I liked them much better than traditional ABC rubber. I've played other games where the traditional feels better and still others where titan feels good.

    while I love the dripping wet look of super bands and their candy-like color offering, I wish that they could get the tooling down so that both sides of the flipper rubbers were the same (and one side didn't have that [poured] finish

    like others have stated, I love the titan translucent rubber rings in areas like the slings and other areas on the playfield, because the bulbs underneath the plastics really make those rings light up nicely

    #47 6 years ago

    Superbands play all dead and crappy to me.

    This is my personal opinion.

    #48 6 years ago
    Quoted from jwilson:

    Superbands play all dead and crappy to me.
    This is my personal opinion.

    Honestly...... I have never heard that complaint at my place. All my pin friends moan because there all waaaaay too fast and they cant progress through the game far enough.

    #49 6 years ago

    After too many batches of crap rubber, I have slowly started switching my games to titan. They feel pretty close to real rubber for me, and I haven't had a bad batch yet.

    #50 6 years ago
    Quoted from akm:

    Players who care about their skill level and have multi-game setups will equip some machines with Super Bands and others with standard flipper rubbers to learn and be comfortable with both play styles. There is a big difference, but one is not inherently easier than the other.

    That's where I am with it... have a mix of stuff on my machines and they all have their pros and cons, but the more I play competitively the more I appreciate the ability to adapt or at least know what to expect because you never know what you're gonna see in some of these larger private collections. And sure, I have my preference on certain machines but try to mix things up to keep it interesting.

    There are 56 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.

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