Hey guys,

I've been modding my T2 for a little while now, and have created a new one... This time it's a Terminator 2 Topper mod.

I went through an extensive design phase on this one, which was an interesting process. Terminator kind of has a special quality in that the endoskeletons are metal, so it always bugged me when there were plastic toppers etc. with stickers or what have you. It always felt like it should be metal to me. So I decided to design one with a real metal skin. I opted to design it, then laser cut some parts and waterjet cut the metal.

Here are some pictures of it, including some of the design phase:

2 - SolidWorks Cad Design.png
3 - Solidworks CAD Design exploded view.png

Here is the final product wired in... it wires into the lamp matrix so it talks with the exoskeleton on the playfield speaks, and the eyes light when a game starts. The text is always illuminated when the game is on:

11 - Wired Up.jpg
12 - Wired Up Iso.jpg

For those interested, here is the metal being waterjet cut:

And here's a very short video of it in action:

Lemme know what you think! I'm pretty proud of it.

I'm thinking about offering to build/sell these to anyone on pinside who might be interested. If you're interested, lemme know here or PM me... trying to figure out of it's worth the work (if enough people are interested).

Thanks!

Awesome Joey thanks!! I'm trying to get a grip on how many people are interested then I'll lock down the quantity and order the materials I need in whatever bulk amount I can per the number of orders... then I'll contact each person who expressed interest with the price I'm shooting for! Thanks for helping me get excited about this! Hoping I hear from more people (you're the third!)

Great thanks,

Right now there has been enough interest that I think i'll be able to do $185 + shipping. I basically need to cover costs for materials, waterjet, lasering, and then my assembly, soldering, and so on.

I don't know the cost to ship yet... I have to investigate that.

I guess the question becomes whether to forego the front piece altogether or just eliminate/replace the text.

I actually did a design that had more detail in the bust, but removed the detail when I realized it would be obscured by the lettering.

Here is the current and previous design side-by-side:

sidebyside.png

But I didn't want to waste waterjet time on something that wouldn't be seen.

What would you recommend? Changing the text to something else? eliminating it? Removing that whole section? I'm open to ideas.

Well, the better structural design is definitely with the front part whether or not it has text on it... that's the conundrum.

It could be a lot smaller though and made to serve a purely structural purpose and maybe to keep the red up-lighting.

The cost savings in production only really happen for me though if everyone is getting the same design. I can definitely do one offs. I could even do one that says "terminator 3" if somebody had a T3 machine... but it costs a bit more to do one offs.

Also, here is a bit more of a close up when I had it on a countertop... no lighting hooked up, I was just doing some dry fitting:

dryfit.jpg

By the way, unlikely as it is, if somebody wanted this to put up on a bookshelf or something because they like Terminator so much, it's a simple matter to convert it to run off of batteries and add a switch... but yeah I know i'm reaching on that one

The eyes/mouth run off of 6v and the red text lighting is on 12v. I can put a simple voltage divider and wire a wall adapter to it for cost if that helps. If you don't want the eyes/mouth wired to the lamp matrix on the pinball machine obviously they will not function according to game play... right now they sync with the endoskeleton on the lower playfield. Instead they will be always on etc.

Heya Joey, if it helps your pin mod paranoia I can wire it up to a micro controller for you instead so it still has a sequence of blinking lights etc. rather than always on/off through mains power. It would obviously cost more since would require a micro controller, transistors, a protoboard to wire everything onto, and maybe an enclosure & switch... but it would make it completely independent. PM me if you decide this is the way you'd prefer to go and I'll try and get a better handle on the bill of materials.

Hi everyone, I've posted an official "marketplace" post covering how to get on board with this! For those who expressed interest, I'm not sure if you'll see this post so I'll contact you in PM as well.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/ad/27820

Oh, here are some new shots of the topper as well... the old ones were lousy cell phone pics.

11 - Wired Up.JPG

Stand Alone 1.jpg

Stand Alone 2.jpg

Stand Alone 3.jpg

Thanks!!!

Well I like the idea, and it's definitely an option but right now likely only for people who want to pay extra. I'm doing a batch of all the same design first to bring the cost down for anyone that wants to get one now.

It is fun though to try different stuff, and I'm a bit of a maker/experimenter so enjoy trying to accommodate whatever people are interested in.

The text is easier to customize than the rest. If there is a one-off text need, or if there is a group interested for "T3" type application, that can be accommodated

Or, it can just say "Terminator"

But so far the interest seems to be for "Terminator 2" so that's what makes the most sense for me to pursue for a group deal like this.

Okay, by separating the batches and splitting of the text from the bust I've got a way to do custom text for minimal extra cost to me, which I guess I can eat.

here is an example of what it would look like with "TERMINATOR 3" on the sign, but it could easily be "GAME ROOM", or whatever else would fit in that space (I assume you would want the terminator font)....

T3 - SolidWorks Cad Design.png

Hey dsmoke, Archytas did a whole video break down here:

I plan on doing one final batch for those interested.. I will post soon about it. It will be $199 + shipping and come with everything you need to hook it up to your T2

If 3+ people can agree on a text I can do it as a custom option.

For anyone who is interested, I'm doing one final batch of Toppers before I retire this for good. I am including a price for custom text on a one-off basis as well.

Here are the details:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/last-chance-metal-terminator-2-topper-or-t3