I agree totally about the toy collections or misc nick-nacks people put up there. I also agree with the various light up "signs" people put up there. The Laserific stuff, in some cases looks OK, but I don't get adding them to the game.

All that said, if a topper is wired to the game and tied into certain features, I think they can be cool if done well. I made a Stargate topper years ago with a swirling blue sphere inside of a custom painted stargate ring. Each of the chevrons on the ring had an LED in it tied to the ones on the playfield, so it was swirling with the "event horizon" and the chevrons lit to indicate playfield status. It was cool (despite the fact that TECHNICALLY the stargate wouldn't engage until after all the chevrons were lit, but...).

On this note, how dare any of us spend any money on a pinball machine to begin with? How selfish. Do you know how many kids Sally Struthers could feed with the thousands of dollars we spend buying any pinball machine?

Being this is Pinside, I've seen a ton of ignorant statements, but this one takes the cake. Is helping people more important than pinball? Certainly! But if you are going to condemn someone for buying "bling" for their machine rather than charity, how does that same scale support that the pinball machine itself is more important than those same charitable donations? People are either allowed to buy things for themselves that make them happy or not. What it is (pinball machine, mods, cars, etc) is immaterial.

All that said, go out and donate to your favorite charity this holiday season. Hmm...I wonder if the Salvation Army could use a set of Mirror Blades?