Breakshot has the snappiest pop bumpers in my collection.
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I believe that credit goes to Capcom and Greg Kmiec, the designer.

First off Williams/Bally/Midway are called Jet Bumpers. Sega/Data East/ Stern are called POP bumpers. Worst Jet bumpers in my collection are on TOTAN. There is a left orbit shot to feed the Jet Bumpers. A switch makes a post shoot up to divert the pinball into the Jets but 99% of the time the pinball fly's right buy. Best POP Bumper action in my collection is the POPs on STERN's The X-MEN L.E. When in STORM mode the POPs trigger the shaker motor so well the floor shakes.

Yep. My Airborne gets some crazy pop bumper action as well.

Transformers has some great ones.

Best for me would have to be CV.

Great randomizer that really keeps you on your feet and also includes the outlane area, occasionally hits the Menagerie and other targets for you and best of all: Together with the Boom Balloon they change their layout and the total gameplay massively for a short while.

I'm probably spoiling the fun by saying that I've seen very good and very bad bumper action on the same games. Often that's a matter of cleaning and adjusting. In general the popbumpers that have the best feel to them, to me, are the ones on old Stern Electronics games. They have a sort of rubber feel to them (best way I can describe it). I really like to be have the ball to get a beating in those bumpers, but most often after a few pops that's about it.

Some of the best jets would have to go to cftbl Ngg dw

Firepower is a great example of the pops for me, particularly in a good clean game. The ball can get crazy in there.
My BOP had a tendency to shoot the ball out of the pops so fast it would go SDTM at times even with the ball gate in place and I couldn't react quick enough to save it.

When Bally was Bally and Williams was Williams; Bally had Thumper Bumpers, Williams had Jet Bumpers and Gogtlieb had Pop Bumpers. Not suer about Chicago Coin or Stern Electronics. May have just been "Bumpers".

Just curious... When are they going to design a game without the standard "triangle jet bumpers" setup. I think they should at least try to go back to the EM roots and stick em all over the place.

I think they should at least try to go back to the EM roots and stick em all over the place.

Sure, why not!

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TOTAN Jet bumpers are the best!

Getaway has great action off the pops t2 does too

I like the sound of the bumpers on Monopoly and for fastest action it's on my T-2.

I have been playing my flintstones a lot lately, and the pops seem pretty good there. They help you score the dig rollovers, which is important for a number of reasons, and then it can feed your upper flipper or squeak out the other side and cause you all sorts of problems if you aren't paying attention.

My one complaint about them is that they are needed to complete bedrock derby, and that's the time the ball will always fall through the pops without hitting anything. It never fails. I'll get great action in the pops the whole rest of the game, and the that stupid derby mode tarts and it seems like I can never get them to fire.

Also the bronto crane is designed to dump the ball out past the pops, but more often tan not the ball bounces back in. Except during bedrock derby, lol.

the huts on my special force trap the ball pretty good. the Pinball by Stern I had had a good trio.

oh the doodle bug i had with 5 of them was also cool

The "lone" ranger.

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Different pop play on Hollywood Heat is cool with it being isolated from the rest of the playfield and only the captive ball able to hit it.

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Black Knight 2000 has the jet bumpers up on the upper playfield, where they can send the ball up into the WIN lanes or down into the WAR lanes unexpectedly, or over into the drawbridge targets.

WTF is up with that? No way I could EVER make that happen on my old TOTAN unless I rigged it.

Also love how the solo pop on F-14 can score you a "Tomcat"

I don't like the ones that pretty much force the ball to dribble out of the nest. Stern seems to like the nest with a controlled exit, i like a little chaos coming out of pops.

Everyone needs to stop and think of the short lived WICO Af-Tor. BEST BUMPER ACTION EVER!!! Todd Tuckey did a video about it on youtube

Sharpshooter has good pop bumpers, they keep you on your toes by the flippers

Me neither - never seen that on mine.

Mine started doing this for a bit. Replaced the microswitch in the left orbit and every ball has been stopped since.

As for good pop bumpers, I don't think they are great but I love using the pops in spiderman to complete the bonesaw mode. Just love it.

Both of these points are key for me.

I love games that have rollover lanes near pops that are active enough to send the ball up into them. It's like a mini-game in itself!

I've only owned two games with pops so far: JP and DW (only got my Dr Dude today and haven't got it up and running).

DW pretty much has the Stern-style 'pop-nest' where there is no benefit except for filling the transmat and there is a controlled exit via VUK. There is a side exit that the ball often flies out of leaving some element of unpredictability but it's mostly frustrating

JP had pretty good bumpers. DE bumpers get a bad rap compared to B/W but after I rebuilt and properly adjusted them they were as good as any B/W bumpers. Often the ball would fly out STDM so there was an element of risk to shooting them or not. They were hooked to the shaker motor which was cool and the 'Save Timmy' was good fun with them.

I do agree, though, that EMs and early SS games had much more creative use of pop bumpers. Close Encounters of the Third Kind comes to mind as one I've played recently that had good pops. It was fun to use them to bank balls into drop targets.

My EATPM has crazy pop bumper action. My Rocky and Bullwinkle has almost none.

I never get to them on my Judge Dredd....

My F-14 has great pop action. You can use the bumper to score tomcat letters on the standups, and it sends the ball flying across the playfield regularly. It makes controlling the upper playfield very difficult.

I noticed the same thing on No Fear. Man, that games fast!

Firepower is a great example of the pops for me, particularly in a good clean game. The ball can get crazy in there

+1

I also love the 'Beast's Lair' on Paragon.

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Have you heard folks raving about the 'mini-mode' in WOZ where you get to save the balls from the outlanes? While not as complex, it's similar to that. When it enters the Beast's Lair, be prepared to do some nudging. You can get it to pop back out the top, through the 'escape passage' gate to the flippers, or down and out. ...it's FUN and unpredictable.

congo has some great pops. It can come out the top or the bottom super fast and is completely random. It can also assist for a volcanoe shot from the upper left flipper. Lastly they are perfectly placed for one of the best/most rewarding shots in pinball >> straight through the pops and up the volcanoe!!!

Twilight Zone has to have some of the nastiest and badly placed pop bumpers ever! Right above the left outlane and inlanes, putting the ball into them will often result in a drain down the left outlane or the ball will arc out of the pops and go SDTM between the flippers without being able to do anything about it, grrrr!

Love the pops on Attack From Mars and Medieval Madness. You can often get the bonus multiplier way up with a good session in them, and with a long ball that's lots of extra points, and there is also the possibilty of the ball exiting left into the Merlin Saucer on MM for the extra ball without starting the Madness Multiball.

GnR has a unique set-up where the captive ball works on one side of the left pop bumper, and regular balls in play the other.

That's the fun of them. Sometimes they come screaming out of there, sometimes they throw the ball around the orbits.

My Pinball Magic only has one and that thing is methed up for real. Weird design with rubbers all around it to keep it bouncing into it.

I was about to say Pinball Magic. I haven't played it much, because it's at my mom's house, but there is just the one bumper surrounded by rubbers.

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Well it's got a flasher on top of it and it can get going up there for awHile.

+1

Gotta say, out of my small collection Congo definately takes it.

That's what I like about the pop bumper placement on Doctor Who. There are a lot of different startegies possible in that game - you could try to raise the transmat score or enter the Tardis to get to the video mode. If you try to raise the Transmat, the ball could pass the bumper area without any contact at all. And if you want to get to the video mode, those bumpers always push the ball out of the side exit.

CFBL has very active pops

Holy crap, ACDC people, c'mon! The most insane pops ever! Put some LED flashers under the PF and look out retinas!

That's very true, it keeps you on your toes. If there were no side exit then the gameplay would definitely be more boring.