I sure wish whoever had my Tron before me had put on a Cliffy. The arcade scoop would be in much better shape. Anyone who says they are unnecessary either really enjoys repairing playfield damage, don't care about the condition of their machines or only play them once a month.

Cliff, don't let the naysayers get you down.

The Tron I bought was less than a year old, and side of the scoop hole is thrashed, along with some minor damage to the top. It was lightly routed, so got more plays than a home use machine, but eventually a home use machine will get up there in plays. If a Cliffy would've been there from the start, the scoop would still be pristine. I get it, I have seen some older machines with no scoop damage. However I think you get one bad hit, it starts splintering, and it can go from bad to worse real fast.

I look at it as insurance. You buy it, hope you never need it, but are sure glad it is there if crap happens. My thoughts are get a Cliffy, or, if you really don't like the look of them or are worried about change to game play, get a protector from Mantis if available for your machine. But get something at least. Doing something about it after it is damaged is closing the barn door after the horse gets out.

That is way too harsh. In my dealings with Cliff, if you contact him with a problem he is more than willing to help out. He takes pride in his products. Obviously you have a drum to bang with the WCS kick hole protector as is evident from the other thread you referenced. I would suggest contacting Cliff to see if he has a suggestion. If he doesn't, take the thing out. The most common cause of a protector lifiting is going to be if it was overtightened and you start to bend the metal out of shape.

My big concern is that Cliff is going to take a look at a lot of this whining and just decide to toss the millons (sarcasm) he is making from the protectors and just let the community fend for itself.

Ah. I thought you were indicating you had no protection there at all and so were backing the "wait until it is damaged before you put a protector on" line of thinking, which is crazy imo.

I like Mantis' products as well, I have his underramp protectors in my TNG and am thinking of swapping out my X-men cliffy for the Mantis one to see if it reduces the "scoop hole rim out to STDM drain" problem I am having.

Insurance against damage occurring. Sorry, thought it was obvious. I never mentioned anything about impacts to sale price. I guess it depends who is doing the buying and how picky they are. I have never bought a machine with Cliffys already in them so can't say from personal experience. However someone having them in tells me that they either really care about the quality of their machines, or are hiding some major damage. I would probably ask which was which and be guided from there.

To answer the OP's original question, as to why someone wouldn't buy cliffy protectors, for me it boils down to this:

1) Ramp protectors. Only a moron wouldn't buy ramp protectors. Replacing ramps are very expensive, and all it takes is one unlucky hit to crack/break the ramp. Buy them.

2) Scoop hole protectors, saucer, etc:

Get them. I see it as stopping damage from occurring in the first place. I get some people don't care if their playfield sustains damage, or don't like the look of the Cliffy. I am not one of them. Personal preference comes into play here obviously.

Mantis protectors are available for some machines. They solve the "look" problem and have less possibility of impacting playability, so are a great option for people with those concerns.

I get your point, I choose to disagree with it. Sorry. You install or don't install what you like on your machines, I will do the same. I don't put coverings on my furniture, but I am sure some do. I guess if my furniture was constantly subjected to flying balls of steel I would think about changing my approach though.

Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here. Just expressing my opinion. Going from experience having to replace a broken Tron ramp, a chunk was missing out of the ramp. It wasn't cheap. A Cliffy on the ramp would've saved money in the long run. Newer run Trons, and all X-men, ship with protectors straight from Stern. Given that, I don't see why anyone would argue against ramp protectors. Suit yourself though.