Rubber makes a difference.
Play versus aesthetics? I put on some of the candy flipper toppers and paired them with new white titan flipper rubber and the bottom flippers now look gorgeous. But they play lousy.
The game had “perfect play” rubber when I bought it, which I know play a lot different - usually softer and easier to control - than regular rubber. Id put some on MM in place of the factory black rubber and they made the game a lot easier. I generally don’t like the feel of them - barely any bounce! - so I put the original red rubber back on Wonka and wow, what a difference. So much more lively - they even make JJP flippers seem more powerful - and the right ramp was so much easier to hit. I have to imagine that this is exactly how Lawler designed the game. So if you’re using different rubber you might be making the game harder than he intended.
Back to the white titans. I can barely make the right ramp shot now! The shot has to be perfectly timed to make it now, making the game that much harder. It’s so obvious to me. Do other people experience this massive difference in play between some after market “rubbers” and the real deal?
I think I’m going back to the red. Boring. Less sexy. Truly OG. But better performance.