Pinball modifications is big business these days. We all use them. We've all got them on our games. And for me, they fall into three main categories. Number one, they make your game sound better. Number two, they make your game look better. And number three, they will make your game play better. Sometimes you might get a crossover of the two. I think maybe Pin Stadium would be a really good example of that. They make the game look better because you can see more of it, which in turn makes you play better because it allows you to see what sometimes are some dimly lit games. The reason for me doing this video is because I've been given a pinball product that has made this game play so much better. And by this game, I'm talking about Lord of the Rings that I'm I'm stood next to now. so much better. It's a game changer. And game changer is not my phrase. It's what my son said about this game once once he played it with the new modification. Now, I just want to be upfront here just so as everybody knows. I got sent these um and they're precision flippers from Precision Pinball Products. I got sent these after I done a top 50 video on my my top 50 pimple machines and I did it on on Lord of the Rings. During the video, I mentioned that I may well have to go an extra level up in terms of coil power because I was getting flipper fade quite into what as everybody knows is a very very long playing game. and uh somebody called John made contact with me and he said, you know, um I was watching your video. You mentioned flipper fade. Um I I really like your video. I'd like to send I'd like to send you something now that I think will make it better. Now, what he sent me was uh Precision Flippers, which I'll show you in a minute. What I didn't know is I was actually already a customer of Precision Pinball products because I had already purchased the spinners, the the spinning discs which go onto jaws. Now, there's one for the wheel on top of the upper playfield on the Premium, and there's also one which is the fishing reel. So, when you want to reel the shark in, you you hit it and it spins round. I found it so much better than the original part that was on the Stern game because what precision pinball parts do as I've discovered is they precision engineer a lot of the stuff on the games which is perhaps plastic parts particularly some of the bushings that you might find on games with flippers and certainly the the spindle and the one of a better word that I'm I'm not technically minded at all for one of a better word the shaft right this was all beautifully ly precision lathed I guess you know out of metal beautifully finished ball bearings and just the the composition of the mechanism was so far superior to what I got with the original stern game for Jaws as a result you hit that reel and it just spins around for longer it's it's just it's just better balanced so I didn't even really at that point realize that I was a customer of precision pinball products because I hadn't used the flippers. Now, I I' I'd actually had them before when I got my Total Nuclear Adihilation. Now, it had the flipper bats on it, but it didn't have the bushings and it didn't have the whole kit. And I've since discovered that the whole kit is very, very important because what I'd actually done is taken those flipper bats and put them onto Lord of the Rings. But because I didn't have the mechanism, I had this the right stuff on top of the playfield. I didn't have the correct stuff that went through the playfield and went onto the underside. And it was actually John who pointed out he was basically saying, "Well, you you've really not got the full kit there." Anyway, he sent it to me and said, "Here's the complete kit." And and that was that. Be interested to know how you get on. Now, that was actually quite a long time ago, and there's been a lot happening in pinball since then. But what that has allowed me is is time to play what is one of my favorite games. And I don't know, it's always difficult to say what's bolted to the floor. What game will you will you never sell? But this would be pretty high up there. So, at the moment on my top 50, this is this is third in the in the list. It's an iconic game. It's uh you know, for reasons I've got I've shown you before. I'm not going to go start getting all my Lord of the Rings Oh, I nearly did, but I'm not going to start getting my Lord of the Rings collection out now. Um, I love Lord of the Rings. Have done since I was a kid. The fact that there is a Lord of the Rings pit machine is just absolutely magnificent. But because it's a long playing game, uh, the the the flipper coils overheat and the flippers get weak. So, you find yourself not only not being able to make shots on this game, but not being able to make the key shot. And the key shot is obviously the ring to shoot up the middle ramp and lodge it into the magnets where the ring is. Um, if you can't hit a shot on a pinball machine that starts the modes, then you're in trouble, right? In fact, I wouldn't argue with anybody that says Godzilla is the best pinball machine that's ever been made. I I do understand it. It's a brilliant game and and I've been lucky enough to own it, but I struggle to hit the scoop shot. So, I can't start the modes. So, I don't guess I don't enjoy Godzilla as much as other people that can that can initiate modes on there. That's not the case here. It's a relatively easy shot from both flippers um to hit that ring shot on this game. But what happens is when the flippers get underpowered, it sort of goes at half throttle up the ramp and it just sort of drops off the ramp. It doesn't carry enough momentum to make the jump shot which takes it into the ring. Now, that's obviously no good and particularly if you're going to look to try and progress in the game. It is particularly prevalent off the left flipper, which is probably the one you would use most. Now, you can still hit the shot off the right flipper once you have flipper fade, but as you get into the game, you're now finding that you've lost one of your flippers for the main shot in the game. So, that's no good. Um, John very kindly sent over this kit. I fitted it on there. I fitted the bushings underneath. The instructions were really cool, even for somebody that's not particularly technical like me. started to play it and I have to say it's it's actually I don't want to say transformed the game because I love the game anyway. The game is a pleasure to play. I I love the journey that that you go on through this game. As I say, it's a long playing game. No problem. If I want to have a short playing game, I'll play Dolly Parton as over there. But it just opened up so much. There's also um the legal lash shot. Sometimes I would find as you had flipper fade on it as that started to kick in, sometimes it would struggle to get up the ramp. Now now it just hits everything positively. Hits it surely. And what I'm going to demonstrate it to you now. I'll show you the flippers themselves. But I just want to make the point. I just I wanted to learn how to use the flippers. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to do this video now. and either oversell it or or underell it. And in fact, I'm not selling it at all. As I say, I'm being totally honest with you. John gave me a set of these flippers and the mechanisms. Um, but all I would say now is it's a product that I'm going to Well, only am I going to be happy to buy it. I'm actually going to be buying a set for another game, which you don't know I've got in my collection yet. So, one of my one I I'm just being secretive because I want to do a sort of another reveal video because I've basically got rid of one of my games and I have a new pinball machine here. Um, and I think it would benefit from some some better flippers. And so, I'm going to go and get another set of these. Do I think every game needs these? No, not at all. Uh, I think there's plenty of games that are absolutely fine as they are. But, well, in fact, I I tell a lie. said, "I've got rid of one game. I've got rid of two games." So, actually, Labowski has now left my collection. And I mean, I couldn't say a single bad word about that game. I think it's an absolute triumph of pinball machine. I think it might be the best pinball machine that's ever been built. The best game, no, but the best pinball machine for all the reasons. There's so much on it. It's so packed. But if there was one thing, I thought it required a lot of flipper adjustments. And since I fitted the flippers on here, even though Big Labowski's gone, I found myself thinking, "Oh, I bet Labowski would benefit from those flippers." And I think there's a lot of games that would um it's been a bit of a game changer. He's also, I noticed, provided uh sorry, supplied some hybrids ones. So, uh, a lot of people, as I've discovered, as I've learned more about these flippers, find they're a little bit too, as it's all precision, precision, um, metal engineering. Maybe some of them felt they're a little bit too firm. They don't have enough. They don't have any flex. So, you've gone from a flipper bat with a plastic bushing and a lot of flex into a flipper bat that's metal with a metal bushing and no flex. So, I think what Precision Pinball Products have produced is a hybrid flipper bat, which allows you a little bit of flex, but with all the high-spec engineering that they provide. Now, I haven't tested those yet. And because I was so blown away by what this has given me that look, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Um, and it was broke before and now I fixed it. So, I don't feel any need to to try the the hybrid flipper bats. Not in this game anyway. And the other thing I found is the bounce pass works well. I I did wonder if because there was no flex whether you'd be able to do a bounce pass which is quite well say it's important for this game. It's important for any game. It it works and it work beautifully. So I just wanted to share that with you. I'm going to do a little bit of gameplay. Okay, now I've set it to four balls so as we can sort of explore quite a lot of the game and run the game for long enough and go past the point where you would normally experience the flipper fade. There's no point me having a short game that lasts 3 minutes. You're not going to see any flipper fade then anyway because the coils haven't got hot enough. But hopefully I can display and show you a long enough game uh that that you you'll see the the game, the pinball machine and the flippers more importantly are going to retain their power throughout the game. And I just think it's a really neat and a really good fix for an older game like this in particular where where maybe maybe you don't want to. Maybe you don't. I certainly don't. There's something quite daunting about taking the flipper coils off. Which flipper coils do I then order? I don't have to solder new ones on. I There's many people who are quite happy to do their own maintenance on a pinball machine. And I I don't mind cleaning it. I don't mind changing a bowl, but I there's there's certain things I will do. But there are a whole host of other things which for me seem far too daunting. And certainly soldering on new coils is is not for me. However, changing changing the bushings, changing and I want to say to you, I didn't even know what bushings meant before I did it, right? But I've changed the bushings. I changed the little springs that came with it. Um the axle and the flipper bats. Um hardly hardly any tools at all u for it. Um and they're just really really good. So I just wanted to say yeah. So you know, thank you John for sending these. I just wanted to say that I just wholeheartedly recommend this this product. Um, and I'm not getting any kickback from John from saying that. I I I'll put the link in the description just so as you can you can find these products. But just if anybody was wondering, are these products for me? Are they good? They're absolutely amazing. And I just wish as with a lot of a lot of the modifications, it's not just these. You just almost wish that every pinball manufacturer put as much, I guess, research, development, engineering, as much detail into everything they did on a pinball machine that so many of these mod makers do because so many of these things, you know, just just fix a game. Sometimes it's an easy fix, right? Sometimes it's where you got where we get the airball and jaws where the fin the dra track where the fin comes out on jaws. Little thing that that just raises that track up slightly to stop you getting the air balls. Really simple fix. Um but I often think a lot of the the imperfections on a pinball machine are left to the mod makers to fix. And it's always in your mind. Only last night we were doing a video on the new Star Wars reveal, the John Borg new John Borg Star Wars. And I was already looking at it thinking, well, this will be modded. I'll I'll get rid of Jaba Hut, and I'm sure somebody will produce a better Jaba Hut that doesn't like a gloworm as as Scott pointed out on the forum yesterday. And I already look at pinball machines and think, well, who's going to mod what and and how will that be done? So, I do think modifications are really important part of pinball machines. Some pinball machines play great straight out the box. Of course, not every game needs them. And most pinball, most pinball mods are not about need, are they? They're about wants. They're about making it look better. This modification will make your game play better if you are struggling. If you're feeling flipper fade, if you're just feeling the flippers are maybe a little bit weak and you have tried to perhaps go into the software and put the power up and it's still not done it. A a game that I remember before that was Foo Fighters. When Foo Fighters arrived and I I had two Foo Fighters. I had a premium and I had a pro next to each other side by side because of well kindly because of our sponsor pinball heaven and both of them the the flipper powers are up to maximum and the ramp on the right hand side I think it might be area 51 ramp if my memory serves me correctly a lot of the time the flippers did not have the power to get up that ramp and certainly the longer you went into it it became harder and harder and I did wonder at the time I thought maybe Stern put the wrong coils they should should have put bigger coils in there so they had more of a ceiling to go to, but it was already maxed out. In spinal tap turns, it was already turned up to 11. And I I actually think now looking back at that game, and that's what these flippers have done. They've made me think what game would benefit from these flippers. Looking back, I think, yeah, Foo Fighters would have been a really cool game to have. You know, maybe even just the hybrid flippers in here. Anyway, um let's let's have a look. I'll show you a little bit of a closeup of the flippers. you won't see the mechanics that are underneath, but um you can go check out the website if you want to look at that stuff. It's all on there. It's more people than just me saying that these are these are good modifications, by the way. So, uh yeah, go and go and check it out. Go and have a look and we'll try and have a game and I'll show you just how purposeful I think the shots are now. Now, obviously, you don't have a point of reference. you don't have a barometer to know how weak the shots were before, but you have to take my word for it. Or maybe you know that maybe you've got a Lord of the Rings at home. Um, if you do, I I can even say for nothing else, just for Lord of the Rings, I strongly recommend um if you're struggling from what I was, these these will really improve it. Anyway, uh let me give you a closer look. So, here's the flipper bats themselves. As you can see, they're uh they're metal with a a hex key, an Allen key. And you're only seeing the top part. But what I'd do is I'd show you that's the top section of it. And this is one of the um the axles if you want. That's one of the axles that's going to go through and attach on the underside of the playfield. There's not a lot else to see aside from that. But if I demonstrate now and show you the shot that I mean actually I've just noticed the bow rog's in the way. But the shot I'm talking about is this shot here. Let's uh let's move this bow rog out of the way, shall we? So the shot is going through here and is going to lodge inside there and magnets will hold it there. It's a really really important shot. You can see all the modes above it. That's how you initiate them. Um, and what I was saying was when it's not working, when you lose the power, it almost the ball almost runs up here and just sort of trickles off the end and never lodges into the ring. Um, yeah, it's it's been a game changer. And I mentioned earlier the legal lash shot, which is this shot here, which I guess we'd call it another Gomez game, the bride of Frankenstein shot, right? It's very, very similar shot on Monster Bash. And sometimes it just doesn't have the power and it you you'll hit it along here and it will sort of loop back up, come along here and it will just sort of roll back down rather than making its way along the wire form and going into the in lane here. Okay, we're going to switch the machine on. In no way is this going to be in any way a tutorial video or anything like that. just want to keep the game live for as long as possible so as you can see just how much more more pace and and how much more purpose there is to to all of these shots. And this game is completely capable of of rejecting the ring shot anyway. But that's more to do with the magnet. This is not what I'm talking about here. It's about it not making it up that ramp. And as you'll see, it will always make it up that ramp and particularly the legolass ramp there. I'm not saying I'll be able to hit those shots, by the way. But that's a good start. We'll take that for the skill shot. Starts working towards your uh return of the king multiball straight away.
100 more. 100 more.
There you I just sort of start off with a bad shot there just just to show you there the the bell rog's always an inconvenience. Not not just in the game just generally nothing worse than trying to take a shortcut through the minds of Moria and the balog gets in your way. But anyway, so first of all, you can see straight away it's lodged straight in there. You'd expect that to happen at the start of the game. But will it do it later? That's the trick. Oh my word, I've lost the ball straight away. That's actually my favorite mode as well. I've completely ruined it for myself. My eye is most definitely not in here. Oh, and I've even mucked up my skill shot now. Okay, but I've started another mode straight away. But even at this early stage of the game, you could just feel that these flippers are more powerful. Anything I do wrong, it's not the fault of the flippers. It's just my lack of accuracy. [ __ ] I almost lost it. again. [Music]
Hurry.
Come on. Such bad accuracy. Get hold of yourself. 500 more. 500.
That's good.
Oh man. Oh, I didn't even fight for that. I should have tried to nudge it or something. Terrible start.
We will journey through Moria. I sort of want to plunge this all the way round really. Uh I'll go Yeah, I do. The reason being damn it is I wanted to start a mode. Uh it's actually giving me two balls there. So I'm going to just pop that on there. I want to start a mode before I go into the multiball. I can't believe that's just happened. This is embarrassing. Oh man,
four rings of men.
I'm so tempted to starting to start in this video again, but I won't. That's just my own embarrassment and pride really rather than what the video was intended for. Sorry, I'm concentrating on my multiball here. Some fellowship multiball. Stop. It's very, very tough to do. Oh man, I needed that one. [Applause] Oh man, that's such a shame. Such a shame. I was actually doing okay then as well.
By order of the king, the city.
Okay, where are we? Right, that was I just thought I got lost and forgot what I was doing then, which is Yeah, that's it. I'm making a video about flippers, aren't I? Um, hey, that's what pinball's all about, right? You should be able to get lost in the game. There it is again. Okay, so I started another mode once again. Demonstrated [Music] that the ball is making it up there.
I want heavy man and strong lad by night.
The path of the dead. Save them for 250.
Got a multiball there.
A new power.
Double check. Double check. Double jackpot one. Double jackpot two. Double double jackpot. Double jack through the wall. So you saw I finished the modem. You also saw during that
I made I made the ring shot again which is you know was was important for the super jackpot. Double check to achieve for me elves. Oh, I really wanted to needed to get that. Oh, that was a that that was almost so powerful that one. Oh, don't you dare. No, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no. Oh, well, I was really into that. I I again once again I completely forgot that I'm trying to do a demonstration about the flipper power. But hopefully you can see, you know, I'm just really enjoying this game and I'm not having any any problems hitting stuff. Oh man, I needed that. [Music] That's what I needed. Get from me. on that sort of magic quest. Going to try and get Golem multiball. Oh man, I'm on the ring frenzy. [Music]
Double points. [Music] This is indeed the will of the council and Gondor will see it done.
By order of the king, the city must empty. We make for the refuge of Helm's deep.
I need this return of the king multiball here. You never know, we might even get to um destroy the ring. You never know.
Yes, that's what we wanted. Don't trust Golem.
Go away,
man. I've done it again.
4 3 2 1
Oh man. Sorry I kicked the camera then. I don't know if you can still see still see that there. Sorry about that. [Music] the path of the 200.
Yes, we got it. We got it. We got it. We got it.
Don't you dare. Whoa.
Okay, so I started a mode.
You must join.
And now I I need to get the multiball as well. Realistically,
I want every man and strong lad to be ready for battle by nightfall.
That should do it. [Music] Get So, I'm still actually technically in a mode, but I also need to destroy the ring. So, I've got to take that. Really got to forget the mode just because well, and anyway, you saw then that still retained that power to hit that shot. [Music] Oh man, not that. That's not the right time to be hitting a bad shot. [Applause] [Music]
Oh man, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. A
gift from the elves.
Come on. Don't do this. Don't do this. The rink is mine. Go. The rink. [Music] Come on. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Honestly. Oh, this is just [ __ ] That is [ __ ] Sorry. Sorry about my Sorry about my language. You know, if you know the game, you know how close I was then, man. Oh man, that is annoying. Really annoying. Oh, bloody pinball.
You have a sword.
Oh man.
Special is lit.
Oh man,
Mr. Turtle's not going anywhere without me.
Oh, don't do that. Come on. We're coming too. [Music] You
okay start now.
You should be the fellowship of your journey through Moria. [Music] Oh, that wasn't flipper fail. I hit it off the very end of the flipper if you see that. Ah, that's annoying. I didn't want that then. Oh man, I missed a really important shot there. I've I've screwed it. Absolutely screwed it. Oh man, just my accuracy there. The
very annoying again.
I will
Oh dear. Come on. You got to be better than that. No. No. [Music] Oh, that's so annoying. That's so annoying. There it is. Oh, man. Anyway, we saw I'm not enter No, I'm not entering my initials then. Um, well, I'll tell you what I do. I'm not going to enter my name. I'm going to enter my dog's name. So, at least I know that's what I do. Not an official score. Looks better than um than having it blank, but at least we got to see the game. A decent length of game. Not not the best game in the world, but a decent length of game. And I got to show you that the flippers are fantastic, right? The flippers are absolutely fantastic. Anyway, there you go. Um, hopefully you enjoyed the video. Uh, once again, thanks to John from Precision Pinball Products. I'm very annoyed I didn't destroy the ring. Then wanted one more shot to do it. One more shot. But hey, this is pinball, right? That shot that you're hitting all game long becomes difficult when there's when it matters, when there's something counting on it.