TSPP Restoration Update #3 – Pop Bumpers Suck.
The pop bumper is one of the iconic pinball playfield items. It looks kind of like a mushroom – except it ‘pops’ when you hit it causing the ball to be forcefully flung away. The typical number of pop bumpers on a playfield is three – though I’ve seen as few as none (Elektra, Pharaoh) and as many as five (The Addams Family, Slick Chick). I’m sure there are some with even more, but not in the modern era. I’ve owned two pop bumper-less machines – Elektra and Pharaoh, and though Pharaoh is a great machine, it is kind of naked without ‘em.
So, why the big dissertation on pop bumpers? There is nothing – and I mean nothing – that I hate working on more than pop bumpers. They were plainly NOT designed for service. Need to take them apart? Prepare to get out the soldering iron to remove the light socket. It’s a major teardown just to replace something stupid like the plastic saucer.
The old Sterns (like Flight 2000) were on the right track. They made the pop bumper unit one solid module that fit through a hole in the playfield. It took only a few screws and the entire unit came out as one. Awesome.
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of rebuilding the pop bumpers (also known as jet bumpers or thumper bumpers) on my Simpsons Pinball Party. Like everything else, it was more work than anticipated. I had a broken yoke attaching the plunger to the saucer, the saucer rods were mushroomed and fused to the yokes (which made them impossible to take apart), and everything was very dirty. I also put new mylar around the pop bumpers which Stern neglected to do in the first place. It’s amazing how much wear the playfield gets around the pops without it. I fortunately caught it when it was only denting and it hadn’t worn paint or broken through yet.
After a few hours of work and some new parts.. viola.. clean and hopefully well working pop bumpers:
Rebuilt Pop Bumpers on my Simpsons
Check out the rest of my restoration photos at: Link