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Quality of TNT restorations

PeteB

PeteB

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I've always found TNT's restorations questionable, but today I've completely blown a fuse. Look at this and skip to 2.45:


When he flips over the back glass!!

Brand new back glasses are available from Planetary and in stock! How can these jokers get away with that? They're supposed to be a retailer, charging retail prices, and calling this a restoration!

I know they've sold games to UK buyers before. Wondering if anybody on here has bought?
 
I really like TNT, but I just can't justify the shipping and the costs unless it was something very rare that I wanted very badly they had in stock. I have heard in videos that 'game X is going to the UK/Scotland' etc but never come across one with their sticker on it.

I'm not sure about the backglass, whilst in some cases yes, these are savable if they have minor damage this one looks like it was extremely badly damaged and was saved. It's very hard to tell from the video if they should have got another or if their guy who is awesome with paints has actually done a great job of saving it. Honestly who cares what the back of the thing looks like, you never see it unless you take it off. If he saved it and it looks good in the game then why buy another? I get that all us home collectors would gawp if that was in our games but Todd runs a business and likely it cost him $5 in paints and $30 to pay the guy for the time to do the work rather than spend $150+ for a new glass. It's too hard to tell from the video but when the glass is in the game it looks fine to me.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
I like the TNT videos too. Tod's personable and "real", easy to listen too. He seems to know a fair bit of pinball history. Taught me all I know about GOLD BALL when hardly anywhere else on the 'net mentions it ;)

But... I too have shuddered at some of the workmanship. Let's be real here though. TNT is an "amusements" supplier. They keep machines running for ops and do stuff for individual punters. I don't recall them ever being a high-end restoration specialist. They'll get your machine working and do the proper servicing, probably at a very reasonable rate, but I get the impression they aiming at players rather than collectors machines.

Hard to tell in that video what the end result of the backglass touch-ups is. Sure, it looks gash on the back, but may well look great from the front all lit up. But if that was my BLACKOUT I'd be more concerned about the cupped inserts that are more like moon craters. Check out those meandering slow balls!
 
PeteB said:
I've always found TNT's restorations questionable, but today I've completely blown a fuse. Look at this and skip to 2.45:
When he flips over the back glass!!
Click to expand...
what's wrong with it? the back looks awful but who looks at the back? all the colours are matched and from the front i think it looks just great. maybe i missed the point. ohwell.
 
When he puts the glass back in, and you see the front, the camera is closer. Go full screen and make sure you're watching in HD, it basically looks like this:

fc08.deviantart.net_fs70_f_2010_287_6_2_splatter_paint_by_avenged_siinz_d30r5th.jpg

Something that far gone can't be sold to a customer surely?

I know everyone goes on like TNT are the hero's of pinball but honestly, some of the videos I absolutely cringe at the sloppy workmanship. By far the sloppiest I've seen.

But the point was, they charge RETAIL prices. Parts are available to replace damaged and broken ones.

That's the kind of quality I'd expect from an eBayer, tinkering with old pins in his garage.
 
I don't get how people consider this level of workmanship to be 'ok'?

They remind me of those old dodgy used car dealers.
 
I know what you mean I saw 1 the other day repainting about half a play field which was fully populated and didn't clear over it or even put mylar over it
 
Ok, closer investigation required! Hard to get a good still from video even 1080p HD but here's a reasonable snap of that BLACKOUT backglass from TNT:

TNT-BLACKOUT.png
Here's one I found using Google Image search (originally from Pinside) that I'd say looks like a good original:

PINSIDE-BLACKOUT.png

And here's another one, which looks pretty fantastic to me but appears to not be illuminated:

BLACKOUT.png

We can probably argue the finer details, and there are those who will always prefer a bad original to a perfect repro, but there's definitely some dodgy patches occurring on and around the main astronauts helmet. Not sure there are many who prefer a botched resto though... o_O
 
Blimey peeps
There are always things to criticise.Closeups of playfield repairs may look ****e,but when ya look at it from playing angle it's ok.better to be ok than tthrown in the bin!!
I have a few games here with various cosmetics.HH is a translite,NOT a backglass so it loses the lit lighning effect,robo war has bare bloody playfield,and Volcano has lines,and wrong colour touch up around the pops.And a few namely BH,and volcano ya can see the glass jsut starting to peel away.
Does this deter fromt he overall look?Yes certainly,but when you start playing them,you realise i have them playing not bad at all,and that's all that matters in the scheme of things,
Been in this hobby a fair while now as an owner-about 15 or so years.ONE thing it has taught me,is to "ebrace the wear".Yup it can look naff,but these darn things were there to be palyed.In classic car terms,ya can't restore it without the actual car to begon with.
After waitning nearly two years for ANY black hole to turn up all those years ago i realised this.there jsut aint a load of repro stuff out there-seems people have been around in the era of cpr and other rare repro art stuff.This,I imagine for a hobby is rather rare.In most cases it just aint economically voable to redo stuff.In hte pin world pin passion,with little profit - aka cpr @jimaskey boards atc a few examples
 
Fair enough, but did you pay full retail price for those games from a company that claims to "restore" them?

A little bit of wear and tear on this but it still drives perfectly fine. Looks ok to me. £100,000 asking price, 5 year warranty included:

i.dailymail.co.uk_i_pix_2012_11_23_article_2237471_162D0286000005DC_278_634x419.jpg
 
I'm with @Nedreud :thumbs: for TNT just for uploading those retro videos - taught me GOLD BALL too.

Saying that I have no knowledge of what's being sold, at how much and what the buyer is expecting. If this is all in sync then everybody should be happy.
 
I was always under the impression from TNT videos is that its the customers decision of what gets done to the machine so I'm sure if they wanted a new back glass they could have gotten it. Looks fine to me aswell, thats just my opinion
 
Have said this in another thread, have always enjoyed the TNT videos, love the cheesy style they're presented in and don't take themselves too seriously. Wallace is the man too! :)
 
To be fair @PeteB how do you know what the customer was charged? How do you know that the customer didn't ask them to keep the original backglass?
Also, it's not like they hid the fact.

You just seem to have a bee in your bonnet about these guys for some reason. :p


I enjoy their videos. Todd is a real character. :cuckoo:
 
dont know about the quality, but i love the vids, great fun
 
The vids are great, have enjoyed many of them. The rivalry between TNT and the other guys was embarrassing, glad they buried the hatchet.
 
I must be the only one who doesn't think they sh!t gold then. Mildly entertaining videos do not make up for bad product - or non working product, plenty of stories out there of people getting their games and not working as a restored game should.

Yeah it's nice that we get to see a lot of different pins in these videos. Advice on fixes? Not so great, mostly hacks, and the over use of coloured LED's in the GI sickens me a bit. Makes every pin look like a rainbow!
 
Nodody has said they **** gold?;?;;??? Pete relax its a hobby after all,are you going to buy from them? Have you bought from them? Have you been involved with them in any shape or form? If you have and had an issue with them then I can understand your anger,if you haven't then why? What business of your is it or any of us,you seem to have an oppinion on most things here ...... Show us videos of how you do things correctly then!!! Lol can't we all just get along lol lol
 
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I've touched in one of my back glasses n it looks ok compared to my spare with cracks showing light through
 

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Pudsey pinball said:
Nodody has said they **** gold?;?;;??? Pete relax its a hobby after all,are you going to buy from them? Have you bought from them? Have you been involved with them in any shape or form? If you have and had an issue with them then I can understand your anger,if you haven't then why? What business of your is it,you seem to have an oppinion on most things here ...... Show us videos of how you do things correctly then!!! Lol can't we all just get along lol lol
Click to expand...

It isn't a hobby to TNT, it's business. And pinball never was a hobby, it was a coin op business. Try telling the guys who got ripped off with Predator to relax, and that it's only a hobby.

Actually, I have tried to buy from them before. Back in January Todd was selling game manuals quite cheap on eBay, posting internationally, so I asked him if I could buy 10 and do me a deal etc. He said sure and asked which ones I would like, then he would go get a shipping price etc. I gave him a list, and then he never got back to me. Ignored all of my emails after that. Fat ignorant ****hole!

So yeah I'm allowed to have an opinion, as are you, and anyone else. Isn't having an opinion the thing what makes a conversation?
 
Heh, I tell you what mate. YOUR backglass looks 1000 times better than what Todd showed.

That's a good job.
 
Never said u could not have an oppinion,I'm one of the guys being ripped off over pred too,and it is to most here a hobby.
 
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