How the Universal T-Molding was finally reproduced

If you’re like me, you have a true love of the arcade cabinets produced by Universal. The entire artwork package on the games were exceptional – outstanding illustration, great choices of color, dynamic use of perspective, uniquely immersive…. on and on.

However, the t-molding on many of these games is trashed – pieces missing, brittle, yellowed, sometimes the t-molding is completely missing.

…and the convex shape of the standard t-molding sitting up off the edge of these cabinets just doesn’t look right. Something had to be done.

Given that I now own 8 of these games by Universal, I was in a unique position to tackle some small reproduction volumes, starting with th white t-molding found on a select set of Universal games.

They said ….I wouldn’t be able to find a source without a minimum of 5,000 feet. They said ….it would be tough to offer the product at a price point that would be reasonable. There were a number of reasons to not take on this project…

But being the stubborn person I am – I ignored all of that and got to work.

We sourced a manufacturer that could work with us on the minimums. Over the course of 6 months we worked to get a small run of white t-molding reproduced. The tooling was setup based on a sample from a Cosmic Guerilla machine.

We ran samples and distributed them to half a dozen testers around the globe – including international collectors – who tested the samples on over 30 classic Universal machines. From those testers we did find that there were a number of small variances between machines and how they were manufactured.

The feedback allowed us to make some small tweaks to the tooling that would better match the needs of just under a dozen different Universal machines that used this white t-molding.

And now – the molding is available today to purchase!

Thank you to all of the folks that offered to support this single run of reproduction molding, I couldn’t have done it without you.

And thank you to all of the testers that invested their time to measure multiple machines in their collection, many using multimeters, to make sure we could offer the best product possible!