Pinballs are designed to last 3 years, mine is 12 this year. The IDC connectors used are for ease of production so the length of time they last wasn't important.

It also gives the service industry for them something to do

Another reason for using the proper tool is the machine can be very difficult to work in sometimes, the last thing I need is to be messing around with pliers on tiny components.

Is Mouser any good? Never used them before and they seem to have a much wider selection of Molex stuff, maybe worth importing the stuff after all?

Cheers

Cris.