Got mine this weekend, and yesterday I tried the needle-nose plier route; but my Japanese mobo did not want to snap all the way - just small pieces, and not all the way down. Also, even with my smallest pliers I was in serious jeopardy of snapping one of the nearby pins. In the end I had to use a hobby knife-set, and kind of shave off layer by layer until all the plastic was gone. This took about 90 minutes (watched two eps of The Orville during), but it worked perfectly, no bent or broken pins, and I just came back from the garage having had a few games of Arabian Nights and Puzzle Bobble!