Trying to figure out what it might do based on the one pic we've seen and a the big price jump. All this is purely speculation on my part.
We know it has an open and close action since that shows up in the diagnostics menu. To do that it needs a motor or coil as well as a couple switches to let the game know what position it's in. That means at least 2 boards, the main topper interface board and a switch/LED/coil driver board. If they use a stepper motor instead of a coil that would require a third motor controller board. If they can't fit those 2 or 3 boards in the relatively thin looking topper then they also would need a mounting plate that installs in the backbox above the CPU.
The topper doesnt seem thick enough to have a mechanism to make the gargoyls jump and down so I'm guessing they are stationary.
It also appears there is a seem between the center part of the topper and the middle section. So.Im thinking this is the section that flios up. The middle section is pretty thin so an animatronic dead head and its required mechanics seems unlikely to fit in there. What would easily fit there is an LCD screen. This would likely also also require another node board (Batman66 needed a dedicated node board for the villain vision TV).
So if there as many as 4 boards plus a large LCD, that could be the reason for the higher cost as compared to other recent toppers. Still a hefty markup when you look at the BOM cost but it's probably scaling appropriately compared to the other toppers for 400 to 600 that only have a 1 or 2 boards, no movement, and no LCD.
If they are limitimg it to only 200 units as rumored its seems unlikely they would be significant content that would be exclusive to the topper. It just wouldnt make sense to spend the resources to add add a really cool new game play mode that only 200 owners would get to experience. So my guess is if there is exclusive content its fun but basic, like the goat mode with the JP topper.
But there is something they could do that I think would enhance gameplay for the topper owners which probably wouldnt require a significant coding effort.
My guess is that it has a flip up LCD that displays the floating dead heads on the topper LCD instead of having them on the main LCD. Many owners seem to be annoyed by the floating deadheads cluttering up the main display. So if they moved them to only be up on the topper screen that might look pretty cool. Even cooler would be a peppers ghost type setup where the floating head looked translucent (think RFM or Ghostbusters googles effect). Those hologram toppers could be used here as well but i think they to loud.
Elvira-Topper-scaled-e1597163051108.jpeg (resized).jpg
North Attleboro, MA
Oakville, ON
Sydney
Hoppstädten-weiersbach
