With all the "instant buy" people I assumed my eyes were going bad.

That's the question I have. I'm not sure in terms of gameplay the upper playfield looks all that exciting, but at the same time it is a Black Knight. It just feels kind of wrong to not have an upper playfield.

PS: I'm out either way. My top two Stern wants remain Spider-Man and Iron Maiden.

Just trying to wrap my head around the layout. On the Premium, my understanding of the shots, from left to right, are as follows...

1. 2 stand-up targets
2. VUK to upper playfield w/ drop target
3. Orbit w/ spinner
4. Ramp to ??? (the upper playfield) w/ automated spinning flail which is like a mini-golf windmill.
5. 1 stand-up target
6. Shield lock shot which acts as a ball lock
7. 1 stand-up target
8. Orbit w/ spinner
9. 3 drop targets

Few Questions:

- Does the ramp also feed the upper playfield? If not, where does it exit?
- Does the Shield Lock feed into the VUK, or just lock behind the shield. It looks like there might be a gate.
- I assume at least one orbit feeds the pops, is this done with gates or posts? Can it be fed by either orbit?
- Do the pops always feed directly into the VUK, or is there another exit?

Can anyone answer these questions?

Thanks, I see that now on the feature matrix: "Half Pipe shot to the upper playfield at the end of the Flail Lane". It does seem a bit odd that the those two left side shots both feed the upper playfield. I guess there is at least an orbit shot between them, and either shot could be closed off by the drop target or flail. I also assume the flail could also spin in a way that it fires the ball back to the upper playfield. That of course assumes there isn't a gate at the top of that ramp? It might be fun to see the ball start coming down the ramp, but then be launched back up by the spinning flail or if it were spinning in the opposite direction perhaps it is almost similar to a kicker launching the ball rapidly towards the lower flippers. It still looks to me like there must be some interaction between the VUK on the right side and the shield shot, but perhaps I'm just seeing things. Here is my theory. I think the VUK serves as the ball lock. If a ball is in there the shield will lower, preventing another ball from entering that direction. The only other way for the ball to get in there, would be for the ball to pass though the pops, so when a ball runs over one of the WAR lanes it can spit out the current locked ball and relocks the new ball.

How many manufacturers are making pinballs? I guess I assumed that most pinballs came from the same factory and some of the premium balls were just run through a tumbler and polished.

Do you have a good source for the carbon steel balls? I was under the impression most of the manufacturers were using this carbon steel ball. Pinball Life, Titan, Ball Barron, and Mezel Mods have all sold out. Marco still has some, but I thought I overheard they just buy there's from Pinball Life. They are now $3 each, which I assume is because they are the final batch. I'm getting ready to invest in a tumbler, because I'm not sure there is anyone making carbon steel pinballs at this point.