Greetings Fellow Pinsiders, TZ Owners and Friends!

We’ve been anxiously awaiting the day to share this news with the world and to officially share the topper project we’ve been working on for one of the greatest games of all time, Twilight Zone!

As a quick background, we started our company The Electric Playground in 2020, but we’ve been owners and modders for more years than we care to admit. Twilight Zone is one of the first games I fell in love with when getting into the hobby, and one of the few titles I’ve personally owned more than once. I’d absolutely include this game in the category of “King of Pinball” and every king deserves a proper crown!

However, being dubbed as one of the most “packed games in pinball” we knew this wasn’t a project we could half ass. This topper needed to be something special in order to live up to the quality and reputation that preceded it, and we believe the end product does indeed meet that challenge!

As we hope you’ll agree after watching the below video, this baby is packed! The crown jewel feature is most certainly the interactive gumball that ejects a real steel pinball in sequence with the in-game gumball machine - an industry first as far as we know! Some of the other bells and whistles include:

- 12 direct-to-plastic screen printed panels featuring original artwork by Rob Jordan.
- 120+ externally powered LEDs and activated when you turn on your machine.
- Mirror finish backdrop.
- Interactive metal wireform ramp that ejects a 5/8” steel pinball in sequence with the gumball machine in your game. Designed to handle 6.2 to 7.2 angled
playfields.
- 1.28” LCD screen with animated eyeball to carefully ️ over your arcade.
- Interactive clock that turns both directions in sequence with the clock in your game.
- Interactive door illumination activated by the multiball light.
- Carefully packaged in a custom collectors box.

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The topper mounts securely to top of the machine using existing holes and provided hardware mounts and screws, and connects using three t-tap connectors and one light sensor on the underside of the playfield, with no special tools, wire cutting, or soldering required. The exact product specs are: 23.5” W x 10” H x 9” D, and it weighs approximately 10 lbs. Installation should take no more than 30-45 minutes.

You can view an install video provided by our good friend Cary Hardy here to get a better idea of what’s

A formal review video can be found on his page as well, so be sure to check that out too (and while you're at it, be a pal and give his channel a follow! The man has kids to feed after all!).

We will be opening up orders for our first batch of 25 units (TZ BATCH 1) starting this Saturday (March 25th, 2023) at 1pm CST/6pm GMT for $1629, which includes shipping. A $100 deposit secures your spot and you’ll have 48 hours to pay the remaining balance once you’ve been notified that your order is ready to ship.

All orders for this first batch of toppers (25 units) will ship no later than May 30, 2023. Full refund requests will be accepted on any order not shipped on or before this date. We will NOT be limiting production of this topper and will make a point to keep the community informed on our production process as things progress.

If you, or any friends, are interested in joining the official waitlist, you can do so at: https://www.teppinball.com/store/p/tz-topper OR by messaging us on Pinside at: TEPPinball.

We’ll also be showing off the topper in-person at this weekend’s Texas Pinball Festival 2023, where we’ll have 2 units on display; including, a fully playable version mounted to a beauty of a game (Thanks @KOMODO)! So if you’ll be making the trip to TPF as well please come by our booth on the main floor, say hello, and enter for your chance to win one of two $200 vouchers towards a future topper!

From both of us, we thank you in advance for the support and we truly hope you’ll love this product as much as we’ve loved designing it!

Alec (atg1469) & Rob (rob3)
The TEP Crew

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Even more details can be found here: https://www.teppinball.com/news/tz-topper-how-its-made

Come by and see us at TPF.

Sale of 25 units starts today at 1p CT at https://www.teppinball.com/store/p/tz-topper

This sale is “first come, first serve” and only 25 units will be available for this batch.

All units will ship by May 30th, 2023 and a $100 secures your order. The total price $1629 (shipping included) the balance will be due when your order is ready to ship. International shipping is extra and we will work with you directly on the details.

If you don’t get a unit in this batch, don’t worry, the TZ topper is not limited and more units are planned. 50% of each batch will go to those on the waitlist (in order of signup) and 50% will be available first come, first serve.

https://www.teppinball.com/tz-waitlist

If you don't get in stop by our booth and we'll get you added to a special waitlist.

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We are sold out of our first batch of units. Thank you to our BATCH 1 customers!

Sign up below to join the ORDERED waitlist below, this is not a limited run!

50% of each future batch of units will go to waitlist members in order and 50% will be available “first come, first serve”.

https://www.teppinball.com/store/p/tz-topper

Catching our breath after TPF 2023...

Holy hell, what a whirlwind couple of days that was! Based on all the conversations we had leading up to attending our first ever Texas Pinball Festival, we thought we knew what we’d be walking into, but it’s safe to say those expectations were blown clean outta the water!

From the moment we walked onto the show floor, we knew this was going to be a special weekend and we did our best to try and soak it all in, while also keeping on task with our own launch agenda and obligations. And, of course, getting in some quality flippin’ time if/when the opportunity presented itself!

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone that took the time to stop by our booth and see our first topper in-person! We loved meeting all of you and having an opportunity to learn more about your own pinball obsessions and discussing all of your dream themes for our future creations. You all threw some awesome ideas at us for sure, so we certainly have our work cut out for us in that regard!

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In our minds though, this is what this trip was all about for us. Yes, of course, we were launching a new company & product, so we had to keep our eye on that prize for sure; however, the greatest part of this trip to us was finally having an opportunity to meet all of the collaborators, manufacturers, and fellow Pinsiders that have been working so hard to get this hobby where it is today.

We are (and always will be) pinball fans first, makers second, and we loved having the opportunity to celebrate all things pinball with you crazy people!

Secondly, we want to give a very special shoutout to all the event organizers, volunteers, and individuals that helped make us feel so welcomed and that assisted in making our first visit a resounding success! A huge thank you to komodo for bringing your beauty of a game to showcase our topper on, and to Cary Hardy for introducing us to the game owner. Your game may have kicked our butts but damn if that topper didn’t look great sitting on top of it!

Finally, and as a long-winded way of finally coming to the point of this post, we want to give a huge shoutout to everyone that shared their positive comments and reactions to our TZ topper at the show and online! To our own amazement, our first batch of toppers sold out in less than 2 minutes and we know you all played a hand in helping make that happen. For those of you that did not get in on this first batch, do not fret we are not limiting production so we promise we’ll get to your order in time!

More to come in that regard soon…

For now, we’re taking a day to catch our breath because it would seem that tomorrow we have some work to do!

-Alec & Rob
The TEP Crew

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Curious about some of mechs in the TZ Topper? Alex @ Empire Pinball interviewed Rob at TPF and he shared some details on the guts of the topper.

Starts at the 2:50 mark.

Thanks for the video Darkfader

Well, you sure do know how to sweet talk a lady!! Doesn't look like you have TZ in your lineup currently but you should join our mailing list as we may have something in the works that you will be extremely interested in coming soon

https://www.teppinball.com/get-updates

Another concept we are considering for future batches would be to do 50% directly to the waitlist (in order), 25% first come, first serve on our website, and then holding a random lottery for current waitlist members for the last 25%. In our minds, this would give every waitlist member a fairly decent opportunity to receive a topper sooner and could keep folks more engaged in the process as well.

We'd love to know the group's thoughts on the matter, so if you have an opinion either way please let us know!

It’s solid feedback, thanks for sharing! Yes, we

It's solid feedback and we appreciate you for sharing! Yes, as a business we're trying to figure out the best way to capture new sales while also not deterring existing waitlist customers. We want people to feel engaged and excited about the possibility of getting their toppers ASAP, but at the same time not burn any bridges.

Your feedback is extremely valued, so thank you again for sharing. I promise, we're listening!