Mod companies are working on current and future games.

Probably have trouble making a lot of something and then storing it until if it sells.

Same with playfields, ramps, plastics. Grab while the grabbing is good.

LTG : )

Because newer games tend to sell WAY more than games which have been around for 8 years. And almost all mod makers have a day job and limited time, so they need to spend their time on mods which will make them the most money as quickly as possible. It makes no sense to spend time creating something only to store it in inventory, when you’ve got something you’re reasonably sure will sell well right away.

I think Lloyd has it right. why is spooky only making 1250 Halloween games when they sold out in a few hours. Sometimes parts for mods become hard to find, the labor time might be too high or people want to move on to new things. Most mod makers are small companies (if they are even a company) and making 100 of an older mod means they can’t be working on new stuff. Also, to make mods, you have to build up an inventory of parts, buying them in quantity to keep costs down. Ordering a handful of parts to make a handful of tornadoes, for example, may not make sense.

Yeah sometimes an amazing mod is made and the creator just straight disappears. Other times they are really good at keeping lists and making everybody happy. But every time they eventually sell out and stop making them. Some guy is asking $800 for the flying Monkey mod!

The WoZ mods are some of the most popular cause it seems every WoZ owner just has to mod their game!

You're kind of talking about diffferent things. The witch you mention is mine (and the monkey). But I'm not a company. I make all of my mods by hand in my garage. And when I make 200 or whatever, I need to take a break from them because they take months to finish and it's exhausting. Plus, I like making new and different things.

3D printed stuff or Pinblades are made by machines, so the design is readily available to companies at literally the push of a button.

The other toys you mention aren't actually mods. Those were made by Matt Riesterer for JJP and came stock on the Ruby Red version of WOZ. But I believe they're still available here if you'd like to put them in your machine:

https://backalleycreations.com/collections/wizard-of-oz-pinball-mods

I do think there are other creators making similar mods. There's a different witch smoke mod. There's different mods for the crystal ball and the munchkin house.

I do think there is only one flying monkey though!

Happy to help ya! I love modding my games and about 50% of the pleasure comes from the hunt for something cool.

If you really want to see everything that's on offer you need to search Pinside, Google, and eBay, and use a lot of different search terms. You'll find tiny shops and creators, websites that look 15 years old, websites in French or German or Russian, all kinds of janky crappy mods and amazingly beautiful ones that were sold out years ago.

And of course nothing should stop you from making your own! Most of the people selling mods started with an idea for themselves and then began sharing it with others.

Infamous?! haha. I don't know about that. But thank you. And I'm happy to share with you how I do my mods. Basically, everything I make is first sculpted in clay. Once I like the design and look of it, I cast it in resin. Then it's sanded and painted. That's pretty much it, unless there's electronics or springs or whatever. I try to show a lot of that on my thread, so if you look at the photo gallery or watch the videos you can kind of get the idea.