If it’s in good working order to start I wouldn’t worry. Lots of help here if you have issues. New pin or old they all need work at times. Maintenance and repairs are part of ownership so you may as well welcome problems to fix.

I learned pinball repair on my TZ, pinside great for assistance and direction to look at issues.

If you have known good working boards switch test is your best friend

Clock is often an issue on some TZ's. But I put in new gears and other stuff and with Pinside saved me tons of time and hassle getting gears lined up properly. Point is there's tons of great advice available on Pinside. I am still below average compared to most here in pin repairs but TZ has been very solid except the above mentioned clock issue. Other few repairs on TZ I got fast answers.
Point I'm trying you make if you really want a TZ I encourage you to consider it as no harder to work on than many pins.

Down the road, the TZ will likely be easier to work on than that Stern title.

Had a reimport TZ and my current TZ, a non import both have been rock solid.

I debated the exact same issue for my first game. I considered a restored TZ, or a nib pin. I was worried about upkeep, reliability. That was 2016. Now, looking back, I would get the game I want most, used or not. Condition is key, and check the boards and any issues with switches, mechs, etc. TZ is a loaded game, but I’ve had just as many (or few) issues with nib as with a good condition 90’s pin. Just my experience!

Picked up a very nice TZ. Just adding a few mods. I usually like mirror blades. Curious what looks better on TZ. Mirror or art blades? Also what options are there for back board. I’ve seen spirals and they look very cool

I went black mirror blades for my TZ and love it. Spendy, but really draws out the playfield

Pic? I’ll have to look

Here you go:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-owners-club/page/256#post-7164965

Over the last 23 years mine has had few problems apart from the flippers requiring periodic rebuilds and an occasional new other coil sleeve or plunger.

- I had to bend the lock deflector to make the shot consistent
- I had to add a magnet to the bridge diverter so balls wouldn't bounce out occasionally
- One of the pop bumper yokes broke
- Clock optos cooked from incandescent bulbs
- The dot matrix display lost some columns
- The electrolytic capacitors gave me a saggy 12V supply that made the optos flaky
- The 1 cent gumball machine plastic has sagged twice, causing balls to occasionally hang up
- A couple of the microswitches wore out
- My switch 26 proximity sensor has gotten flaky thrice - once due to a broken coil, one due to flaky 2-conductor cable connectors fixed by soldering, once for unknown reasons so it's getting an aftermarket setup.

With the games being 30 years old, a previous owner having swapped in LED clock boards, installed new capacitors, and fixed switch 26 is likely.

These look awesome. It’s funny, when you posted these pics 6 months ago, I said the same thing, but then I went with standard mirror blades on mine, which look great, but the black mirror blades look especially good on this game. Lesson learned!

Is it difficult to avoid scratching the black mirror blades when lifting playfield. I think they look great

I'm pretty religious about using side protectors when lifting playfields, so hasn't been an issue for me.

Only downside is the seriously high price ($285+shipping). TZ is the prize of my collection and never leaving, so it was worth it for me

Done it a couple of times..I’m a Master clock gear rebuilder…LOL.

7th ball added.

I installed these last week. I liked how they are a continuation of the playfield art.

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I have these too but have yet to install. Was it difficult lining up the back panel with the two sides?

I did make a mistake on the back panel and will be receiving a replacement to hopefully get it right this time, LOL. I'll be rasing it about 1-1.5 inches, that should get it pretty darn close. In all honesty, it looks good as it is. Much better than having a blank back panel.

Those look fantastic, are those specific side blades still available? I'm torn between those and mirror blades.

They are still available on Ebay. Judge Dredd is the seller, I believe. Be warned though, these don't have the scratch resistant layer over them, thus they are not the easiest to install. If you remove the playfield, I'm sure that would help a lot.

Correct Judge Dredd off Ebay is the seller. I bought mine from him many years ago. I also installed them when I was doing a full restoration and installed the back board first attached to a naked playfield so that I could align the sides up. I too like that it completes the sides and back all together.

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I don't think you can go wrong either way. Either is better than plain stock sides. Here's what I ended up doing.

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Mikespinball where did you get the target decals? That's a nice touch as well. Better than the plain yellow targets.

https://www.pinballdecals.com/TZTargetDecalsPage.html

Thx! Tough call

Pick up a set of these https://mezelmods.com/products/pinball-cabinet-assembly-blades to avoid scratching your blades when lifting the PF

I saw a post from last year about powder coating all the armor in a color called spiced black and I am intrigued. Have any of you done it or seen it in person. Generally I keep things pretty much stock on my games but have warmed up to slight mods lately and this sounds really cool. Like somebody said kind of looks likes space with the speckled black

This one might be a great option for TZ. Black with a subtle sparkle. I bet several people have good black powder examples to share.

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Excited to report that our first 10 toppers are officially on their way to their new homes today!
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Our remaining Batch 1 orders will be notified of their pending shipping dates soon as well with all orders being finalized by the end of May. We’re super excited to get these beauties into owners hands soon and look forward to hearing your own real world feedback after seeing it in action!

Still time to jump on the waitlist for future orders too!

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

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Fantastic. Good job guys! I can’t wait for mine to arrive.

I can tell by the size of the boxes these are packed real well. it’s almost double the width of the actual product.

Boxes within boxes!! Wait til you see the actual topper packaging itself

Looks awesome! I just jumped on the wait list for the June run!

Greetings Twilight Zone fans,

I'm looking for a single plastic piece replacement, part number 31-1765-12. It is the triangular part above the upper right flipper. New or used is fine--just looking for one in good shape, not melted like mine. PM me if you have one you can sell.

Thanks

-Nate

TZ 31-1765-12 (resized).jpg

Pm sent

Clock is working PERFECTLY in test. to the point, slow, fast, forward and back.

Yet during gameplay doesn’t activate. I’m used to it sometimes taking a break in the past, but now it’s just not responding at all.

What could be the problem?
Thanx in advance.

Make sure you take care of the root problem. Otherwise that flasher will stay on and fry the next plastic you put over it before you put the glass back on…

Yes, agree and thanks. The transistor is fine, it occurs if a connector on the Power board in the head comes loose. I'm going to put an LED instead incandescent flasher bulb.

-Nate

Check the setting A.2 25 "Disable Clock" is not set to Yes. If it is not, does the clock test itself on powerup?

yea made sure to turn disable clock off.

Clock runs when machine is turned on. It also does its thing between games and between players in a multi player game. Just not during modes I guess.

Okay, so this means that it's a soft fail. This would indicate that it's getting an occasional bad reading from an opto, or, your hour interrupter is off by 180-degrees.

Put it in a slow clock-test mode, forward or backward, and let it run for a longish while. Like a minute or more. See what happens.

Thanks Coyote , I’ll report back

I see alot of pyramid with the single eye. I’m a big TZ fan but don’t recall the reference to the series. Or is it just the Power mini pf?

Pretty sure the pyramid, like the gumball machine, are game specific.

Here's a great list of TZ references in the pin: https://www.ipdb.org/rulesheets/2684/tz-tie-ins.htm

Just finished building an old school TV topper for the greatest pinball machine ever made.

PXL_20230510_155437562 (resized).jpg

Looks very cool.....

What speaker light kit did you use?

The blue set that pinball life offers:
https://www.pinballlife.com/britesound-sf-led-speaker-light-kit-for-williamsbally-wpc-wpc-95-machines.html

I have a set of Pioneer TS-G1640R speakers, and the light ring fits perfectly onto the insignia without having to use an adhesive.

Hello TZ pinball owners. Is it possible for one to submit a picture of the underside
of the center slot machine kickout cover plastic.
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I looked at all the photos and I could not find any.
I was hoping to get and OEM piece picture.
Many thanks, cheers.

Do you have a clock error alert when you turn on the game?
I had a similar issue with my clock years ago. Clock would work fine in test, all optos would trigger, but I had a clock error on startup. My issue was that when I took the clock apart and put it back together that I messed up the hour and the minute hand so on startup it wouldnt hit the right optos in the right order (or something like that). Took me forever to realize, but after I swapped the clock hands back it worked perfectly.