Just please no more rock band pins, I'm so sick of these.

Men in Black perhaps? HP Lovecraft? I think you could get some killer modes out of a Lovecraft pin.

A few theme ideas:

Clue, MST3K, The Tick, Babylon 5, Seven Samurai, Men in Black, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Voltron, Blackbeard (this might be more of an American Pinball one)

Then we can finally stop getting a flood of rock band pins and have more with real themes?

Yeah, if I had a Hot Wheels I'd totally want to convert it to Gaslands. But the theme is too obscure for most - I think you'd have better luck licensing the Twisted Metal name. Put that Sweet Tooth truck in the game as a toy and people would love it!

A Battletech/Mechwarrior pinball would rock too, and the toys are already pretty much already designed for you - mechs EVERYWHERE on the playfield like a battlefield diorama. Pick what house you want to play for, each one having different bonuses and maybe swap video and text assets to the common mechs used by each house.

There's a difference between an expensive license and a fun license that appeals to people. What is cooler than giant monsters beating the crap out of each other and trashing a city? I don't care if the monsters are wearing 1950's rubber suits, it's just awesome fun and so is Scooby.

I thought Bond was Gomez? That's what it says here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/james-bond-007-pro

Either of those would be an excellent theme. I guess we'll find out in March what's actually coming...

I would love to see a Muppets pinball with animated Statler & Waldorf figs in the backbox made to look like their balcony and heckling you. Make it an Elwin while we're at it.

Honestly, some of the new licensed pinballs are a bit too heavy handed with the themes anyway.

In the WPC days, they'd made a pinball specific animation that matched the theme of the game and the situation the animation was going to be used for. Now, it feels like they just put in a movie clip whether it's a good match or not.

As I've been playing different machines I've noticed that even if I like the movie the pinball is based on sometimes the assets aren't used well and it breaks the immersion. Wonka for instance. I like the movie, but most of the time the screen is showing what looks like a Wonka factory cellphone game and even when movie clips are used they don't always make sense with what's currently happening game-wise.

Bottom line, I'm definitely down for some unlicensed games or licenses based on books or whatever else gives the company enough creative room to make better situational animations. TV show themes seem to do better as there's a ton more footage to work from.

Maybe 2 pins will mean more focus on quality and launching with more mature code. I’m fine with that.

That would be awesome and the movie is already broken down nicely into scene based modes.

And Minnie the Moocher Multiball!

I'd rather see an Anchorman pin than Elf, but neither is really a top choice for me.

I'm adding my vote to Dodgeball, that would be an awesome theme!

I think PinballMap is basically like Pokemon Go right now. Whenever I travel I'm looking at it to "catch" all the pinball games I can at different venues.

I'd be happy to see an announcement sooner rather than later - I've been assuming they'd reveal it at Texas Pinball in late March but it would make a lot of sense to announce the name and maybe a few pics prior to that and then have a couple of actual machines at the fest for people to review and hype up. I guess we'll see what happens.

If we're doing RPGs, give me a Paranoia pinball

Interesting idea. A game with lots of characters like PotC but by default you only have access to a few or maybe you can use most/all of them but can't level them up. To do that you have to scan your figure and it keeps your experience and online ranking. TMNT already has a way to keep your turtle's training level between plays through IC so the foundation is there.

A fantasy RPG version where you can make your own character would be even cooler, pick your class but also get to customize their name, appearance, and maybe find cool gear in-game by completing quests or simple random awards. Theme it after Skyrim, Diablo, D&D, etc... Add a co-op "adventure party" mode. If I had the skills and time to make a home-brew pin I'd be tempted to do it myself

TRON, Ghostbusters, Walking Dead are all fine by me but I'd like to see better art on Walking Dead and full displays instead of DMDs.

My 11 year old likes to play, plus I talk about rules, mods, and other pinball stuff with him all the time. He especially likes learning about any Easter Eggs or secret modes or whatever. When I told him that Attack From Mars has a secret Cow Video Mode we didn't do anything else for a week but try to get it

I agree that some themes are less relevant to younger players but we've also had a good number of Marvel themes, TMNT, Stranger Things, etc... that should be very recognizable. We'll see what comes out next...

Great idea, does it work on wives too?

I'm hoping American Pinball will reveal Galactic Tank Force at Texas Pinball, plus there will be Scooby's there from Spooky and we'll get a ton of feedback on those. If we can find out the new Stern title at or by Texas Pinball that would be great too.

If they stick with comic book Venom (which I'm sure they would) it'll be fine. And Spider-Man will be in there for him to fight, as long as they don't go for Agent Venom which I hope they don't. Personally I like the idea of doing Supervillain pins for a change but I think Joker would be a bigger draw and provide better fuel for pinball modes.

Well, it's still just a rumor at this stage so who knows?

Matrix would be awesome. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't seen someone re-theme a Dialed In as a Matrix pinball by now. Would have sold better I think...

I could do a Ferris Bueller pin too, so many great scenes you could use...

If the expensive themes aren't more profitable than the cheap themes, then I would stick with the cheap themes.

Come on, MST3K pinball...

Van Halen would be better than most of the bands that keep getting mentioned, but that's from the perspective of a 51 year old so...

Still, there have been so many rock band pins I'd rather see something different.

A Treehouse of Horror pin would be pretty cool, that would be much more appealing to me than another rock band or superhero theme. It's also long running enough that people of various generations would recognize it.

Personally I think a MST3K pinball would be awesome too. Leverage Insider Connected to download new movie modes periodically and let the user configure their favorite ones for the game modes, or maybe just randomize them.

Big Trouble in Little China would grab me hard. Pork Chop Express Multiball. Lo Pan with glowing eyes and mouth. Lo Pan vs Egg Shen sorcerer’s battle video mode.

I love Godzilla but not really any of the other Elwin pins. I’m going to give JP another chance, I think the one I played before may not have been set up well.

The theme and music have no appeal to me, so I haven't had much motivation to play it. I've tried it a couple of times but not enough to get a good feel for the layout and rules. If it were a different theme I might like it.

Whatever the next title is, it will still be a long time before it has reasonably complete code so to me the reveal is only a heads up for what I might be interested in later on. IF it seems to have a good layout, theme, audio, art, rules, etc... then I will make a note to check up on it in 6 months and see how it's going.

Except there are decades of other good machines we can buy instead of 007? I’d need to buy a LOT more pins before I’d consider it.

In the meantime, you can at least put a Jurassic Park next to it. Godzilla + T-Rex isn't bad.

I agree, I don't want a bigger screen to justify the price. I want the same screen at a better price. If I want better audio, a 3rd party solution like PinWoofer will always be better than what they put in the box. Instead of adding speakers just keep the current ones and drop the price.

They'd better come up with a way to offer value for price or else I'm just gonna keep buying used HUO machines.

Agreed, rock band pins are very polarizing themes. I wouldn’t buy a Foo Fighters pin even if it was amazing.

I want a ZZ Top pin with a beard growing mech and their ‘34 Ford Coupe on the playfield.

I'm excited to see Galactic Tank Force. Yes, it's not as good a theme as Scooby (what is?) but I expect a Nordman design to play very well and American has a reputation for quality built machines. Anyway, I'm hoping they will reveal it at by the end of next month at Texas Pinball.

I'm not sure we need the Jaws theme specifically, I'm 51 and I can't remember much about the movie or characters beyond the "bigger boat" quote, and the younger someone is the less they'll know about it.

So, why not pick a more recent shark movie IP? Why not partner with Discovery and make a "Shark Week" pin? When I was a kid Shark Week was a major event to look forward to each year. Deep Blue Sea is more memorable to me than Jaws. Sharknado? The Meg? Just make an unlicensed shark theme?

I mean, clearly a lot of us think a shark attack theme would work but I don't know that it has to be Jaws in particular.

Everything's coming up Milhouse!

If they make more Stranger Things I'd be interested, especially if they improve the TK lock.

I'm starting to think that Stern should just post a list of different potential themes and allow players and arcade owners to vote on what they want. Maybe giving people what they ask for and collecting free data on our theme preferences will turn out more beneficial than the surprise value of keeping it a secret. Maybe worth trying once and see how it goes?

I still can't believe Foo Fighters is a real theme. I thought for sure it had to be a code name for something else...

I've only had a couple of games on Jaws but it seems good so far and on stream they've talked a little bit about additional multiball modes, Gear, etc... so I would wait for the software to get more complete.

New themes I haven't a clue what might be coming, but Halo wouldn't have any appeal to me at all. If I was doing a video game theme I'd probably want to see Mechwarrior. Battletech (the miniatures game that Mechwarrior is based on) has been around for 40 years and probably more popular today than at any point in its history and tons of storylines to use as pinball plots, and the video game series is doing fairly well too.

Only a few weeks left until Texas Pinball Fest and we'll likely find out what the next theme will be and who's designing it. Jack Danger made a strong showing with Foo Fighters, I'm excited to see what his next title will be but it sounds like he might not be up until later in the year.

You know what would be better than Bloodsport? Big Trouble in Little China. I'd love to see that come out.