The "hit a button to rotate and reveal a hole" feature for Wonka is decent but not a great "toy" like they want it to be. I agree that the MM castle is darn awesome and I can't really find any other toy that can top that to current date; the feeling to lower the drawbridge, raise the gate and then enter and destroy castle is really fun.

I find the newer games kind of lacking in imagination, its not really any new inventions going on, mostly rehashing old mechanisms. I give Dialed In the credit for using a mobile phone in the game, but obviously that wasn't even possible in the 80/90's.

Ducktales or Gravity Falls pin - would require very little "imagination" on their part. So sometimes i'm saying the theme limits things. I'm honestly not sure why someone would pick Wonka?? Nothing against it but I guess you could say the same thing about WOZ. Both are colorful, but I don't get jazzed thinking about either. The movies themselves weren't exciting. They weren't bad, but don't think anyone ever said "i'm excited to watch wonka or woz".

The best themes are the unlicensed ones. People have no pre-conceptions - they can take the game for what it is and the designers can be as crazy or restrained as they want.

While not as great as the castle, I do love the ball eating T-Rex on Jurassic Park, as I think it took some creative engineering to implement. I also enjoy his side-to-side rotation taunting throughout gameplay.

I think the pirate ship upper playfield on JJPOTC is amazing. It rocks back and forth speed varies on what is happening in the game. Raise sails, load cannon, and fires. Pretty sweet and it integrates the theme perfectly. Some hate the falling overboard part, but I think it fits and keeps it a challenge.

Doesn't necessarily top the castle, but the hammer on the premium/le Metallica was pretty cool the first time I saw it.

My favorite toy in all of pinball is still the pirate ship on Sterns POTC. Rocks back and forth and sinks into the playfield. Such a creative design.

I think part of the reason is that the same designers are involved. Same guys = same ideas. Some new blood with NO pin design experience would be beneficial. One of the downsides of experience is that it also hinders your ability to think outside the box.

Good point. I’ve always believed that if you took the brightest minds we have and applied them to the issues in different disciplines then we would solve many of our challenges. Always a good thing to have a fresh perspective on something where the “experts” are at a standstill.

Nothing in my collection beats MM castle.. best of the best.

The trunk in TOM is pretty snazzy as well.

Yeah, Pats game looks great, Art and shots on point , Audio and code, not, well not yet anyway
I was kinda imagining the paddle boat and chocolate river perhaps a Subway with wild LED action and incredible art being the main feature.
Gobstopper makes sense of course.

Deeproot better come up with something Radical if they wish to go head to head with Stern and JJP .

I like what Stern is doing with Laser cut ramps and chaser lighting.
The Knight is more interactive than the pretty gobstopper.

I can't wait to see what Mr Eddy has up his sleave,
The feature does not need to be complicated, just engaging !

Build quality needs to be paramount and prices need to fall or at least stabilize.

Awesome time for pinball.

It's almost catch 22 territory. If companies start putting Rube Goldberg devices in these machines, the cost will just be astronomical. They can only get so fancy and stay within a reasonable BOM.

however, these mechanical toys just aren't a thing anymore either. I've brought pinball assemblies to work and showed it to the mechanical engineers.. they all look at it and scratch their heads... it looks incredibly expensive to them. think the world has moved on from elaborate clockwork parts and solenoids. so finding new blood would be hard when you can make a ton more $$$ making easier to design things like biotech

TOYS!

I love the MM castle, but THING is still the real king of pinball toys.

I’d play Addams over and over just to see that hand come out and grab the ball. Amazing.

I like everything pinball, it's all great!

Was going to say PotC ship as well. It’s not as complex as MM castle but to me Castle is so big that it blocks a lot of the view of the PF. Ship is medium size and allows room for spinning disc and treasure chest toys.

.

The new BKSOR knight mechanism is pretty cool not as good as the MM castle but it's still cool.

Always though the WipeOut ski lift mechanism was innovative

It was / is cool but I think the magic wand in Pinball Magic is better than THING, having the ball actually "float" down the wand is pretty cool, even cooler when you drop it with the flipper buttons. With regards to use of magnets in a game I'm not sure anything beats that.

I legit love WipeOut, such a fun game.

We will see toys like that again as soon as williams reopens it doors. They had the most RnD cash to make this stuff. Nowadays is a different kettle of fish.
Sigh. I miss the 90's
not saying the new stuff is not cool. But when you consider how well the older titles are still holding up seems like W/B is still the gold standard in awesome games.

Is there a video of this anywhere? I've never seen the wand do it's magic.

Ringmaster in CV, I feel, is as good.

Come buy mine and you can experience it everyday!

Quality isn't great but you can see the ball float down for the trunk lock at 3:50 in this video:

It’s an underrated gem, man!

Budget and reliability are constraining factors.

I just want good games that are fun and don’t break.

Wonka a huge step in the right direction.

No ! You can't beat MM Castle, period !

Rudy in Funhouse is what has impressed me the most and it was designed almost 30 years ago! Between the eyes that follow the ball, the mouth that syncs so well with his vocalizations, the great snoring effect with the lips trembling, and the ability to interact with the head via hitting it or putting the ball in the mouth for multiball or extra points, I would argue that no other toy has been so aesthetically designed while still being intimately integrated into game play. Seeing Rudy "throw up" the ball is what convinced me that I had to own this machine.

This is the kind of talk that shuts down innovation in this hobby.

MM does not have a Rube Goldberg level of complexity. A drawbridge and gate that opens, some switches and a simple exploding castle mech could be engineered today and is not from some alternate universe where magical mechs were once built. We have not lost this technology after some apocalyptic world event. Yet, I agree, the castle is the best example of mechanical theme integration.

That something like the MM castle hardware would make the BOM immediately astronomical today and therefore somehow impossible on machines that are going up a thousand per year on average lately is ridiculous. The fact that MMr was released in fact negates your point completley.

Let’s show some imagination and continue to believe that more is possible this century which I think is part of the OPs point.

I think bsd with the ball going across the field was pretty cool and innovative. Even still today. One of my favorite games for sure.

Agreed. Rudy is the GOAT!

Mm is probably the best looking interactive toy in pinball. Drawbridge, portcullis, moat and wall. And shaking towers. And it looks like an actual castle

However Jjp pirates ship is cool too. And probably the best modern era toy/feature so far.

Rocks and changes speed, cannon, spinners, targets, flippers, vuk

But only kind of resembles part of a ship.

If you painted it a completely different color. You wouldn't know what it was.

Mm it would still be a colored castle.

This was my thought too...coupled with the levitating ball and the skill shot into the top hat, PM is one of the most creative use of toys that fits within the theme. Honorable mention for magnet play, is Mist in BSD.

The technical tricks in PM are awesome... but the game is sooo not fun to play with the linear rules.... Wish it had different code... Probably would still own it.

I LOVE the MET hammer! In addition to the ball being visually "pounded" below the playfield, the overall effect - enhanced by audio, shaker motor, and (now) updated code to turn the playfield GI red - is fantastic!

I'll take this over the MM castle toy. But then again, I'd take MET over MM any day too.

I agree the MM castle and TS are great.

I also think CP has some unique features not seen on other games. Jump rope, speed bag, launching the ball off of ramps to hit a bash toy, etc..

The castle is nice, but top?

Wand on Pinball Magic or even the stage with the levitating ball
Ring in LOTR
Hammer on MET LE
Ship on Stern POTC

There are a lot of other toys in games that simply have a bigger wow factor than the Castle.

I wonder if we'll ever see a game loaded like TSPP again.? I was kind of hoping wonka was going to have that kind of level of interactive things on the playfield.

While not a toy, I love shooting the cannon in T2.

Might get a ball eating T-Rex again if Brian Eddy's really doing Jurassic World.

Cousin came over with her Fiancé..

They played SWLE, GOTGLE, D.I, Munsters LE. The game that they really like the most was Medieval Madness and CFTBL..
old school classics, simple rules and FUN COOL toys. MM castle, AFM saucer and Creature hologram are my favourites.
THING, book case and THING Flipper also way cool

Wait 'til you see the Indominus Rex on Jurassic World.

I always liked a properly working originally planned deadworld ball lock and release on JD. With its original design, I think its a really cool toy.

Technically I suppose its a mod. But a mod to get it back to its original function.

Herman bash toy on Munsters.