Date: 13th March, 2012

Tuesday 13th March is the official date for the start of production for The Wizard of Oz, and today Jersey Jack Pinball released more information about the game, including three new videos and some additional pictures.

March 13th was chosen as it was game designer Joe Balcer's birthday but it was also the day on which the first royalty payment was due to Planetary Pinball Supply for the use of their intellectual property in the manufacture of the game. JJP said the first payment has been duly received by PPS.

Something not seen before is the flying monkey mechanism which takes the ball from the back of the main playfield up to the Witch's Castle mini-playfield, dropping it behind the entry door.

In this video, you can see the magnet which grabs the ball and the track on which it moves.

As with all these videos, this doesn't show the finished assembly, but one of the test/prototype fixtures.

Another moving part of the game which has been seen in picture form before, but not animating is Dorothy's House, which spins round as the ball is shot around the Munchkinland mini-playfield.

In the second video you can see the house spinning.

The final video shows the main cabinet production, as the CNC router makes the cuts and indents in the sheet of plywood to produce all the cabinet parts.

While the cabinets are being manufactured, the playfields are still awaiting approval of the artwork from Warner Bros. Jack Guarnieri says they are raring to start production once the final approval is received. In the meantime, thousands of individual parts and whole assemblies are already in production and will come together at the New Jersey factory.

The latest pictures show Dorothy's house more clearly on the Munchkinland mini-playfield. We have already shown you the artwork for the mini-playfield, so it shouldn't be long before the two are combined to give a look at the composite image. Naturally, we'll have it here.

Dorothy's House

Next we have the final version of the Trumper Bumpers which will sit atop the three pop bumpers on the left side of the playfield. The come from Matt Riesterer of Back Alley Creations fame, and they look as thought they have red LEDs in their hands.

The Trumper Bumpers

The final picture from this update shows the mirrored backglass which surrounds the LCD monitor and features the The Wizard of Oz logo, the Jersey Jack Pinball logo in the top right corner and the phrase "There's no place like home!" across the bottom.

The Wizard of Oz backglass

The WoZ logo, the LCD surround, the stardust and the text is all mirrored.

That's all for this latest update on the first official day of production. But there's much more news to come about The Wizard of Oz, and you can read all of it right here at Pinball News.

© Pinball News 2012