Original Whitewater Reproduction Toppers Now Available!

[Menace]

After many many many years of people working on this (and me personally supplying an original NOS decal to Darin Jacobs) the guys over at Twisted Pins have finally managed to pull this off. For the first time ever, an original style reproduction of the foil topper on Wh20 is now available.

http://www.twistedpins.com/products/par ... er_topper/

They ended up having a company in Germany make the foil dye in the end, and have now found a company in the US that is able to use this large dye to manufacture the decals.

So for those that thought this would never ever happen, the wait is finally over. And while the price is nowhere near what the NOS ones used to be available for, I think the price with the clear dome is more than reasonable, especially given what used and NOS ones have been selling for the past little while.

D

 

[Vengeance]

I want to see a you tube video of it before I commit.

The pictures look really washed out but I know that it's just the picture.

Mine is pretty good, but has bit a bubbling so for the price I'd consider buying it but I want to make sure it's as good as the original.

 

[mwong168]

No video has been posted yet but here is a picture of the die and a printed sheet before embossing

 

[REVOLUTION]

as someone who works in the printing industry, I can tell you that reproducing this piece is quite the achievement... and likely cost a fortune to produce.

 

[Menace]

Yep, which is exactly why I feel the price point with the clear dome and the white plastic bracket + decal was more than fair. Hell, the domes are selling for $80 these days, and the bracket is $20 on their own!

Pretty decent if you ask me.

D

 

[Vengeance]

I got no issues with the price, I just want to see the animation of the topper via the lights in a video. That is what makes or breaks the topper.

 

[REVOLUTION]

actually in a way you could say that this topper (and others, like Fish Tales) was quite the testament to WMS's ego back then.. "We're the best, and here's an insanely expensive and pretty much useless topper to prove it!"

That being said, the toppers of the 90's were way better than those POS Laseriffic toppers like the one on WoZ... blech.

 

[brewmanager]

Ordered mine...and Drano's. Got the new tub in Allentown, I think it'll make quite the difference to the look of the pin.

That being said, if anyone wants a slight faded, yellowed topper with some bubbling, I'd certainly consider parting with it.

 

[DRANO]

"We're the best, and here's an insanely expensive and pretty much useless topper to prove it!"

Useless?
Come on. That flapping fish and the awesome cascading water effect must have attracted more than a few people to insert quarters in those games.
It's all about attraction. I can't wait to line up my FT, TAF and WH2O all side by side.

And I agree, laseriffic is just a bunch of nonsense. Next thing you know people will be installing mirrors in their cabinets :lol:

 

[mwong168]

White Water Topper Youtube Videos

Original
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=so5gtvTq5Ro[/youtube]

Reproduction
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ckyYPTwU_vU[/youtube]

Not looking so good for this first run as people who have received theirs are not noticing the cascading water illusion. Not to worry and this is what Twisted Pins had to say:

We stand behind everything we sell. We will gladly exchange out the toppers at no cost for anybody who wishes when we get our next run done in 2 weeks. We currently are making a new die for the embossing that will allow for it to be much deeper.

Should anybody wish to return it that is fine also.

 

[Menace]

Yikes... At least they are standing behind their product. Too bad they jumped the gun a little bit, that's gonna sting their pocket book a bit.

D

 

[brewmanager]

Ah crap....

 

[DRANO]

Ah crap....

Ditto

 

[mwong168]

Update from twisted pins a few minutes ago:

No this project isn't dead in the water. We thought we had it figured out but now have ran into another hurdle. We finally got the artwork for the waterfall correct but still couldn't get the correct waterfall effect once installed into a machine. Then it hit us that the foil board we had them made on is WAY glossier than an original topper. We sanded the glossy board with a piece of 320 grit sandpaper that was laying around and the results were improved. But still not what they should be. Right now we are testing out some different foil boards and we hope that will give us the original results.

Ongoing Pinside thread here

 

[DRANO]

Something is rotten in Denmark.

I understand they're working through this issue... but you're telling me they didn't test and realize this before selling a whack of units?
:FP:

 

[mwong168]

I would just get refund for now since they are giving them back promptly.

 

[mwong168]

Wow, can't believe it has been over a year since Twisted Pins announced White Water reproduction toppers being made available. It has been a bumpy ride but looks like they are finally making production progress and just posted this on pinside:

We are in the final stages of getting the new die made. It took a long long time (too long) to get this project into the right hands to make it happen. As everybody knows the first attempt which was a poor attempt had no action on the waterfall at all. Needless to say the new and improved version is a night and day difference. The new version has in my opinion more waterfall action than the original one.

Before we finalize the die and move into production I wanted to get some opinions and feedback on an idea we came up with. The artist can make the Williams logo have some action from left to right. Personally I think it looks great and ties together well with the waterfall. Below is a GIF of what it looks like (note that this isn't exact but just to give people an idea)

If everything goes according to the production schedule I have been given it will be available to the market by the end of July.

 

[mwong168]

Twisted Pins just posted an update on pinside:

The final die has been made and shipped to the facility that is doing the embossing. Once they are complete the topper decals will be shipped to the printer so they can do the artwork and apply the cold sheet adhesive to the back of the decal. From there they will be shipped to us and we can start installing the decals onto the plastic support stands.

With many different vendors involved in the production of these it is hard to give a firm timeline as any little hiccup can throw off the schedule. That said the decals are closer than before and when they are ready we will post accordingly on our Facebook, Twitter and here on Pinside.

We already had a sample one made before moving forward with production. It probably has more waterfall action than the original one.