I Can't Believe How Good This Star Wars Pinball Looks Now!

RetroRalph·video·10m 38s·analyzed·Jan 10, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Retro Ralph reviews Electric Playground's $799 Star Wars topper with customizable blades and integration.

Summary

Retro Ralph reviews The Electric Playground's Dual Deck topper for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, a third-party aftermarket accessory priced at $799 that integrates with game lighting (bumpers, extra ball, Hyperspace Loop). The topper features customizable green/blue lightsaber blades, decorative pin mounting, optional LEGO display rail, and multi-game compatibility (9+ titles). Ralph provides installation tips, highlights build quality and customization options, and positions it as a compelling alternative to Stern's official $1,500 topper despite lacking an animatronic head feature.

Key Claims

The Electric Playground Dual Deck topper for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire is priced at $799
high confidence · Retro Ralph stated directly multiple times throughout the video
The official Stern topper for Star Wars costs $1,500 and includes an extra mode
high confidence · Retro Ralph explicitly mentioned this comparison near the end of the video
The Electric Playground topper integrates with four specific game features: right bumper, left bumper, extra ball, and Hyperspace Loop
high confidence · Retro Ralph demonstrated and listed these integrations during gameplay
The topper will support at least 9 other games beyond Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, including the 2017 Star Wars game
medium confidence · Retro Ralph stated 'this topper supports nine other games' and mentioned 2017 Star Wars compatibility
The Electric Playground has manufactured toppers for Godzilla, Kong, and Pulp Fiction previously
high confidence · Retro Ralph mentioned these in opening, establishing their product portfolio
The topper includes customizable lightsaber blade colors (green and blue options with matching LED adjustments)
high confidence · Retro Ralph demonstrated the blade swap and LED color adjustment via jumper configuration
Installation requires moving sensors carefully; the right extra ball sensor was problematic in Ralph's installation
high confidence · Retro Ralph described personal installation experience and troubleshooting

Notable Quotes

“They're quickly becoming the de facto standard for high quality third-party topper options.”
Retro Ralph@ 0:19 — Establishes The Electric Playground's market position and credibility in the aftermarket topper space
“Don't rush through it anyway, whether you're new or experienced and take your time when you're installing all the sensors. They can be sensitive.”
Retro Ralph@ 2:27 — Key installation advice for viewers considering the purchase; reflects real-world experience
“If that mode is important to you, then maybe you want to look elsewhere and maybe get the official topper versus The Electric Playground one. But, I think the thing that I like about this is it's an option.”
Retro Ralph@ 9:02 — Balanced assessment comparing third-party vs official product; positions as value alternative
“I love that they add these customization options.”
Retro Ralph@ 5:21 — Positive sentiment toward product differentiation strategy
“I think they did a great job integrating the light shows in the topper with things that happen on the playfield... I like that as opposed to just a topper that just sits on top of your game and looks cool.”
Retro Ralph@ 8:10 — Core value proposition assessment; highlights integration depth as key differentiator

Entities

Retro Ralphperson The Electric Playgroundcompany Star Wars: Fall of the EmpiregameStern PinballcompanyGodzillagame Konggame Pulp Fictiongame Star Wars (2017)

Signals

?
product_launch: The Electric Playground releases Dual Deck topper for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire with multi-game compatibility planned
high · Retro Ralph unboxed, installed, and reviewed production unit; product is shipping with pricing confirmed at $799
?
design_innovation: Topper features swappable lightsaber blade colors, jumper-based LED configuration, decorative pin mounts, and optional LEGO display rail
high · Retro Ralph demonstrated multiple customization paths including blade swap, LED color change via jumper, and pin/LEGO mounting
$
market_signal: Third-party topper priced at $799 vs $1,500 official Stern topper; positions as value alternative despite feature tradeoffs
high · Direct price comparison mentioned; Ralph frames as 'option' and 'step down from high-priced Stern one'
?
product_strategy: Dual Deck topper supports 9+ games including 2017 Star Wars, suggesting platform/modular design approach
medium · Ralph stated 'this topper supports nine other games' and specifically named 2017 Star Wars compatibility
?
community_signal: Major pinball content creator (Retro Ralph) providing detailed positive review of third-party product
high · Full-length video review with installation tips, feature breakdown, comparison to official product, and final recommendation
?

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01

Today is an exciting day because I just got a box in the mail from the Electric Playground. It's their new topper for Star Wars Fall of the Empire. [music] It's called the Dual Deck. Now, you've heard of these guys before because they make great toppers. They got the Godzilla topper, the Kong topper, the Pulp Fiction topper, and they're quickly becoming the deacto standard for high quality third-p partyy topper options. But in this video, we're going to check out the Dual Deck. We're going to unbox it and do all that. And I know it's sitting on the game right now, but with the power of video production, we're going to roll right into an unboxing montage. So, let's go. Hey, Darth. Do you like montages? I'm Hey, Darth. Do you like montages? I'm somebody's father. Whoa, you did the thing.

1:42

Okay, now that it's all installed, you're probably wondering What integration does it have with the game? I'm going to show that to you right now.

2:00

I want to give you a couple tips if you're installing this topper. [music] First of all, if you've never done any pinball modifications before, then you may find this a little bit difficult. It's not really, it's just that you're unfamiliar with doing this kind of work, and that's okay. So, the manual is really good. Just make sure you follow it to a tea and you should be fine. Now, the one thing I'll say for more experienced people that have done this before, don't rush through it. Don't rush through it anyway, whether you're new or experienced and take your time when you're installing all the sensors. They can be sensitive. I had a problem with the right extra ball sensor. I had to move it slightly to the right. Now, here's another tip. Don't go putting all the balls back and the glass on before you thoroughly test everything because what you're going to find out is if there's something actually that's not working properly, you're going to have to take the glass back off, take the balls back off, raise the playfield back up to the service position. So, just take your time and you'll be fine. But thoroughly test it before you put it all back together. My only other tip is, and they might change this in the manual, so it might be a moot point. Take the power cord and run it through the hole before you put the topper on top. you're not going to be able to get that power cord through the hole with the topper on. If you do that or find yourself in that position, you can get away with loosening all four screws and kind of finagling your way through that hole, but just do it beforehand and you'll be okay. There's some pretty cool customization options when you get this thing. So, when you first get it, it's going to have the green saber attached to it, but if you don't want the green one, you can actually replace it with the blue one. But I'm going to show you how you replace this. So there's just a little Allen key that this thing comes with. You just unscrew it and it screws into the top of the blade. And so basically you just unscrew this right here. At that point it it sort of disconnects from this [music] mount bracket. And then it's really simple. You just basically just slide the blade out. And now you have the blue blade off. I'll show it to you from the front real quick. We'll turn this around. And then what you do is you just slide in the green blade, but you'll notice the light is still blue. So, how do we fix that? I'll show you that in a second. So, we're just going to reconnect this. So, we're just going to screw it back on. So, I'm not going to do that for the video. So, we'll just I'm going to screw it back on off video and then I'm going to show you how you change this light from blue to green. Okay. Now that the green blade is secured and installed, we want to change that light to green versus blue. So, what you do is you flip this over and then there's going to be this jumper right here that's going to be pre-installed right in this connection. So, you're going to put that back in. Now, stock it's going to come green. So, I'm doing this sort of in reverse order. So, now that that's in, as soon as I flip this over and turn it on, that light goes from blue to green. Okay, I'm going to plug it back in. And then you should see this light boot up and be green. So basically that jumper tells this LED strip to turn from blue to green. So like I said, this is probably how it's going to ship. It's going to ship green. This is probably better suited for the Pro and Premium Art packages, but I think for the LE art package, you're definitely going to want to swap out the green one for the blue one. But uh this is probably more on brand for Star Wars. So I love that they add these customization options. There's one other customization option I want to show you that I think is also really cool. It's like an added small price that you pay, but I think you guys will think this is pretty neat. Okay, so on the side of the topper, you'll see there's these holes. Those have screws in them that come out. And so if you have like commemorative pins or stuff like that, you can take things like this and put them in these holes to customize your topper. So I can just stick that right there. And then I can take the little backing right here. And then I can put that on the back and secure these in place. So then that's [music] kind of step one. So, I love that. I think that's pretty cool that you can customize it that way. I'm going to put the other one right here on the other side. And then what's even cooler is if you're into like customizing things even a bit more, there's this rail that you can order, this light rail that you can order that will actually attach little Lego toys. So, if you have things like this and you want to put them on your topper, you can kind of customize your topper that way as well. So, I thought I thought this was really cool. Um, it's not I'm not really into these little things, but when you put them on here and you really When you put them on here and you really take a look at it, it's pretty neat. So, I'll just show you what it looks like when you get these put on here, and then I'll give you a little closeup. But Oh, hey guys. Could I uh maybe, you Oh, hey guys. Could I uh maybe, you know, join the gang? He's so handsome.

6:50

I'm a father. Yeah, he is a father. Yeah, he is a father. Cool. So, that's a yes or a no. Cool. So, that's a yes or a no. I just think this is a clever little I just think this is a clever little thing. So, when you order your topper, there's an add-on section that you can [music] add these things to it and just sort of get it um you know, customized the way you want it. So, I thought that was pretty neat. That's not how it comes stock. You have to order that option, but it looks pretty cool. I think that's a pretty neat little addition that they came up with and just something creative to customize the topper. And I love the way the pins look. Just gives it kind of a cooler custom look to it. So again, electric playground doing cool little things to make the top of your own. And like I said, when you check out if you're going to buy this, you'll see there's an option to add this right here. This could be used on a wall. So this is also wall art, so you can order it without any of the connections for the back. And uh the buttons in the front will do various topper light show settings and things like that. So kind of cool. I I love that they offer this kind of stuff because anything that you can kind of make your own I feel like people really like. So there you go. That's the Hyperspace loop light shot. But pretty neat. Hats off to Electric Playground for doing something cool and [music] unique and giving you options to customize it a little bit more. All right, so what are my final thoughts on the Electric Playground dual deck topper for Fall of the Empire? I think they did a great job integrating the light shows in the topper with things that happen on the playfield. There's right pop bumper, left pop bumper, extra ball, [music] and the hyperspace loop. So, there's definitely things that integrate with the game, and I like that as opposed to just a topper that just sits on top of your game and looks pretty. The other thing I will say is that they did a really good job with the detail on it. The handles on the lightsabers are metal. They give you that ability to change the green and blue blade out, which I thought was really cool. Also, this topper supports nine other games. I don't know all the games that they're going to have at launch, but there's going to be nine other games that it supports, including the 2017 Star Wars. The only thing I do have to mention is that the official Stern Topper did come out and it does have an extra mode. Now, keep in mind that topper is $1,500 as opposed to this topper, which is $7.99. So, if that mode is important to you, then maybe you want to look elsewhere and maybe get the official topper versus the electric playground one. But, I think the thing that I like about this is it's an option. I'm not saying that $799 is budget, but it's [music] definitely a step down from the high-priced Stern one. Granted, it doesn't have an animatronic head on it, but it is very cool and you could tell they put a good level of effort into it. I love that you can customize it with the Lego action figures and the lapel pins or whatever the heck you want to call those things, the little like collectible pins. I thought that was a nice touch. So, if you do go to order this, just know there's an add-on for that little shelf that sits on there that your LEGO guys can go on. So anyways, overall I think it's a good value for what you're getting. It looks really nice on top of it. I hope I was able to capture it in the way that it looks to the naked eye because it really is a beautiful topper on top of the game. And I just think from just a complimenting the game and the color scheme and the game, it just does a really good job of that. So hats off to TE. All the links will be in the description of this video. So if you want to go and check it out or um check out other products by TE, you can do that. I appreciate you guys watching. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments section. If you enjoyed the video, give me a thumbs up and consider subscribing to the channel if you like content like this. That's it for now, guys. We will see you on the next one. [music]