If you've been reading this page for a while, you know that from time to time I peruse the website for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to see if any interesting new trademarks related to pinball have been filed.
Universal Studios is always one of the more active, recognizable names that pops up in my searches. I've seen it make a number of filings that mention the term "pinball machine" over the past couple of years. The most recent one is for the term "Horror is Universal." Universal Studios has actually filed a number of trademarks related to its monsters and pinball. These are pretty wide trademarks that mention a lot of other stuff besides pinball, but it is in there.
So I've been thinking to myself, why not do another pinball machine based on the iconic Universal Monsters? The first pin dedicated to Universal Monsters was Williams' beloved 1998 game Monster Bash, which currently resides at Spot 7 in the Pinside Top 100 pinball machines of all-time. And of course, there has been machines dedicated to individual monsters before and after that, such as Bally's 1992 game "Creature from the Black Lagoon", Williams 1993 game "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and SEGA's 1995 game "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."
Monster Bash is an amazing game, but it approaches the monsters from a humorous angle. This leaves the hobby wide open for a more horror-based collective Universal Monsters pinball machine. Such a machine would be very timely too. Universal Studios is scheduled to open a huge new Universal Monster-themed pack called Dark Universe in May 2025, so it is likely going to be heavily promoting the IP. I've been looking into the new park and it looks like it is going to be fantastic.
I have no specific knowledge that a new Universal Monsters pinball machine is in the works, but I know that I personally would like to see one. What do you all think of the theme?
Universal Dark Universe website:
The Horror is Universal trademark:
Dark Universe is a land within the Epic Universe theme park scheduled to open on May 22nd 2025.