WhizBang Pinball

WhizBang Pinball was a boutique pinball design studio founded in 2009 by Greg Freres and Dennis Nordman, two industry veterans who had worked together at Bally and Williams on games including Elvira and the Party Monsters, Dr. Dude, Party Zone, and Scared Stiff. After reconnecting at a 2009 pinball show, the pair unveiled their first project, Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons, at that October's Pinball Expo: a hand conversion of Gottlieb's 1957 electro-mechanical Continental Cafe, one of which Nordman had bought years earlier. Only three solid-state units and one electro-mechanical prototype were completed, finished within days of each other in October 2011, each set on a stacked wooden crate in place of conventional pinball legs.

Stern Pinball put a mass-produced, fully electronic version of Big Juicy Melons into production in March 2015, keeping WhizBang's retro fruit-crate cabinet art while adding modern electronics and LED lighting. The following year Stern and Pabst Brewing released The Pabst Can Crusher, a Pabst Blue Ribbon-licensed reskin of the same game built for promotional use. Both founders later moved on to other pinball design roles, and WhizBang Pinball has not released a further title since.