Isn't Denis Norman an option as the Thunderbirds designer? Perhaps JPop is implied to throw us off the sent.
Up until recently, JPop was busy with his own stuff. What has Denis been doing apart from a short burst on WNBJM?
(Perhaps time to spawn a new thread on ceramic balls: I'd imagine the less scratching is due to the ball not rusting. If steel balls are cleaned and changed regularly, I'd imagine there would not be much difference is playfield wear. With ceramic balls lasting 10x longer, does that mean it takes 10x longer to start chipping compared to the time for a steel ball starting to rust? I would have thought its hard to see chips on a ceramic ball, and chips would rip up a play field faster than rust on a steel ball.)
