This Week's Big Event: The International Pinball Exposition

Gatecrasher

Some on here know my passion for pinball and my side business manufacturing reproduction parts for classic Bally pinball machines. This week in Wheeling, IL at the Westin Hotel is the 30th annual International Pinball Expo. The prime pinball event of the year. It runs from Wednesday to Sunday and is open to the public. There will be tons of machines all set to free play and for $10 you can play all night until midnight. There is also a flea market/vendor area and also a competition area for the wizards. All the new releases will be there as well as many machines for sale. Free parking too.

It's a cool time so if you dig the silver ball come on down!

Here are two of my prized music-themed pins in my collection:




Here's a link to more info on the show:
http://pinballexpo.net/

agfrost

Cool. I'm soon to get my hands on a low-milage Gottleib Spirit of '76 table that's been in my family since one of my uncles bought it new. Not sure if I'll make it out to Wheeling this year, but that's relatively local and I'd like to get out there sometime.

Are you a Bally guy? When I was a kid in the late 70's/early eighties I had a friend down the street whose dad worked for Bally IIRC; they always had a few pins in the basement. Good memories.

Gatecrasher

You should come to the show if you are anywhere close. For $10 you can play pinball until your arms fall off. Plus if you need any parts you can usually find them there. I usually pick up new playfield glass at this show. There is a guy there who brings a truckload and sells it for $20 a sheet. Try getting tempered safety glass for your pinball machine for under $50 a sheet anywhere else.

I used to have a lot of pins but am down to 8 "keepers" now. Here are two more from my collection.

A pair of 1981 Bally Eight Ball Deluxe pins (my all-time favorites).

Quit talking and start chalking!

ZLTFUL

My buddy Mike is an avid collector and will be there Wednesday through Sunday. We have other plans or else we would join him.

Have fun!

oldrocker

Very neat. Had a chance a few months back to buy one "Gorgon" I think was the name of the machine. Bought other audio stuff instead. That being said would love to have one..

xjghost

My GF is a lover of pinball. I enjoy it too. This past weekend we plated on a Doungon and Dragons machine and a Mario Machine. Was a good time.

teekay0007

Gatecrasher wrote: »

Quit talking and start chalking!

I remember that machine! They had one at my hometown bowling alley. The whole room would sometimes be pretty quiet and out of nowhere you'd hear the catchphrase coming from the machine.

Used to LOVE the pins! We had a Williams "Apollo" game at our house. It was quite an old one (1971?); one where they had "Flipper" actually written on the flippers. The coin slots were a dime for one game or a quarter for three. Each game was also five balls and the replays started at a score of 4200!

I kind of lost interest in pinball when the games went from "Ding! Ding! Ding!" to making just wacky noises, talking (screaming) at you and replays being earned at about 8 gazillion points. I thought the huge-point machines took away the importance of most of the playing field items. The only way you won the games seemed to become by doing certain tasks in specific, sometimes complicated order, etc. Gone were the days where the simple bumpers actually meant something meaningful in the overall scheme of the game.

Oh...the good ol' days!

Gatecrasher

I was wrong about the date (and I even posted the link duh). The show is next week!!!

So come on down Polkies. I'm bringing one of my Eight Ball Deluxe machines to the show and it will be set on free play along with a ton of others.