Pinball Expo

[jeffradon2000]

This weekend Brian and I are going to Pinball Expo in Chicago. The biggest pinball event of the year. There will be hundreds of games to play along with all the newest offerings from all the pinball companies.

I've never been to a pinball convention before, so we'll see what happens.

Best of all we'll get to meet FLIPPY pinball's beloved and well known mascot

What should we ask Flippy while we're there?

[brain galacki]

WOW, I HAD SUCH A NICE WEEKEND AT THE EXPO THIS WEEKEND! I'M GONNA GO EVERY YEAR UNTIL I DIE NOW.

NOW'S TIME FOR ME TO LIST MY TOP TEN PINBALL MOMENTS FROM THE EXPO:

10. That DJ in the back that was going so hard and sinigng to the songs the entire time on the fancy stern chairs and plants stage area

9. The umpire guy from "King of Kong" documentary (2007) was there and walked right by me

8. playing GOLIATH PINBALL, (the best biblical pinball they made)

7. Talking to the guy that designed RAMPAGE ARCADE (who was also standing next to the guy who did the voice for NBA JAM)

6. VAMPIRE pinball (1971) (actually the artwork on a lotta pinballs was a highlight, a lotta those older ones)

5. knowing that flippy is real and meeting flippy and we all got our pictures with flippy (we have a secret handshake where we poke our fingers like they are flippers) and all of his friends from SpongeBob came out at the end.

4. You know what, the whole row of catctus canyon pinball was really great from Chicago Gaming Company, that is a good game. James Bond is a good game to play as well, I'll just include both of them as number nine. Cheers to the new (and new old) games. Also cheers that me and jeff are the only ones with scores for James Bond on pinside right now.

3. HARD BODY PINBALL

2. Pinball legend ROGER SHARPE walking around the convention really fast, playing one game and then leaving right away. me and Junior Jack Pot watched as he walked up to a game and played ONE BALL, and then I walked up to it and FINISHED HIS GAME!!! his seminar was also great and we are all very excited to see the new "PINBALL MOVIE"

1. Gary Stern walking up to me with a video camera asking if it is okay to videoo tap me playing NEW JAMES BOND GAME and asking me how i like it and I saw OH YES GARY I LOVE THIS NEW GAME IT IS SO MUCH FUN I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN PLAYING YOUR NEW GAME PLEASE USE FOOTAGE OF ME PLAYING THIS GAME FOR ANYTHING YOU WANT

[jeffradon2000]

Here is my top 11, or at least 11 things I can think of right now

11. Walking into expo for the first time and registering while Gary Stern, Todd Tuckey, Steve Ritchie, Jack Danger, and that girl from Tik Tok are all walking by.

10. Talking to Todd Tuckey from TNT Amusements about how great Pinbot is, and watching him do a goofy seminar on pinball repair

9. Talking to Zombie Yeti and he gives me an autograph plastic piece from TMNT pinball

8. Talking to the guy who took the picture for Raven pinball and getting his signature, to go with our new upcoming Raven pinball, what a very weird coincidence

7. Talking to Steve Ritchie who is the biggest legendary pinball designer of all time and he just tells me he's hard of hearing and that his new job at Jersey Jack is the greatest, insinuating Stern sucks

6. Meeting Roger Sharpe and getting his autograph and seeing his seminar about his new movie coming out soon

6. I had fun playing all the pinballs, new and old. I thought Weird Al pinball was good, Bellybutton Canyon was great, and James Bond was surprisingly good. Ultraman from Spooky was bad, still didn't get a chance to play Halloween but I figure it's also bad. Valhalla from American pinball was fun but the theme and artwork is just too generic, although I did finally get to play a Houdini and it was pretty good. Some of the older games I played for the first time and liked were Grand Lizard, Viking, Alien Star, Breakshot, Strange World, Abra ca Dabra, Vampire, and Blast Off. It was funny seeing Orbiter in the special featured rare games area. I don't think Brian was very excited to see it.

4. People at the convention wanting to talk to me because of my Dumb Records hoodie, there were a few people there from the area that come to our store. They're usually disappointed when they realize I'm not Brian, but then they're excited again when they find out I'm the real pinball guy.

3. Meeting the guy who made Rampage and getting my picture with him and getting his signature. Rampage is special to me as I used to play it at the bowling alley as a kid with my strawberry shake. It was next to a Pinbot pinball machine

2. Meeting Jack Danger (the biggest pinball twitch streamer and now pinball designer at stern) and talking about maybe he would want to come to our arcade and do something

1. Taking a picture with flippy, also flippy coming up behind me and messing up my pinball game I was playing

[somejabroni]

This looked so rad, glad you had a good time! We need to get Flippy to Dumb Records.

[brain galacki]

Kolton, you are coming with us next year. So are the rest of you. So are you, Mitch and Benny.



Here's my BIG SHINING MOMENT, Gary Stern video taping me towards the end at 1:08

[brain galacki]

Seeing a thumbnail for a video posted by Stern that is Gary pointing a giant video camera right at me playing pinball, I can die now!

[jackparanoia]

I'm 100% going to this in 2023.