I realised last nite (at Tony's meet) that I never posted my experiences buying my Medieval Madness pin on AP. Well, pinball sites always need a story with a happy ending, so here it is.........
I convinced Mrs Furball to go to Jason (Knight76) and Karen's meet in November last year. She had previously played a sited MM here in Sydney which was in TERRIBLE condition. Even so, she reckoned it was a pretty good machine to play. At the time of the meet I was looking to decide between a TOM , TAF and TZ. I was pretty keen for her to give TOM a crack as it was high on my list. While there she had a number of games on Jason's MM, which is a cracker of a machine. On the way home I asked if she would be prepared to pay the price that Jason did to get a machine of that quality and I was amazed when she said she would.
Serious conversations ensued, and the next day I had a wanted ad posted looking for MM.
I was more than a little supprised when I recieved a PM from Tony at the Pinball Shed next day saying that he had a MM that he would sell me. Five days later I was on a plane to Brisbane to have a look and negotiate a price. This is where the good will started. Acejas drove from the Gold Coast to Brivegas airport tp pick me up and drove me out to see the machine. It is a 20min or so drive out to the Pinball Shed, so he saved me a hire car fee and a lot of grief. Thanks again mate, you are a genuine nice guy. I spent an hour or so going over the machine, manual in hand (already read cover to cover twice by this time), and did the sums. With the work needed, the negotiated price would let me bring the machine in pretty much on my budget, so I fessed up the cash. MM OWNED! Met up with a few Qld mates for a beer afterwards just to christen the purchase. It was a real bonus to see those blokes on the day, because they were some of the many people who helped me out with links, advice and details to help me make a decision on the cost to get it up to scratch. That was not where the goodwill stopped though. Turned out Fair Dinkum Dan was in Brissy that weekend with the van and was driving home the next day (Sunday). Like the champion that he is, Dan drove the pin to Sydney for me, and even went out of his way to deliver it to me at home after a full days driving. Within 8 days of posting a want ad I had the pin I most wanted in my collection.
I am just about finished buying the parts I need for the restore, and should be starting in March. At this point it is 100% fully working (albeit with a trashed PF-which I knew about before I flew up to Bris), has has a basic cleanup so it can be played in the interim and is ready to be restored. I have sourced a restored PF in awesome nick, and built two PF rotiseries for the job.
So that's it, the way MM came to live at the Furball house
Dave