1st Annual Pinball Festival - 2012 - Newcastle area

[howzat]

Hi Guys  what a great weekend     

I play pins from aprox 11 am to 11pm    take off about 2hrs for breaks   

I got to meet M ike   Home pin  and Gav   you all know Gav and we laughed most the day  I meet pin pal     Luke   Norbert    Dan    Marco the guy who wrote those beautiful pin books   Ken  Skybeaux who was fixing them    The Newcastle pizza brothers who  had 14 games there  and Andy and his wife

What a team effort from all those guys to make it all happen

It was also good to see the public's smiles with some saying that they want to buy a game      how good is that

Gav   I hope you didnt take any signs home with you     Mitch and I had a blast    thanks Newcastle               Howzat 

[Retropin]

Well im now back home after what turned out to be one hell of a weekend... what can i say?
THIS WAS A HUUUUGE SUCCESS!!!!
Yet again i am staggered at how many people turn up to play pinball... families and more families... dads walking in with milk crates for their kids to stand on.. it was just brilliant to see!
I have to take my hat off to all who organised this.. they did a brilliant job and i couldnt have met a nicer bunch of blokes... everyone chipped in where they could to promote pinball further. i had people coming up to me asking where they can get games fixed.. where can i buy the game ive just played.. where can i buy parts... etc etc. I kept leaving my stall to take a potential buyer to the game owner and introduce.. was bloody magic.
TOP TOP event in a great location... i spoke to the owner Sunday lunchtime and he asked if i was back next year and it would have BOTH function rooms for free.. he was one happy man.
If this is a launching pad for something again next year and then on again.. it couldnt have been better.
No AP banner? well thats because i didnt have one to hang!
But i gave out a ton of AP keyrings and i gave out a ton of AA key rings also. I made sure i had both scattered over my stall.
Mike and i did well on our stalls... LOTS and LOTS of interest.. i sold ALL neon signs, 1 set of stencils and have orders to follow up.
Ive been with Mike for 4 days now sharing a dank motel room ..LOL... we havent stopped talking for all that time, been bloody great and apart from the monster farts he does during the night , i can honestly say its all been pleasure.
To sum up... BIG BIG congrats and thankyou to the organisers.. you had this event well polished and it showed with its success... thoroughly enjoyed being part of your event and meeting such great guys... pinball is well and truely alive,
LOL- David Hankins face was a real picture when he saw the turn out.. he was amazed.. just amazed and i can guarantee he has it all mulling around in his head... My God... Pinball just refuses to die.... i should have kept all that tooling.

Once again, a pinball event just took off more than anyone imagined.. i think pre event estimates were maybe 100 people a day, well that was covered by lunch Saturday. Make an effort to get there next year, it is well well worth it and costs very little for a great weekend.
Thanks everyone involved and a big thank you to everyone that introduced themselves to me... it is SO good to meet members  

Wait till you see my stall next year.......

[Extra Ball]

awesome post Gav, it was a pleasure to have you at Pinfest. I guess that it was torture to spend 4 days with Mike, it's not something I would even wish upon a pommie.
 

Mike Homepin, what can I say.............what a top fellow he is, really obnoxious, but super helpful, and genuinely an asset to pinball.

[blue95]

http://justonemoregame.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/pinfest-in-the-crazed-mind-of-a-wizard/#more-3983

One person not getting much of a mention is Edy featured in this story. He supplied the second largest amount of games after Slevbros from Pizza N Pinball and was heavily involved in the picking up, setting up and returning of a lot of the machines. He was also the builder of the awesome Dedpin virtual pin on display,

[millsy]

Enjoyed chatting with you again Gav and meeting Mike
Two witty pinball guys 

[GORGAR 1]

Sounds great I'll be there next year for sure! Did D Hankin talk much about his pinball making days? I'd love to hear his story!

Peter

[Cow Corner]

There was a lack of some cookies, because the guys that contributed machines didnt own any of them. TZ maybe an iconic game, but would it be a good game to introduce a newbie to pinball?

 

[Retropin]

Lack of cookie cutters?

I played..

ACDC
Medieval Madness
TRON LE
 Circus Voltaire
TOTAN

I didnt get to play..
Avengers
Monster bash
Shrek
 etc

55 or so machines all up... 20% of them top end games... thats not a lack of cookie cutters at all

[Wotto]

http://justonemoregame.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/pinfest-in-the-crazed-mind-of-a-wizard/#more-3983

One person not getting much of a mention is Edy featured in this story. He supplied the second largest amount of games after Slevbros from Pizza N Pinball and was heavily involved in the picking up, setting up and returning of a lot of the machines. He was also the builder of the awesome Dedpin virtual pin on display,

Yep - Edy is a dead set legend and a great pinball player as well 

[Strangeways]

I'm really enthused with the positive comments, and all I keep thinking is that this event was "World Class". FINALLY the hobby / industry has a professionally organized event to rival our friends in the USA. Maybe not as big (yet), but Rome was not built in one day.

I've passed on my congratulations to Greg, Swinks, Chris and Dom Slevin via email on behalf of the forum and Australian Pinball Restorations. Both Greg and Swinks have been actively posting excellent pictures and information for the benefit of those who could not be there, and hopefully it will inspire more of us to attend next year. I plan on being there, and I look forward to meeting everyone.

So who's thinking of going next year ?

[Cow Corner]

Lack of cookie cutters?

I played..

ACDC
Medieval Madness
TRON LE
 Circus Voltaire
TOTAN

I didnt get to play..
Avengers
Monster bash
Shrek
 etc

55 or so machines all up... 20% of them top end games... thats not a lack of cookie cutters at all

Avengers????
You sure you don't mean X-MEN?

[Retropin]

Lack of cookie cutters?

I played..

ACDC
Medieval Madness
TRON LE
 Circus Voltaire
TOTAN

I didnt get to play..
Avengers
Monster bash
Shrek
 etc

55 or so machines all up... 20% of them top end games... thats not a lack of cookie cutters at all

Avengers????
You sure you don't mean X-MEN?

Yeh Yeh... Same S**t different horse..LOL

[swinks]

a few stats

 Bally Playboy = 505 plays (average 27 games per hour)
 Powerplay = 486 (average 26 games per hour)
 Black pyramid had about = 450 (24 games per hour)

I will extend this list as the figures are released.

In effect the show was open for 13hours and another about 6 hours for the comp = 19hours
 

[goodolddays]

a few stats

 Bally Playboy = 505 plays (average 27 games per hour)
 
 

My brother and I were keen to have a game on Ken's Playboy but everytime we tried someone was on it . We literally almost put 20c on the glass to reserve a game for old times sake   Eventually we did get a game  on it though .

Swinksy .. yeah shame we didn't meet but no doubt will catch up face to face around the pinball traps somewhere soon.

[GORGAR 1]

I'm really enthused with the positive comments, and all I keep thinking is that this event was "World Class". FINALLY the hobby / industry has a professionally organized event to rival our friends in the USA. Maybe not as big (yet), but Rome was not built in one day.

I've passed on my congratulations to Greg, Swinks, Chris and Dom Slevin via email on behalf of the forum and Australian Pinball Restorations. Both Greg and Swinks have been actively posting excellent pictures and information for the benefit of those who could not be there, and hopefully it will inspire more of us to attend next year. I plan on being there, and I look forward to meeting everyone.

So who's thinking of going next year ?

I'll be going for sure next year sounds like a good family weekend away rather than a "boys weekend" lol