Hi all,
I'm slow to post about this, but went to the U.S. and Europe in October and as luck would have it, I was able to head to Pinball Expo in Wheeling, Chicago on October 19. I spent two nights there with my girlfriend, but fit a lot of pinball time into our short stay.
We flew into Chicago from Las Vegas on the Wednesday night to O'Hare airport and it was windy, raining and very cold. The plane rocked and everyone clapped when the pilot landed. Took us an hour to get to our hotel from the airport and checked into Expo, which was conveniently downstairs from our hotel room. After dinner, I put my girlfriend to bed and got a few hours in the pinball room as people were setting up the machines. They kicked us all out around 11 to finish setting up. Machines all had tags on them to say if they were for show or for sale. I took my trusty video camera with me and also filmed our time at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WaggaPremiumPinball/videosOn the Thursday morning (first official day of Expo), we got up early and had to be downstairs before 9 to catch a bus to the Stern factory. I was like a kid about to enter Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There seemed to be a crazy amount of old yellow American school buses lined up to ferry us on the hour long drive to the Stern factory. Koi Morris was directly in front of me and got him on camera a fair bit. You'll also see him having an energetic game of Whirlwind on my YouTube videos. Sam Harvey also popped up everywhere on my pinball travels. Everytime I saw these guys I'd be screaming in my head "OH MY GOD, THERE ARE THOSE DUDES FROM SPECIAL WHEN LIT!!!" I felt like a pinball fanboy. I also felt stupid for not having a chat to these guys.
I met some great people that day and Gary Stern greeted us on the bus and we were the last bus to enter the factory. I was amazed they let us film everything on the factory tour and we were given an Avatar or Family Guy toy at the end of it. A Dutch guy, Barry, was cheeky enough to ask for a translite and they gave him a Simpsons Kooky Carnival one. I wasn't game enough to make such demands, but would have been nice to have gotten Gary Stern to sign something. We saw all the Transformers machines being made from start to finish and also wanted to grab some decals or a minty fresh playfield. It really was pinball heaven in there.
Around lunch time, my girlfriend went back to the room to catch up on sleep after our busy touring schedule in America and I hit the seminar room for the Gary Stern/George Gomez talk on Transformers and the Jersey Jack talk on Wizard of Oz later that night. I had to leave early to catch the first night of the exhibition hall and play some more pinball before bed and flying out to New York the following morning. I've owned a pinball machine since around 1993, but only been madly into the hobby now for about the last 3 years. I wandered the hall on my own and must have had a huge grin on my face the whole time. There were stands for Marcos and other sellers, plus games in between the stands. It made me wish I had more money to buy more machines. I also ran into a nice guy from Minnesota that I'd met on the bus and he was always up for a game or two. First time I'd played Transformers.
If anyone gets the chance, it's a real worthwhile experience to visit the Hall of Fame and an expo if you get a chance. I'd like to visit Pacific Pinball Expo next time. Chicago might be a bit far to travel again. Amazing opportunity though. Very grateful I was able to go. Also made me appreciate the hobby a bit more and question how I got the lure of that mighty silver ball.
Cheers!
Adam.
