For Pinball Inc this years Expo was our best ever!! It didn’t hurt to
have Jersey Jack set up 2 of his new Wizard of Oz’s right across from us
on one end and Stern/Marco set up right across from us on the other end
of our space with 7 new Sterns. Both of the Wizard of Oz machines had a
5-10 deep line the entire weekend.
This was Pinball Inc’s 10th year as a vendor at the Chicago Expo, we’ve
grown from a 10x10 space that first year with a lineup of 7 new ramps to
a 10x50 space with a lineup of over 120 ramps and other new parts.
It was good to see many new vendors at the show, I believe this had to
be a new record for vendor participation. Good to see Rick make it from
Planetary, Jim from Rottendog, Greg and Dennis from Whizbang, Bruce from
Nighthawk games, Rob Anthony from Pinball Classics, Jim from PinGame
Journal (and yes Jim I plan on doing more of the archive articles), Marc
from Marco, Jack from Jersey Jack, Mirco from Mirco Playfields (from
Germany), Bertjan from Ministry of Pinball (from the Netherlands) and
all the others. If I recall Mike told me there were a total of 40 or
more vendors.
The attendance was very good, many new faces and it was especially
encouraging to see a lot of young faces in the crowd. It gives hope
that this hobby will continue into the next generation.
For me the highlights of the weekend were getting to spend an hour or so
with Python Anghelo (and Phoebe). He stopped by and gave us some items
from his personal collection to put out for him. It was a feeding
frenzy and almost all of it was grabbed up in just a couple hours. The
proceeds are going to a special project Python is working on, he
wouldn’t disclose what it was but if I know Python it will be exciting
and unusual.
The other highlight was the impromptu “fireside chat” a few of us had in
Mike Pacaks space while the banquet was going on. Let’s just say that
it was not rated for children.
I would like to thank everyone that stopped by and complimented our
ramps and the growing inventory. The list is waaay too long to remember
everyone so I won’t even try. A huge thanks go out to Curly from Little
Shop of Games, Brian Jones from Gamestencils.com, Leo Loflin (yea he’s
related) and Al Warner from Pins and Vids for helping out. There is no
way I could keep up with the show duties if not for them.
I’d also like to thank Lonnie for the new t-shirts he made for our newly
formed exclusive club which now has 9 members (one was added this Expo).
We had 6 of the 9 members attend this years Expo. If you want details
you’ll have to attend either the Ohio Pinball Show next February or next
years Expo ;-)
Unfortunately I was too busy to even get to play one single game. The
only flipper buttons I touched during the entire show were the flipper
buttons we were selling in our “bargain bazaar”.
Thanks again for everyone that attended, vendors and attendee’s all.
Hope to see all of you again next year along with more new faces. And
yes Donny Johnson I’ll see if I can bring some more of the “neat stuff”
so that I can take more of your money! ;-)
Cheers!
James Loflin
Pinball Inc.
http://www.pinballinc.com
Keep up with Pinball Inc on facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/PinballInc
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