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Another month, another show! In February we went to TCXPO, which was a fairly relaxed show for us. But this month, we went big! Fiona and I headed to CollectFest, which we had also attended in August last year. We were setting up a similar activation to last year, a retro arcade including seven pinball machines, a Skill Tester claw machine, and a table with various pinball and arcade related goodies.



The first step was hiring the truck and loading it up. No small feat with only two people and this many games! We drove to the International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour on Friday afternoon, expecting a quick bump in, but ended up sitting in the loading dock queue for almost an hour. Eventually, we got in, and started setting up the games. Luckily our good friend Amber had stepped in to help us set up. Things were much easier with a third person!



By the end of Friday night, we had everything set up and ready to go. Like last year, we knew that this was going to be a very popular attraction at the show. All of the machines looked really good, and the neon of the Skill Tester marquee really added to the retro arcade ambiance!



Once the crowds rolled in on Saturday morning, they didn't stop! The machines filled up quickly, with a lot of people pleasantly surprised that they were on free play for everyone to enjoy! We also ran a high score competition on The Getaway (Williams, 1992) which was very popular.



The high score competition was eventually won by Cameron, who had not played pinball much before, but was looking to get into the hobby and buy a machine. Congratulations to Jemima and Eli who placed second and third, respectively!



Most of the machines behaved themselves over the course of the weekend. There were a couple of exceptions. Maverick (Data East, 1994) started experiencing issues with the paddle wheel entrance opto switch. It was triggering constantly even when the ball was nowhere near it. It seemed like an issue of a failing solder joint or connector problem, but I didn't have the chance to examine it in detail. I'll have to look at this next time I have the machine apart.


The Skill Tester got a huge amount of play; no doubt more than it has since the 1980s! However, the string holding the claw assembly fell out of the gantry assembly. There is a knot which holds the string to the main pulley. The knot sits in a notch which secures it to the pulley. The knot fell out of this notch, causing the claw to fall. The knot needed to be retied, and the string rethreaded through the pulley system to secure it again. Luckily this was a quick repair.


Demolition Man (Williams, 1994) had a couple of balls get stuck on top of the plastic on the left side of the playfield. Not sure exactly how they got there!


The rest of the games performed very well. Below are some photos of each of the games in all of their glory!



We also managed to sell a few trinkets over the course of the weekend, including LED neon signs, metal signs, and stickers. These were surprisingly popular so we might sell some of these on the website in the Parts Store soon; keep an eye out for them!



Like with all big shows, it was a bit of a relief when it was all over on Sunday afternoon! It was a full on weekend of socialising and talking to people about pinball. Then began the task of packing everything up and loading it back into the truck. Lucky for us, Amber came to help us again. We would have been lost without her! We were one of the last exhibitors to leave the convention centre as we had some of the largest and bulkiest equipment to move. Next year I'll look into getting some labourers or other machinery to help. Moving this many machines manually with trolleys and dollies is murder on my back! But if I have to sacrifice my back so that pinball continues to live on, so be it! See you guys at the next show! 👋