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Last weekend, Fiona and I headed to TCXPO! We attended this event last year, and had a good time! So, we decided to bring three different machines to the next event. TCXPO is focused heavily on trading cards rather than other types of collectibles, so we weren't expecting them to be the biggest part of the event. Nevertheless it's a great event to promote pinball and make it accessible to fandoms that may otherwise not have any exposure to it.

We brought some different machines compared to last year. We had just acquired a Star Wars (Data East, 1992), so that was definitely on the shortlist. This would be the machine's first outing to an event with us. It was in good working condition as we had been servicing it prior to acquiring it, but this would be a good way to "ease" it into show business! Next would be Maverick (Data East, 1994). Maverick did well at Pinfest last year, with the exception of some gearbox issues which were rectified. This would be a nice outing to show it was still in good form. As for the third and final game, I settled on Johnny Mnemonic (Williams, 1995). Johnny hasn't been to a huge number of shows so this was the perfect time to take him out for an outing!

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Floorplan for the event. We are at bottom left.


We weren't able to set up on the day before the event so it was a bit of a mad rush to get everything setup the morning of. However, we did it, with a few minutes to spare before doors opened!

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Even though the crowd was mainly after collectible cards, there was plenty of interest in the machines and they were busy throughout most of the day. We chatted to plenty of people about pinball, handed out some business cards, and gave some advice on repairs and restorations. There was no pinball competition this time around, so no scorekeeping or game adjudication necessary! Just pure pinball fun.

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One issue cropped up on Johnny Mnemonic: magnetised balls. One of the balls kept getting stuck in the Cyberglove. I tested it against some metal parts and the other balls and realised that it had become magnetised. The only fix for this is replacement, so I put a new ball back in and the Cyberglove worked just fine. Easy fix! Star Wars and Maverick both performed well throughout the day, with only a stuck ball on Maverick requiring attention.


The show was over almost as quickly as it started. It was great to be invited back to TCXPO again and we will certainly be attending its sister event, Collector Con, in Campelltown later this year. Until then, we will be at plenty of other pinball and pinball-adjacent shows in the very near future. Hope to see you at one of them!

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