Collector Con 2024

​​We're back! Five years after the inaugural Collector Con Toy & Hobby Fair in Campbelltown in 2019, the show is back in town. Collector Con has grown considerably in the last few years but unfortunately there has not been a Campbelltown show since 2019. This year, that changed, and when we heard that Amy was bringing the show back to Campbelltown, we put our hands up to bring some pinball machines along for the public to play again.

​Last time, we brought Fish Tales (Williams, 1992) and Demolition Man (Williams, 1994) for everyone to play, and we had them operating on coin drop. This year, we decided to bring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Data East, 1991), Super Mario Bros (Gottlieb, 1992) and The Getaway (Williams, 1992). Some great games with instantly recognisable themes and wide appeal; perfect for a show such as this. Plus, we decided to put them on free play to encourage people to experience pinball and have a great time at the show. We even made it onto the event flyer this year; check it out below!
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​The show was also in a bigger venue this year (Minto Indoor Sports Centre). This would make access and unloading a little easier. So we loaded the machines into the van and set them up the night before the event. Come Saturday morning, we were at the venue bright and early to finish setting up and welcome the first patrons into the event.
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Games (mostly) ready to go on Friday night.

​I prepared a couple of extra things for this show that I hadn't done before. I am always surprised by the number of people who walk up to a pinball machine but have no concept of how to start a game, let alone play it. So I came up with a couple of methods to teach them. The first was a simple video which explains the steps involved in starting a game of pinball on a modern pinball cabinet. It includes pressing start, pressing launch or pulling a plunger, and details what happens to the ball at each stage. Not the most high quality video production I've ever done, but it contains all the basic info I wanted to convey.
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To allow patrons at the show to view the instructional video, I took a flatscreen TV to the event and mounted it to a stand next to the machines. That way, people could watch the video and then step up to the machines to play. 
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Instructional video playing on the TV screen in the background.

Overall, I'm not sure how helpful this method of instruction was. Most people didn't even see the screen. There was way too much going on in the immediate area for people to bother looking at it. Perhaps this would work on the wall of an arcade or at the entrance to a venue, but probably not a good way to do it in a convention or show setting. 

My next idea was to have instruction labels on the lockdown bars of each machine. Obviously there's not much space to put a bunch of information here, so I kept it simple: "press start", and "launch ball". Easy, right? If the games were on coin operation, I would have had another one in the middle to say "insert coins" as well.
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Instruction labels on the lockdown bar.

I think these labels were reasonably effective. I only had to instruct one or two people on how to start a game during the show; most other people seemed to figure it out on their own. Everyone always seems to look down towards the lockdown bar when they walk up to a game, so this was the natural place to put some instruction labels. The labels are written on magnetic-backed paper, too. So they attach easily to the lockdown bars and can be removed without fuss. However, I was constantly picking them up off the floor during the event. People kept hitting them off the lockdown bar without realising it. Perhaps a stronger magnet is the solution here, as I want to avoid tape or any adhesive that may damage a painted lockdown bar.

Thankfully, the machines behaved themselves during the show. Only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had to be reset a couple of times due to a bug in the prototype game ROM. This causes the game to hang when people add additional players when a game is already in progress. I discovered this bug in the code when I took the game to Oz Comic Con last month. Not a biggie as I was there to reset the game when it needed it. It's fair to say that with the number of shows these machines have been to over the last few years, I've figured most of the kinks out!
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TMNT and The Getaway in action on the day.

For a bit of fun, I also ran a competition on The Getaway over the course of the day. The highest score of the day would win a Collector Con merchandise pack consisting of a cap, hoodie, and shirt. Many thanks to the Collector Con crew for donating the prize. The prize was taken out by a local Campbelltown gent whose favourite machine was actually The Getaway, so he knew what it took to get a high score! The games were played pretty consistently throughout the day, and were enjoyed by people of all ages. Since there were a lot of kids at the show, the kids tended to get most of the play time, but some adults got a fair go as well. It was great to see families interacting with the games, with the kids experiencing the games for the first time while the parents relived their youth.
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The machines in action during the day.

They were really popular with the kids!

Last time we were at Collector Con, we managed to find a mostly complete set of original 1988 Playmates TMNT figurines. These are the figures that are installed on the playfield. However, we were missing a Raphael from the set, so Fiona set out to find one amongst the multiple stalls that were selling toy figurines. There were plenty on offer from multiple sellers, with prices ranging from $5 to $30 for a figurine, depending on condition. We grabbed a $5 Raphael which was in similar condition to the others we had acquired, and also found a $10 Splinter from the same Playmates set. I'm also on the lookout for April and Shredder figurines, but there weren't as many of these so they are  a little more harder (and expensive) to get. 
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Raphael and Splinter figurines from the Playmates set.

The show was only a one day affair so it was over almost as quickly as it started. But I was happy to contribute some retro joy to the event which was otherwise dominated by commercial stalls and retailers. I like bringing some interactivity and family-friendly fun to these kinds of events. 

Collector Con is on again in Penrith later this year, with shows scheduled for Newcastle, Penrith and Campbelltown in 2025. If we missed you this year, come along to the next one in Campbelltown and say hello!