 Trading cards? What's that got to do with pinball? Well, not much. However, I like to take any opportunity I can to spread the joy of pinball around. So whenever a pinball or pop culture-related expo comes around, I like to offer my services as a "Pinball Advocate" and bring some machines for the public to experience for the first time, or enjoy for the thousandth time, whatever the case may be. TCXPO is the latest venture of Amy from Collector Con, who organises several pop culture events throughout the year. It was on for the first time on Sunday, and it's awesome to be a part of an inaugural show!
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Normally I start each blog entry with an image of the flyer for the game I'm going to be working on. Unfortunately, Leisure & Allied Industries (LAI) produced very few flyers for their games, particularly the simpler redemption games. However, there are few games that were as ubiquitous in Australian arcades as the classic skill tester claw machine by LAI. This particular example was one of the cabinets from our container-of-games pickup several years ago, and it was basically in working condition when I got it. However, it had never had a proper clean, and a few small issues were starting to appear, so it was time to give this machine a good going-over.  If you thought it was already ridiculous enough trying to move heavy, bulky pieces of coin-operated equipment around such as pinball machines, driving games, and videogame cabinets, you're in for a treat! But first, I'll have to explain what type of game I'm going to be talking about. If you saw the flyer above and thought this game was called a Skee-Ball machine, you'd be mistaken! And so was I when I first started researching it. Even though this is an "Ice Ball" machine made by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, ice ball isn't the correct term for it either. Skee-Ball actually refers to a very specific iteration of these machines, which were first manufactured by the Skee-Ball Alley Company at the start of the 20th Century (their website has a great page on their history).  We've been here before! Last time I wrote about repairs to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT, Data East, 1991), I was discussing a restoration I performed for a customer. This machine was a little different. I bought it after doing some repairs for its previous owner. They decided to move and didn't want to move the game with them, so they sold it to me instead. It's a weird experience to start repairing a game for somebody and then finish repairing it for yourself. Suddenly you're not constrained by time frames or repair budgets, and you can really take the time to make sure the game is playing as well as it can be. You can also take the time to make any improvements or modifications that you want. And with all of the extra features I planned to install, I needed a lot more time than most people can justify in a regular service call. But what "extra features" am I referring to?  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. |
✍️ BlogHere you will find logs of our pinball and arcade machine restorations, repairs, discussion about general pinball and arcade topics, as well as recounts of our random pinball adventures. All entries on this blog are written by Alexander Visotin, unless otherwise indicated. Check back regularly for updates! Blog UpdatesArchives
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Running this website is a hobby for me (just like pinball!). I like being able to show off my restoration work so everyone can learn from it and potentially fix their own machines. If you enjoy reading the site's content or it has been helpful to you, please consider donating to offset some of the website's operating costs. |
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