Month: March 2013

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The “complete” lineup

Well, I’m definitely maxed out at 5 pins in my current basement. After some fast and furious acquisitions, I’m hoping I can be content and actually play them for a while. I’ve spent time on all of them, but some of the newer ones, like Simpsons, I’ve barely scratched the surface on.

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I realized that the 5 pins are all by 5 different great designers, so it is a nice cross-selection:

Tron – John Borg
Theatre of Magic – John Popadiuk (Jpop)
Avengers – George Gomez
The Simpsons Pinball Party – Joe Balcer / Keith Johnson
AC/DC – Steve Ritchie / Lyman Sheats

Notable omissions would be: Dennis Nordman and Pat Lawlor…. hopefully I can add one of their machines in the future.

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AC/DC touches down.

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Picked up my AC/DC Premium today. This hobby is quite the sickness, my 3rd new-in-box in 6 months. I decided on AC/DC because 1) it is a proven Top 10 pin and 2) I want to focus on newer machines, modern features like advanced lighting and rules. With AC/DC and my current lineup that kind of makes me “complete” at the moment until later this year when some new titles get released, like Star Trek.

I had to remove the head to get it down my stairs. My house is old and the basement was never made for fun stuff like pins!

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Then I shuffled my pin order around to make space. I ran out of energy so I’ll finish reassembling ac/dc tomorrow.

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Room for 5!

I can’t believe it, but we moved boxes and a 5th pin can now fit.

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AC/DC is on its way!

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Toronto Pinball League

A few months ago I finally came out to my first Toronto Pinball League (ToPL). I had resisted up until then because the distances to the various host’s homes seemed like a big drive. For a “Toronto” league, sometimes they are more than an hour outside the city, and none are currently IN Toronto at the moment.

I haven’t missed a Monday since. It’s been a lot of fun. To come out and spend a few hours with a bunch of other pinheads is a good time. Not to mention, the collections of some of the hosts’ homes are incredible, and I’d probably never get to see them otherwise.

It is a competitive league, so each night groups of 4 players are put together, and play on 4 machines. Scores are tracked and points assigned to your placement. This is done over a 15 week season. There is a end-of-season playoffs, but I’ve yet to be part of that.

The social aspect of pinball has been an unexpected plus. I’ve met lots of good peeps.

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New addition: The Simpsons Pinball Party

And just like that another pin was added. The Simpsons’ Pinball Party from Stern.

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I’ve been interested in this title pretty much since I first got back into pinball. I had be looking for the last several months. One finally came available. It is a HUO in mint condition. A previous owner added LEDs to it, which I quite like.

TSPP is considered a Top 10 game, with one of the deepest rule sets in pinball.