(Topic ID: 163625)

Ann Arbor Mi VFW Pinball Show 2017

By cfh

7 years ago


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  • 133 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by Azmodeus
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    11
    #1 7 years ago

    Just throwing out the dates for the Ann Arbor Michigan pinball show 2017, to get it on the events page. A new tournament is added for 2017 (tournaments on Friday and Saturday). Thank you.
    May 5-7, 2017
    http://vfwpinball.com/?p=128

    #8 7 years ago

    Allentown has not announced 2017 dates. I hope they are the weekend before Ann Arbor....

    2 months later
    #9 7 years ago

    The Ann Arbor show will have 350 restored (no duplicate) game titles for 2017.

    4 months later
    #45 7 years ago

    It's difficult to not conflict with another show if you're doing a show in the spring. Note that we had our May 2017 dates set a year ahead (announced in may 2016.) So technically it was Allentown that decided to be the same weekend as us (they just announced their dates.) In our case there were some west coast people asking that we not be the same weekend as PinAgogo, so we made the change for them. I wish Allentown just did the weekend before (or after, since they aren't open on sunday, it would not conflict with mothers day.)

    1 week later
    #51 7 years ago

    no not a problem. if you want to send me an email i can add them. it's some problem i've been going around with paypal on and can't seem to get it fixed. [email protected]

    #58 7 years ago

    There are definitely games for sale at the VFW. usually 10 to 20. but they sell fast and people tend to remove them quickly. It's nothing like Allentown. If you want games for sale Allentown is probably the best show in the country. In the midwest it's hard to complete with Allentown for game sale numbers. East coast is a much larger population center, hence more games for sale.

    There's really aren't any shows that compete with Allentown for "games for sale". But that's OK. We don't try and compete with them on that level! Instead we concentrate on restored games for play. And at 350 unique restored titles, there probably isn't a show in the country at that level. Texas and Replay have more numbers, but probably not unique titles (they have several of any one title.) Banning is there too, but they have a lot of games that need work. PPM's new facility is probably the closest, but their very heavy on woodrails and very low on solidstates (not a very balanced collection.)

    #72 7 years ago

    the facebook site shows recently added games to the facility. if you "like" the page you'll get facebook notifications on new games and other news. https://www.facebook.com/vfwpinball

    3 weeks later
    #88 7 years ago

    The EM world championships will be quite different this year, as a lot of new EMs have been added. By the way, there's only like 5 tickets left for that...

    2 weeks later
    #112 7 years ago

    If saturday is the day you want to come to the show, my suggestion is you get your ticket soon, numbers are getting low for saturday (and friday and sunday too!)

    #122 7 years ago

    The tournaments are run outside the main building. Though the friday tournament (sold out) gives access to the main hall early, the saturday tournament does not give access. (Because the main building will be closed for game maintenance for the next day's show, we'll be working on the games to correct any issues for sunday.)

    #123 7 years ago

    I should also mention that if you want to come to the show saturday (or to saturday's tourney), you should get tickets NOW. the numbers of available tickets is getting small.

    #147 7 years ago

    last i checked there's only a handful of saturday tickets left till it's sold out for saturday.

    #149 7 years ago

    I just looked, only 6 tickets left for Saturday!

    #152 6 years ago

    Saturday is sold out

    #154 6 years ago

    Well it's not really a good thing. We're like six weeks out and I hate to turn people away when they want to come. I'm thinking about maybe opening up 25 more tickets For Saturday.

    #165 6 years ago

    we have glass for sale at the show (usually)

    #185 6 years ago

    Boogie woogie barbecue is about 3 miles away and is really awesome. It has all the aspects of a Memphis barbecue place but it's really close and it has decent pricing. Frankly I don't know of any better barbecue places even 30 miles away

    #186 6 years ago

    Oh yeah, of the 25 Saturday tickets I added yesterday they are almost all gone. If you want to Saturday ticket you need to get it now

    #201 6 years ago

    Saturday is once again sold out those 25 added tickets are gone

    2 weeks later
    #220 6 years ago

    There's also another shirt available at the show which is a more generic

    #239 6 years ago

    There are not a lot of tickets left for Friday and Sunday (saturday is long sold out.) If you want to come to the show, my advice is don't wait too much longer to get a ticket. www.vfwpinball.com for tickets.

    1 week later
    #246 6 years ago

    There are very few tickets left for the show. I think Friday has one ticket and Sunday has five tickets. After that the show will be completely sold out. www.vfwpinball.com

    #249 6 years ago

    There is *one* ticket left for Friday!

    #251 6 years ago

    show is completely sold out, thanks to everyone that bought tickets!

    #262 6 years ago

    please send any ticket change info to
    [email protected]

    #269 6 years ago

    I just had a saturday cancelation/refund so if someone want's a saturday ticket there is one available.
    direct email and paypal only please: [email protected]

    #273 6 years ago

    Paul should be there selling cabinet and metal parts like legs and siderails lockdown bars. Bg resto will be there. A local vendor supposed to come by with games and about 30 playfields for sale. And if you're needing some particular part the VFW might be able to help

    #280 6 years ago

    Any updates in ticket info needs to be sent directly to me at [email protected]

    #285 6 years ago

    Got an email from someone that has one saturday ticket for the show they don't need. if you want it, email [email protected] and i'll send you their email address and you can talk to him (C.Garrett) about acquiring their saturday ticket.

    #312 6 years ago

    if you're coming from the west, i personally like to get off i94 at the Dexter exit. That skips the whole ann arbor/us23 thing, and takes a lot less time. it's rural roads but they are nice roads and 50 to 55 mph (except in the town of Dexter and Hamburg, where's its posted speed is far less.)

    #341 6 years ago

    it's "chimp flipping" not "monkey flipping". otherwise looks good.

    1 week later
    #546 6 years ago

    did anyone notice the software modifications to Flash, Trizone, Time Warp, Gulfstream and Nitro Ground Shaker? that is, did you get multi-ball?

    #556 6 years ago

    on the Williams SS games which were converted to multi-ball, you get "double scoring" while two balls are on the playfield. So yes, it is advantageous to get multi-ball!

    #557 6 years ago

    did anyone notice the color DMD on Jurassic Park? Perhaps get the "eat the goat" mode? a little bloody....

    1 week later
    #632 6 years ago

    I really liked that trophy. Even though it's in 14 pieces now...

    On a serious note. For next year, do you guys want to do the Poker pinball again? Obviously that "21" rule will need to be modified (or that feature just removed.) Also will probably trim the number of people down so it moves faster. But was that a good/interesting format, or not so much??

    Was also thinking of trying to figure out a way to incorporate bluffing into the rule set. I mean poker has a big bluffing element to it. Just not sure how to do that...

    #638 6 years ago

    the only reason the saturday thing happens at all is basically for campers. In prior years the non-main hall building(s) were open all night for play. That was too stressful on the staff being up all night. So we came up with the saturday night tourney idea to give campers (and others) the ability to play until midnight (or even 1am). We thought that was a good compromise, and it got the staff to bed at a more reasonable hour.

    the main hall is closed because we spent hours in there after the saturday show closing cleaning and fixing things for the next day. Obviously that can't happen if there's people in there. so no, the main building will never be open after "closing time." The tourney was run only on EM machines because frankly, they're just more durable than the solidstate stuff. The lower coil voltages and no multi-ball and slower ball speeds means less stuff breaks. And since the saturday tourney is run with a skeleton staff, that's what is needed.

    My gut reaction is to just abandon any saturday night play (tournament.) Especially after the 2017 saturday night fiasco. The staff is exhausted from the saturday show, so it's hard to get people to want to help with the saturday tourney (and even harder go get people with clear heads.) We're still weighing the options as to the viability of the whole saturday night affair, and if it's worth doing at all. It generates a little money for the club, but it really makes for one long day.

    #644 6 years ago

    Dubbs and Gary and Pat were the overnight crew. Dubbs, RIP, obviously isn't going to help anymore. Pat has some work issues so his time is limited. Gary unfortunately, has some other problems. Basically we've lost the people that handled the overnight thing. In addition, the overnight thing was basically a "freebie". That is, we didn't charge for it, and it was taxing on the system. The upside of it, from a business prospective, was zero. The compromise was the saturday tournament, which had an entrance fee, and ended by 1am. This provided some revenue and got workers home at a reasonable hour, and gave the campers play time after hours. It was the best we could come up with.

    The other problem, which we didn't have in prior years, was there's now *two* annexes to cover. It's too much physical space for 3 or 4 guys to handle overnight. So if both were to be open, we would need more orange shirts. It was already a long day and other than the 3 or 4 guys that volunteered this year, no one else wanted to do it. It forced our hand to make it close at midnight or so.

    The simple solution for us is to just not do anything saturday night after the show closes. If that decreases campers, so be it. That whole situation is probably more headache than it's worth. Camping spots, up to 6 people, are $20 per spot for the whole weekend. That generates about $200 yet costs us in personnel and game stress. It's just not worth it. We did it to be "nice" and we thought it would be fun. But with Dubbs passing, it's not the same. He was our eyes and ears of reason, and managed the time well. Gary is a bit too crazy to give that task to, and Pat is not a manager type. There's too much invested in the facility to let just anyone manage that time. And i sure can't do it myself overnight (after being there all day.)

    #645 6 years ago

    People need to remember that our show is unlike any other show on the planet. We own the facility. We own all the games. We limited the attendance numbers to keep ensure a good experience. We make sure if the show starts with 365 unique games working, it ends with 365 unique games working. We did that this year. There were *zero* casualties (every game got through the show working.) I don't know of any show that can say that. And next year, we'll probably have 400+ unique game titles, and we'll have that same commitment. Who runs a show like that? Banning? Replayfx? Texas? I don't think so...

    The point is, we have a lot invested here. To just give the "keys to the Ferrari" to anyone for saturday night, is not something that sits well with me. It has to be a trusted individual. In the past that was Dubbs. But he passed away last summer, shortly after our show. There was no one else to step into those shoes. We tried something this year with the saturday tournament, and all that did was cement in my mind, that the saturday night option just isn't worth continuing.

    We still have 6 months to think about it. Maybe something will change to make it an option. But right now, the saturday night thing does not look like it will continue...

    #653 6 years ago

    We are indeed in the same situation as banning. Local zoning limits what we can do. It's not a huge deal for us but I've heard that the banning surrounding neighborhoods are mad about the pinball activities. As things grow out where we are that might change too. But we do have a Locked commitment from the city to keep doing what we are doing. Heck papa was also having a problem with their local city officials

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