Sorry that i will not be attending this year;
but anyone who does will not be disappointed.
Great show (best show for playing excellent working pins).
More pins than you will ever have time to play
almost never a line with a few exceptions.
I would advise to wear sensible comfortable shoes
and maybe bring your own portable stool
cause by the end of the day your feet will be dog tired.

Looks like they greatly increased their collection of 60s Bally EMs,
now just need to work on getting some more 60s Williams EM pins.

Most of the games are already kinda grouped together by era and MFR.

This is a great show to come and play pinball (up to 400 games)
but it is not a show to buy pins generally though
there may be about a half dozen pins that VFW may have for sale,
last year I do not think anyone brought games for sale
other than maybe a few prearranged sales.

Actually I take some of that back,
as i do now remember someone on SAT afternoon
bringing a truckload of parts games and old very used playfields.
But generally the VFW is not a pinball swap meet.

Looked the pin list over and it appears there are at least 12-15 new members to the VFW clan
Mostly Bally single and multi-players from the 60s & 70s
which is great since those are fairly rare breed.
Wish I was going again this year
maybe next year.
Maybe you can find some 60s Williams pins to fill the void, if you have any room left.

I admit that i was only looking closely at the EM pin game lists?
So you now have almost 450 games set up to play,
as last year, if i remember correctly, you were at about 400?

Or maybe I am mis-remembering
and last year was about 360 games (EM, S/S, DMD pins, plus Arcades and bowlers etc)
and now you will be at around 400??

Only way you guarantee no lines and no butt bumping
would be to have 5 pins each of each "A" title and
house them all in a 50,000 sqft building

No amount of of signage is going to stop it,
maybe a bowl full of butt plugs or nose clips or Ozium at the door might help.

This advice coming from an old fart that can no longer control his gas.

ME thinks this is an early Aprils fools joke

This is the one (& possibly only) era of pins, that I feel the VFW is lacking,
especially now that you have bolstered the Bally EM section from the 60 and 70s.

I respectfully disagree.
I think some of those early to mid 60s WMS EMs are some of the best for that era.
Heat Wave, 4 Roses, Teachers Pet, TradeWinds, SwingTime, Skill Ball/AddABall, King Pin, Apollo/BlastOff
or Merry Widow, El Toro, Mardi Gras & Shangri-La.
I agree with you that by the late 60s and early 70s WMS lost its touch.

As you well now WMS had Drop Targets well before GTB,
but when GTB decided to embrace the drop target
they left the others in the dust.

But I guess that may be why you opted to trade your HeatWave to me for my spare ProPool.
To each his own, I guess.

One of the reason that "a lot" of people like the early 60s WMS EMs
is that they are great "nudger" games.
'63 Big Deal has 4 drop targets and Eager Beaver has 3 of them and Palooka 5 of 'em.
The last two with classic Stenholm artwork.
But the VFW hall is primarily for your collection, so
I defer to your choices as you see fit.

So if you were to get married and plan a honeymoon, in June;
your work would not approve it until mid April??

Heck if you do not buy plane tickets at least 2 months in advance,
you get raped on the price or availability most times.

Should have bought VFW tix on speculation, then resold if you could not get the time off.

I was at the PPM annex last week,
They do have about 300 pins set up to play at the annex
along with about 100 pins at the museum itself,
admittedly most of those belong to Mike or Larry Z.
And you are correct that they have not set up (for play) many of my donated pins,
but most were in my storage for years and will need a bit of going over to get them ready for play.
I have donated >250 pins to them over the past 3 tax years,
they have not sold any of my donated machines yet
(the plan is not to sell any, except for doubles).
They have gotten a few shopped and are now set up at the museum or the annex.
Like GTB TimeLine and Jungle Princess and BLY Frontier and WMS Cosmic GunFight to name a few.
But I would like to see more of the 1960s era WMS EMs set up for play.
I do not want to be an "indian giver"; so what the PPM now has in their possession will likely stay there
and since the WMS reverse wedgeheads were some of my favorites,
most of those have not yet been officially donated.
But I will see what I can do about games still in my possession
or talk to Mike about any overflow that the PPM might not be able to handle.
Can't make any promises though.
Your collection at the VFW is awesome and nearly all are in very good playable
working condition and well maintained.
Every pinball venue or museum or arcade should strive for what you have accomplished.

Is that Valley Spectra IV cocktail pinball table working?
Do not remember that being there last year.
Those stacked MPU and other boards with NiCad batteries in a metal box
was bad design, as leakage tended to easily destroy those boards and traces.

Already have one.
NIB from warehouse find.
But boards were corroded.
Used it as my Kitchen table for years.
Now in the hands of the PPM.

Forgive me if this was already asked/answered or discussed;
but Does Duncan Brown have any new games
(from Harry W's lost files like Typhoon from last year)
that are going to appear at the VFW show next month?
Is it Firefly or will it be a game with a 4 rotating target assembly?

Doubly hard, when you are a big man
hey Danny.
Good luck on the EM tourney!

Nah
You are talking about theLAW
and the Law makes no mistakes.

About 20 yr ago, I brought a couple games (1 EM & 1 early S/S) to The Kern County Fair
as part of an exhibit relating to collections/hobbies.
The games were both set on free play,
but I still pulled in about $20 in quarters at the end of 3 days.
I got a blue ribbon for my exhibit.

There is a major difference between
nudging and shaking
vs. slamming, banging and tilting.
That nuanced difference is part of the "art" of pinball.

I know it has just been put together or still in progress; but have YOU actually flipped any balls on the game yet with magnets working to see if they work as intended? I am a little skeptical that the magnet between the flippers will end up being nothing but a ball drain trap, as gravity will make ball drop STDM once magnet power is released and that "kirk post" better have super bouncing rubber to help recover from gravity and drain. Also wondering how powerful those magnets are so as to not interfere with flipper shots near flipper tips. Are magnet's power, operator adjustable or possibly to be disabled if the flipper magnet interferes too much with game play?
Another question, once a specimen is captured, will that magnet be disabled until next ball in play?

Hopefully all that will play out like Harry (and you) intended,
also hope it has the right mix of randomness and give and take for the player.
Just an idea if the magnet by the flippers is too drainy,
maybe convert the kirk post into a little demon post (ala Fireball II) to even things out;
though I know you probably want to keep design as orignal as possible.
Wish I could be there at the unveiling,
but hope to see soon it at some other venue (Pacific Pinball Museum?)
or Harry Williams lost PF designs tour.

Someone post some gameplay video on youtube pretty please

Or maybe try a Siamese facetted post (mounted vertically with single screw in the rear hole)
to allow it to be fastened to the PF without interference with the magnet plate.
Allows more placement adjustability.

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Probably due to the fact that i did not attend this year!

Also what was horrible smelling; the weed or the folks?

Was looking for video of the gameplay of the new Duncan Brown Lost Harry Williams pin Firefly
and did not see anything on youtube.

I only caught brief glimpse of the game in this walk thru video of VFW2018.
Did learn how Clay managed to cram in 400 pins at the VFW now,
as I just learned he enclosed the breezeway between the main building and the old EM annex.
Got to be the most diverse and complete collection of working pins in one complex.
Only thing lacking is maybe a few more 60s Williams EMs,
glad to see the new additions of some 60s Bally EMs since i visited last year.