Something that always bothers me is when games are setup with the wrong legs. I saw plenty of Rob’s games this way. Gottlieb’s that needed 27” legs that had Williams legs, some older games that needed 31” legs have 27” legs (way too short), and some with even mixed legs that wobbled like crazy! It’s like they just set them up as quickly as possible, no care how they’re supposed to be or if games are level. Did anyone else notice this? Then so many cool games I wanted to try were either out of credits and/or not on free play.

Hey Mike, he had at least three full time mechanics there working on his games constantly. I believe a lot of the games were probably brought directly from the warehouse as well. The bad part was the mechanics I talked to said they didn’t work on EM’s!? Over half of what Rob brought was EM’s with bad mechanical issues! I go for the tournament and there was a Sea Ray there brought by Rob that was just terrible in the classics tournament, very disappointing. Not only were the flippers very weak, but the feature lights didn’t work on the playfield and the “game over” was always lit on the back, very confusing.
The ironic part is, since I’ve been coming to expo starting in 1990 back at the Ramada, people were always told to bring reliable, working machines and on free play, yet when Rob brought his games about half were not this way. Anytime I’ve brought games, especially for tournaments, I make sure they are always tested and working as they should. Missed you being there and sorry the way things are there at Expo right now. Was nice seeing you at Cle-Pin!

Great post, and you’re right this hobby has changed a lot over the years. I was surprised how many first time attendees there were at this show, so they have nothing to compare it too...

I’m not a negative person, and I know there was a lot of effort to bring all the machines Rob did. I stayed at the hotel Sunday night and talked to the guys loading up games, I was told by one of Rob’s crew they brought four trucks and 135 pinball machines! That’s a lot of work, but sadly, many of these machines were not show ready, some were, some were not. Would probably have been better “less is more”, by bringing the 50 or so good working shopped games and setting them up correctly with the right legs and so on. It was more a bragging rights, “we have 400 machines”, but does that really matter when so many do not work? Reminded me of a of big game auction room with the concrete floors and such, just very different.

If you had attended the Westin at all, especially the last expo in 2019, just a major difference in what games people brought and the show/vendor area too. The hotel this year was very nice, but the convention center not so much in my opinion.

I think it just didn’t live up to people’s expectations, that’s all.