Hey...I tried asking nicely multiple times first!

Angrymo got injured once if I recall.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/crush-injury-from-pinball-machine#post-4715711

I slipped while taking a pin out of the back of my truck. Luckily (inadvertently), I was able to put my body between it and the driveway so there wasn't any damage to the pin. I had some scrapes and bruises however. Fortunately for everyone involved, it was an El Dorado EM with the head removed so it wasn't too heavy.

I have these visions of my last day on earth ending with me underneath an STTNG at the bottom of some stairwell.

It really just seems like if you stay focused and make safety your absolute top priority you will survive a move. I have refused certain jobs that I just didn't think could be done safely.

Was bringing HSII into the basement with a friend. All previous games I always got it started down the carpet and would slide it down the steps. While it was flat on the ground and I went to lift it up I hurt my lower back so bad I could barely work for the following month and wasn't even able to make it down to the basement for a month to play games.
After that I made an investment in an Escalera. It's worth noting I was probably around 30 years old and in relatively good shape. Use proper posture and the right equipment for the job.

I didn't get hurt but here is how it could happen. Thankfully I made my kid walk behind me.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dolly-broke-pin-dumped-advice-needed#post-5121293

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I sprained my thumb really bad once when bringing a LOTR down someone's horseshoe-shaped staircase. My back leg slipped on the curved stairs and down I went... guess my thumb got sprained as I attempted to keep the game from sliding over the rest of my body.

I know of one that died and another that lost a digit. Be careful!

Details!

Yeah, you can't just leave it at that...

My fiancee has helped me bring home eight pins, and every single time she wanted to kill me.

I once bought large arcade game that had a 50 projection screen with a wooden base around it (mazzan flash of the blade) I was 33 at the time and went to unload it from the back of my truck (driveway had a slight slope) as I was lowering one end it shifted and I thought I was gonna be crushed, luckily for me a neighbor was out for a run saw what was about to happen and ran over without saying a word , just in the nick of time he kept that thing from knocking me to the ground,

I never saw him again!

So I stopped messing with arcades after that, still own a few standard size though

I can corroborate that story. I'll give a few details. The game was a "Black Knight 2000". It happened in NJ a little over five years ago. One man died of a heart attack, and the other lost the tip of his thumb. That's as much as I'm saying.

Sliced my wrist pretty bad once when a playfield in service position came down unexpectedly. I also once brought a pristine TZ down a set up stairs...by myself..., and both got down unscathed!

I have not been hurt moving any pinball machines, but owning a vending business, I have had a vending machine fall on my trying to move it using an appliance dolly. I now use piano Dollies that lift straight up.

No way , is that , it couldn't be , could it be the Imamaculate Baywatch ?

My bad,
Fish tales .

This is the type of uplifting post we need in these tough times.

I had a Sega Space Fury video game fall off a trailer and pinned me to the ground. I made a snow angel in the frozen snow and ice in the parking lot. Had the weight of the game and a steel UHaul cart on top of me. There was a bread truck a few doors down, I was screaming for help. The driver looked at me and hopped in the truck and took off. That made me mad enough to get free. Not hurt bad.

I had a Judge Dredd pinball machine fall off of my truck and I caught it. That one got me pretty good. Felt like I tore my left arm off. I couldn't raise my left arm higher than my shoulder for about a year. My left shoulder is about an inch lower than my right shoulder.

I quite wearing rings. Got tired of arc welding my finger in games when it hit electricity.

LTG : )

Yes, my lower back has died a thousand deaths......need a painkiller just thinking about it lol

Someone put a nut on the back of a stripped leg bolt on a next gen once. I had to get it off to get in my suv, so my buddy was torquing with a socket from the head and I was holding with a socket on the inside to keep the nut from spinning. He was much stronger than I and it snapped back on me. Looks worse than it actually was but didn’t feel great haha

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Worst for me was moving Baby Pac-Man down the to the basement.

My friend at the time was on top and I was on the bottom. We put a tarp on the stairs to “protect the game” and attempted to simply hold it and let the weight rest in the stairs, and slide it down one step at a time.

Well my buddy up top said “I got it!” And moved it down the first step, and I was on the bottom guiding it towards each step and he was pulling up so the weight wasn’t all on me. He suddenly said “okay, WAIT I’M LOSING MY GRIP!” And just let go of the freakin’ thing and it went *THUNK THUNK THUNK* like a train, down the entire flight of stairs and pretty much just PUSHED me to the bottom. The only thing that stopped the game from smashing into the concrete floor was my body being physically in the way.

Luckily I was able to get my feet under me and my legs took the weight (instead of snapping my back like a twig) and after many profanities, my friend was able to get ahold of it again and pull it off me, and we safely guided it to it’s home. I’ve made it clear since that day that the only way baby pac will move is if we demo the house and use a crane to lift it back out of there.

Definitely the most terrifying and easily I could have been in the wrong position and been crushed between the floor or wall.

I’ve learned my lesson though and now if it’s between my health or the pin, I’m gonna let the pin go. It’ll be cheaper to fix the damage then to spend the rest of my life all broken up because of a game.

Put someone you don't care that much about on the heavy end.

LTG : )

"Has anyone ever died or been severely injured moving a pin?"

For me only a scratch and a flesh wound...........

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A few years ago I was wheeling a Pinbot on an old school pinball dolly that was difficult to raise and lower so I was wheeling it for a short distance along a driveway in the raised position. So I run over a seam in the driveway and the whole thing tipped sideways and the game fell off.
Instinctively i stepped around to try and keep the game from hitting the cement.
It landed right on the front of my shin, scraping it literally to the bone and sending me to the ground injuring my wrist. The pain was excruciating and the game hit the concrete anyway and smashed up the head. The shin-skin never really grew back, i still have a weird scar, and still have that Pinbot. Ive been way more careful ever since.

Before I got my Escalera (probably the single best pinball related purchase I ever made), I would sometimes move smaller head-off pins down there stairs myself by sliding them down the stairs with me under guiding them down one at a time. No problem with something like an early Stern. Then I got stupid and tried it with a Judge Dredd (head on / folded) while home alone. Did I mention I am a whopping 5'6" 150 lb? I somehow made it without injury to myself or the pin, but that was a really bad idea and could have gone very badly. Once it was fully tipped, it was literally the point of no return and the last couple stairs where I couldn't get any leverage were extra ugly. I ordered the Escalera days later, after my wife got done yelling at me.

When I first got into the business I pinched my pinky between a pinball and the cart. Lost a nail and it hurt like hell. That's the last injury I had and that was over 25 years ago....until about 2 years ago. I was bringing a ToM up a flight of stairs by myself. Got to the top and it was a little tight. 1 step to go and I made the choice to just muscle up. I knew I was making a bad move and immediately felt it in my shoulder. Damn thing was jacked for 3 months.

No one was hurt, but it was a close call.

My dad helped me bring a game downstairs once. He was on the bottom of the dolly. We got about 2 stairs from the bottom and he slipped and fell into the wall at the bottom of the landing.
Luckily I didn’t drop the pin on him and he only fell into drywall. Also luckily the townhouse complex had about 3ft with no studs right where he landed.

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Before you judge, look at the number of games I have moved, 95 percent alone. Broke my food when a hydraulic cart let go and space shuttle fell on my foot.

Also had a guy trying to help me load a game, even though I said no need, and he slipped. Ended up breaking his leg just by slipping. Game never hit him.

My first pin... Big Hurt... yeah that’s right... basically pulled me out of my truck and tossed me like a rag-doll

No injury but I learned a lesson that day.

If I had a video of it ... this is what it would have looked like:

I have never died moving a pin. When I had Thunderbirds, I was dying to get rid of it though.

My wife has helped me move STTNG, TZ and Demoman into the basement, but she has retired due to the fear it causes.

The only near-mishap I've had was when a friend helped me move my newly purchased TOTAN into the house. There are a few stairs that go down into our living room and these are near the stairs down to the basement. My buddy guided me too close and one of the wheels of the dolly went off the top stair to the living room. I was able to bend down and pull on the opposing side of the dolly to slow the fall. My buddy was dumbfounded and just froze until I screamed at him to grab it.

If it had gone over all the way, it would have tipped down three stairs onto hardwood. I get the shivers just remembering it. I always try to have three guys total when moving pins. Not a fun job though, and I usually end up with two.

I ripped my shorts open from up by my belt buckle, down through the crotch, and all the way down my leg while moving a Fire!

Always wear underwear.

My worst injury would be a toss up between fracturing my thumb when slipping trying to load a pin on a truck and pulling my back out moving a EBDLE up a flight of stairs.

I was killed moving a pin.

You win.

I hope you are better now.

LTG : )

This thread is killing me, with some good laughs and stories much needed this week...

On Sunset Boulevard, clearly.

Anyone turned into a newt moving a pin ?

LTG : )

Dropped Ms Pacman on my toe and broke it.
My toe, not the game. Had a Neo Geo fall.on me when moving it in the snow, I go bruised up. Never hurt myself moving a pinball machine.

Sadly, I know of an individual that died of a heart attack while moving a game.

I was moving a F14 up my basement stairs with my escalera and right as I was going up the last step I pushed down to far and hit the stair climbers, off she went down the stairs with me holding on for dear life Superman style. The game hit the banister at the bottom of the steps and wedged itself against the wall. Had to go get the neighbor to help get the game back into the basement and start over. Went better the second time with his help. Game only suffered a small scratch on the back of the cabinet from hitting the banister. I survived the trip down the stairs with only a hurt ego.

Ok while reading these, in the back of my head this little voice pops up and say "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt"
That would have been either Grandma or Mom says that when we were kids.
Just had to chuckle a little.

I went to move a dart board machine at a bar with a dolly.
I didn't know someone left a hammer sitting on top of the game until I tilted it back and it fell on my head

I was once pinned to the steps (tight curly ones) with a White Water on top of my legs and I was at the top side - took me a while to get up and get the game to the top of the steps - result was torn cartilage in the knee and needed an operation to trim the torn cartilage

No death, but my back has hurt a few times moving pins that’s for sure