You haven't been reading this entire thread, have you?

Tim is just kinda out there. He is pretty anti social and grumpy too. If he spent more time taking care of his games and customers he would be able to give even more to charity. Don't get me wrong I have only seen him from the many times I have gone into the PHOF and I am sure he is a great guy if you know him well. Interactions I have had with him have been just weird.

So why do people have a Love / Hate relationship with TA? Is that Off Topic? You brought it??

My point with the love / hate is people love having places like VFW, PHOF, etc but in Tim's case hate many machines being in poor repair, condition of the building, etc. Plus as several people have pointed out Tim is no social butterfly either. Not saying I would be any different after years of having people break machines in my collection just saying what has already been said.

From my perspective I think Tim does a great job overall but I know a lot of people feel differently. But back to the subject of the original post - "a million dollar bridge loan" Tim is trying to pay down. Everyone who reads this post or goes to PHOF please try to help him with that. Money is going to a good cause!

****ROLLS EYES****

Go and talk to TA about why he's anti social, and see how long you last standing, or even with your face attached to your head. No seriously, go and discuss why his games are 'all such in poor condition' and find out how quick you get the boot and door treatment, is special. Go and talk to TA if you can find him there during 12-6, and wonder why he is not there, because someone like you showed up to spend 15-30 mins of your VACATION while he is working on games, working on a deal to get games, trade games (rarely), sell games (up tick the past 4-5 years), and then ponder why you are talking to your self.

Kids, seriously, these tricks aren't for kids, its for adults doing adult work. Apparently many here simply don't grasp what is involved in conceiving, then rallying folks, executing, repeatedly doing the same over and over and ALWAYS have monetary success. Again, these tricks aren't for kids you silly wabbits. Now go and donate some money, or STFU about how you don't like TA, or the PHoF, or how you 'THINK' that the SA is some scam (compared to what, the Red Cross, Scientology, your own brew of disbeliefs?).

The topic is about a 1 MILLION dollar bridge loan that I'll hedge is a TA personal loan with interest of resonable amounts to the VPCC and will help them bridge to the new location which is apparently required since he didn't come up with a better plan. If anyone deserves it, talk to his wife about it. She's put up with the likes of hobbyists for 3+ decades now (88 to now), and you never really hear about the crap (literally and figuratively, the mystery scat writer on walls) she has and does put up with... Donate for her if you don't like TA. She's a real charmer as well, no really, seriously. Or go with the new captain fantastic that is head 'volunteer' of s[n]orts.

The PHoF is a real gem show, not much top quality but there are plenty of shit shine items. So if you don't have thick skin, or a better plan, well then go and cut yourself up on a wish and prayer with the toppings of your disbelief system that won't or might by chance work. By chance or plan go out and do it better, and get off the keyboard. Then we'll see you in 2-3 years crying your exit excuses, if you even dare to start something.

Kind of my point exactly! Walk in the mans shoes before you start complaining about what he is or isn't doing. He didn't start a go-fund-me page he came to the pinball community and asked for a little help. Yet people here are talking about what machines were at Disney 15 years ago? How about talking to your friends in the hobby and having them kick a few dollars Tim's way instead of buying another new machine to hide in their basement or a color DMD and LED's for a machine that plays fine without them that basically no one is really going to see anyway.

Flame away but the cold hard facts are Tim has done a hell of a lot better than 99.9% of people would have done if they were in his shoes. Now it is time some of the talkers reach into their pockets and help the guy out a little. As I have told my kids for years "excuses are easy - man up and do the right thing".

Okay I understand. You are right I was there several times and many machines were not working or just didn't play as I remember? It seems like its a lot of work for one person and a very small crew to maintain. I think as someone mentioned having a maybe one or two full time techs would help out a lot. I'm planning on donating to the cause. I think it's important to keep PHOF going strong regardless. Its a piece of history. Its a place to go and play machines and go back in time and wonder what it was like then? I remember for me in my teens it was always a good time and things seemed not as bad back then. I often wonder as I play some of these older machines where they been and what bars or arcades they spent most of their time at?

When I was there last fall 1 week before the LV shooting I left with the impression that:

When I complained that the pin was broken the young girl there to fix it was more determined to show me how good she was at lifting the playfield and freeing the stuck ball than making sure the machine was working correctly. Fair enough, I had service and could move on if I chose to.

The "Chicago Clam Digger" machine that was there sent me back to when I was 8 years old at Elitch Gardens in Denver putting dimes in that machine. It didn't even try to work right, but that experience with it again was PRICELESS.

Just to see this old stuff is good enough for me. To try to play it and relive old memories of times that can never be lived again is worth my support.

A guy is successful at keeping a charity afloat, so he's beyond criticism, and those who dare to criticize are children? If you ask him questions he doesn't like he'll assault you or ask you to leave? Way to pump the guy up. I respect him almost as much as I do Trump.

Couple random thoughts.

Maybe people can sponsor a machine which would cover any and all repairs for their particular game they chose?
They could get their name on the sign on the game.

What about a wall in the Hall of Fame dedicated to the people from past and present that made and make pinball possible?
Every year people vote and pay a small fee have a party to help keep money flowing .

Go in and donate some time, that is more valuable to fixing games and keeping the place going in the long haul. This is a SHORT term bridge loan. I don't suspect there is a level thing going on here other than some wanker schwag that honestly most people don't want. Its hardly a dick tease to give a TS and some vids to folks, but yes it does show some compassion and interest in helping folks. Remember, money needs to flow to PHoF, not some printing process with names.

There is one there, and its a joke. TA as best as I can recall talks about it as the dead-mans wall of fame. They started inducting folks into it like dogs, cats, and long lost people like Elvira and some broad that was the first female voice (not on his plaque, on the Pasack and Bork Expo stuff at dinners) on a game they got so desperate. I think the grandson Gottlieb is even in that kind of thing now. Its so shark jumped its not silly. Go to 'Expo' if you want that stuff... Oh wait, expo is dead.

I don't want to start "a thing", but for those downvoting, I just want to point out SA is notorious for it's bigotry towards LGBTQ people. Sometimes SA is there and is better than nothing, but I'm just saying don't shrug off any Salvation Army critique just because they're a well-branded charity. Lots of classic institutions have a lot of growing up to do, SA included.

all that said, Tim can do whatever the hell he wants with his money

There was a "Atari Adventure" arcade at the Disneyland Hotel up until 1999 when the hotel was remodeled along with building Downtown Disney. It was under the boardwalk area by what now is known as the Fantasy Tower at the hotel:
atari-adventure-disneyland (resized).jpg

What you wrote is the SA is a bigoted organization, and that it is 'there sometimes'. The SA is there MOST/ALL the time, when asking its members and volunteers to step up and has *boots on ground*. Often much faster than you read about it online the next day after your morning Crap-in-chino and a good nights sleep (oblivious to the events even happening) on your Casper or Purple. The SA does the job effectively, and lean in most if not all districts. Some better than others, and yes no organization should have a pass on being responsible and accountable. Not 'sometimes' (def: occasionally, rather than all of the time.), yes not all the time but most of the time when asked.

And for the LGBTQ folks, they are a minority of the world (seriously minority), and are *OFTEN* treated as such by *MOST* people. The SA doesn't discriminate when offering help at all in my experiences with the SA. How about this fact, women still make less than men for the same job title. Question is, do they do the job as good and deserve equal pay, or better and deserve more pay, or shouldn't try and stay at home and make babies? Which is it, you can't have it all ways. So, what about the GLBTQ group if your answer is yes?

All that said, TA can do whatever he wants with his money, not having much to do about Hell at all.

Lots to unpack there, dude.

What does this have to do with the Pinball Hall of Fame? Or the Salvation Army for that matter?

8F8440D6-90C6-4639-AD10-1054A017E2DC (resized).png

I'm still trying to understand the sentence "your morning Crap-in-chino and a good nights sleep (oblivious to the events even happening) on your Casper or Purple"

I was hoping they would at least post the names,or,avatars of us pinsiders who have sent in donations so far! Or tell us the amount they have already received

Man, I am just happy that Tim Arnold is just too busy to ever read this. Thankfully he doesn't have the time to read a lot of the petty criticism posted here. The ignorance of the undertaking he does is astounding. But everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just can't imagine anyone else even coming close to accomplishing, even in PHOF's imperfect real world way, what Tim Arnold has. Reminds me of a great Theodore Roosevelt quote:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

This made me laugh out loud in burger parlor. I had to stop eating.

I am 63 years old and in the business exclusively for 39 of those years (but I dabbled for ten years before that). Despite any of peoples' first impressions of Tim, which can vary widely, I have listened and observed over the years since I first met him in the early 90's, and I can tell you that he and his wife are dedicated 150% to keeping Pinball alive in our culture, and---M O S T I M P O R T A N T---preserving its past.

Tim was certainly one of the firsts in the world that recognized that some of the original pinball treasures were rapidly disappearing, and he started collecting these while the public in general were chucking them when they got too worn, ugly, broken, etc. Sure, there were small pockets of collectors out there, but storage and space was always a constant thorn that kept any quantity from getting saved or kept. (ALL collectors know that safe, dry storage is tough and expensive). And nowadays, we have other museums that have followed Tim's footsteps all around the WORLD, saving and maintaining the OLDER machines in addition to the newer entries. And Tim MUST have been the inspiration to all this!

This new location so close to the strip is amazing...and Tim and his staff will welcome all of you! And remember that there are plenty of volunteer positions open too, to help the almost impossible task of keeping everything working that's on display.

Think about this folks. Every museum you have gone to over the years with your family (art, history, wartime, cultural), you LOOK at the stuff, safely in view but untouchable. In THIS museum (and all other pinball and mechanical machine museums), EVERY day, people from around the world are PLAYING the history--not staring at it behind a glass case! Constant repairs and maintenance is a GIVEN on a machine--old or new! You ALL know that! Now times 200 or more to that to all the games on display! Let's keep this important part of our history alive forever!

A big THANK YOU to the Pinball Hall Of Fame and the genius behind it all, Mr TIM ARNOLD (and his wife, staff and crew). Todd N. Tuckey TNT Amusements Inc (since 1979)

Count me in for a membership. See you in October.

I talked to Tim this week. He is really excited about the new location. It sounds like the entitlements are almost finished to the point that he has directed his architect to start design work. So things are moving forward!

My wife and I will be there last weekend in sept. Cant wait to play my favorites and see if I cant help out.
Im in on a membership and lifetime support for this amazing venture!

Well said Todd! And Big Thank you! to you, for all you've done for pinball as well. The pinball world is a better place with both of you in it!

Fiesta Fun Center .... and its now a restaurant called The Wave. It's where I played my first game of pinball

PHoF is and will remain a destination. That’s the point. Each journey requires a destination...perfect or not, we can each have a part in making that our own.
Best wishes for the newest evolution of this classic scene.

TA is planning to keep visitors from taking pictures?

So wait, we have 'members' with badges or some sort of recognizable non-bothering method of ID'ing them, and everyone else will be hassled to not take photos? That is insane thinking, either on speculation or by the management.

Impossible to enforce. Place will be too big with too small of a staff.

You can take a picture on your iPhone in less than 2 seconds.

Maybe take photos with certain pinball people that will also be at the party?

The whole notion that you will be allowed or not to take photos as some 'treat' or 'incentive' to join is stupid to start with, and clearly as others have said nearly, or entirely impossible to enforce without becoming a HUGE hassle both for staff, and those visiting or not seen as compliant but are, etc. Stupid idea all around, one of the dumbest I've heard in a long time.

That's why I'm hoping I misunderstood what was written about photos, and was asking the question.

.

$100 happily sent via PayPal

$100.00 sent!3 weeks, Haven't heard back yet from PHOF!!Whats in October???

Yeah, I sent $100...I assume TA will get around to it sometime

I love this idea BTW:

That seems like a neat way to raise funds and keep the games working and as clean as possible.

Please give more details on how this might work. Machine sponsors would:

Visit LV every ____ days to fix their pet machine

Be given cabinet keys or ?

Have WHAT cash security method involved since they have access to the coin door

You might be on to something

Can't wait to go and play pinball. $$ sent.

200+ posts, month and a half later, stickied, and no follow up posts by OP in any way after asking for money ..... I'm out, sorry.

You could have in the past, present and likely the future just go and play pinball at PHoF, at just $.25 per game on the old EMs and play RARE games without sending in cash to begin with, hmmmmm. Maybe OP will get with it and have some folks follow up on the request for money. Sadly, maybe I'm wrong, but the fund raiser for the million dollars (its a MILLION dollars after all) isn't going to even come close to being met? Lets do the m[a|e|y]th together. 10000 people are going to blindly send in 100 bucks each? How many people wanna place 1 dollar bets against this happening with a return of 1:[2|3|4] odds???

OP not exactly on Pinside a lot, 4 posts total in 4 years. Tim is Tim!!

What people need to realize is Tim has dedicated most of his adult life to PHOF and giving the proceeds from PHOF to charity. Up until this point he has never asked the pinball community or anyone else for help. Now he is trying to do something to bring his collection to more people in a bigger & better facility and he has reached out asking the pinball community for a little support.

If you have never met Tim personally or have never talked with volunteers at PHOF about him you will never understand. To Tim is is all about these machines and money for charity. Is he perfect - hell no. Do I think I or anyone else could have done it better - I really doubt it!

Give if you want - don't give if you don't want to but please understand you are not talking about someone looking for a handout you are talking about someone who has devoted a lot of his life to the pinball hobby without asking for much in return. Now he has put over a million dollars of his personal money on the line to accomplish this and is asking for people who can to help him out a little.

If you are waiting for follow-up comments from Tim don't hold your breath. If you expect a lot of fan-fair about this move I doubt you will see any of that either. Tim just isn't that type of guy - he will quietly get this done with or without the help of the pinball community but it sure would be nice if some of us show him we respect what he has done for the hobby.

much respect to Tim for not wasting his days online like me

Don't get me wrong, he seems to do many great things and I have nothing against him. However, to me, the best/busiest person in the world or the worst/slowest person, should still be able to make at least a 5 second follow up post after a month and a half even without reading long thread....even just to say thank you for the help, etc.

I'm not taking a dig at the gentleman personally; just making an opinion statement about someone asking for money (for ANY reason).

it appears tim will be a speaker at expo '18 next month discussing:

"the PHOF is moving uptown"

If you haven't see a cats-ass-trophy rightfully deserved and delivered, you need to see this stuff (the entire thing, but mostly at 59:28). Love them or not, they so deserve it. So deserve it.

Some folks simply are freaking SLOW, and others have loads of experience. Its really that simple.

Sponsor any machine you choose ... The $$$$ you pledge goes to said machine to ensure it gets priority over non sponsored machines and
Sponsor gets his ego stroked ...... Pretty basic stuff.... Think PBS or NPR.

Oh man, if you bring PBS and NPR and go back to Pacifica, there is the problem with this model, however 'democractic' is may feel.

I Cant stand either one .... Dont you worry