I think for that to happen you would need to find a group of collectors who are disengaged from the local pinball politics that goes on down here and are not only willing to put up machines to bolster attendance numbers but would also need to withstand the fallout that will occur when they refuse to allow the local hierarchy to interfere with its organisation and implementation.

The current existing public pinball events down here are typically held for an ulterior motive (promoting themselves, promoting the local forums, flogging off beat up container pins in a public auction) rather than the primary goal of promoting pinball itself to the general public. This is why they lag behind our North American/European counterparts and always will.

Newcastle Pinfest may be considered by some as the front runner in a very small existing field but they need to sever the apron strings from the local forum if they ever want to attain anything remotely approaching world's best classification.

Above all, pinball in Australia needs to expand dramatically beyond its current clique status and place a much heavier emphasis on attracting new entrants. Broaden the userbase, lose the closed shop hierarchy mentality and the overseas pinball manufacturers will see untapped potential market growth and begin to take a much greater interest in what is happening in the antipode.

Contact swinks - he can provide you with plenty of background info on how that place operates.

Now that sounds like a great event which truly fits the criteria of a world's best classification.

I think this is where domestic pinball needs to be positioned to expand domestically and at the same time attract greater overseas interest at all levels. By attaching itself to a much larger userbase, then piggybacking off that larger attendance base, marketing and word of mouth not only assists with publicity so unlike dedicated local pinball events it also ensures that any of the existing pinball egos can't dominate and control the narrative for their own agenda.

Your efforts in the Victorian scene to expand the hobby base to a wider range of participants are admirable and perhaps it is wishful thinking but it would be great to see more Vic pinball guys show their support here for you publicly.

Go to any show in the US and you'll experience much better examples of a public pinball event.

No tone at all, that's just some people choosing to get overly defensive after reading some shortcomings of the local scene and then trying to conflate a series of separate observations into one all encompassing indictment.

That was fortuitous then. Any longer and you run the risk of turning into just another matching tshirt wearing drone toeing the party line.

On that note, this should be the first year that attendees are permitted to give honest reviews about Thunderbirds on pinside without threats of banning (or imaginary international lawsuits) from AA.

Wait, what how's that work again?

If you are looking for someone to simply parrot everything the local masters tell them to regurgitate, you've got the wrong person and the wrong forum.

They saw the potential for market growth in Canada.

Homepin had to face reality sooner or later about the global market and not just rely on our limited local market down here who whilst great for the ego are terrible for the bank balance.

Ironically I said that advice from the start.