Vancouver Flipout Pinball Expo 2016...

[dnewman]

Looks like the Vancouver FlipOut Pinball Expo 2016 was a really great show! First show they've done, notwithstanding, Tommy at Nitro Amusements and everyone involved obviously did an amazing job!

http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/vancouverflipout2016/index.html

It begs the question: why can't we have a show like this in Toronto?!!

 

[Menace]

Because nobody here is interested in losing money? For a venue that has a good location in Toronto, the cost is prohibively expensive. Top it off with the local game disti has no interest and you get the picture.

D

 

[Vengeance]

It begs the question: why can't we have a show like this in Toronto?!!

Thanks for volunteering Newman! Let us know Dates and times once you everything sorted out.

 

[dnewman]

Hey, you guys have been in this hobby longer than I have...

Yet I'm surprised that it would be of significantly different cost in downtown Vancouver. Further, we have a larger population and I would expect a potentially larger attendance. I hardly think that Tommy put together such a great show if he knew it would be a money pit.

 

[Menace]

Becker put together a show YEARS ago. He can fill you in on the details. I'm not sure what the transit in Van is like, but I know for Toronto it was one of the biggest issues finding an easily accessible venue at a reasonable cost. Anything that was easy to get to (by car/bus/subway etc) was not economical if I recall.

 

[dnewman]

Ahh... that sheds some light...

How long ago was the show that Adam put on? I'm pretty certain it's before my time, and I certainly meant no offence to his efforts.

To clarify my point, currently, we don't have a pinball show at all, let alone one of Vancouver's calibre.

 

[Vengeance]

Mike Hanely and Nick Angel ran the Toronto Pinball and Gameroom show back in 2010:

I ran the tournament and guaranteed a $2000 prize pool expecting big numbers

Every single one of us took a loss, not to mention very little local support, Mike and Nick's collection made up the vast majority of the machines at the show.

We've talked about this before, Toronto may be a larger city, but we don't have the community to support it. Perfect question for you Dave, if someone was to run a show in Toronto, how many games would you bring?

I'm guessing the answer is 0

That is the biggest issue, trying to shoulder all of that work on the organizer just makes it unreasonable. Hell even Josh in Ottawa who has an established show in the Ottawa Pinball show wasn't able to make it work this year.

It is a shit ton of work for very little return.

The shows work in the US because of the community. How many games do you honestly believe Mike Pacek brings to Pinball Expo? That just doesn't exist here in Canada.

The show in Vancouver works because Nitro amusements makes it work, plus they have a much larger, more engaged community.

If Playdium put on a show, it would work, but Playdium wants to make a profit and while I figure these shows break even and can make some cash, the profit margin doesn't make sense for the work involved for Playdium.

 

[bleargh45]

Looks like the Vancouver FlipOut Pinball Expo 2016 was a really great show! First show they've done, notwithstanding, Tommy at Nitro Amusements and everyone involved obviously did an amazing job!

Bloody hell... HowTF did this go down and I *not* know about it?!?

I'm over on Vancouver Island, and would've happily grabbed the kids and gone to Vancouver for the weekend for this.

Hey Tommy! Might wanna e-mail an announcement about the next one out to your customer list!

 

[dnewman]

Toronto may be a larger city, but we don't have the community to support it. Perfect question for you Dave, if someone was to run a show in Toronto, how many games would you bring?

I'm guessing the answer is 0

That was almost seven years ago... perhaps things have changed? Pinball is garnering more and more interest everyday. Since joining this hobby, I've met a lot of really awesome people, and I'm surprised that our community is all that different from Vancouver's.

Adam, considering I've been happy to help you out with photographing your collection and photographing a martian for the anniversary TOPL shirts, calling me out and insinuating that I would be unwilling to contribute is going a bit far. I don't have a vehicle that can transport a pin, but loaning one or two to a show like the one put on by Tommy from Nitro Amusement, is something I don't mind doing at all.

How can having some dialogue about the possibility of a show in Toronto be a bad thing? Perhaps because it's not often discussed, Playdium doesn't see that there's any interest.

 

[luch]

pass the popcorn !

 

[Chris Bardon]

That was almost seven years ago... perhaps things have changed? Pinball is garnering more and more interest everyday. Since joining this hobby, I've met a lot of really awesome people, and I'm surprised that our community is all that different from Vancouver's.

So for that show, the biggest issue was getting games to and from the venue (as is usually the issue with getting games anywhere else). I've lent games out for a couple of events (including that show), and it's always been a problem finding help to move a game back home afterwards. Something that could be helped with some good volunteer coordination for sure. For the Toronto show Mike and Nick had a large truck rented to move games, so one of the reasons so many of their games were there was that it was a couple of big loads that we could raid (I helped move most of them in the Friday before). This is another area where, if we had it to do again, I think having a group of volunteers/vehicles (either private or rented) lined up to help move games would really help, but again, that takes work. I know during setup and teardown we had tons of help getting games set up on legs and leveled as best we could.

The other thing that's changed though is that as the price of games has gone up, people are less likely to want to move a machine and put it out in public. For example, I'd probably be fine lending some of my games for a show (CV, NGG, JM, WH20 for example), but there are others I probably wouldn't bring to a show. Games like Hobbit are HUO (and too damn heavy to move), and TZ is just too fragile. If you had a new LE that you'd paid 10k+ for, would you want to haul it to a pinball show?

 

[meegis]

So for that show, the biggest issue was getting games to and from the venue (as is usually the issue with getting games anywhere else). I've lent games out for a couple of events (including that show), and it's always been a problem finding help to move a game back home afterwards. Something that could be helped with some good volunteer coordination for sure. For the Toronto show Mike and Nick had a large truck rented to move games, so one of the reasons so many of their games were there was that it was a couple of big loads that we could raid (I helped move most of them in the Friday before). This is another area where, if we had it to do again, I think having a group of volunteers/vehicles (either private or rented) lined up to help move games would really help, but again, that takes work. I know during setup and teardown we had tons of help getting games set up on legs and leveled as best we could.

The other thing that's changed though is that as the price of games has gone up, people are less likely to want to move a machine and put it out in public. For example, I'd probably be fine lending some of my games for a show (CV, NGG, JM, WH20 for example), but there are others I probably wouldn't bring to a show. Games like Hobbit are HUO (and too damn heavy to move), and TZ is just too fragile. If you had a new LE that you'd paid 10k+ for, would you want to haul it to a pinball show?

Lots of good points, and agree with the newer more expensive games.

But, someone with a strong relationship to starburst could start convincing them about the opportunity and with the distributor help, it would work.


As pointed out already, it's the fact that the monopoly of distribution has no interest. Or at least it has not been discussed properly with them by someone serious enough to help run a show.

 

[shinynick]

The Vancouver show looks like it was awesome, I'm looking forward to finding out the numbers.
Don't worry the Toronto show is coming back, stay tuned!
Nick