PIN-A-GO-GO 2001

(A “Dog/Wolf Day Afternoon”)

 

by Russ Jensen

 

 

            Ever since we found out  when the 2001 edition of  PIN-A-GO-GO was scheduled to be held, my good friend Ron Tyler and I planned on attending like we have for the past several years.  Going to the show this year also had special significance for me as it would be the first time I would be able to really see what was going on in the hall.

 

            This was because last November I had cataract surgery (with an ocular implant) which resulted in me going from “legally blind” to the best vision I have had for at least 20 years, if not the best in my life!  Also I was able to reinstate my driver’s license which I had voluntarily given up about five years earlier when I felt that I could no longer see well enough to drive safely.

 

            On Friday morning (May 18) my friend Ron picked me up around 6:30 AM.  The previous day we had decided to take the more scenic Pacific Coast route in lieu of the boring Interstate-5 up the central valley like we had done in the past.  It was a very pleasant drive for the most part, with the exception of turning off in one town part  way up to find a rest room, having a lot of trouble finding a place which had such facilities, it taking over 20 minutes!

 

            We finally arrived at our motel at about 2:30 PM, but after checking in we were informed that our room was not ready, then being told it would be in about half an hour.  So we decided to go to the nearby restaurant for lunch, figuring that when we got back to the motel our room would be ready.  When we returned we were told that it was, but when we opened the door we saw that it was a total mess!  After informing the front desk of the situation we decided to just go on to the show and not come back to the motel until later that afternoon.

 

            We then proceeded to the show site (a local fairgrounds in the town of Dixon) and went to the check-in table to receive our badges as we had paid our admission by mail several weeks earlier.  The weather, by the way, was extremely HOT, in the upper 90’s most of the time – I HATE heat!  After we got our badges I began looking around the hall to see who/what was there.

 

            I looked to see if any of my old friends had arrived, but none of them had shown up as yet.  While looking at the machines in the hall I noticed there were not too many electro-mechanicals, except for one near mint 1947 Exhibit game, TALLY HO, (which had a “flipper kit” added to it sometime back), and a row of eight or ten “project games” (games needing repair and/or restoration) which were not set up, their cabinets standing on end and the heads setting on the floor in front of them.

 

            Long time pinball parts dealers Jim and Judy Tolbert (who are in the process of “retiring” in Mexico) had a booth where they were selling some of their parts which had been in storage, sharing their boot with Dave Mercer from Colorado to whom they recently sold their For Amusement Only pinball parts business.  The Tolberts also had their latest canine friend Momo (which they said they rescued from a Mexican animal shelter), and they had a picture on the wall of their original dog Toby who had been with them at many past coin-op shows, which they were quick to point out was still alive and well living with Jim’s father.  By the way, I will be saying more about this show’s “canine attendees” a little later.

 

            One of my personal projects at all coin-op shows I attend is to take photographs of all pingames (primarily electro-mechanicals, but a few solid-state games which I consider to have some special significance) which I don’t already have photos of (as of this writing, by the way, I have photos of some 1247 different pinball machines – including a few “pitch & bat” baseball machines).  In order to know which games I have photos of, I always carry a computer listing of my current pinball photo collection.  At this show I took photos of eight games for which I either had no photos, or only a picture of either the playfield or backglass.

 

            One of the games I photographed was a professionally restored Gottlieb MAJORETTES from 1964.  This excellent restoration was performed by Tim Meighan.  In addition to this game he also had on display a 1965 Gottlieb BANK-A-BALL and a 1939 Chicago Coin SPORTS which looked like the day if came out of the factory!  Good work Tim!

 

            After roaming about the hall most of the afternoon Ron and I decided to go to our motel and rest for a little while before going to dinner.  After relaxing for about an hour we made the short trip to the local Mexican restaurant where we have eaten in past years.  As usual, we enjoyed our dinner very much including the “cervesa” (beer).

 

            After dinner Ron and I returned to the show for several hours more of roving and visiting with the few old friends who had arrived later in the day.  When we decided to leave for the evening we attempted to drive back to our motel.  We, however, got terribly lost trying to find the correct freeway exit and route to the motel, it taking about one hour; the trip should have taken about 15 minutes maximum!  Later we realized that at one point early in our drive we had been about two blocks from our destination!

 

            The next morning we returned to Dixon and had breakfast at our favorite breakfast dining place, an old restaurant/bar called Dawson’s.  We were joined for breakfast by my long-time pinball buddy Sam Harvey, and a mutual friend John Cassidy, both of those fellows having at various times been my roommates at the annual Pinball Expo in Chicago.  After breakfast we went to the show and spent the morning roaming the aisles and checking out the games, parts, and literature there.

 

            Around noon we went to lunch and then returned to the hall noticing how many people had shown up for the show during the late morning and early afternoon.  The room became increasingly crowded making it much more difficult to move around.

 

I noticed two interesting things while walking around in the crowd.  First I saw several young children there with their parents (even a few babes in arms), and especially one young girl (about 3 years old) who was being pushed in a small carrier by her father, who I noticed was carrying a small stool on her lap – obviously to stand on while playing pinball!  I also noticed that several people had brought their dogs, in addition to the Tolbert’s dog I previously mentioned.

 

Those dogs, however, were not the only canines attending the show.  Booth operator Gilbert Sanchez and his lady Pat brought along one of their pet white wolves Nakita (affectionately known as Nikki).  This, by the way, was not my first meeting with this beautiful animal; a couple years ago this same couple brought both of their wolves to Chicago while attending Pinball Expo.  I had the privilege of petting one of them at that time who was in their van in front of a restaurant next door to the Expo site.  This time I again had the pleasure of petting a wolf for the second time in my life.  And now you know why I refer to Saturday afternoon at this show as “A Dog/Wolf Day Afternoon”!

 

The following is a chronological listing of the pingames at the show (courtesy of Sam Harvey):

 

GAME

MFG.

YEAR

PRICE

OWNER

 

 

 

 

 

SPORTS

Chicago Coin

1939

 

MEIGHAN

CONTACT

Exhibit

1948

300/OBO

 

FIGHTING IRISH

Chicago Coin

1950

300

 

HI-FI  (BINGO)

Bally

1954

600

 

CARNIVAL QUEEN  (BINGO)

Bally

1955

350

 

GUSHER

Williams

1959

1200

 

KING PINS

Williams

1962

350

 

TROPIC ISLE

Gottlieb

1962

 

 

SWEET HEARTS

Gottlieb

1963

 

 

BOWLING QUEEN

Gottlieb

1964

550

 

HAPPY CLOWN

Gottlieb

1964

700

 

MAJORETTES

Gottlieb

1964

 

MEIGHAN

SOCCER

Williams

1964

400

 

SPACE SHIP

Williams

1964

 

 

BANK-A-BALL

Gottlieb

1965

 

MEIGHAN

MELODY

Gottlieb

1967

500

 

DING DONG

Williams

1968

400

 

EL TORO

Bally

1970

300

 

2001

Bally

1971

 

 

DOODLE BUG

Williams

1971

300

 

FIREBALL

Bally

1971

2200/OBO

 

PRO FOOTBALL

Gottlieb

1971

450/OBO

 

KING KOOL

Gottlieb

1972

 

 

GULFSTREAM

Williams

1973

 

 

SKYLAB

Williams

1974

375

 

TRIPLE ACTION

Williams

1974

400

 

TWIN WIN

Bally

1974

 

 

FAST DRAW

Gottlieb

1975

NFS

 

SUPER FLIPPER  (PIN/VID)

Chicago Coin

1975

 

 

TRIPLE STRIKE

Williams

1975

 

 

GRAND PRIX

Williams

1976

 

 

MATI HARI

Bally

1976

 

 

PINBALL  (EM)

Stern Electronics

1977

500

 

STRIKES & SPARES

Bally

1977

 

 

STAR TREK

Bally

1978

 

 

FLASH

Williams

1979

 

 

INCREDABLE HULK

Gottlieb

1979

750

 

LASERBALL

Williams

1979

 

 

ROLLING STONES

Bally

1979

500

 

TRI ZONE

Williams

1979

250

 

BLACK KNIGHT

Williams

1980

 

 

COUNTERFORCE

Gottlieb

1980

NFS

CHARLAND

EIGHT BALL DELUXE

Bally

1980

 

 

FATHOM

Bally

1980

 

 

FIREPOWER

Williams

1980

600

 

FLASH GORDON

Bally

1980

 

 

SPIDERMAN

Gottlieb

1980

NFS

CHARLAND

LIGHTNING

Stern Electronics

1981

 

 

MEDUSA

Bally

1981

 

 

PINK PANTHER

Gottlieb

1981

NFS

CHARLAND

SPECTRUM

Bally

1981

 

 

VOLCANO

Gottlieb

1981

NFS

CHARLAND

COSMIC GUNFIGHT

Williams

1982

NFS

 

DEVIL'S DARE

Gottlieb

1982

NFS

CHARLAND

GOIN' NUTS

Gottlieb

1982

NFS

CHARLAND

PUNK

Gottlieb

1982

NFS

CHARLAND

SPEAKEASY

Bally

1982

1250

 

SPIRIT

Gottlieb

1982

NFS

CHARLAND

STRIKER

Gottlieb

1982

NFS

CHARLAND

CENTAUR II

Bally

1983

NFS

 

JOUST

Williams

1983

 

 

BLACK PYRAMID

Bally

1984

 

 

LASER CUE

Williams

1984

750

 

SPY HUNTER

Bally

1984

650

 

BEAT THE CLOCK

Bally

1985

NFS

 

COMET

Williams

1985

400

 

TAG TEAM

Gottlieb

1985

100

 

GENISIS

Gottlieb

1986

399

 

HIGH SPEED

Williams

1986

400

 

PINBOT

Williams

1986

400

 

F-14 TOMCAT

Williams

1987

 

 

SPRING BREAK

Gottlieb

1987

 

 

SPACE STATION

Williams

1988

SOLD

 

TAXI

Williams

1988

750

 

ELVIRA & THE PARTY MONSTERS

Bally

1989

 

 

JOKERZ

Williams

1989

895

 

POLICE FORCE

Williams

1989

1500

 

ROCKY

Gottlieb

1989

NFS

CHARLAND

BUGS BUNNY'S BIRTHDAY BALL

Bally

1990

 

 

DR DUDE

Williams

1990

1450

 

FUN HOUSE

Williams

1990

 

 

RIVERBOAT GAMBLER

Williams

1990

 

 

SIMPSONS, THE

Data East

1990

1400

 

GILLIGAN'S ISLAND

Bally

1991

1675

 

HARLEY DAVIDSON

Bally

1991

2975

 

HURRICANE

Williams

1991

 

 

PARTY ZONE

Bally

1991

 

 

BLACK ROSE

Bally

1992

1175

 

FISH TALES

Williams

1992

1100, 1950

 

ROCKY & BULLWINKLE

Data East

1992

1375

 

STAR WARS

Data East

1992

1395,1600

 

SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

Gottlieb

1992

 

 

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Bally

1993

1875

 

JUDGE DREAD

Bally

1993

1450

 

JURASSIC PARK

Data East

1993

 

 

LETHAL WEAPON III

Bally

1993

 

 

TALES FROM THE CRYPT

Data East

1993

1650

 

DEMOLITION MAN

Williams

1994

1450

 

FLINTSTONES, THE

Williams

1994

 

 

GUNS N' ROSES

Data East

1994

 

 

RESCUE 911

Gottlieb

1994

1395

 

SHADOW, THE

Bally

1994

 

 

WORLD CUP SOCCER

Bally

1994

1450

 

BREAK SHOT

Capcom

1996

 

 

JOHNNY MNEMONIC

Williams

1996

2500

 

WHO DUNNIT

Bally

1996

2850

 

MEDEVIL MADNESS

Williams

1997

 

 

NO GOOD GOPHERS

Williams

1997

2750

 

REVENGE FROM MARS

Bally

1999

4850

 

STAR WARS - EPISODE 1

Williams

1999

 

 

NFL RAIDERS

Stern Pinball

2000

5500

 

STRIKER XTREME

Stern Pinball

2000

3780

 

HI-ROLLER CASINO

Stern Pinball

2001

4000

 

 

 

When it was time for dinner Saturday night Ron and I again dined at our favorite dinner site, the Mexican restaurant in Vacaville.  This time, however, we had no trouble finding it!  After dinner we returned to the show for a short time and then returned to the motel for the night.

 

            The next morning (Sunday) Ron and I went back to Dixon for a final breakfast at Dawson’s.  The day before we had asked my friend (and fellow pinball author) Bear Kamaroff to meet us for breakfast at 9 AM and he said he would try to make it.  When he had not shown up by a few minutes after nine we went on inside and joined Sam Harvey, John Cassidy, and another friend of theirs, Pete Cooley, who had flown in from the L.A. area on Saturday.  After 20 or 30 minutes Bear entered the restaurant and joined our party.  We all enjoyed our breakfast and pinball conversations.  At around 10 AM Ron and I excused ourselves from this good company as we wanted to start on our drive home.

 

            This time we drove home using Interstate-5 (the route we used for our past trips to the show).  This route was not nearly as scenic as the coastal route, in fact a good portion of it could be described as “miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles”.  We arrived back in our home town of Camarillo around 4 PM, ending another great trip and visit to Pin-A-Go-Go!  We hope to return next year if the show is again held.