Pintastic NE is only 10 days away and since there are no longer 993 Youtube subscribers (funny how they cancelled me just before I qualified to monetize my 14+ years of work wasn’t it) to see the nearly 10 years of video I shot from the very 1st pintastic over the next 10 days I’ll be putting up random videos from previous pintastic events.
Here is Gabe D’Annunzio the man who makes the event possible. I traditionally end each Pintastic interviewing him. Here is my closing interview from Pintastic NE 2017
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One of the givens of Pintastic NE 2022 was the popularity of the Toy Story 4 game by Jersey Jack. When I woke up very early on the final day of Pintastic this was confirmed in the free play room.
I stayed in the extra ball room for about 3 hours and joined in several 4 player games of Toy Story 4 during that time. I lost track of time until my stomach reminded me in the middle of a game of Theatre of Magic that I hadn’t eaten so I walked to McDonalds for a sausage biscuit.
When I came back the reason for the vendor room packing up fast the night before was setting up. The previous management of the hotel had doubled booked the weekend and a Doll and Teddy Bear Show was taking place that morning and afternoon in what had been the vendor room.
I went in while they were setting up and talked to one of the dealers
It was quite a contrast between the clientele of the Doll show and Pintastic which was still going on with the ladies tournament in the Southern NH Pinball club room, the free play room and of course the extra ball lounge.
There was a fair selection of dolls and after the show officially started I got permission to go in again and interviewed the promoter:
took some photos
The ladies in those chairs weren’t in a hurry to have their picture taken.
Like Pinball one of the most important persons there was a lady who did repairs, She gave me an interview
One lady who didn’t consent to an interview at this time makes infant dolls in her “reborn nursery” The dolls are so realistic she took to keeping her baby car seat in her vehicle as police kept thinking she had kids in the car without carseats.
But I didn’t spend a lot of time there because the clock was ticking and there was only so much more pinball to play. Before I knew it the time had come to do closing interview with Michael and Emily
They gave all the credit to their excellent team which demonstrated how fast you can pack up a machine and gave some advice on how to do so although the first minute of the video or so was a tad blurry
Talk about someone ripped
At this point there wasn’t much left in the free play room so I headed to the extra ball lounge, most years those machines get moved in here but because of the 2nd show they stayed where they were. I and my son kept playing until that fatal moment that comes during every Pintastic, that sad event where someone taps you on the shoulder saying “last game”.
That’s the moment when it’s time for the final interview of the show speaking to Gabe one more time
So we ended Pintastic not knowing where we would be next year but as I prepared to leave I saw one final sight that brought a smile to my face and caused me to turn on the camera one last time.
That’s how good the Toy Story 4 Pinball Machine was. It was so good that despite 4 machines available to play and the crew being there the whole time, they didn’t get their chance to play the game until the show was over and every other player was gone.
Day three of Pintastic 2020 started early for me with a trip to the extra ball lounge
A night’s sleep means a morning of pinball with little wait but once the vendor room opened the line for some games kicked in like the Weird Al Game
It’s an interesting combo of virtual and physical with of course Weird Al himself providing voice and music.
Day three continued the tournament that is a big part of Pintastic
These are the games to be played
The games that an individual plays are randomly determined.
Of course the vendors were still there with plenty of interesting stuff like this from pinovators
and the return of an old friend
You might recall I had interviewed the Pinbox 3000 crew who hinted at a big reveal and when they said “big” they weren’t kidding:
Alas there is only one of these but I suspect there will be enough demand for the big guy to be produced.
There was also a new face, Todd Tuckey’s daughter who was up to give him a hand:
My friends Hanna and Jake were doing their first Pintastic.
You’ll note them in the Pinovators video (Janna had showed up three years ago in the final hour) They had a grand time. They were not the only ones having a great time at the first Pintastic
Carline, Hanna and Jake all had a chance to play the new Toy Story 4 game despite the long lines.
That image of the three of them playing together and having fun is the essence of Pintastic.
For those who want a closer look at the game here is a bit of gameplay when I had a chance to play it in the Extra Ball lounge.
But the game I spent the most time playing, other than Arabian Knights was Doctor Who in the free play room.. Here is the person who brought it:
The free play room was hopping particularly since as soon as the vendor room was closed folks were packing up but before that happened I had a shot to speak to Anthony from Maine Home Recreation
Why were they in such a hurry to pack up? That story is for the final day of Pintastic.
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