M
M.G. Brown
Guest
MICHIGAN PINBALL SHOW 2025
M.G. Brown
Please check the VFW website for the current game line-up.
The Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW, also known as the Ann Arbor Michigan Pinball Show or VFW Pinball Showcase, was held the first weekend of May 2025, at the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum, located in Brighton, MI. The museum is located about 8 miles north of Ann Arbor in Green Oak Township.
Plan view of the Vintage Flipper World Campus – it’s yuge
It’s recognized as the largest pinball show in the world by unique game count, featuring nearly 600 restored, working games on free play, spanning from the 1930s to current titles.
The bar area was taken over on Friday by a vendor of pinball art and other collectible items
Custom shooter rods
An interesting aspect of this show is that vendors are granted free access to the show for all three days. It is difficult to beat a deal like that!
Before I begin the heart of my review and comments about the 2025 Spring Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW, I want to personally thank Clay Harrell for the invitation to attend his show, and for his hospitality.
Clay was very busy keeping everything running smoothly at the show, but we did manage just a few moments with him to present him with a gift of Pinball News swag. Hopefully Clay will enjoy his gifts.
Clay is given a surprise gift from M.G. Brown of Pinball News
Heartfelt thanks also to the volunteers at the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum who were extremely helpful to Terri and myself as far as answering questions about the VFW and area information. We passed out Pinball News pins and stickers to the volunteers and whatever we had left we gave to the show guests.
The pastoral setting of what was formerly a suburban Veterans of Foreign Wars post contrasts starkly with the flashing lights and bells that permeate the atmosphere once you pay for your admission and pass by the “Tiki Hut”, which on show weekends is pressed into service as a ticket booth.
Tickets for both the spring and fall editions of the VFW Pinball Showcase must be reserved in advance and the only form of payment accepted for tickets is cash.
Friday night was the VIP party, which was limited to 100 guests. Pizza and soft drinks were included in the cost of the VIP ticket.
The main floor has quite a few 1930s flipperless pinball games in excellent playing condition. Take a trip back in time and be sure to play at least some of these games during your visit to VFW.
Where else would a guest have access to such a diverse range of antique games?
1935 Chicago Express by Daval
1935 Traffic by Bally, designed by Harry Williams
1934 Drop Kick by Exhibit
1934 Fleet by Bally
1934 Skyscraper by Bally
Here’s a couple more flipperless classics for your consideration:
1934 Torpedo, Dudley-Clark Co of Chicago, later known as Churchill Cabinet Company, EM, one player, flipperless, theme: naval warfare
Topedo and Streamline
Streamline, Bally, pure mechanical, one player, flipperless, 10 balls for 5 cents, theme: travel, railroad
Notes: The Union Pacific Railroad debuted its M-10000 train in February 1934, while the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad debuted their Zephyr train in April, two months later. They were the first so-called ‘streamliner’ passenger trains. The four miniature trains on the playfield of Streamline resemble the real-life M-10000 streamliner train.
The halls of Vintage Flipper World seemed positively cavernous when you divide nearly 600 games among 100 guests. There was little to no waiting to play any of the games in the collection, and that in itself is a huge endorsement for paying the small extra price for the VIP wristband.
We were delighted to find more than pinball at the VFW. Would any collection be complete without a few of the popular 1940s-1950s ‘Pitch and Bat’ games?
1947 Heavy Hitter pitch-and-bat game by Bally
Bally’s 1947 Heavy Hitter game was 5 cents per play in-period. The game ends after three outs or 4 minutes of play. The game was intended to be a tabletop game and is shown here at VFW with its optional metal stand. Bally re-released this game in 1959 with a different art package and the ability to have two players: Home and Visitors.
Near the woodrail section of VFW is this nearly new Play Ball!, one of 131 of these machines made by Pace Mfg. Co., of (naturally) Chicago, IL., in 1930. In this American Baseball-themed game, the pinball is launched through an upper playfield spiral with several holes for it to fall into, each with a point designation representing Outs, Runs, Home runs, and Sacrifices. Pace is another one of those amusement machine companies that I feel is not that well remembered. They produced small runs of over 130 different games and vending machines between 1927 and 1960.
We spotted this great 1974 Chicago Coin Turf Club EM 2-player horse racing (gambling) game in the Rathole at VFW. An interesting feature of this game is the use of an 8-track player to provide the sound effects, such as the iconic ‘call to the post’. The idea is to flip your ball into the ‘lengths’ bucket that has the largest value. There are two levers at the front of the machine that actuate the ball striker. It takes a few plays to get the hang of the mechanism. There is also a one-player mode where the machine plays player two for you.
Chicago Coin’s Turf Club
There were many other amusement games on hand at VFW, such as these ‘shooter’ games (bracketing Lucky Penny Sweepstakes) available to play.
The Lucky Penny Sweepstakes game is a 4-player penny pitch horse racing game
Lucky Penny Sweepstakes is an intriguing EM game where players toss pennies into plastic coin cups to move their lighted ‘horse’ light around an electronic track. A penny in the smaller cup moves the horse five lengths, where a penny in the larger cup moves it one length.
This game was produced in 1970 by Penny Amusements of New Jersey as a non-gambling device, but many were secretly used for gambling purposes. The manufacturer claimed that the game could easily generate as much as US$40 per hour in income for a site. That is over $330 when inflation is considered!
A few samples of the shooter, driving and specialty games on hand at VFW
1958 Keeney Deluxe Big Tent
This 1958 Keeney and Sons Big Tent at VFW was a way around slot machine laws of the 1950s using a ‘flasher’ technology to make it seem not like a spinning reel slot gambling machine; in reality the Keeney Big Tent was a gambling device. Basically, a slot machine without the spinning reels. Instead lights would ‘flash’ on the three vertical columns (mimicking a slot machine’s rotating reels) and randomly land on animal characters.
The De Luxe version of the game (shown here) took up to seven quarters, a US$1.75 max bet, and paid out in credit units; there was no hopper or pay-out mechanism. The bartender would most likely pay out cash to the patron, and then cycle the game to remove the credits. Keeney made this game in several variants from 1956 to 1959.
Keeney may not be familiar to all of our readers, so please allow me to share just a bit of history with you. Keeney and Sons was an early pin game and coin-op manufacturer located at 2001 Calumet Ave, in (surprise) Chicago, IL. They also were involved in the manufacture of juke boxes and juke box accessories such as additional speakers and the ‘wall box’ which would allow remote control and selection of music for a juke box.
Keeney and Sons made several flipperless pin games more or less intended for gambling, including two, Old Plantation and El Rancho that combined elements of pinball and slot machines.
Keeney and Sons ceased amusement device manufacturing during WWII and dedicated their 30,000 sq ft Chicago plant to various US Government projects in support of the war effort. At the end of the war, J.H. Keeney & Co. resumed production of pin games. Their last pin game was Arrowhead, which is a very obscure game, being only produced in a few pre-production sample units prior to Keeney filing for bankruptcy in late 1964.
Here is Larry Zartarian demonstrating one of the few surviving Arrowhead pinball games
Corridors connecting different parts of the VFW campus have neon and playfield art to enjoy. Look around you when you visit VFW to see and enjoy the artwork on display.
A small sample of the artwork displayed on the VFW campus
VFW has a quite rare 25 cent ‘one armed bandit’ slot (gambling) machine near the bar area. This particular model is the 1929-1931 Mills Poinsettia, which was offered in period by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago to pay out either in coin or in pieces of gum. I assume this was to bypass the gambling restrictions in some parts of the USA. This is similar to how Japanese Pachinko machines paid out in steel balls that could be exchanged for gift certificates. Mills got their start in 1891, making cigar vending machines. Mills was also the first company to manufacture what we now think of as the classic upright-style slot machine.
1929 Mills Poinsettia 25 cent slot machine
I had just emptied my pocket of several dollars’ worth of quarters playing this gem when I realized that there were quarters thoughtfully provided in a nearby blue plastic bin. Oh well- I think of it as a small contribution to their efforts at VFW.
We found a great 20-foot-long 1964 Chicago Coin Majestic 6-player ‘big ball’ bowler machine in tip-top condition that was just delightful to play. We could have easily played it for hours. The St. Louis Ball Bowlers group have put out this great video on YouTube showing how the game works.
Not far from the bowler, there is an A.G. Soccer Ball head-to-head game manufactured by Alvin G. and Company in 1991.
This is a head-to-head game where two players at opposite ends of the playfield can compete simultaneously. Each player has flipper buttons that control only those flippers facing the opponent.
Alvin G’s A.G. Soccer Ball from 1991
This game has patented ‘switch-flippers’. Each flipper has a wire-form switch attached to it that closes a circuit when the ball hits the flipper. The switch performs different functions for single-player versus head-to-head games. During head-to-head games, the switches are used to instruct the “Designated Scoring” system to award all playfield scoring to the player whose flipper last made contact with the ball. During single-player games, the switches are made active only on the opponent’s flippers, and a ball striking those flippers causes them to energize and ‘auto-flip’ the ball back towards the player.
Keeping with the Soccer/Football theme, amongst the Zaccaria of Italy games in the ‘rat hole’ (see the campus map at the beginning of this article), was this lovely Soccer Kings produced in 1982.
This is one of the very few games that I have ever played with more than four flippers. It sports five (count ’em) flippers! Four are located on the main playfield, while one is on the upper (attack zone) playfield.
Another Zaccaria that we enjoyed is Pinball Champ’82. This was Zaccaria’s first multi-level playfield game.
Although we didn’t test the operation on this particular machine, it has a headphone jack for private listening to the game sounds when needed (IE, late-night gaming sessions when the queen of the house is asleep).
VFW has a fine example of the 1962 Bally Spinner game. According to the labeling it was a quasi-gambling game that cost 10 cents per play for up to four players. The game has two modes that can be selected; High Score or Concentration.
Spinner game card
The game’s round center bumper spins continuously throughout game play flinging the balls literally everywhere. When the colored balls fall in the pockets, each player must decide which balls to let stay in that player’s pockets and which ones to reject by pressing any of five corresponding buttons in front of the player on the cabinet. This pushes the undesired balls back into play in hopes of landing a higher scoring ball in the vacated pocket. A timer eventually stops the spinning bumper and ends the game. This photo shows the game in two player mode.
During your visit to VFW, do yourself a favor and try some of these non-pinball games!
The pinball games were in impeccable condition and they had a good number of volunteer mechanics on hand in case there were difficulties of any sort. VFW has a great system to report problems with games and I am here to tell you that the mechanics arrived quickly!
Scan a QR code to report any problems
Techs were very knowledgeable
[IMG alt="There is a dedicated game repair and prep area in the main building
"]https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/D1-2025-Spring-VFW-37-1024x768.jpeg[/IMG]
There is a dedicated game repair and prep area in the main building
Near the repair area is a vertical 1984 Williams Still Crazy. Only 12 units were made before the project was canceled.
Williams Still Crazy – is it a pinball or a pachinko?
The game has 4 flippers named the boot, the fry pan, the pipe, and the cannon. The object is to flip as many of the pinballs into the whiskey still (unlicensed distillery) as possible before the ‘revenuers’ climb the game’s hill and end the game.
Chicago Coin’s Thing is a one player EM with artwork designed by the great Roy Parker. One of the goals is to hit each one of the T-H-I-N-G bumpers at the top and turn off its light. When all bumpers have been hit, the THING scorer advances by one and the bumper lights are reset.
1951 Thing by Chicago Coin
The flippers are widely spaced but have a unique V-shaped metal gate between them that raises or lowers depending on the player completing various game goals. When the gate is lowered, balls can pass through and drain. When the gate is raised, it directs balls to one of the two flippers for replay.
We had a great time playing these and other rare pin-games covering the entire spectrum and chatting with local pinball enthusiasts; the 10pm Friday night closing came all too quickly!
Day Two:
The queue at the show entrance formed fairly early on Saturday morning for the Sat-Sun and Saturday Only tickets. There was a steady flow of pinball fans until about 1PM and when the buildings were at capacity, we ventured out to check the hospitality area of the show.
The show entrance line at five minutes before opening
The show organizers set up a great little outdoor sandwich, beverage and snack area with picnic tables and a lounge adjacent to the main parking lot of the VFW. Volunteers were grilling food and serving customers most of the afternoon.
The bill of fare featured the usual American favorites with plenty of condiments to assure that your sandwich would be the way you wanted it to be. The prices were very reasonable when you consider that the VFW is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
As we all know eventually “nature calls” and the VFW has first class washroom facilities- even better than Buc-ee’s, and that is quite a feat.
This is actually the entrance to the ladies WC.
A big salute to Clay and his crew for thinking out these details so that guests attending could enjoy the show that much more.
Exhibitor TILT Amusements was on hand with two examples of Stern’s King Kong available for guests to sample. There was quite a lot of interest in the games and these were the only games with a wait to play that I can recall.
Kong was King of this show
I wanted to mention that this show differs from others that I have reviewed in that the games were not moved from their normal location and as such are about as close to perfect in “setup” as one could imagine.
Saturday, the halls filled up, and the play got intense in preparation for the Sunday tournaments.
Stern’s 2005 production version of Grand Prix – a great Pat Lawlor game
Another unicorn at VFW; this SS game was available in two art packages – Grand Prix and NASCAR. Supposedly Stern intended Grand Prix for sale outside of North America, but this was never strictly enforced. Still, it is somewhat rare to see GP in the USA. A subsequent limited edition run of this game in 2007 was titled Dale Jr.. It was essentially the same game with a different art package.
Sadly, the realities of airline schedules caused us to head back to Nashville without being able to check out the tournament action on Sunday. I hope that someone was kind enough to publish the tournament results and perhaps post a few photos of the award presentations.
The 2025 Fall Show at VFW, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12, 2025, The show uses a registration ticket system to limit attendance, ensuring minimal wait times and ample game availability. As the time of this writing, the public registration for the fall show has not yet begun. Keep an eye on the VFW Pinball website for the latest information.
We felt that our experience at the Spring Pinball Showcase was just about perfect. It is apparent that much thought is given to even the smallest of details for the two weekends each year when the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum is open to the public.
The Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW is a mind-bogglingly epic pinball bucket list show that enthusiasts should experience at least once in their lifetime. Make your plans now to attend the Fall 2025 show.
For more show photos, please visit the show Flickr page.
Continue reading...
M.G. Brown
Please check the VFW website for the current game line-up.
The Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW, also known as the Ann Arbor Michigan Pinball Show or VFW Pinball Showcase, was held the first weekend of May 2025, at the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum, located in Brighton, MI. The museum is located about 8 miles north of Ann Arbor in Green Oak Township.
Plan view of the Vintage Flipper World Campus – it’s yuge
It’s recognized as the largest pinball show in the world by unique game count, featuring nearly 600 restored, working games on free play, spanning from the 1930s to current titles.
The bar area was taken over on Friday by a vendor of pinball art and other collectible items
Custom shooter rods
An interesting aspect of this show is that vendors are granted free access to the show for all three days. It is difficult to beat a deal like that!
Before I begin the heart of my review and comments about the 2025 Spring Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW, I want to personally thank Clay Harrell for the invitation to attend his show, and for his hospitality.
Clay was very busy keeping everything running smoothly at the show, but we did manage just a few moments with him to present him with a gift of Pinball News swag. Hopefully Clay will enjoy his gifts.
Clay is given a surprise gift from M.G. Brown of Pinball News
Heartfelt thanks also to the volunteers at the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum who were extremely helpful to Terri and myself as far as answering questions about the VFW and area information. We passed out Pinball News pins and stickers to the volunteers and whatever we had left we gave to the show guests.
The pastoral setting of what was formerly a suburban Veterans of Foreign Wars post contrasts starkly with the flashing lights and bells that permeate the atmosphere once you pay for your admission and pass by the “Tiki Hut”, which on show weekends is pressed into service as a ticket booth.
Tickets for both the spring and fall editions of the VFW Pinball Showcase must be reserved in advance and the only form of payment accepted for tickets is cash.
Friday night was the VIP party, which was limited to 100 guests. Pizza and soft drinks were included in the cost of the VIP ticket.
The main floor has quite a few 1930s flipperless pinball games in excellent playing condition. Take a trip back in time and be sure to play at least some of these games during your visit to VFW.
Where else would a guest have access to such a diverse range of antique games?
1935 Chicago Express by Daval
1935 Traffic by Bally, designed by Harry Williams
1934 Drop Kick by Exhibit
1934 Fleet by Bally
1934 Skyscraper by Bally
Here’s a couple more flipperless classics for your consideration:
1934 Torpedo, Dudley-Clark Co of Chicago, later known as Churchill Cabinet Company, EM, one player, flipperless, theme: naval warfare
Topedo and Streamline
Streamline, Bally, pure mechanical, one player, flipperless, 10 balls for 5 cents, theme: travel, railroad
Notes: The Union Pacific Railroad debuted its M-10000 train in February 1934, while the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad debuted their Zephyr train in April, two months later. They were the first so-called ‘streamliner’ passenger trains. The four miniature trains on the playfield of Streamline resemble the real-life M-10000 streamliner train.
The halls of Vintage Flipper World seemed positively cavernous when you divide nearly 600 games among 100 guests. There was little to no waiting to play any of the games in the collection, and that in itself is a huge endorsement for paying the small extra price for the VIP wristband.
We were delighted to find more than pinball at the VFW. Would any collection be complete without a few of the popular 1940s-1950s ‘Pitch and Bat’ games?
1947 Heavy Hitter pitch-and-bat game by Bally
Bally’s 1947 Heavy Hitter game was 5 cents per play in-period. The game ends after three outs or 4 minutes of play. The game was intended to be a tabletop game and is shown here at VFW with its optional metal stand. Bally re-released this game in 1959 with a different art package and the ability to have two players: Home and Visitors.
Near the woodrail section of VFW is this nearly new Play Ball!, one of 131 of these machines made by Pace Mfg. Co., of (naturally) Chicago, IL., in 1930. In this American Baseball-themed game, the pinball is launched through an upper playfield spiral with several holes for it to fall into, each with a point designation representing Outs, Runs, Home runs, and Sacrifices. Pace is another one of those amusement machine companies that I feel is not that well remembered. They produced small runs of over 130 different games and vending machines between 1927 and 1960.
We spotted this great 1974 Chicago Coin Turf Club EM 2-player horse racing (gambling) game in the Rathole at VFW. An interesting feature of this game is the use of an 8-track player to provide the sound effects, such as the iconic ‘call to the post’. The idea is to flip your ball into the ‘lengths’ bucket that has the largest value. There are two levers at the front of the machine that actuate the ball striker. It takes a few plays to get the hang of the mechanism. There is also a one-player mode where the machine plays player two for you.
Chicago Coin’s Turf Club
There were many other amusement games on hand at VFW, such as these ‘shooter’ games (bracketing Lucky Penny Sweepstakes) available to play.
The Lucky Penny Sweepstakes game is a 4-player penny pitch horse racing game
Lucky Penny Sweepstakes is an intriguing EM game where players toss pennies into plastic coin cups to move their lighted ‘horse’ light around an electronic track. A penny in the smaller cup moves the horse five lengths, where a penny in the larger cup moves it one length.
This game was produced in 1970 by Penny Amusements of New Jersey as a non-gambling device, but many were secretly used for gambling purposes. The manufacturer claimed that the game could easily generate as much as US$40 per hour in income for a site. That is over $330 when inflation is considered!
A few samples of the shooter, driving and specialty games on hand at VFW
1958 Keeney Deluxe Big Tent
This 1958 Keeney and Sons Big Tent at VFW was a way around slot machine laws of the 1950s using a ‘flasher’ technology to make it seem not like a spinning reel slot gambling machine; in reality the Keeney Big Tent was a gambling device. Basically, a slot machine without the spinning reels. Instead lights would ‘flash’ on the three vertical columns (mimicking a slot machine’s rotating reels) and randomly land on animal characters.
The De Luxe version of the game (shown here) took up to seven quarters, a US$1.75 max bet, and paid out in credit units; there was no hopper or pay-out mechanism. The bartender would most likely pay out cash to the patron, and then cycle the game to remove the credits. Keeney made this game in several variants from 1956 to 1959.
Keeney may not be familiar to all of our readers, so please allow me to share just a bit of history with you. Keeney and Sons was an early pin game and coin-op manufacturer located at 2001 Calumet Ave, in (surprise) Chicago, IL. They also were involved in the manufacture of juke boxes and juke box accessories such as additional speakers and the ‘wall box’ which would allow remote control and selection of music for a juke box.
Keeney and Sons made several flipperless pin games more or less intended for gambling, including two, Old Plantation and El Rancho that combined elements of pinball and slot machines.
Keeney and Sons ceased amusement device manufacturing during WWII and dedicated their 30,000 sq ft Chicago plant to various US Government projects in support of the war effort. At the end of the war, J.H. Keeney & Co. resumed production of pin games. Their last pin game was Arrowhead, which is a very obscure game, being only produced in a few pre-production sample units prior to Keeney filing for bankruptcy in late 1964.
Here is Larry Zartarian demonstrating one of the few surviving Arrowhead pinball games
Corridors connecting different parts of the VFW campus have neon and playfield art to enjoy. Look around you when you visit VFW to see and enjoy the artwork on display.
A small sample of the artwork displayed on the VFW campus
VFW has a quite rare 25 cent ‘one armed bandit’ slot (gambling) machine near the bar area. This particular model is the 1929-1931 Mills Poinsettia, which was offered in period by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago to pay out either in coin or in pieces of gum. I assume this was to bypass the gambling restrictions in some parts of the USA. This is similar to how Japanese Pachinko machines paid out in steel balls that could be exchanged for gift certificates. Mills got their start in 1891, making cigar vending machines. Mills was also the first company to manufacture what we now think of as the classic upright-style slot machine.
1929 Mills Poinsettia 25 cent slot machine
I had just emptied my pocket of several dollars’ worth of quarters playing this gem when I realized that there were quarters thoughtfully provided in a nearby blue plastic bin. Oh well- I think of it as a small contribution to their efforts at VFW.
We found a great 20-foot-long 1964 Chicago Coin Majestic 6-player ‘big ball’ bowler machine in tip-top condition that was just delightful to play. We could have easily played it for hours. The St. Louis Ball Bowlers group have put out this great video on YouTube showing how the game works.
Not far from the bowler, there is an A.G. Soccer Ball head-to-head game manufactured by Alvin G. and Company in 1991.
This is a head-to-head game where two players at opposite ends of the playfield can compete simultaneously. Each player has flipper buttons that control only those flippers facing the opponent.
Alvin G’s A.G. Soccer Ball from 1991
This game has patented ‘switch-flippers’. Each flipper has a wire-form switch attached to it that closes a circuit when the ball hits the flipper. The switch performs different functions for single-player versus head-to-head games. During head-to-head games, the switches are used to instruct the “Designated Scoring” system to award all playfield scoring to the player whose flipper last made contact with the ball. During single-player games, the switches are made active only on the opponent’s flippers, and a ball striking those flippers causes them to energize and ‘auto-flip’ the ball back towards the player.
Keeping with the Soccer/Football theme, amongst the Zaccaria of Italy games in the ‘rat hole’ (see the campus map at the beginning of this article), was this lovely Soccer Kings produced in 1982.
This is one of the very few games that I have ever played with more than four flippers. It sports five (count ’em) flippers! Four are located on the main playfield, while one is on the upper (attack zone) playfield.
Another Zaccaria that we enjoyed is Pinball Champ’82. This was Zaccaria’s first multi-level playfield game.
Although we didn’t test the operation on this particular machine, it has a headphone jack for private listening to the game sounds when needed (IE, late-night gaming sessions when the queen of the house is asleep).
VFW has a fine example of the 1962 Bally Spinner game. According to the labeling it was a quasi-gambling game that cost 10 cents per play for up to four players. The game has two modes that can be selected; High Score or Concentration.
Spinner game card
The game’s round center bumper spins continuously throughout game play flinging the balls literally everywhere. When the colored balls fall in the pockets, each player must decide which balls to let stay in that player’s pockets and which ones to reject by pressing any of five corresponding buttons in front of the player on the cabinet. This pushes the undesired balls back into play in hopes of landing a higher scoring ball in the vacated pocket. A timer eventually stops the spinning bumper and ends the game. This photo shows the game in two player mode.
During your visit to VFW, do yourself a favor and try some of these non-pinball games!
The pinball games were in impeccable condition and they had a good number of volunteer mechanics on hand in case there were difficulties of any sort. VFW has a great system to report problems with games and I am here to tell you that the mechanics arrived quickly!
Scan a QR code to report any problems
Techs were very knowledgeable
[IMG alt="There is a dedicated game repair and prep area in the main building
"]https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/D1-2025-Spring-VFW-37-1024x768.jpeg[/IMG]
There is a dedicated game repair and prep area in the main building
Near the repair area is a vertical 1984 Williams Still Crazy. Only 12 units were made before the project was canceled.
Williams Still Crazy – is it a pinball or a pachinko?
The game has 4 flippers named the boot, the fry pan, the pipe, and the cannon. The object is to flip as many of the pinballs into the whiskey still (unlicensed distillery) as possible before the ‘revenuers’ climb the game’s hill and end the game.
Chicago Coin’s Thing is a one player EM with artwork designed by the great Roy Parker. One of the goals is to hit each one of the T-H-I-N-G bumpers at the top and turn off its light. When all bumpers have been hit, the THING scorer advances by one and the bumper lights are reset.
1951 Thing by Chicago Coin
The flippers are widely spaced but have a unique V-shaped metal gate between them that raises or lowers depending on the player completing various game goals. When the gate is lowered, balls can pass through and drain. When the gate is raised, it directs balls to one of the two flippers for replay.
We had a great time playing these and other rare pin-games covering the entire spectrum and chatting with local pinball enthusiasts; the 10pm Friday night closing came all too quickly!
Day Two:
The queue at the show entrance formed fairly early on Saturday morning for the Sat-Sun and Saturday Only tickets. There was a steady flow of pinball fans until about 1PM and when the buildings were at capacity, we ventured out to check the hospitality area of the show.
The show entrance line at five minutes before opening
The show organizers set up a great little outdoor sandwich, beverage and snack area with picnic tables and a lounge adjacent to the main parking lot of the VFW. Volunteers were grilling food and serving customers most of the afternoon.
The bill of fare featured the usual American favorites with plenty of condiments to assure that your sandwich would be the way you wanted it to be. The prices were very reasonable when you consider that the VFW is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
As we all know eventually “nature calls” and the VFW has first class washroom facilities- even better than Buc-ee’s, and that is quite a feat.
This is actually the entrance to the ladies WC.
A big salute to Clay and his crew for thinking out these details so that guests attending could enjoy the show that much more.
Exhibitor TILT Amusements was on hand with two examples of Stern’s King Kong available for guests to sample. There was quite a lot of interest in the games and these were the only games with a wait to play that I can recall.
Kong was King of this show
I wanted to mention that this show differs from others that I have reviewed in that the games were not moved from their normal location and as such are about as close to perfect in “setup” as one could imagine.
Saturday, the halls filled up, and the play got intense in preparation for the Sunday tournaments.
Stern’s 2005 production version of Grand Prix – a great Pat Lawlor game
Another unicorn at VFW; this SS game was available in two art packages – Grand Prix and NASCAR. Supposedly Stern intended Grand Prix for sale outside of North America, but this was never strictly enforced. Still, it is somewhat rare to see GP in the USA. A subsequent limited edition run of this game in 2007 was titled Dale Jr.. It was essentially the same game with a different art package.
Sadly, the realities of airline schedules caused us to head back to Nashville without being able to check out the tournament action on Sunday. I hope that someone was kind enough to publish the tournament results and perhaps post a few photos of the award presentations.
The 2025 Fall Show at VFW, is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12, 2025, The show uses a registration ticket system to limit attendance, ensuring minimal wait times and ample game availability. As the time of this writing, the public registration for the fall show has not yet begun. Keep an eye on the VFW Pinball website for the latest information.
We felt that our experience at the Spring Pinball Showcase was just about perfect. It is apparent that much thought is given to even the smallest of details for the two weekends each year when the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum is open to the public.
The Michigan Pinball Show at Ann Arbor VFW is a mind-bogglingly epic pinball bucket list show that enthusiasts should experience at least once in their lifetime. Make your plans now to attend the Fall 2025 show.
For more show photos, please visit the show Flickr page.
Continue reading...
