TNT Amusements vs. Gameroom Collectibles

[dtown8532]

Hey Jared, you're absolutely right about the return on investment. Just look at a few of the people in this business. Tucky's been around a long time, has a long standing customer base and, as such, has money to pay real employees. Mike from Gameroom Collectibles seems stressed out all the time in his vids. You can tell he worries about the money. Ray doesn't because, whatever happens to that business, he's still got his long standing Wide Area Repair business which always seems busy. As far as the slutty WT "pinballers" (WTF does that mean?) go, I don't know what he's thinking there.

Most guys that have a lot of money invested in pinball and are public about it are typically either independantly wealthy (Kevin Martin from PAPA) or they have a daytime job that funds their love of this hobby. There's a guy not to far from me that runs the Pinball Gallery. He's told me that the place doesn't make much, if any, profit. But, he has a well paying day job that helps fund it.

A lotta times we b1tch about the ritch guy who has so much expendable income to afford 5k plus pinball machines but, without them, you won't see the games in public locations. Just don't become like Gene Cunningham who blew his family fortune on pinball and went bankrupt.

 

[Espy]

Tucky's entertaining. No argument there. And he knows a LOT about arcade history. BUT, I can't stand the TNT stickers he puts on the pinball aprons. Sure, if you take them off right away, no biggie. But most people don't and they're on there for years. I've removed old vending stickers and it's almost impossible to completely erase the fact they were there once. Tucky may be a reputable arcade enthusiast but, make no mistake, he shows his arrogance and narcissism with each sticker he puts on there. As if they're "his" game forever??? WTF?

Last years TNT York show vid showed Todd admiring a very old TNT sticker on a project F14. I mean, he was f*cking proud that g0d d@mn sticker was still on there and whoever would buy it would have to look at it or deal with its removal which, at that age, is going to leave some kind of mark.

And really, there's no need for it anymore. Just put a magnet or a sheet in one of the score card holders. And when Todd tells people who complain about this, "tough", I just wanna punch him in his fat f*cking face and tell him "YOU'RE RUINING THESE GAMES, A$$HOLE! YOU'RE NOT STEVE RITCHIE, PAT LAWLOR, etc! YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE YOUR NAME/BUSINESS ON THESE GAMES FOREVER!"

Otherwise he's an entertaining fat dude that's much better at promoting his business than that pr1ck at Gameroom Collectibles. Ray's still cool though.

Don't matter to me though. I'm not their customer base. All the games I buy are dead and have some kinda critters living in them, because I like fixing them...and I'm poor.

This seems like an overreaction...

 

[dtown8532]

This seems like an overreaction...

What can I say? I'm a passionate person.

 

[Kolchak357]

The stickers bug me too. I hate to see him put them on. If he must, please put them inside the cabinet.

 

[Espy]

They should change the stickers so they're basically Todd Tuckey's face coming out of a Looney Tunes ring. Then people would keep them.

 

[dtown8532]

Some people have recommended that he just put them on the playfield glass in a corner which would be fine too.

I'm working in an older game right now that had vending company stickers on the apron and on the upper ball arch. I've removed them but haven't got to actually trying erase their existence. When I get a chance I'll upload some photos of what they do to the metal underneath.

 

[pm1109]

Wish I had a boss like Todd Tuckey.My real boss does not even talk to me.

 

[Naildriver74]

Wish I had a boss like Todd Tuckey.My real boss does not even talk to me.

You must be doing a good job if you weren't I'm sure you'd hear him then.

 

[pm1109]

You must be doing a good job if you weren't I'm sure you'd hear him then.

He gets his supervisor to do that but yeah Todd would be a good boss to have

 

[dtown8532]

Make no mistake, Todd drives his guys hard. They do not work forty hour weeks. Much more probably. I would bet that most of them are single because you'll see them there well into the evening hours. But yea, Todd seems to be the kind of boss that, if you're loyal to me, I'll be good to you.

 

[Baramos]

Only one of them has me in intense anticipation for SEA WOLF GUY PART 3

As for Classic Game Room (not Gameroom Collectibles), Mark is THE MAN.

 

[dtown8532]

Here's a 1977 William's Liberty Bell I'm working on. I've finished the back box and done some minor things to the main cabinet but it's currently on hold while I get ready to move. As you can see it had two stickers from the Terminal Vending Company. I'd guess these were applied sometime in the early to mid 80's. I heated up the stickers with a hair dryer to soften the glue some but, as you can see especially on the apron one, residue still remained. My experience with removing this old glue from the Gottlieb King Rock apron taught me that it's tough to get it all off without starting to remove the paint underneath. The sticker that was on the upper ball arch removed some of the blue paint as well but I'll give that a little pass since it already had a minor surface rust issue.

My solution for the upper arch will be to sand down all the rust and just respray the whole piece of metal with a similar blue.

The apron will be a task of trying to gently remove the glue residue without taking the paint off. If you think that dumping some Goof Off on there and wiping will do the trick then...sure and you can take the Williams artwork off too while you're at it.

While I may have seemed a little harsh with my comments about Todd Tucky, this is my reasoning. And while these stickers were applied back in the day when operators just didn't care, restorers should know better now.

Oh, and yea. I know there's a 3/8" hole drilled in the apron. Why someone did that. I don't know. But I'll give them a healthy "f*ck you" for good measure.


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[dtown8532]

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[Baramos]

Tucky's entertaining. No argument there. And he knows a LOT about arcade history. BUT, I can't stand the TNT stickers he puts on the pinball aprons. Sure, if you take them off right away, no biggie. But most people don't and they're on there for years. I've removed old vending stickers and it's almost impossible to completely erase the fact they were there once. Tucky may be a reputable arcade enthusiast but, make no mistake, he shows his arrogance and narcissism with each sticker he puts on there. As if they're "his" game forever??? WTF?

Last years TNT York show vid showed Todd admiring a very old TNT sticker on a project F14. I mean, he was f*cking proud that g0d d@mn sticker was still on there and whoever would buy it would have to look at it or deal with its removal which, at that age, is going to leave some kind of mark.

And really, there's no need for it anymore. Just put a magnet or a sheet in one of the score card holders. And when Todd tells people who complain about this, "tough", I just wanna punch him in his fat f*cking face and tell him "YOU'RE RUINING THESE GAMES, A$$HOLE! YOU'RE NOT STEVE RITCHIE, PAT LAWLOR, etc! YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE YOUR NAME/BUSINESS ON THESE GAMES FOREVER!"

Otherwise he's an entertaining fat dude that's much better at promoting his business than that pr1ck at Gameroom Collectibles. Ray's still cool though.

Don't matter to me though. I'm not their customer base. All the games I buy are dead and have some kinda critters living in them, because I like fixing them...and I'm poor.

Does he still put them on the apron? In another video I thought I saw him putting it on the playfield glass instead. I may have been mistaken, however.

I'm guessing the reason he does it is the same reason car dealerships paint their name and address on the bumper of every car they sell...free advertising for the life of the car (or in this case, the pinball machine). No one ever thought the car dealership had anything to do with the building the car (in fact, they often have nothing to do with customizing them). I agree this advertising of Tuckey's makes less sense, though--he's selling most, if not all, of these to collectors, so no one is going to see them in an arcade or something.

That said, I wouldn't get too mad over the one from WAAAAYYY back in the day. As you say yourself, no one cared back then or considered them to be the collector's items they have become.

 

[dtown8532]

I was thinking. I think I was a little overreacting in an earlier post about TNT. And I apologize. But, they've stopped with putting the big TNT sticker on the aprons. Just check out some of the newest pinball videos and Todd points out that they've moved it to the inside of the cabinet. Good job, Todd.

My newest gripe is from one of GRC's Rocky videos where Ray shows that he uses a cleaner wax for playfields. Ugh. Cleaner waxes do one nor the other very well. They don't clean that great nor do they wax all that good.

The worst thing is I wouldn't expect a "high end" restorer to use a product like that. Especially on that Rocky which was pretty clean to begin with. And they got some crazy amount for it. Like 8k or so.

Cleaner waxes aren't terrible products. Just not what I'd expect a place like GRC to use. Just seems, well, lazy.

 

[Kolchak357]

The price on that Rocky was crazy. Pretty crappy pin IMO. I wouldn't pay $800 for it.

 

[Heretic]

but jts rocky!

id have one at that price, but yes nothing to do with the pin itself