Has anyone attended the Ohio pinball show? I was looking through their website and they have 2 dozen vendors, lots of games and might be interesting. I have never been in that part of the US yet so I should ask how is the drive and is it worth the trip?

http://ohiopinballshow.com/

   Roughly a 5 - 5.5 hr. drive from Toronto, all highway driving
I went to the 2007 show when it was just outside of Akron. It got a little noisy at times seeing that there was an AFB in training litterally next door.  The vendors were not that much different than those at the Chicago expo.  i.e. rec-room neon, pinball flyers and mags, parts(new and used).
  It was quite a sight in the tournament area where they had 8 Circus Voltaires (w/tournament mod chips) all in a line. The final round was played on one of the first Family Guy machines released.{If you go to the website and click on the 2007 photos, that's me winning my first pinball tournament in the open division(the guy dressed in black with part of his *a-hem* underwear showing...couldn't someone have told me before taking the picture?}
  The next year they moved it to Cuyahoga falls which is just NE of Akron.  Pretty much the same show with a lot of machines for sale which quickly dropped in price by shows end.  The tournament area had *yuck* 8 Godzilla pinballs in a row.
   Anyway I am planning on leaving Friday night, and coming back Saturday night.  I've got a stack of flyers for our upcoming Toronto pinball and gameroom show in hopes of luring up some American dollars.  I'll try to remember to bring my camera this time.

!!!Yippie!!! A chance to show off my Stern tire cover!!!

Yup...been there...going on SATURDAY....taking kids.

Sean,  you're just lucky nobody gave you a wedgie!  

We had a blast at the show!!! John Trudeu put on a
nice fireside semminar, wish he would have got a chance
to finish Aces and his Caddyshack game. The long drive
shot on Caddyshack looked great, it was like a Creech
whirlpool shot but upside down. Pinball Inc had great
prices, on lots of rare parts you just don't see anymore,
he had a complete P2k setup with new monitor for $500
on a factory type test stand... The Cointakers had a ToM
decked out in the new ultra bright purples in the GI...it
was truly Da Shiznit!!!! I brought home some ultras and can't
believe the sweet glow they give off...its like neon in a
bulb!!! Thanks to Poolman for doing most of the driving...
and finding the Cracker Barrel in the nick of time...
And speaking of Nick, Poolmans son won the kids tourney..
congrats!!!!!

Quoted from tslam

We had a blast at the show!!! John Trudeu put on a
nice fireside semminar, wish he would have got a chance
to finish Aces and his Caddyshack game. The long drive
shot on Caddyshack looked great, it was like a Creech
whirlpool shot but upside down. Pinball Inc had great
prices, on lots of rare parts you just don't see anymore,
he had a complete P2k setup with new monitor for $500
on a factory type test stand... The Cointakers had a ToM
decked out in the new ultra bright purples in the GI...it
was truly Da Shiznit!!!! I brought home some ultras and can't
believe the sweet glow they give off...its like neon in a
bulb!!! Thanks to Poolman for doing most of the driving...
and finding the Cracker Barrel in the nick of time...
And speaking of Nick, Poolmans son won the kids tourney..
congrats!!!!!

Sounds like a blast Tom ... glad you guys had a good one!

   I got back Sat. night and the show was fantastic.  Despite the fact that the rescheduled Cupids & Canines tournament was happening just east of there, the attendence had a 2.5 person to machine ratio. You had to wait your turn on every machine.  Unfortunately there was no Ironman. Vendors surrounded the walls of the play area with Cointaker getting the most attention.

LED's are the way to go here, they had an Addams family with all the mods they could squeeze in (a ?white? furry cousin It,Uncle Fester electric chair scoop w/lightbulb in mouth, Gravestone bumper toppers, A bear on the ramp, and an old style phone at the greed lock). The afformentioned TOM was amazing. Austin Powers with standard LED's, and a big Buck Hunter getting the full LED treatment, the cool thing was that they used color changing lights on the backglass logo that changed every 5 seconds.   On the free play area there was also a beautiful Sorcerer w/LED for only $1400, as well as a Capcom street fighter which was never my favorite title but the LED's made the backglass look like an HD television.

   At the tournament area there were 6 Indy 500 games that were lightning quick.  High difficulty settings and the rubbers removed from the return lane posts. I managed to get the 4th top qualifying spot giving me a first round bye, but that's about as far as I got in the tournament finals coming in tied for 5th place.  Needless to say it was once again Trent Augustine taking home the first place trophy in a very one sided final match-up on Big Buck Hunter.  In the junior division it was none other than both of Andy Rosa's children dominating the entire field only to have them both meet up in their finals with Andrew besting his sister Athena 2 games to 1.

  I dropped off a good stack of flyers for our Toronto show and by shows end about half were gone.  The May 15th weekend is coming up fast