CHICAGOLAND
SHOW
2007
| Date: 30th March - 1st April 2007. The Chicagoland Show is a biannual event held at the Pheasant Run Resort in St Charles, about 20 miles west of Chicago.
It's a coin-op and memorabilia collectors show featuring everything from old store signs through jukeboxes, gumball machines, modern japanese slot machines and of course, pinball. In fact, pinball was represented with over 40 machines available for sale.
The show began on Friday 30th March with a special preview day for the first chance to grab those rare and bargain items. It is priced accordingly, costing $50 for entry which also provides access on Saturday and Sunday. Regular one day entry over the weekend is a more respectable $7, so our visit took place on Saturday.
Due to the size of the show, it is split between two halls - the Mega Center and the St Charles Ballroom, the Mega Center being the larger of the two and also the busiest.
There is also an outdoor area where most of the trucks are parked and which turns into an ad-hoc sales area with good being sold out of the back of the trucks or on the ground making up the parking lot.
Saturday's occasional showers reined-in some of this activity but apparently Friday saw some brisk trade.
But back to the pinball side of things and there was a wide range of games for sale at the show. Unlike pinball shows, everything on show here was available to buy and with 44 games on sale there was plenty of choice for buyers. The oldest game award must go to this 1932 Mills Novelty Co. Official Pin Table.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, Hemispheres Amusements had the newest Family Guy and UltraPin games along with a dozen other machines for visitors to play.
Show prices for the games were:
Other games by the same vendor
Other games for sale at the Chicagoland show were:
If you're visiting from out of town, the hotel we chose was the Holiday Inn Express in St Charles. It is just along the main road towards the town - about 5 minutes' drive - and convenient walking distance to several eateries and bars. The rooms are well furnished, there's free wireless internet and a decent breakfast included. Pinball News Four Minute Tour You've read about the show but now you can see it for yourself with our exclusive Pinball News Four Minute Tour. Simply click on the play button below and take a walk around the show. Get the Flash Player to see this video clip.
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