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Church of the Silver Ball

bstock

bstock

Active Member
Apr 1, 2013
325
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Montreal, Quebec
REVOLUTION said:
Mike Hanley said:
hahahahahahahha. very good!
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Actually if y'all want to go to a pinball museum, you should check out Mike Hanley's "Church of the Silver Ball". He's got a huge collection of rarities in there.. many prototype games. The place is a very cool piece of history.
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This was in another thread, but I thought I might attract more eyes asking about this in a new thread.

Can anyone tell me exactly how this place works? I realize I could just email them directly, but wanted to get some info from you guys too. I was trying to get some more information off of their website about this location, but a lot of the info on the site looks a little bit out dated. The website says that they are open by appointment only, except on "pinball faith nights", and it looks like in the past they've hosted some tournaments, but the last one on their website looks like it was in 2011. So my questions are:

- Do they still do these "pinball faith nights" once in a while? Looks like the last one was in the summer of 2012?

- Does this have anything to do with organized religion or faith? I was not able to get a feel for exactly what this place was about on the website.

Thanks,
Ben
 
frolic

frolic

Member
Nov 19, 2012
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the church is now closed unfortunately. Mike is in the process of selling most of his stuff. He'll keep some working pins at his home, but the church will be gone.
 
Chris Bardon

Chris Bardon

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,342
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Mississauga, ON
It's too bad really-it was a fun place to hang out, and their tournaments were a great reintroduction to pinball. If nothing else though, it was fun to go and hang out with Mike and Christine, and talk about all things pinball. There was also stuff buried in there that it's a shame we'll never get a chance to see-I'm still curious about that other Jpop prototype, and I'm convinced that at some point Mike's going to find the other Pinball Circus prototype stashed behind something there :)
 
frolic

frolic

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Nov 19, 2012
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I'm literally here today because of the church. going there got me back into pinball. It is definitely a loss.

Obviously having a warehouse like that costs big money, it was never any kind of real business, none of us are volunteering to take on something like that, so it's understandable for it to go away, but a bummer nonetheless.
 
frolic

frolic

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Nov 19, 2012
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there's some tremendous home collections I've been able to see recently, but what made the church unique was he would open to the public. That really makes a difference with attracting newbies. topl is open, but it takes a few leaps of effort from someone to come out, and you'd most likely already be a pinhead, not just someone looking to play some pinball because they like it on the ipad.
 
tkaye

tkaye

Active Member
Mar 17, 2013
598
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Ancaster, On
frolic said:
the church is now closed unfortunately. Mike is in the process of selling most of his stuff. He'll keep some working pins at his home, but the church will be gone.
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What's he selling and where?
Anything interesting left?
 
brewmanager

brewmanager

Active Member
Nov 14, 2012
629
111
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Scarborough, ON
Monkeybug said:
It was an interesting place. It will be missed. I only got out there a handful of times but Mike and Christine were great hosts.
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Agreed - only went a couple of times, but I enjoyed it greatly, and my daughter is absolutely in love with Melody, which I've only seen there.
 
M

Mike Hanley

Member
Apr 9, 2013
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Mississauga, Ontario
Thanks for the nice comments.

We're still a long way from gone. 6 games left in the last month but 7 showed up....
:) its in the blood! lol.


The Church will continue in a new format. Ive been doing this since 1978. Ive owned over 400 machines so far. We still have 2 storage units full and a garage. probably 130. It was time to sell off some to shrink back to normal. Of course i hang with Kim and Nick so normal is relative.

Actually its Todd's fault. After seeing 70+ machines in his basement i decided i wanted to move some home again.

So 25 are going home and the rest are being sold off.

no, none of the Popadiuk games are for sale. i will post lists from time to time. Yes, there are 3 tommys. one production, one prototype and the third has an alternate pf with subtle art changes. Data East gave it to Pete while he was living in NYC doing the play. 2 years later when he moved back to England, it went back to DE and an employee snagged it. Pete Autographed the score card.

I just listed 9 games on rgp today. all prices are negotiable.

We've sold about 25 playfields and close to 80 bg's so far. still more to go...

plus all of Christines memorabilia. Coke, Dr. Pepper, tins, etc....

Mike
 
REVOLUTION

REVOLUTION

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 13, 2012
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GTA
www.pinballrevolution.com
Hey Mike, so does that mean you're closing down the location and just maintaining a home collection? Also, any cool prototype stuff fs? :D How about some memorabilia that I can buy to give away on the site here.. ? :)

Mike's a huge asset to the community. It was a pleasure working with the Hanley's for the last Toronto show. Here's hoping we do it again real soon.
 
M

Mike Hanley

Member
Apr 9, 2013
34
23
8
Mississauga, Ontario
i looked for another location, almost got an old train station in Streetsville. How cool would that be? but the VON offered more.

I think i have stuff for sale you would be interested in.
how about the prototype snake from guns n roses?
:)
 
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