Updates at the Grasley Garage + Forked River Brewing's 11 Pinball Machine Line Up!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·8m 39s·analyzed·Jul 20, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.014

TL;DR

Ontario pinball community updates from venue and restoration workshop.

Summary

Mike Dus (Pinball Shenanigans) documents his shipping logistics during Ontario wildfires, visits Forked River Brewing Company pinball venue in London, Ontario to adjust flipper power on a Pokémon (Pro) machine, and tours the Grazley Garage restoration workshop where Kevin is working on a Vampire preservation project, Harlem Globetrotters and Abracadabra cabinets, and Game of Thrones repairs while Dutch works full-time elsewhere.

Key Claims

Forked River Brewing in London, Ontario hosts monthly pinball tournaments on the first and third Tuesday of every month, plus Saturday tournaments
high confidence · Mike Dus describing the London Pinball venue lineup at Forked River
Kevin at Grazley Garage spent two days taping for a Vampire preservation project, which he notes is more work than restenciling
high confidence · Kevin directly answering Mike's question about taping hours during the Grazley Garage segment
A women's strawberry social pinball tournament is scheduled for July 18th at Forked River
high confidence · Mike announcing upcoming tournament at Forked River Brewing venue
The Ghostbusters Ellie playfield Mike owns has a 2-inch hole cut in it for warranty purposes
high confidence · Mike describing the playfield he plans to send to Tristan Ford in Australia
Shipping a pinball playfield to Australia costs approximately $888 minimum via UPS or FedEx, with Canada Post not shipping to Australia
high confidence · Mike getting shipping quotes at Staples and Canada Post during the video
Dutch is now working full-time and has less time to work on pinball restorations at Grazley Garage
high confidence · Mike commenting on Dutch's availability for the Game of Thrones project
A Flip-Flop machine was 'rat rotted' (preserved with clear coat over original condition) and sold; another machine (Al's Garage Band) was also sold recently
high confidence · Mike describing departures of machines from Grazley Garage collection
Tristan Ford in Australia performed a homebrew retheme of a machine into Sailor Moon and is now building a scratch-build Ghostbusters premium
high confidence · Mike describing Tristan's projects and offering to send the Ghostbusters playfield

Notable Quotes

“This is actually more work than just restenciling the whole thing. But I don't think there are actually stencils for this.”
Kevin (Grazley Garage) @ ~11:00 — Reveals the complexity and labor intensity of cabinet preservation vs. restoration, and shows stencil availability varies by machine
“Canada Post is not even shipping to Australia. And uh Staples quoted me $888. That's the cheapest through like UPS or FedEx or something.”
[name withheld pending review] @ ~7:30 — Illustrates real-world logistical challenges for international pinball parts shipping
“This is the preservation. A preservation, not a restoration, but it'll still be awesome when it's all said and done.”
[name withheld pending review] @ ~10:45 — Clarifies the distinction between preservation (maintaining original condition with protective measures) and restoration (rebuilding/refinishing)
“Dutch is a full-time uh working boy now. So, he's not got as much time to tinker with the pinball machines as he did before.”
[name withheld pending review] @ ~14:30 — Notes a community member's availability shift due to employment, affecting restoration work capacity

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personKevinpersonDutchperson[name withheld pending review]personForked River BrewingvenueGrazley GaragevenueLondon PinballorganizationPokemongame

Signals

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venue_signal: London Pinball Parlor at Forked River Brewing hosts monthly tournaments on first and third Tuesdays plus Saturday tournaments, with upcoming women's strawberry social tournament on July 18th
high · Mike announces 'tournaments on the first and third Tuesday of every month' and 'Saturday tournaments, July 18th, the women's strawberry social tournament'
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venue_signal: Forked River Brewing venue lineup includes World Cup Soccer (current/seasonal), Metallica Pro, Jaws Pro, Pokemon Pro, and classic section with Rock-Ola Eight Ball Champ and Hot Hand
high · Mike shows and lists the current pinball machine lineup at the venue
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restoration_signal: Grazley Garage employs preservation methods (clear coat over original patina) vs. restoration (rebuilding/refinishing), with cabinet taping/masking being labor-intensive for detailed work
high · Kevin notes two days of taping is 'more work than just restenciling' and Mike clarifies 'preservation, not a restoration' for the Vampire project
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supply_chain_signal: International pinball parts shipping to Australia is prohibitively expensive ($888+ for playfield via UPS/FedEx) and Canada Post does not service that route
high · Mike receives shipping quotes: 'Canada Post is not even shipping to Australia. And uh Staples quoted me $888. That's the cheapest through like UPS or FedEx'
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community_signal: International homebrew/scratch-build pinball community activity, with Tristan Ford in Australia creating custom rethemes and undertaking scratch-build premium machines

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:04

Wildfires in northern Ontario have turned the skies orange and it was crazy yesterday. Today's a little better. Still very smoky and you can taste it in the air. Uh it's like traveling throughout Canada and the states, so I'm sure you've heard of it. But yeah, it's been uh pretty crazy and you really shouldn't even be outside. But I'm uh silly that way. And I'm going to head over to the Grazley garage. I got to go ship some packages. I've got uh random miscellaneous stuff. These are uh McDonald's squish. Yeah, I'm selling those. The uh the FIFA World Cup soccer ones. People are actually buying those and I've been shipping them well, I guess mostly to Toronto. I think I've shipped three times to Toronto now. I've got another package. I've got uh what is this? Uh I forgot what's in there. This is a manual for a Lion Drive pitch and bat machine. Over here, I've got a a DMD that I'm shipping out to Missaga. Here's a manual for a Metal Gear Solid 3 PS1 video game. Some miscellaneous crap. Oh, in the in the back I've got my Ghostbusters Ellie Playfield that I bought off of Mitch recently. And I gotta get a quote to Australia to uh shout out to a Tristan Ford who he's a guy who actually did a scratch build. No, not a scratch build, a homebrew rethe machine and turned it into a uh Sailor Moon. He's now doing a scratch build of a Ghostbusters premium. And I have the playfield that I don't know if he's going to use it or not. It's got a giant hole in it due to warranty purposes. They cut out a 2-in hole in it. But I've got another box and I'm going to have to ship separately of all the parts that I just stripped off of it. So anyway, that's what's going on. I got to hit up the Canada Post. I got to hit up the uh the FedEx, the UPS. I got to go to Staples. Basically, they deal with the the non-Canada Post shipments. Get a quote for this cuz it's going to be exorbitant for the playfield. And anyway, stop in at Kevin's and see what he's up to. I'm Mike Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans.

2:39

It's pretty smoky out today still, but I got some bad news. Canada Post is not even shipping to Australia. And uh Staples quoted me $888. That's the cheapest through like UPS or FedEx or something. So, I got to figure out something else. That ain't going to work. Well, I got to pop into Fork River to u adjust some flipper power on my Pokemon. Turn it up a notch. And while I'm here, I'll show you the new lineup. All right, check this out. If you haven't been here, you really should come. We got lots of good machines and uh tournaments on the first and third Tuesday of every month. Here's where the current lineup sits. We got World Cup soccer. Finals is happening on Sunday, so very appropriate theme. We've got Metallica Pro, Jaws Pro, we got my Pokemon Pro, Stranger Things Pro, Godzilla Pro, King Kong Pro, Space Station, and then we got uh the classics section over here, kind of rock, eightball champ, and hot hand. Also have our uh monthly leaderboard. Got some cool banners. And look at that pinball shenanigans logo even. But yeah, London Pinball Parlor at Fork River in London, Ontario. You should come check it out. We've got uh Tuesday tournaments, Saturday tournaments, July 18th, the women's strawberry social tournament. that's also happening soon. So, uh, go to Fork River for the latest news. All right, I managed to get on the scoreboard with my test game. Fourth place. Not horrible, but my best game on Pokemon so far. Okay, I'm here at the Grazy Garage, and uh, you're just going to get a quick little update here. Kevin's working outside in the smoke and uh paint and heat and the paint dust and uh but this is vampire and uh it is getting underway here. How many hours did you spend taping all this stuff off? >> Two days.

5:35

A preservation, not a restoration, but it'll still be awesome when it's all said and done. Oh, and this hippie van is pretty awesome. Okay, I hope you enjoyed that little Grazley Garage teaser, but that's all you get for now. Stay tuned for some more vampire action. And uh I did take a peek at the uh Harlem Globe Trotters and the Abracadabra progress, but basically they're just two cabinets sanded down to wood with some Bondo on it. So, not really all that exciting for you to look at. And the Rocky and Pullwinkle is fairly in the same state as it was in the last video, except uh Dutch is working on dialing it in and getting it uh to work perfectly. So, that basically looks and plays the same as it did on the last video. Oh, the one thing that I probably should have showed is Kevin's newest sign that came from an old like amusement park that was kind of like a Canada's wonderland back in the ' 70s. It was called Crystal Beach. I don't remember this or I don't even know that I've heard of it. I'll look it up. Maybe try and throw up a photo or something. But there was an arcade there and this sign came out of the Crystal Beach Arcade and it is hand painted and it's pretty cool. And uh I'll show you a photo of that. But other than that, that's what's going on. Uh Dutch is also kind of slowly plugging away at the Game of Thrones. He's a he's a full-time uh working boy now. So, he's not got as much time to tinker with the pinball machines as he did before. So, Game of Thrones is underway. And uh yeah, that's I think about it for now. Flip-flop has left the building. The rat rod flip-flop. didn't really see a finished product on that, but basically it's a an original condition wellplayed flip-flop that just has a complete layer of clear coat over everything to preserve the patina, hence the rat rod. So, the customer that bought the Al's Garage Band also was the customer that rat rotted the flip-flop. So, Al's Garage Band's gone. flip-flops gone and uh still Kevin has uh no space. Plus, I just gave him my supersonic project that needs to go to Shane eventually and be turned into a kiss. So, that didn't help. Anyway, I think that's all for now. I'm going to end up over at the Diamond Garage probably later today and do a gameplay video of Nightmare on Elm Street. So, stay tuned for that. You want to hear Freddy belt out the ball?