Ivan Lysykanycz

My enthusiasm for Pinball has gone far beyond a hobby. It’s what I do all day, everyday. Though I burn out on occasion and just unplug for a bit, there is nothing I’d rather do.

Born and raised in Allentown, Pa., my interest in pinball started at a very young age. It still brings a smile to my face when I think of a time when I did whatever I could to get a quarter. My brother and I would perform a circular search pattern throughout the general vicinity to find that one machine that would give the best bang for our loot. Back then there was a machine at every corner store on every block. It was quite a daunting task for a young lad. I remember seeing an op servicing a machine and I was mesmerized by it's complexity. I wondered how someone could fix such a thing. He did rack up a few credits for us when he was done.

I graduated in 1988 from LTI with an AS degree in Electronic Engineering. I started my career as a component level bench tech and quickly moved up to where the real excitement could be found, field service. This was probably the most challenging time I could remember. To take a newly designed product that was a poorly tested, under performer and make it work before an irate customer was painful. The satisfaction of successfully navigating through a design disaster became addictive. I rarely turned down a project and the harder they were the better I liked it. I eventually became an applications specialist where I could design solutions with well tested products but did tire of that pretty quick.

I bought my first pin in 2000 off of ebay like most of us. It was an Apollo 13 from Barry White actually. It was a good pin and I had no complaints. Of course over time a few issues had to be resolved but I knew no one that had any idea how to deal with this. Well I quickly realized that my many years of experience solved that problem. Man was I hooked and that’s when they began to multiply. Repairing and restoring became more interesting than playing.

Now I’m building a business that focuses on in home repair and providing the pinball community the best pins I can find. I fix them all but I hate EM’s. They are hard for me but I’m getting better. Just a box of door bells as my mentor says. I can’t seem to get that out of my head while I’m trying to figure out which ones. If you need my help don’t hesitate to ask. Feel free to hover about like a concerned parent, all my customers do. That doesn’t bother me in the least. How the hell did I get here!

Ivan Lysykanycz
Ivan can be contacted at ivan@pinfestival.com