For Fun Crew USA founder Tony Liberti, finding a classic Whac-a-Mole game trailer fulfilled a long-time dream. Now, he gets to share it with others.
One of the perks of the job for Fun Crew USA founder Tony Liberti is finding and refurbishing games like the ones he played as a kid at Coney Island. He is passionate about giving older players a trip down memory lane and introducing younger ones to the joys of an analog world.
Still, he never dreamed he would find one of the most revered attractions in game history: a Bob’s Space Racers Whac-A-Mole midway game trailer. Finding one of those in decent shape is like a black swan event in the attractions industry.
But Tony never gave up. It just took timing, good luck and a very persistent son.
Why A Vintage Whac-A-Mole Game Trailer is a Big Deal
To understand why Tony felt fortunate to find a Whac-A-Mole, it helps to understand why he wanted one in the first place.
Bob’s Space Racers founder Bob Cassata invented the Whac-a-Mole game in the late 1970s along with many others that changed the arcade business. As a person who owns an attraction company, Tony is well aware of Cassata’s impact. But Tony is also a student of attractions industry history. He’s also been a game fan himself since his childhood in New York City.
“He basically revolutionized the entire carnival industry,” Tony said Cassata, who created his business in Daytona. His games introduced pneumatics and electronics to an industry that had never used them. As Tony said, “He pioneered that industry.”
The vintage game trailer also appealed to Tony’s love of old games that spark nostalgia in older people and get younger people away from screens.
“It’s that 75-year-old grandpa or grandma that’s like, ‘I played this when I was a kid.’ And they’re playing and sharing a piece of their history with their grandchild who might be 10 or 12. And they’re like, ‘This is the coolest thing we’ve ever seen.’ So there, you bridge a gap,” Tony said.
A Little Luck and a Bit of Cash
Every year at attraction industry conventions, Tony always asked around to see if an old Bob’s Space Racers game trailer had turned up. A couple of years ago, however, he wasn’t really thinking about asking. During a convention in 2024, he was just trying to get through a quick tour of the convention floor.
Weeks earlier, he had broken a collarbone while visiting family in Louisiana. Back in Florida, he was still in pain, but wanted to quickly visit the convention. His son, AJ, encouraged him to take a minute to ask about a trailer even though he was in pain. When Tony seemed reluctant, AJ kept encouraging him to do it.
Eventually, he found and asked Tony Cassata, Bob’s brother. As it turned out, for the first time, they had information about an older midway game trailer for sale.
“In my most amount of pain and stress, when I thought it would never happen, it did,” Tony said. And it was a beauty, too, a 16-player game trailer. Not many of them were built.
To purchase the title, Tony met up with the owner at a trade show and made the deal. The former owner had a preference for a cash-only deal, and Tony said he ended up buying the trailer with money literally delivered in a paper bag.
At long last, he had a classic Whac-A-Mole game trailer. There was just one issue. Well, many issues, really.
“It looked bad when we got it,” said Charles Hottinger. He should know, because he’s the Fun Crew USA employee who worked with Tony on the trailer’s restoration.
Retrofitting the Game Trailer
The restoration of the midway game trailer started by taking it to Bob’s Space Racers, where it stayed for six months. Bob’s Space Racers handled some initial work on the trailer, including testing the wiring and making sure the systems were working properly.
Then Hottinger and Tony brought the trailer back to Fun Crew’s headquarters north of Orlando and got into the details. That included replacing hundreds of light bulbs, including sourcing period-correct bulbs instead of LEDs, repairing light rails and cleaning out sockets because brass had corroded inside of them. They also had to put in a new air compressor. The trailer needed new tires, bearings and an axle.
To give an idea of the complexities, the two talked about how each individual mole sits on an air cylinder. With the 16-player game trailer, there are 80 moles firing off at different intervals. Many of these individual cylinders weren’t working correctly, so they had to determine if they were connected properly, leaking air or corroded. They also had to determine whether to adjust the mounting hardware and fasteners for each cylinder.
Each cylinder also has to be calibrated so that when patrons hit a mole, thereby driving air out the cylinder, they don’t also break the cylinder or the mole. That takes a bit of trial and error, especially because some Whac-A-Mole players really get into the “whacking” part.
“Yeah, we literally lost the whole head of one mole,” Chuck said.
“Talking about taking your aggression out,” joked Tony.
While the work was hard, it’s not really work for these guys. “I have a blast doing what I do,” Hottinger said. “If they gave me a bed here, I’d live here.”
Nothing Like the Real Thing
Both Tony and Hottinger talked about their love of the old games that Fun Crew offers. For example, the Whac-A-Mole game has the older “chaser lights” that were used before LED came along,
“I always had a passion to go to Coney Island and to go to these fairs because that’s what I grew up with in New York City. I loved the lights. I loved going to Time Square. There was something about seeing those Times Square light chasers and all the cool bulbs,” Tony said.
When Fun Crew does refurbishments on older trailers, “I never want to touch anything electrically to modify it. I wanted it to have that old, nostalgic, vintage feel. And I think that’s something that’s lost in today’s industry. Everything is all about how cool you can make it look with LEDs. I kind of disagree,” Tony said.
Hottinger noted that despite all the older mechanics, the machines are actually easier to repair once they are up and running. They are popular, too. Fun Crew has six game trailers, and four of them have the vintage feel. “I think those go out more than the two that have the LEDs,” he said.
As for the Whac-A-Mole, it recently went to a big event for its first run at Fun Crew. How did it go over? “They already said they have to have it back for next year,” Tony said.
And, Hottinger added, “We didn’t have a single mechanical issue.”
Tony said he expects the Whac-A-Mole game trailer to be a popular rental for many years to come. He said they appeal to all age groups, including older people who played these types of games as kids.
“They go, ‘I had that as a kid and I haven’t seen that in 30 years or 40 years.’ To me, that just means the world. And you’re introducing something to a new generation that’s never even heard of it before and that’s exciting, too.”
