Hi gang
I've been lurking round for a while as a guest, thought I should say hi!
One cultural thing I've found from growing up in New Zealand, and currently living in Australia, is that there weren't many full genuine cabinets we played on growing up. They were mostly boards and marquees only in generic "lowboy" cabs, I expect the cost to ship them by the local distributors was too high to bring out the original cabs. Because of this there aren't as many original cabs down under.
So the prices are jacked up, and people didn't grow up right because they think
this kind of thing looks good!
When I was living in the UK I built my "ultimate" MAME cab:

(though the monitor stopped working after a recent move..)
but the lure of having a room of "original" cabs has proved too much. I finally got myself a shed, so I've started getting bits for a few projects.

Gyruss scratch built replica

Galaga scratch built replica

70% size Donkey Kong (for my daughter)

70% size Moon Patrol (for my nephew)

Roadblasters cockpit scratch built replica (no room for this currently - will start when I finish the man cave)
I've pretty much given up my old hobby of "restoring" (read: shamelessly modifying) Commodore 64s. (
re-64.com)
On to bigger and better.
Any other members down under? Would be great to club in with some folks and get a container of cabs from the US - one day.
Anyway so that's me.
-> "Hi"