power flash/flush arrived in berkeley!

[mudfud]

hi guys.

after almost a month since buying it on ebay, my powerflash arrived from north carolina yesterday. the upper tray got busted enroute, but that's very fixable. there is one white piece of plastic that I figure i'll know where to put after I start cleaning and playing with her.

what a cool machine! as eddie and rusty had posted, there is a second layer of stuff in front of the standard sophia workings. in this deep layer are several solenoids (so this one does need electricity to work, and it has a transformer with it), that open multiple tulip arms at the same time. the levers and solenoids all seem to be there, just a little sticky. nothing that a deep clean and light lube can't fix.

the cell on this machine is clean... yeah! and all the tulips seem to be workable. just needs a little silver touchup paint on the raised plastic...

I had to post my first pix, since I'm so excited. I'll post more as I figure out the details. since there are the interesting extra tulip mechanisms, I plan to make a video of this machine in action (did you do this already, eddie?)

btw, ummmhh, seems another sophia came home with me from Lodi yesterday on my way back from fresno to sacramento... nice sophia B with a pig face thing in the middle. machine is dirty on the back, and the guy who had it greased the 200 balls with WD40 to get the rust off...

needless to say, another deep clean is in order, with degreasing of the balls before they go near the machine. it came with one of those old blue plastic trays that seems to have been original with the 70's machines and that I've seen sold for $20 in the past.

one good thing about the way machines come into my life, is that they keep coming in pairs of the same mechanism: 2 center jackpot 70's, 2 single shot sophias, 2 modern electronic with auto shoot and volume controls added, and now, two sophia B's. perhaps this is the universe's way of giving me a backup machine to compare to at any time?

seems the addiction is still strong. good thing I have a group of like minded addicts to chat with.

[wrkey]

Oh, I am envious! Your PF has much better paint than mine! A mistake I made. I was cleaning mine and discovered that the diamonds and spades on the right hand side is not paint, but stickers and they come off! Yours appears just like mine and I think eddie stated his was a bit different. I put another light connected to the jackpot switch behind where the 'wing holes' are so that the wings light up... it's a cool and easy mod to make. My tray was also damaged but some carboard and duct tape fixed it right up! Good luck and congrats on the machines!

Let's see photos of the other machine too!
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OH... BTW.. .what's the numbers on the expiration tag?

[who922]

That looks like the one Sharmoni has. I would love to have one like that with all the tulips. Sometimes I find myself playing the vintages more than the moderns. Great Pachi!!

[sharmoni]

Mine has a different center piece and my bottom middle pocket is a tulip. Your model is a bit more jazzed up. That busted ball hopper is probably a stock piece and can be scavenged from any Nishijin around that same year.

At least all your mechanical parts are there. Mine was missing a solenoid. Fortunately I was able to find a replacement of the exact same size (screw holes matched!) at a used electronics store online.

[Bigdog]

That's a shame about the broken tray. Last year, I purchased insurance on a machine that suffered broken glass in transit. I ended up getting a check for $41 from the shipper.

Insurance is pretty cheap, and the way that these machines are often shipped, well worth the price. I have been stunned at the complete disregard for packaging that some have used in shipping my machines.

[mudfud]

That busted ball hopper is probably a stock piece and can be scavenged from any Nishijin around that same year.

duh... I just brought home a sophia B that has the same tray... think i'll swap them and use the glued-together tray on the less common model.

or, I could get an expensive quote from vintage pachinko.

[mudfud]

Let's see photos of the other machine too!
______________________________________________________
OH... BTW.. .what's the numbers on the expiration tag?

here's the pix of the pig/boar machine. will probably take the top tray and put it on the powerflash

numbers on the expiration tag are here, too.

[wrkey]

Thanks for the phtotos! Your pig machine looks to work like a Nishijin that I have. The top pocket will drop the ball into the next to the lowest tulip pocket in the center which would then open all three of the lower tulips. Balls into a particular side of the pigs nose would open that side tulip. I would like to know the dates on that machine as well.

The photos of the tags are great but I couldn't expand it enough to see the numbers. The numbers I'm interested in is 'hidden' in a string of Japanese characters and will be like $ # % # 50 & # * @ 12 & #. The first number is the Japanese calendar year the second the month. Can you tell me what those numbers are on both machines?

I know I'm being a pest about these numbers, but I'm really curious as to the time lines on the machine development and production runs. Thanks in advance!

Rusty

[who922]

I like that machine too. I don't have any that have a top tulip like that.

[mudfud]

T Can you tell me what those numbers are on both machines?

Rusty

here's some more pix. sorry the first sticker one wasn't readable. it's hard to get the numbers to show on the silver labels with flash.

first one is powerflash
second, third are the new pig/boar - the numbers are the same on the labels - so what does that mean?

also, I got the powerflash cleaned up and running well. those solenoids are really cool, and I added a couple extra arms to make the lower center tulip open.

looks like you and I have one model of powerflash, while sharmoni and eddie have a different one. which one do you think is older? ours has an extra relay that theirs doesn't.

here's the video, since this machine is hard to explain in words, split into 2 parts

YouTube - pachinko powerflash 1

YouTube - pachinko powerflash 2

[luckydog]

excellent videos and very informative of the internal workings of vintage machines

[wrkey]

Still can't see the numbers. I looked at my machine and I can see why... the numbers are so VERY tiny! However, look at the 'blue portion' of the stickers and in the lower portion you should find the numbers imbedded in the second line. Mine are 50 and 6. The fact your two machines have the same numbers, indicate they were put into service at the same time (month).

[sharmoni]

I watched your videos, thanks for making them. It's interesting to see the differences between our machines.

My Power Flash seems simpler:

Top center: opens all tulips.
Center pocket (hole under spinner gadget): opens both center tulips below.
Right and left top pockets: payout once, no tulips opened.
Top outside tulips: each opens the three tulips below.
Dreaded yellow tulips: only opened by center and top outside tulips. Either one closes all open tulips.
Middle outside and center tulips: can only be reached after being opened. Will open bottom tulips if they are closed.
Bottom outside and center tulips: open themselves only.

Mine can be pretty tough to win. If I can get a ball into the top center, I'll just fire balls as fast as I can to try to hit some open tulips before a yellow tulip closes them all. If I want a challenge, I'll try and avoid the yellow tulips with single shots, but the spring tends to overshoot or undershoot, so it's hard to place balls along the outside edges. Great fun!

[wrkey]

Hey Sharmoni, what's the year/month on your PowerFlash?

[pinball wizard]

excellent videos.i have seen these games on ebay ,but i did not know they were this cool.so now i will have to buy one as well.

[sharmoni]

The only one I can see that has any numbers (the round cornered foil rectangle in middle of the stickers) has: [chinese characters] 239 [chinese character] -2.

[MrGneiss]

Wonderful videos!!

[mudfud]

The only one I can see that has any numbers (the round cornered foil rectangle in middle of the stickers) has: [chinese characters] 239 [chinese character] -2.

hey rusty. I've got "239 character 2" on my silver sticker and "50 and 6" at the bottom of my blue one (boy did I have to squint)

the numbers are the same on both my machines, so I'm thinking that it can't be the date, especially if yours also has 50 and 6 on the blue sticker

if I can get a good picture, like outdoor lighting with my macro lens, I will send it too my friend who grew up in japan. he'll be able to translate it, no problem.

sharmoni - thanks for the comments. it's fascinating to me to see the evolution of these machines, too. sounds like rusty and I may have one a little later than yours and Eddie's. ours has a relay and opens one half of the tulips at a time. does yours have the trickle down thing to open tulips when you hit the closed king at the top? did yours come with a transformer, too?

also, thanks to all on the video comments. I feel kinda self conscious when I hear my own voice on video (like, am I that whiny?), but I tried to edit down to just the good stuff. and, it's hard to convey how cool this pachinko is without seeing it in action.

[wrkey]

That's an interesting point about the numbers and questioning the meaning. I have always assumed that what I've read in regards to these numbers is correct, but that may not be the case. I think there are good arguments for these being a date and them not being a date and with out a solid translation I certainly can't be certain.

I too have been trying to find someone that can read Japanese to translate all the characters on my machines as well. As you stated in your last post, it's the evolution of the machines that are intrigueing.

Last night the wife and I played Pachinko for almost two hours and of course all during this time, I was stopping and squinting at the labels and the other words and such. She asked me what the heck I was doing and I told her about this thread. Well, as you can imagine, she was like, ' Oh geeze, you and your geeky friends'.

As I explained to her, the machines are fun and their front play process is interesting (and designed to be that way) but the mechanics are just as interesting to me (being a geek). But for those of us that suffer from this Pachinko Addiction, it's more than just a fun game, for they have this historical intrique, this forgein mistique and a facination with the mix of culture, commerce and engineering. And our desires to learn more about their history and evolution comes from these factors and the more 'bits of knowledge' we gain, the more our thirst for a deeper understanding is fueled.

Of course, her eyes glazed over about halfway through my dissertation and she sighed and went back to flipping the lever. Some I think will never care for the machines in any fashion, some will just enjoy playing them (my wife for example), but some of us will always be deeply fascinated (and addicted) to these mechanical marvels.

Welcome to the Dark Side!

[sharmoni]

The transformer on mine was missing, so I found a replacement at the same online electronics store where I found the solenoid. It only powers the solenoids—the lights I run off a 9v battery, the same as with most of my vintage machines.