Vintage Heiwa

[maf6378]

Hi All - I'm new to the forum and to pachinko machines in general. Yesterday at a local auction, I bought a vintage Heiwa. I've been browsing the forum for a while today and I am totally overwhelmed by all of the information. Since I've never owned or even played a pachinko machine, I don't know where to start. What can you tell me about this machine? Does it look complete? It only came with a dozen balls so I can't test it out yet.

Thanks.

Melissa - who's looking forward to learning about about pachinko!

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[Moparformances]

well with an avatar like that i have to help... hubba hubba

(Closet Bully Lover) well the closet is open


anywhoooooo

nice looking early single shot machine... looks to be complete... ya might have a problem geting it to work with so few balls... my first advice would be to locate some more sphears...

Welcome to Pachitalk

[owennewton]

good looking single shot pachi! It looks like it is all there so find yourself some balls



Welcome!

[Bouye]

Machine looks complete and super clean. Someone showed this machine some love in the past. WELCOME

[MrGneiss]

WELCOME!!!

[hanabi]

That's a nice looking vintage pachinko, congratulations

yes there is a lot of information here on the Site, however if you have any questions or are unsure of anything, then please just post and ask, the members are not just knowledgeable but they are friendly too and will encourage and assist you in any way they can

Welcome to PachiTalk!!

[OneBigTuna]

Cool machine! Welcome to the sport/hobby/addiction

I like to see that the east coast is getting some more representation.

[wrkey]

Looks really nice... a few things I noticed on the front. 1) the top 'tulip' appears to be out of adjustment as one wing is open and one is closed. I suggest you look at this thread: http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/show...083&pagenumber=

2) the small flap door on the bottom drain hole appears to be off kilter. You might want to make sure it's back in place before you run balls through it. I could possibly fall off and then drop back into the mechanics in the back possibling causing your headaches.

I think this style of A Model as there it no stopper on the top track. Thus, if you flip it hard enough the ball will circle 360 before dropping into the play field. Realy cool to watch. Neat machine, Congrats on the purchase!

[ACMech]

Nice machine With a few minor things, looks to be in really good shape. Now you will just need to get it some brothers and sisters... they get lonely if they're all alone...

[maf6378]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I can already tell this is going to be addicting! I go to a lot of auctions/estate sales and I'm a regular Craigslist shopper but this is the first pachinko machine I've ever come across around here but I'm sure I'll be on the hunt for more.

wrkey - I read the thread about sticking tulips and then went to check mine. Since I couldn't access it from the back, I pulled the nails that hold the petals so I could see if there was a ball stuck. The bottom tulip is exactly like you described in your post but the top one is totally different. The top one does not have a ramp. It has a wheel that runs horizontally below the petals. The wheel is cupped on opposite sides. On each end of the wheel, there is a shaped raised area, also on opposite sides. The ball drops into the cupped area and rotates the wheel causing the ball to escape out the back. With the raised areas on the ends being on opposite sides, as the wheel rotates, one petal opens and one petal closes. I'm probably not describing this very well so I took a picture of the wheel before I put the petals back on.

I'm not sure what flap door you're talking about. There aren't any flap doors that I can find. I went back and looked at the pictures to see if I could see what you were seeing. Are you talking about the orange area behind the hole just below the bottom tulip? If so, that is actually the orange plastic cover on the back of the machine.

Moparformances - My bully Otis said he's glad you finally came out of the closet.

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[maf6378]

Can anyone give me an approximate date for this machine? I checked the expiration sticker with a magnifying glass and it is all in Japanese. The only numbers on the sticker are 542. These numbers are not printed but are created with a series of small holes punched in the sticker. From looking though photos here and on a couple of other sites, I'm guessing 1950s. Does that sound about right?

[OneBigTuna]

As for the date goes, I'm not sure, but the rule of thumb that I think gets close is to add the year 1925 to the numbers that are between 40 and 60, so a 40 would be 1965 and 60 would be about 85, but the vintages really stopped about the 80's or so. Too much long hair getting caught in the mechs I guess Or maybe they had to install the lights and loud sounds to compete with the new rock and roll music?

I just looked on my single shot and the tulip stickers have a bold 42 and then a small 6. I was using that as a close enough date of 1966~67. There is a long running question/debate on the forum of how accurate the stickers are for dating so until we know the real answer I will stick to approximate date. Also on my machine there is another set of stickers that is all in Japanese, but punched in it is the outline of 4407, similar to yours I bet. If that is any indication of the date, then it looks to be more of a 1968~69.

One of the ongoing theories is that that dating a machine using the expiration stickers will get you in the ballpark, but if the sticker is representative of the date of manufacture then it's a better bet of course. It appears that machines either have no sticker(worn, peeled, stolen etc), one sticker, or two stickers. With the two stickers it's kinda obvious that one came before the other because a machine can't expire that hasn't been invented yet, unless we live in a parallel world or something

On one of the machines I just picked up recently, I noticed that there were two stickers overlapping each other, much similar to the license plate stickers that renew every year after your inspection (not every state). In NC, I know the scales used at the grocery store deli counter, and gas pumps alike have to be certified every 6~12 months by the government so there not foolery/under dispensing etc. and the new stickers are placed over the old one, so I'm assuming Pachi's are similar in the same way.

Bored yet?

My other theory is that the numbers punched in the sticker rather than the ones printed, were for distinguishing machines between parlors. Like a store number or license number, and had nothing to do with a date at all. That was just a theory I had because the numbers on my machine were so similar. With the "gambling inspectors" or "Pachi-Police" (as the south would probably call them), they saw thousands of machines each year, and had to check each one. The stickers, if unique to each parlor, would making tracking what had and had not been checked a little easier.

Please note that the above information could be completely inaccurate, but contains some theories that are accepted from other members here. As for the other theories I may be the only one.
I will let the reader of this post decide which is which

--Thank you

[Moparformances]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I can already tell this is going to be addicting! I go to a lot of auctions/estate sales and I'm a regular Craigslist shopper but this is the first pachinko machine I've ever come across around here but I'm sure I'll be on the hunt for more.

welcome to the addiction... sounds like your coming down with "The Fever"

wrkey - I read the thread about sticking tulips and then went to check mine. Since I couldn't access it from the back, I pulled the nails that hold the petals so I could see if there was a ball stuck. The bottom tulip is exactly like you described in your post but the top one is totally different. The top one does not have a ramp. It has a wheel that runs horizontally below the petals. The wheel is cupped on opposite sides. On each end of the wheel, there is a shaped raised area, also on opposite sides. The ball drops into the cupped area and rotates the wheel causing the ball to escape out the back. With the raised areas on the ends being on opposite sides, as the wheel rotates, one petal opens and one petal closes. I'm probably not describing this very well so I took a picture of the wheel before I put the petals back on.

excelant discription... i understand compleatly and must say that is the first tulip like that i have seen... totaly cool... any chanch of geting a video of that???

I'm not sure what flap door you're talking about. There aren't any flap doors that I can find. I went back and looked at the pictures to see if I could see what you were seeing. Are you talking about the orange area behind the hole just below the bottom tulip? If so, that is actually the orange plastic cover on the back of the machine.

some machines had a little flap that covered the lose hole at the bottom of the cell... the angle and light on yours looked like it was there but nearly falling off...

Moparformances - My bully Otis said he's glad you finally came out of the closet.

Give Otis a snack (but as for my being in or out of the closet ya almost got your first )

[wrkey]

I would like a better view of the tulip in question. It would be REALLY unique to have one side close and one side stay open. Neat concept .. but I wonder about the actuality of it. On some that I've seen were plastic devices were used they served on of two purposes, directing the balls in different directions or allowing for two balls to fall before closing the tulip. I have a Tulip that uses plastic devices and when I got it it was broken. I did some repair on it and actually put a fairly long thread on here covering the repair. I'm wondering if your's is similiar to mine. I'll find the thread post it.

Keep in the mind we are ALWAYS finding new devices, pockets, mechanics, etc., so I am certainly not doubting what you say and would be happy to know of yet another inventive device we have not seen yet! Looking forward to hearing more about your machine!

Here's the thread I mentioned: http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/show...074&pagenumber=

[yose]

Welcome to pachitalk.Nice looking machine.Iam sure you will find all the answers to all of your questions at pachitalk

[maf6378]

OK, my description wasn't totally accurate. There are actually 3 different petal positions...both petals closed, right closed & left open, right open & left closed. I pulled the nails and took out the entire tulip so I could get a better look at the wheel. It's divided into 3 sections. One section is raised on both ends causing both petals to close. One section is raised on the right side causing the right petal to close and the left petal to open. The third section is raised on the left side causing the right petal to open and the left petal to close. Once the ball drops in the tulip and rotates the wheel, it escapes to the left.

I tried to get some better pictures but my camera battery died. As soon as the battery charges up, I'll get some pictures of the wheel before I put it all back together and a video after I put the tulip back in.

Give Otis a snack (but as for my being in or out of the closet ya almost got your first )

Hey, you're the one that said the closet door was open.

[maf6378]

Here is the video and more pictures showing the wheel in each of the 3 position and the back of the tulip.

tulip back.jpgR & L Closed.jpgR Open L Closed.jpgR Closed L Open.jpg

[MrGneiss]

Wow, that is one cool tulip!!

[Moparformances]

thank you for the vid

[wrkey]

Yes.. that is absolutely cool. Haven't seen that before! Can't see the video here at the office but I will certainly look when I get home!

Thanks for showing it!

Rusty