My newest acquisition.... What do I have here

[SibSr]

I usually don't worry to much about identifying the year, model, etc of my machines, but when this one arrived from Arizona I immediately started noticing all the differences from all 30+ other vintages that I have.
This is my "Lucky Mouth" machine, with the nickname derived from the label on the center attraction

Maruhonfront.jpg luckymouth.jpg

First thing that was obvious is that there is no lock cylinder.


Then as I turned it around, I noticed there were 12 wood screws all around the machine holding the front to the frame..and no hinges

Maruhonside.jpg

Then, on the back

Maruhonback.jpg

No hinges, no metal corner braces, no front door release linkages, no metal re-enforcement in key areas to prevent ball damage like my other similar Maruhon, and no signs of there ever being any of those things, no screw holes, etc.

Maruhonback3.jpg


no lights, no low ball warning system of any kind,

Maruhonback2.jpg


J bolts to hold the front in place while the screws on the sides were put in I guess?

Maruhonback1.jpg


The ball launcher in the front is very simplistic and only operates properly if you adopt a slow steady shooting style, going fast just causes a lot of double feeds to shoot.
So this machine does not look like it was created to be put into a parlor environment.
My question is what environment was it created for?

[Ahab]

Thank you for the wonderful photos!


Ahab out . . .

[Moparformances]

looks normal to me.. some of the smaller companies made them that way.. a lot of early machines were tip ut like that.. tip the top out instead of swing out..

neat looking machine.. love the front trays..

is my understanding laws changed from time to time on how many balls a player could shoot in a minutes time.. so some machines are just slower in the ball load cycle to keep with current laws in the day

[sparky kilowatt]

I just purchased a Maruhon today as well, I'm going to post some pics in a bit and I'm following along on yours to learn more.