please post your arrangeball manufacturer plates here

[cait001]

Hi everyone, I have a bit of a favour to ask. I am working on a project to help build a history of the Japanese arcade industry and right now I'm trying to gather specific model information on arrangeball / challenge ball machines. (also sparrow ball machines if you have any!)

Can you please post a photo of your arrangeball machines below (decent shot of the front if possible) but most importantly I want to see the manufacturer plate on each machine, if you can find one.

I think I've asked about these before in other threads, but this post by Nicole reminded me to create a thread specifically for it. https://nicole.express/2023/arrange-all-you-want.html

for example:
behold.jpeg

and the manufacturer plate:
serial.jpeg

If your machine has more than one company-related plate on it, please post them all. Sometimes the info is split up.

thank you!

[sparky kilowatt]

Here's mine.

[cait001]

Thank you sparky kilowatt, any chance you have an image of the playfield before your custom restoration?

[sparky kilowatt]

Here's the front of the machine the day I picked it up before any work was done on it.

[emmadog]

click on my profile and go to albums where you'll see the 15 or so arrangeballs i've owned. i don't have any close ups of the manufacturer label. all my machines are in storage so i don't have easy access to take close ups at the moment.

[lotsoballs]

[lotsoballs]

[lotsoballs]

[Tink]

Satomi

[Tink]

Fuji

[Tink]

Taiyo

[Tink]

Satomi

[Tink]

Meiyu. No label

[Tink]

Satomi

[cait001]

Thank you everyone, and please keep them coming. Perhaps poke a friend for photos too if they're not on this site.
The purpose of this is to assist in helping document and track the decade of arrangeballs heyday, and come up with a loose timeline.
One thing to check for are the Type Approval Numbers. You'll see an upside down triangle with a T in it on many of these plates, with a number formatted like 91-#####
Those numbers aren't guaranteed to correlate to release dates, but sometimes inferences can be made, especially when checking numbers from the same manufacturer.
The Satomi maker plates, and some other companies, have a model # and those are invaluable too as they'll help give us a definitive way to reference specific models.
Often times there are models that are just slight variants, and that can help us track them. Often times companies would use the same background on a few machines so we can't rely on art alone.

And of course maker plates let us peak at the businesses involved, since if you take a random arrangeball you'll find all sorts of company branding on the parts (coin acceptor, the front plastic window, the ball trays, etc) but that is sometimes not the maker/seller, they just bought that part from someone else.

[cait001]

I am also confirming dates against advertisements in publications, press releases, and dated photos. If we see a parlor photo from 1974 with a specific model, we know it must have been made by then or earlier.

[cait001]

So people know, that symbol on the manufacturer tag is for Fuji

[cait001]

Is there any manufacturer tag anywhere on this machine, maybe on the back or inside?
It's hard to tease apart stuff with the "Three Star" branding because I think that company went through a few iterations, and are one of the earliest makers for arrangeball. I wonder if a tag would say Three Star or Sansei.

[cait001]

Thanks for all of these. Does that center tag at the bottom say 51? I think it says 51年3月 but it's fuzzy
I know you know what that means, but for anyone new that would mean 1976-03 is the expiry of the license (or at least that's my understanding,) which implies the machine was installed 1975.

[cait001]

Satomi

Thank you. If you get a chance can you please snap clear photos of these tags in the bottom left, and upper right?
Arrange Ball Miracle AM-1D - アレンジボールミ&#1.jpg
Arrange Ball Miracle AM-1D - アレンジボールミ&#1.jpg