Sankyo Birds Vintage
As I try to curb my addiction I can't help looking every now and then for some unique machine and/or one that could be used for parts or some other excuse to acquire another machine, well I found this Sankyo on a local subdivision's classified section. At first I wasn't really interested as the lady was asking $75 for it. However, she didn't get any other inquires into it and stated that she would have it in a garage sale on Saturday morning. Well... I'm a sucker for garage sales. (Can anyone see where this is going?)
Anyway, I went by and checked out the machine. She told me she was moving and was wanting to sell everything and that the machine actually had belonged to her ex-husband. (cha-ching). Knowing she was asking $75 I looked closer to see if it would be worth at least a reasonable offer. Well, looking at the machine, I explained what I knew about it (Showa 51 date) and started to point out the issues I found with it. 1)there is no glass/plexi over the playfield (she had no idea it needed it), 2)no balls with it, 3)there were several 'chips' in the plastic guides on the front (you can see the play cell photo - upper and lower guides), 4)there was a piece missing on the upper jackpot arm, 5)missing bracket on the shooter mechanism, 5)the winning ball release wire appeared to be broken or not installed correctly, 6)the play cell was yellowed from UV and 7)one of the tulip pockets is broken. While I told her the machine had some visual appeal bu there was really to much wrong and I would only be interested in it for parts. She said.. make an offer... I said $15... she said sold.
Damn. Now I have another machine in my man cave.
Anyway, I finally got a chance to look at it last night and the more I looked, the more I think I can fix and make a working machine out of it. It is actually pretty clean and although the cell is yellowed, it may turn out OK. If you look at the photo of the upper jackpot arm, you can see the bracket that is missing. Since this bracket is only there to prevent a payout should a large number of jackpots be pending when it runs out of balls, it really doesn't affect game play. I can certainly make the machine playable with out this piece. However, I should be able to fashion a replacement from some stiff wire I have... we'll see.
Looking at the lower shooter area close up, you can see where the wire is missing from the shooter arm that manipulates the ball release that would 'load' a ball' into the shot rail. Again I think I can fashion one pretty easily. In this photo you can also see where the winning ball release wire is in the wrong place. Once I took some of the components off, all I had to do was loosen the screw holding the wire (arrow with square) and swivel the wire upwards where it 'pokes' through a guide slot in the main cover. This wire is shoved downwards by the falling jackpot balls across a flat landing pad lever.
So fixing the rear mechanics appears to be easy... but the repair of the tulip pocket will be the tricky one. The pocket that is broke is the one just under the jackpot mechanism. This tulip will always drop the ball down into the tulip pocket below it. What makes this one difficult to repair is that it uses several plastic components to open and close the wings and the main sliding component is broken and can't be repaired. So... barring someone having one of these just sitting around, I will be making a part. When I do this, I will be posting photos in a seperate thread.
So I had almost convinced myself this machine could be repaired but still debating parting it out so I thought I would see how the game play went. Well.. it's pretty cool!
You will see in the Jackpot photos there are two photos... one has three little birds and one has 3 eggs. When the eggs are shown and a ball enters the center area the two tulips on the side and the two tulips in the middle are opened. However, when the birds are shown only the two middle tulips are opened. When a ball enters the very top pocket it will alternate between these same two options, your just not given a hint as to which one.
So now I'm thinking... well.. this is just two cool to part out! So the adventure begins!
Oh.. and for those of you who are wondering about what the wife is thinking... well.. the divorce will be final on the 31st of this month. Sad and not what I wanted... but certainly not caused by the pachinko addiction. What this does mean is I will now have a large room (her office) that I can convert into a game room... and fit more arcade stuff... oh geeze... it's hopeless now.
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