:D New Favorite Pachinko

[Peteybob]

I took delivery of my newest addition yesterday from Akimono, the 2009 Thunderbirds pachinko. Well worth the wait while Frank worked out some changes in the shipping. I received a 95lb heavy duty box via UPS with only a hint of a crease in one side. The machine was solidly packaged in medium sized bubble wrap with no wiggle room in the box. Much better than peanuts as they crush and break down with handling allowing contents to shift easily, in my opinion. A BIG thanks to Frank and his team at Akimono.com for a great delivery!

This is a heavy machine so I separated its main components to move it from my workplace to my second floor apartment. Much easier this way in many ways and I recycled the packing material at work. I got it home, swapped out the 100 volt transformer, and was up and running in short order. Everything ran well and early on I hit a fever round. Nice light show and music throughout the game play.

The only trouble was that the payout system seemed overwhelmed by the large amount balls moving through the system. All was fine with the smaller constant winning amounts. I found that the ball tracks below the payout motor were severely full of gunk. So I spent a good amount of time stripping down the track from the hopper down to the front tray connection for a deep cleaning. It was a good test afterwards having all the fever winnings running through the system. I even got to demonstrate my ball shuffling technique to a neighbor who stopped by.

This is a very enjoyable machine for anyone liking the Thunderbirds!
Thunderbirds b.jpgThunderbirds b.jpg

[luckydog]

craft stores sell something like a wider pipe cleaner, makes getting junk out, like peanut pieces and makes cleaning tracks easy without tearing it apart

[pachiwall]

Probably a silly comment...but I'm a vintage pachinko guy. I'm guessing no nails in the video screen...and expect the "blue bumper" to still be at the far right. So, do the boos shoot all the way to the right, bounce back to the left, run down the far left side, then bounce right towards the start pocket in the center?
Very nice looking machine! With the big display...don't look like a lot of play space left.
Glad it arrived safely!

[Wayne-Ooo]

​............congrats-smiley-emoticon.gif

on your new machine

[Peteybob]

Probably a silly comment...but I'm a vintage pachinko guy. I'm guessing no nails in the video screen...and expect the "blue bumper" to still be at the far right. So, do the boos shoot all the way to the right, bounce back to the left, run down the far left side, then bounce right towards the start pocket in the center?
Very nice looking machine! With the big display...don't look like a lot of play space left.
Glad it arrived safely!

Thanks pachiwall, yes the display does take away from the play field but to me the engaging scenes are the entertaining side of these while the ball shooting is still the challenge. You are correct that there are not any nails in the video area. The bumper is further to the right than my vintage models and doesn’t allow the balls to bounce back to the left side.

You do not want to overshoot the top of the play field on this machine as any balls going down the right side are wasted balls as far as I can tell so far. But I found that with more or less ball height they can be guided to bounce in different patterns towards different areas of the play field. Also balls can enter a chute on the middle left side that feeds just under the video area causing balls to drop elsewhere for possible wins.

For comparison my Ultraman pachinko has a useful right hand play field. In the 2nd picture the right hand ball path leads to another pass through sensor, rush pocket, the fever trap door, and another way to the bonus door at the bottom. So to start off with this one you keep the balls toward the left side aiming for the start pocket and then the action shifts to the right side.

Red markings are the bumper pads. Yellow markings are roughly the ball travel paths. And yes I cannot draw a circle or a straight line
Rt side Tbirds.jpgRt side Ultraman.jpg

[pachiwall]

Nice! I would not expected any balls to go down the right side. Makes sense...better to go down to the drain (for the parlor), than to get stuck at the top of the cell.

[LynnInDenver]

This is a very enjoyable machine for anyone liking the Thunderbirds!

Thank goodness for me that it appears they've sold out of them for now. I'd have to ditch a machine to take it in here.

[Peteybob]

Thank goodness for me that it appears they've sold out of them for now. I'd have to ditch a machine to take it in here.

Hello Lynn, I did have Frank at Akimono.com search for this model for me when he was taking pre-orders back in August. He was able to find it for me and he added to the container load that recently made it to the states. I put another one under wraps for now while this one is up and running