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Thread: Hello from Surrey, UK

  1. #1
    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Cool Hello from Surrey, UK

    Hey guys,

    Joined the other day and thought I'd say hi!

    I'm Japanese but have been living in the UK most of my life. I used to fly back each summer to visit and my brother (living in Japan at the time), who then introduced me to pachislos. The first game I played was Yoshimune, which I absolutely loved. Basically every trip back to Japan ever since has involved a lot of heavy pachislo sessions! I pretty much spent the entire day in there Fun, but coming out the parlour afterwards absolutely stinking of cigarettes wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm a smoker anyway, but the smell when you come out was on a whole different level!

    I haven't been back to Japan for over 10 years now and do miss pachislos. The thought of owning one didn't even cross my mind, until I saw an eBay listing recently for one in the UK. I missed out on that listing, but have been looking to buy one since.

    A couple of questions if anyone can help:


    • Other than importing directly from Japan, what other options do we have in the UK?
    • What sort of price range is considered reasonable?


    From the limited research I've done, it looks like options are somewhat limited. To make the search even harder, I'd be looking to buy something I've played as I have a little soft spot for them in my heart. To list a few of my favourites:


    • Yoshimune
    • Shake 2
    • Don (I think I played the red, i.e. Aka Don)
    • Hihouden


    Any input would be greatly appreciated!

    Hodaka

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  3. #2
    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    I know there is at least 1 shake 2 in the UK as I was bidding on one on ebay a few years ago. But the seller ended the auction early

    Pickings are slim here as no retail importers for years. So anything after 2008 would be personal imports. A lot of common ones are Street fighter and Thunderbirds. My 2 pachislos. Magical Halloween 2 and ToHeart2 I imported myself from Japan using the Fromjapan deputy service. But a word of warning. Anything over 30KG has to go courier like FedEx or DHL. There are some price examples in the Fromjapan thread. But it can be ¥5000 for a machine and then huge shipping costs

    If you have a good friend back in Japan. It would be possible to disassemble a machine and ship in in a few boxes. Remove the door and innards. Unscrew and carefully flat pack the case.

    There is also Dragonfly amusements across the channel.
    Last edited by Drunkenclam; 10-02-2019 at 01:47 PM.
    Ian #UKPachinko

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    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Thanks for your response. Same thing happened to me actually, the seller ended the auction early. To be fair though I saw it posted multiple times, so I gave him a bit of a low ball offer, so it's my own fault..

    Unfortunately I don't have a good friend in Japan, let alone one that would be willing/capable of doing that.

    Thanks for the link - I'll take a look! I've also been busy and found/got in touch with Euroslots. They have Yoshimune, which was in my wishlist. I'm now tempted to switch to Clare's Secret Treasure though, which looks like it's the same series as Hihouden. Thinking it may be fun to get that rather than Yoshimune, which I spent hundreds (?) of hours playing.

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    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    They also sometimes appear on Gumtree
    Ian #UKPachinko

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    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Ah right, I'll keep an eye out. I saw Sinbad's Adventure on Etsy as well - seemed pretty random.

    Is there anywhere good to get tokens from? eBay?

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    Stuey - The RADministrator MrGneiss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    WELCOME!!!

    "Blowing smoke rings at the moon."

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    Scowlin' Jean Hornigold hanabi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK



    Most of my pachislo machines (& Pachinkos) were bought a long time ago, around 2006, when we had importers here in the UK,

    which is why you tend to see the older models on ebay from around this era, most newer ones have usually been privately imported

    Welcome again, always nice to have more UK ,members on board


    Angie ...
    Pachinkos, Pachislos, Coffee, Papercraft Ninja, Pinball

    I ran away with the Steampunk Circus!
    I was hiding in a room in my mind...
    You crush the lily in my soul...



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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Thanks a lot for the warm welcome

    Quote Originally Posted by hanabi View Post


    Most of my pachislo machines (& Pachinkos) were bought a long time ago, around 2006, when we had importers here in the UK,

    which is why you tend to see the older models on ebay from around this era, most newer ones have usually been privately imported
    That's very interesting to know actually. Do you happen to know why the importers all disappeared? Not enough demand?

  11. #10
    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    They all stopped before I started here. But I expect it is down to demand. Some of the newer machines I brougth over and sold, I struggled to get a resonable price for them. Let alone enough to cover the original importing costs.
    Ian #UKPachinko

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    Scowlin' Jean Hornigold hanabi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK



    I think Steve (777Heaven) sold off the last of his machines in 2009, lack of awareness about Pachis in UK, low demand, high prices (UK) compared to USA and also there was some testing regulations, coupled with the amount of time it was taking to source, ship and prep machines made his decision inevitable. Containers usually comprised some premium models but mostly lots \ duplicates of lesser known less popular titles, and there was only a limited number of buyers and no one really wants 5 of 1 title, so i'm guessing he had a lot of stock not moving, or not moving quickly enough to fund new shipments. A lot of hassle for little return.

    the testing regs were in this post here:
    http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/showthread.php?12136-Uk-venders&p=135242&viewfull=1#post135242 not sure if they are relevant today or not.

    777Heaven aka SlotsTV was our biggest UK based vendor that brought in containers full of pachis, the other vendors brought them in as personal imports I believe, I bought mostly from 777heaven and 1 personal importer, sadly both no longer sell pachis here and seem to be no longer in the hobby.

    In an ideal World it would be nice to see new importers here, but I think it will be personal imports or one of the Europe based sellers, not sure if Brexit will effect this . (my pachi buying days are on hold for now, lack of space and funds really, but i have been known to snap up something on ebay or a PT member if it's an extra interesting or rare pachinko though).


    Angie ...
    Pachinkos, Pachislos, Coffee, Papercraft Ninja, Pinball

    I ran away with the Steampunk Circus!
    I was hiding in a room in my mind...
    You crush the lily in my soul...



  13. #12
    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Thanks for the info guys. Such a shame...

    On a different note though, I've decided to go ahead with buying 1-2 machines from Euro Slots. Going to go with a friend this Sunday. Very excited, though we're doing it as a day trip so it's going to be a bit of a mission!

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    Sandwich Shooter pachi_sloter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Companies that had been payed to recycle machines were ‎filling containers and exporting them.
    Then there was a lot of bad press about e-waste dumping of the machines in China.
    Regulations were changed to make sure that the machines got recycled in Japan.
    When the exporters disappeared the importers disappeared.

    There have been different Crea no Hihōden (クレアの秘宝伝) machines in the Hihōden series.
    Daito Giken's site for the 2012 machine gives the character's name as "CREA".
    http://www.daitogiken.com/contents/p...lot/index.html

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  17. #14
    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Talking Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    @Pachislotter - I was aware that these machines get switched out very quickly, but I never thought about what happens to them afterwards. Very interesting, though as I say, it's a shame.

    Anyhow I made the trip to EuroSlots in Belgium on Sunday. Long story short, I left the house at 4:30am and got back home at 1:45am. It was a looooong road trip and we ended up missing the return ferry due to bad weather / traffic. I sped a bit to try and make the ferry, so I really hope I didn't get any speeding tickets. In retrospect it was pretty pointless as a speeding fine would probably cost more than the replacement ferry ticket (plus, they actually didn't charge us in the end for the new ferry...).

    Eric at EuroSlots was very welcoming and answered all the questions we had etc... He had a wide selection (probably around 20) on display to try out on the premises, so we gave the machines a good go. My friend who's never heard of pachislo decided to buy one as well

    On the whole, the machines are in great condition. The Clare's Hidden Treasure I bought had a minor issue, which is that the side panels (that slide out) are dirty. I definitely want to sort, but Eric said it should be easy to clean so I'll have a go at that once I find more information about the procedure. Not sure if it's discolouration of the plastic itself though... we'll see. Eric said the machines come with a 1 year warranty anyway so give him a shout if any issues.


    Murky/cloudy right hand side




    Vertical line on left hand side




    Yoshimune on the other hand is perfect and I couldn't be happier.

    All machines had power supply conversions carried out - all you need is a plug converter as the cable has an EU plug. Lastly, the machines came with volume controls already installed, which is great. I believe this is the case with all their machines, but please confirm with Eric yourself if you decide to buy from him.

    The exterior of the machine is in great condition, other than some very light damage to the wooden sides/top/back. This is to be expected though, so no issues at all there.

    All in all a great shopping experience at EuroSlots, and absolutely over the moon with the 2 machines. My wife and baby boy seems to like them as well, which is great. Happy wife happy life!

    Just need to sort stands for them now...


    Attached Images Attached Images

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  19. #15
    I was thrown out of Top Gear Drunkenclam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Congratulations.

    I found that giving tokens to a baby to feed the machine helps, hand to eye coordination. Or at least that's what I told the wife.
    Ian #UKPachinko

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    Stuey - The RADministrator MrGneiss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Sweet!!

    "Blowing smoke rings at the moon."

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    Scowlin' Jean Hornigold hanabi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK



    congrats on your new pachis!!

    Sounds like you had a very productive road trip!

    Angie ...
    Pachinkos, Pachislos, Coffee, Papercraft Ninja, Pinball

    I ran away with the Steampunk Circus!
    I was hiding in a room in my mind...
    You crush the lily in my soul...



  23. #18
    Tokie Owens Hodaka's Avatar
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    Default Re: Hello from Surrey, UK

    Thanks guys I've been having a good go on them already, definitely worth the trip!

    Quote Originally Posted by Drunkenclam View Post
    I found that giving tokens to a baby to feed the machine helps, hand to eye coordination. Or at least that's what I told the wife.
    Haha, I agree with your logic! He's already giving it a good bash:


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