New to the Pachinka world. Can you help me identify my new machine

[Philosopher]

Hello All. This is my first post.

Can anyone help me identify what I have, and where to find replacement parts?

I stumbled across this GINZA Pachinko machine at a thrift store last week and instantly fell in love. I of course had NO IDEA what it was, if it worked, or anything at all. It just spoke to me, and I have an affinity for delightful vintage mechanical things.
After maybe 10 hours of internet reading, I leaned this is called a pachinko machine (YAY!), and that this particular one appears to have some sort of "B- style" action in the back. Because it has a tulip it appears to be post-1960, and because it is a single shot it appears to be pre-1970. I might be totally wrong, but I am actually pretty proud of my getting that far.

I learned these use 11mm or 7/16" steel balls and ordered a 50 pack form Amazon. When they arrived, I realized I had spent an hour just plinking balls through it. Pretty cool stuff.
My machine is also clearly broken. It appears a part of the mechanism that delivers the reward is smashed out, along with the back's upper ball tray... I would really like to see if there is some way to purchase repair parts. I am pretty mechanical, restoring vintage race motorcycles, and a bit of amature watch repair.. I think I have the mechanism/action mostly figured out, and probably could fix it if I had access to the missing bits. Either way this thing is utterly delightful, and I am so happy to have found a treasure!

Thank you for your input!


Aside from the obvious multiple GINZA markings, I can't find any other identifiers. On the bottom right there is a red window immediately above the hole to insert balls. This red piece reads, "KOKUSAI."




A detail of the front, centerpiece



The back has a Japanese symbol in the yellow/orange plastic that I did not manage to capture in this photo.



Detail of the damaged back.

[Moparformances]

first off

Welcome to Pachitalk

now the bad news

you would be better to put that poor machine to the side and look for another.. the broken parts for that brand and ear of machine is going to be damn hard to find..

hate to be the guy with bad news but your time and effor can be better spent on another first machine.. if you truly love it keep it and learn pachinko with another machine then come back to it..

best of luck

[Philosopher]

Thank you for the quick reply. After searching the web for more hours I have seen the mechanical parts appear to be basically identical to the "Besta" machines. As in many of them are more or less 100% the same from what I can see in pics. Are those also uncommon?
Is this a machine a GINZA? Or a Kokusai? I am interested in identifying it, and trying to get an approximate age...

[takethecastle57]

Good News the Front looks restoreable and it is called a "Single Shot" machine ie one ball load and at the lower right Flipper it into the playfield .


Now the back of the machine . If you can get the parts to repair and restore go for it cause as you wrote " It Spoke to you " .

I have had over 200 machines "Speak to me" and I fell for their Beauty and since 1977 I have been collecting and restoring them .


as for the exact year of manufacture I personally don't bother cause I just love the design and form.

The Joy for me is to bring the machine back to full function and enjoy it and , maybe in the future someone else falls for my machine so that person , with of course a little negotiation can get the machine from me to enjoy and share with their friends .

Again Welcome to the Addiction !! ( they do have a tendency to mutiply ).

[Spyder138]

You have a Ginza single shot machine that looks to be from the mid to late 60's. Finding a rear ball hopper that will work wouldn't be too hard, but that smashed up jackpot mechanism is going to be a problem. I have a machine around here somewhere that has that same "diver" center feature, but you will likely have to search a long time to find one to replace it with. You may be able to retro fit another center feature from the same era into the machine, but it looks like you definitely have your work cut out for you.

[MrGneiss]

WELCOME!!!

[Philosopher]

Thank you for all the good information guys!

Does anyone know what the red Kokusai indicator is over the 'insert the ball hole'?

I am often particularily good at servicing "non-serviceable" parts... what is the liklihood of me finding a similar Jackpot Mechanism and trying to make it work? Can anyone recommend a good place to start looking?

[Moparformances]

Does anyone know what the red Kokusai indicator is over the 'insert the ball hole'?

any chance it is lit? or may have been lit?

I am often particularily good at servicing "non-serviceable" parts... what is the liklihood of me finding a similar Jackpot Mechanism and trying to make it work? Can anyone recommend a good place to start looking?

long odds

i consider myself a perty hard core pachinko guy.. specializing in vintage machines... with that being said i don't think i have ever seen in person or a picture of a machine exactly like that back mech has.. a few years searching every week u might find one in a year or two.. or ya might find it tomorrow.. single shoots seem to be falling from the sky this last month or so..

your going to be better off trying to cobble something in it..

tuck it away and see what happens..

[Spyder138]

Does anyone know what the red Kokusai indicator is over the 'insert the ball hole'?

I believe Kokusai would translate as International. 国際 pronounced as こくさい　(ko ku sa i)