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Well done Martin, look forward to seeing the pics soon.

Motor in place:

I'm now on the lookout for some old 10ps at the local boot sales so I can use the fitted Simplex coin chute.
I've just called an electrician to see if they can get me some old braided flex to replace the rubber coated someone fitted, plus replace the motor flex.
Its great to have it working - I've called a local sign-writer I've used in the past who is going to repaint the rear dock picture. You can see the original outline and I have a picture from James Roller.
I know it's not the original motor but at the moment it's all that I have, and it works.

Fantesticles!!!

Hi
There are some old Ten Pence's on ebay at the moment in the other coin operated section. Also I think you can get the material covered cable from B&Q.

10p for a polystyrene prize !! you should be quids in Martin.

I've got a bundle of old 2 shillings (Florin wasn't it?) somewhere in my collection of old coinage. Will have a look and see what I've got. Malc.

churchfayreuk wrote:I've just called an electrician to see if they can get me some old braided flex to replace the rubber coated someone fitted, plus replace the motor flex.

Bryans fan recently put me onto ebay sellers, savoyradio and lampsandlights, who stock a good range of cloth-covered cables and braided lighting flex.

Before I spend countless hours at the computer - does anybody have a copy of this original 1933 Novelty Merchanman background art? I managed to get some ok partial photos like this one from inside a friends machine years ago but these are quite faded too and it will be a decent job to restore. Mine has almost faded away to nothing, luckily the hidden areas behind the ship still show the original colours. Jim Roller sells a copy but that was all hand painted by someone and not close enough to interest me. Cheers.

It was my impression that these were hand painted on tin originally and are therefore all a bit different.


Anyway, I bought an old (unrestored) Merchantman a few years ago which had just that in the back of it. I scanned it (and filled in the bits which were cut out around the grab position indicator etc.), thinking that someone might find it useful, but never got around to uploading it. You're the second person to ask this year, so... here it is.
Hope it suits.

Thanks PM. The originals are litho on card and very few have survived at all and of those few I've seen all were badly faded. So I guess that explains why you've found so many hand painted on tin. Maybe if this was a tiny British manufacturer, then hand painting may have been the go. But this model was produced in the thousands and very popular.

Of the 6 photos you attached PM: #1 is based on the original poster, though appears to be hand recoloured and altered partly. #2 & #3 are the repro version sold by Jim Roller. #4 is the only untouched original, but badly faded, as can be seen by the hidden sections of my relic poster below.

If you do find one, or recreate one from the original lithograph, no doubt you'll upload it to Resources.

I'm well into restoring my early model Merchantman crane and been doing some research to fill in a few blanks. Just stumbled onto this design patent for an awesome background casting dating 1935 that sadly I've never seen surviving. Has anybody else seen it though?? Carl R Simpkins is also cited as the inventor on the Patent of the Novelty Merchantman Crane.

I have a query about whatever is missing from my Exhibit Supply crane prize delivery chute inner workings, as seen through the rhd door. I guess it was either a tilt mechanism or a more complicated way of closing the upper anti theft flap that stops kids sticking their hands into the machine. This is how I obtained the machine, with just a spring to pull the anti theft flap up (shut) when you open the chute on the front of the machine. There are several pins at the top as shown along with a bracket , but no holes to keep something in place, and no marks from grub screws? None of the many various patents show or explain this detail. Thank you.

Before I sit down and make the thing, does anybody happen to have the original flapping US flag that flies on the top mast of the Novelty Merchantman crane by Exhibit? As shown here in an early advert. There is a small hole in the top of the mast to accommodate it. I think I've seen maybe one in person or a photograph years ago. A scan or photo would be ace if you have it, thanks. I think it's more than just decorative as I've noticed newer players have trouble figuring out which way the boom is facing. As can be seen in the photo below it appears to be flying behind the boom, so makes a great visual clue to judge the position.

You would have to be a bit of a buffoon not to see which way the boom is facing, surely?
It's right in front of you, and you can look at it from both sides, too.
What I always noticed was that some folk didn't grasp the FRONT/REAR arrangement. To be fair, a good few of these had lost the pointer, and in one case, the quadrant and instruction panel as well.
By the time I got round to playing these, they had already had a hard life.

brigham wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2019 6:10 pm You would have to be a bit of a buffoon not to see which way the boom is facing, surely?

Obviously they can see the general direction but all have tried to win certain prizes and they are always well off. None of them have ever experienced an old crane though as they are very rare in Australia. But having said that I've played it hundreds of times while adjusting and testing and it still isn't that easy for me to judge either! My bifocals don't help anything because I've found depending what direction I look I often I see slight bows to things that are completely flat!

By "hole in the top of the mast", do you mean through the side of the mast or vertically down it? I couldn't thread a pin down mine, so if there's a hole, it must be very narrow. Maybe this was only a feature on some early models? I wasn't aware of it until you pointed it out and haven't found a single example amongst many photos.

I'm guessing it's the American flag, maybe like the lapel flag pins advertised on Amazon:

PM, my machine has the copyright date of 1933 on the instruction plate, which is an earlier one as it says "bucket" not claw. Which is earlier than the machine shown in the advert above which clearly shows the three finger claw and states so. I have the patent for the three finger claw and it dates April 1934. The flag hole is vertically down the mast and measures 5/64".

My machine came with a busted three finger claw. But I spotted this two jaw bucket years later by accident and purchased it as I knew that's how it came originally.

As for the flag, it shows one ripple in the middle, and dating from the early 1930s should be 48 stars. I was thinking about it last night, and I have two ways to go. Either to make up the matching flapping design and print on flat, or to print out a flat flag and glue or water decal it to thin tin and ripple that.