"The Lucky Coin Amusements" original 1960s arcade.

[whizzpopbang]

I have recently bought a 1960s build up arcade made by Knobbs in the 1960s. The black and white picture below shows the amusments at "Burntisland" in Scotland in the 1960/70s. The amusments have been stored unused in a showman's shed in Glasgow for around the past 25 years. The amusments are twice as big as I was looking for, however, as soon as I saw the arcades artwork and learned more about the history, I just had to buy it. The colour pictures below show the first stages of building the arcade for the first time in 25 years.

My plans are to attend vintage rallies with a pre-1971 penny arcade. At this stage I need to find suitable transport and source more vintage slot machines to fill a large space!
I would welcome help or ideas to source reasonably priced slot machines as it would be great to recreate the vintage feel with a build up style arcade!!!!!!!!!
Darren.

[brianward]

Lucky you, where are you based? Might be able to assist.

[badpenny]

Welcome to the site and congratulations on your new purchase. You must keep us up to date on how you get on. That looks like a biggey.
What size vehicle will you be hauling that around with , and how long do you estimate it'll take to put up. Will you be looking for as many long term sites as you can get?

Badpenny

[bryans fan]

Hi Darren,

Looks a fantastic Arcade, well done! For what it's worth, my advice would be to talk to other operators. After collecting machines for 20 years, early on I realised that an operator has a very different view of slot machines to a collector. If you are able to, talk to the people who can give you the answers. A lot of us on this site cherish machines, have them in our homes, and in my case wouldn`t dream of letting the public loose on my treasures!

There are several members who do operate machines both in static arcades and travelling ones. They can recommend the best money takers. Naturally our own Jerry Chattenton, who writes the magazine and co-hosts the annual auction, runs an arcade in Brighton and would I`m sure give you a bit of advice as to what to purchase. Clive Baker and Dave Hooper both spring to mind as people with a wealth of experience.
Do you have any other photos of the Arcade from the 60s you could share with us?

Best of luck.

[monk]

Looks really impressive - will be great to see more photos of the build-up and any more from when last operated.

Did the machines pass into a private collection when laid up or were they scrapped?

Does it build out from a trailer or is it completely errected from scratch? - looks like a fair bit of work to put together - is the former owner on hand to give some tips/do you have instructions or is it more fun to do 'blind'?

Can imagine an ex-army tax-exempt Bedford or the like being a useful tow vehicle, especially getting off grass pitches with a few tons of arcade after rain.

Good luck with it and will look forward to updates with interest,
Paul.

[whizzpopbang]

The attached pictures show the arcade 90% built up as a round hoopla stall style walk-in arcade. We all had great fun today working out how the roof sections go together!!!!! This type of side stall is known as a "dreadnought" side stall /joint. It can a round style walk in arcade or a "lozenge" shape walk in arcade as per the original picture.
I also have the original wooden floor (which is in very good order) and some of the original table tops for the machines to sit on.

To answer a couple of recent questions.
*The size is 25 feet in the round style and 25 x 33 ft in the "dreadnought" style.
*The previous owner only had one machine left (not for sale) from the arcade. Sounds like they were sold many years ago.
*to build up the arcade today with two people took an hour or so, although that was with no floor and no tilt.
*for transporting the arcade and machines currently have no idea!!!!!!!

I have collected slot machines for the past 25 years, although currently only have a very small collection and need to source more machines over the next year or so. It would be great if I could source some good skill type machines.
Whizzpopbang