I remember the Grand Canyon, or at least I remember the big rotating drums between decks (perhaps they featured on other Cromptons pushers of the era?).
The floor-standing pushers with low coin entry and the spinning steel brush that flicked the coin up to the top deck were quite distinctive - I recall seeing one appear for sale in Essex via ebay not all that long ago and was very tempted but a combination of factors saw it rescued by someone else.
At least one design (10p play) featured a jackpot (£1.50) - coins would occasionally get nudged along a central ramp/passageway that, IIRC, split in two at the front of the machine - coins would randomly filter either left or right as the path was slightly wider than the coin and eventually fall into a stack, which when complete would tip the counterbalance and dump into the tray with a satisfying crash.
There was a triple-deck model that I was never particularly keen on - I remember the upper two decks being very shallow and coins did not seem to stack up to the same degree - you would be lucky to get one coin cascade all the way to the lower deck and several toppling from a single play was rare.
I recall the Formica-clad CakeWalk 6-player 3x2 machines which, as a kid in the 80s, seemed old at the time - high full-width wooden coin trays, with tall bright orange and yellow pushers/playfields and a row of steel pins separating one side from the other.
Guessing they may have first appeared in the 70s.
Possibly a bit recent to get much mention here but if anyone has any photos, flyers or recollections of names, dates etc. would love to hear/see - so few seem to have survived that I haven't seen most for years.
Re: Pushers
Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 10:08 am
by slotalot
I see one of our members has the Picadilly Circus pusher for sale on Ebay right now, I wish I had the room for it..