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Hello,

I was moving house on the weekend and found this one arm bandit machine in a lady's carport. I asked her about it and she gave it to us for free.
I've always wanted one as a talking piece to put in my studio and now I have one. I think it needs some tlc but it can go in line with the vintage fridges and 68 mini I also have to restore. ha.

Can anyone tell me a make or model or brand or age? I'm In Australia so it may be a long shot but I couldn't really find an Aussie forum for these, only pinball and amusement machines...

Any help would be very much appreciated. It looks like it's all there but I need a fuse to get it to fire up and I need pennies of which I have none.


Toby

Welcome to the forum, and yes you did pick the right place - this is the best and most active slot forum on the net, by far, and we have lots of members in Aus.
Don't know this particular model but it looks like an Aristocrat machine made by the Ainsworth Dental Instruments Co. in NSW (late '60s, early '70s my guess - the Aristo boys will know the exact date). They went on to become one of the world's biggest slot machine makers. We have several Aristo experts (some in Aus) who will be along soon to correct my answers and give you all the dates and info. Well worth restoring and easy to do as Aristos are pretty much indestructible. I don't know if you realise but this is NOT an electric machine; it operates purely mechanically. The power is just for the lights and possibly the jackpot payout indicator. It looks to have run on shillings so would run on old 5p coins - lots available at little cost. You can test the machine without coins by the way.
It will look great restored with the lights working. Can we see photos of the inside, especially the mech? This will simply slide out of the case once the thumb screw is released.

I'm no bandit buff, still less an Australian pokies expert, but my instinct is that, despite some similarities, it isn't by Ainsworth Industries. Quite a few small Australian companies had a bash at making bandits from the late 1950s. Yours appears to be from the same stable as the Sapphire (shown here). I've seen one other example, but I assume 'Sapphire' was the name of the machine and not the manufacturer, so unfortunately this doesn't get us much further.

Mr. Gameswat? We're calling you, Sir.

Help required.

J Peterson
Transpacific Co-ordinator

No idea what this is. Pity Andy Pollitt moved on as he'd probably know something? Though the 1/ is for Shilling play which is the same as our current 10 cents.

Has Andy left the hobby?

I wonder if this is from the Coronet camp, there are some of the unusual design features in these.

Cheers for the replies guys.

I'll get a few snaps tonight of the inside. It all seems to be there and there is a serial stamped on the inside of the slide in mechanism. I'm glad she will run on the 10c piece. When I pull the arm I can see a black (almost) propeller spin and a few cogs moving, but the handle won't pull down far enough to turn the wheels around.

I called an amusement hire place here and they wouldn't talk to me and told me my machine was illegal to own... Weird, as the currency it takes is obsolete. Still, it makes me like it a touch more.

Even if it's a knock off machine, are parts readily available still or no parts at all?

Toby

pennymachines wrote:Yours appears to be from the same stable as the Sapphire (shown here).

This machine is very similar. I've been searching online for a day or so now and haven't come across anything this close. lol This is just what I need - another hobby/collection.

ybot wrote:I called an amusement hire place here and they wouldn't talk to me and told me my machine was illegal to own... Weird, as the currency it takes is obsolete.

Even though theoretically all gambling machines are illegal for private ownership in Oz, the Aussie law doesn't seem to bother or care about machines running on obsolete coinage. But since the Shilling and 10 cent piece are the same, you do actually have an illegal machine. So don't go advertising it in Gumtree or the paper!

G'day all. Hope everyone's well, been preoccupied with work and middle-aged "mens' problems' plus trying to complete the manuscript for my book.
The picture tells the supplier under the reels but it's too blurred to read. Reckon Dave's right though and probably a Sapphire. They were an off-shoot of Apex Amusements in Sydney so early-mid Fifties and probably a Mills gooseneck mech. MLB - stampings ybot? I'm in Melb so feel free to PM me any time. Gameswat's right too, be careful with the local laws.
Anyone for some 'fire sale' bandits?
Cheerio,
And. x

Hey - welcome back Andy.
While you're on, have you got anything on this Ace-Hi bandit, like the original whereabouts of Ace-Hi Amusement Co. Pty Ltd.?

As for parts they should be no problem, let us see the mech and we can say for sure, if it is a Mills mech in there then usually no problem at all.

Here are a few snaps of the internals of this guy. Had a bit of a squizz last night and there seems to be some snapped springs and stuff. I cannot believe how cool this thing is inside, like a robot. When I was a kid I would have loved to see inside one of these. Guess nothing has changed. Reminds me of cars in the sense that now they are all plastic and electrics and back when they made nice cars they were mechanical and metal. I swear I was born 20 years too late.

Hi again,
The mech in ybot's pics looks very Nutt & Muddle/Jubilee(ish) to me and it wouldn't surprise me if Sapphire (Apex Amusements - Ray Smith) simply re-cased Jub mechs in their own cabinets. Tooling up to produce mechs was a rare event indeed.
As for mr pennymachines' Ace-Hi well, Ace-Hi (Vic Walker Mfg. Co, Australia) produced both three and four reelers in 1959 so a little later than I thought.
Info sourced from Mead's Blue Book,
T'ra,
Andy.

Thanks for that. Is there any sort of mechnical guide to these or anything like that? Parts guide or service manual? It's not working and I can see where the parts lock like they may be missing or broken but really know nothing yet. Or would that book have some info?

So I have worked out why this machine will not cycle over. If you're looking from the back of the mech on the left hand side there is a right angle bracket that pushes 6 or so arms that seem to release the wheels so that they spin. This bracket has a large crack running through it and is sitting at an angle as to not press the arms and let the wheels spin.

Have any folks on here got spares for the Jubilee mechs at all? I also need the large spring on the back of the mech that can be seen just hanging down.

I'm sure you guys have a hoard of parts. Easier than welding and bending...

This is the broken part.

Picked this one up today from a nice couple originally from Aus. It was brought into the country many years ago, and been in the family for almost 40 years. This one is a 4 reeler and has an incredible 2 shilling play. As per the glass front it is a Sapphire Star Deluxe.
Not had much of a chance to do a lot yet and will need a good clean up and the electrics sorting. There are triggers on some wins for the Jackpot light, but is a manual machine. The overall size is actually quite small, smaller than a Aristocrat Clubmaster.

I have hunted everywhere and no maker's stamps anywhere, just serial numbers. Does not look like Jubilee in origin, closer to a Mills, but it not a Mills. I believe this has been made by the manufacturer. The reels are very unusual, they are solid tin. On the machine at the beginning of the thread I noticed the reels were covered in foam. The of the inside of this machine is caked in crumbling foam for insulation, like Clubmasters had.

Anyway probably one of the only one's in the UK hopefully can bring this one fully operational soon....

You sure do find the unusual when it comes to bandits TF.
The overflow square profiled down chute and the cast deflector it's attached to has a flavour of Aristocrat but that's about it really.
From what I can see anyway.

BP

badpenny wrote:You sure do find the unusual when it comes to bandits TF.
The overflow square profiled down chute and the cast deflector it's attached to has a flavour of Aristocrat but that's about it really.
From what I can see anyway.

BP

You're right, some parts are very similar to Aristocrat. Also I think the clock is from them. Makes sense to buy parts in I guess. The machine was in fact briefly on ebay, I happened to be the only one with a bid on and the seller sold to me. It is growing on me, I like the profile of the machine...