Returning Gipsy......?

[gameswat]

Me again - been looking through my garage for allwin parts and saw a couple of projects that have me wondering. First is this Gipsy door without cabinet, though heaven knows if I'll ever get that complicated mech working again! What's got me stumped with this one is the hole in the front. You can see screw holes and the marks of chutes delivering coins into that hole. Was it some kind of random lucky coin return? Or maybe like the Watling Gambler scale with a flip flop door that lets one coin through for every five that don't?? The hole was covered when I found it with a piece of tin. I've never seen another example with the hole. Luckily I had a lovely complete machine to measure my cabinet from and it even had the original decaled marquee. Thanks.

[john t peterson]

Game-Boy,

Looks to me like the lady (and I use that term loosely) has been "getting around a bit." I don't think that case is original. Looks like someone put the mech-board into a different case, one that had a pay-out. You must have thought of that? Is this a trick???

JP

[gameswat]

John John John, do you have such little faith in my abilities?! That hurts......I'm not crying I just have antique oak sawdust in my eyes. Exhibit A) Photo of the original machine I borrowed to measure, with the exact same cabinet. Though if you notice that the top and bottom beam thickness is opposite on these two, which would suggest that whoever assembled my machine turned the door upside down for some good reason. And M'lord, I would suggest that the reason being was because of an added irregular coin return payout to the bottom beam of my machine. Thus achieving a more balanced cabinet design. Exhibit B) My legal team can't find an internal shot at the moment - but if they did you'd see it was also exactly the same, though without any of the holes and marks for a "V" chute to channel coins from the cradles into the payout hole. So, in closing, I'd like to ask that all the slanderous comments about M'ladies shady history be cast aside for all time!

ps: The marquee is close to a Bajazzo but slightly different and the lettering is an applied water decal.

[john t peterson]

There...there...there, Games-Boy. Wipe that sawdust tear from your eye! I was just funnin' ya! And it worked.

Keen eye, as always.

J Peterson
Your American Funster

[gameswat]

And to think that I was going to spend my spare time in the US sitting on your floor assembling machines John. Guess you won't trust me to do that anymore. Oh well, maybe Larry & Roger will be ok with me restoring their machines instead?

[pennymachines]

Never mind, Gameswat - come to England and you can assemble machines on my floor to your heart's content.

My guess is some operator tried to add a touch of gaming to the Gipsy - or maybe free play??? Can't wait to see how this restoration turns out. Quite a challenge to get it looking something like that original beauty.

The marquee is close to a Bajazzo but slightly different and the lettering is an applied water decal.

Do you mean it's a different shape?

[gameswat]

An update.........just bought myself a cheap table router and I said Hot Damn! Making cabinets from scratch is actually great fun now. Have been working on a number of Allwin cases but found this Gipsy door again and got side tracked, as i seem to do every few days...... but has come a long way in the last 24hrs.

[badpenny]

I have to say it, sorry but it's not at all accurate.
In the first photo it's clearly predicting "Misfortune Coming" and you doubted whether you'd ever get it back together again.

Obviously the opposite is true as it's now on the verge of high desirability.

[gameswat]

Glued the cabinet and starting to look like something. Need to shop for some vintage pine panel tomorrow to cover the back. Strangely enough the coin entry I made today was originally attached upside down on my door compared to the lovely machine I copied, shown earlier. And a hint at just a few of the projects i have on the go in my workshop at the moment..............

[jimmy55]

I wish my workshop was so tidy! Nice bit of routing on the new cabinet
I have always admired the skill of recreating 'patina'. Look forward to seeing the finished article.

[arrgee]

Gameswat, you are a rare breed indeed !

[slotalot]

I wish my workshop was so tidy!

I was just thinking the same thing LOL....

[arrgee]

The hat suits you Stuart but your wallpaper leaves a lot to be desired.

[JC]

Huh!...........he's got carpet on the floor
When I get a chance, I'll take a few pics of my workshop - you can't see the floor for swarf, sawdust, crap, etc etc.

[bryans fan]

I wish my HOUSE was as tidy!!!

[gameswat]

Well I believe I've just blown this case wide open and solved the puzzle of the unknown hole in the fortune door! A similar British Wizard Fortune machine currently on US eBay also shows what must be a blanked off area below the wheel. The cover plate appears to match the case but that's because someone has faux wood grained over the whole machine to match it in and restore the finish at some time. You can see lighter oak coming through on the knocks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/251461241586

Unfortunately seller has no interior shots as appears the machine is locked. But got me thinking about mine again......and suddenly dawned on me that a single card vendor mechanism would fit in that hole! Luckly i happen to have several 1890's card vendors laying around the garage so dragged them out to check for spacing. One is slightly thinner than the other and is a perfect fit for the hole! Plus there is an internal cutout above the hole inside the gipsy door which is needed to fit the card hopper. It had to be a shorter hopper than the full size version shown so as not to hit the coin cups that spin the pointer. But there would still be space for 150 or more cards I'm sure. So the "V" shaped marks inside the door below the coin cups make total sense now. After tipping either cup one way or the other the coin was then funneled through the "V" into a chute and down to the back of the card vendor to trip the slide. Makes sense that both these machines had the card option deleted later in life when the operators wanted to save money by not buying more cards, yet could still operate these as functioning fortune tellers.

[gameswat]

The marquee is close to a Bajazzo but slightly different and the lettering is an applied water decal.

Do you mean it's a different shape?[/quote]

Sorry Mr PM missed your query from several years ago. Yes, the marquee shape looks just like a Bajazzo but when i laid two tracings from originals they were decently different. I guess the Gipsy is later than 1912 and someone copied the Bajazzo marquee by eye and got the pattern close but not quite the same.

[gameswat]

This is the original hand painted artwork I found hiding under the Future Wife signwriting, which is painted on to the front of the glass. The card originally said "To secure a (packet of) very amusing COMIC CARD (S)"

I don't remember ever seeing a card vendor giving more than one card, and in a packet!? They must've been thin cards.

[john t peterson]

Sorry, Gameswat but I remain unconvinced that the spinner teller also vended a card. (All this despite your clever drawing as to how to make it work, which is genius, of course.)

Why would a manufacturer propose to tell you your fortune by way of the needle and then also provide a card? Maybe the card was for a prize of some sort? Probably not. If it was another fortune, it would most assuredly contradict the fortune foretold by the needle.

I think the more logical explanation is that the machine was originally a card dispenser. A static picture of some sort was in the circle on the front and you got your fortune card for your penny. The spinner mech was added later for the reason you mentioned: cheaper and no restocking.

J Peterson
Less fortunate in America, but enough.

[gameswat]

JP, you act as though operators are all upstanding perveyors of honesty and truth!? Hahaha, anything goes if they think they'll make a buck. And people LOVE to walk away with a souvenir from any machine. I have a 70's film projected fortune teller and she verbally and visually tells you a decently long fortune and then a fortune card also drops out. I've never bothered to check if the two fortunes "agree" and i can't imagine anybody being unhappy if they didn't!?! The Gipsy wheel fortunes are pretty short and simple anyway so no reason the machine couldn't give out an extra written and or visual card of some kind like many machines did?

If you go back to the start of this thread you'll find more than enough proof that this machine was always the Gipsy she is: the mech is identical (can't find my photos of the other mech) and the door is exactly the same dimensions and style as the other Gipsy I show, except that my door has had the top and bottom beams swapped when it was manufactured - certainly for the reason they added the vendor mech and needed better spacing. IF my door had the same beam placement as the other Gipsy then I'd suggest someone probably added the vendor later to heighten earnings of the machine. But the fact the door was made upside down seems to point to the vendor being there since new.




I was always thrown by why the hole in the door didn't have screw holes around the front (just small nail holes from the tin plate it was blanked with) for some kind of frame or something. But makes sense now as the card slides are just cut into the wood and that's all.