Are these bandits any good?

[badpenny]

Most of us on here get the shivers over machines we remember playing as kids.
Hence the interest in machines from after the war. If it was built in the late 40s then by the time it got chucked out of the big arcades and gaming houses and found its way into back street seaside resorts and the end of the pier it was being played by sticky fingered kids in the late 50s and mid 60s.

Of course a lot of machines from the 30s were modernised and given new lives by having had the mechanisms rehoused in modern looking cases. Many an old cast mechanism from the years of American prohibition ended up in Europe encased in cast aluminium and Formica.
There are a lot of machines around where the fiddlers have taken the mechs back out of the modern case and used thinly cast repros of the original facings and new oak sides to make it look like an original. Mills Poinsettias in particular seems to suffer this fate.

I've been offered a couple or three over the years, they are tempting but just aren't quite right ..... in my eyes.

The Mills Hi-top is often quoted as being the machine they made the most of, however if a design works and is popular why change it? I like them.

BP

[your-such-a-slot]

Moonriver don't ever talk to me again, your just a waist of space and a disgrace to this site

[sarg]

I love the Mills horse head and I'm after one, but I got messed around from a guy in the States over one and nearly got burnt. So I will just keep looking out for one over here - you never know your luck.

[treefrog]

Wouldn’t mind a Hi Top Bonus,

I agree Hi Tops are a classic and a few a few variants I have would be in my top 10 machines. They have in my opinion the classic shape for an old bandit that anyone would recognise. I took a snap of a window sticker on the back on my sisters vw camper heading off to be restored, the sticker must have been in there from the 70s or 80s....strange as although it had Vegas on the coinage stated 6 suggesting bought in the U.K.....

[brigham]

You could make a good collection from hi-tops alone.
I wonder if anyone has made a complete list of all varieties.
(I've never seen a 'melon-belly' in real life).

[your-such-a-slot]

That would be real cool to see and play those
is there a book that tells you all the models and colour variations
i have the owners pictorial guide but thats in black and white

[treefrog]

I do have one on old penny, nice machine with original paint on front and sides. Certainly one of my favourites of the Hi Top range

[moonriver]

[brigham]

Lovely! A bandit with a distinctly jovial look.

[coppinpr]

many of the hi-top models are listed here http://www.pinball-gallery.com/archives ... &cst=MILLS

The hi-top Id like is this rarely seen model "The Token Bell"

[widget2k4]

Now that's a Hightop.

[brigham]

...and without the Mills much-celebrated 'single cherry' pay.
Perhaps I could get interested in hi-tops again!

[moonriver]

Entry deleted

[jingle]

Now this is a proper forum

[your-such-a-slot]

Does anyone here have a TOKEN BELL or are they super rare?

[treefrog]

Yes, bought in the U.K. local to me in my early days of collecting. Funny to read old threads you wrote 8 years ago, as I was considering stripping and painting, something I would never do now if not terrible and with original paint on. By the way, I didn’t and still looks the same... Can’t comment on rarity, but only seen one other for sale since then in the U.K. and that I am fairly sure it had been repainted.

Mills Token Bell

[your-such-a-slot]

That's a sweet machine - I like the original paint.

[brigham]

Did you put it on Sixpence?