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Unusual but very "50s" way to mount bandits, can't quite read the name bars on the bandits, "Green" perhaps? The two boys look like... well... us when we were kids!! Clearly professionals not casual players Can one of the experts ID the machine in the background behind the bandit range?

Cool photo.
That's a recording booth in the background.

BP

badpenny wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:58 pm Cool photo.
That's a recording booth in the background.

BP

on the right hand side. ;)

What a great photo, I didn't realise the shortage of Hi Top hoods and back doors stretched as far back as the '50s.
I wondered if the name badge read "BREAN" possibly for Brean Sands?

The allwin on the wall behind the bandits looks like a Wonders '24 Cup'

Just a thought........the bandit arms appear much lower than they should be, or is it my imagination?

Yes, I'd agree, handles too low and not standard handles (or at least handle ends). My guess is the boy on the right is practising the now lost art of "recovering a penny from the insert hole which hasn't dropped because the machine is jammed". Well worth an hour of any young amusement arcade regular in the late '50s.

What looked to be an everyday picture of ordinary things turns out to be nothing of the kind.
The original bandit cases are not used; only the front castings. The mechs are in a new back-to back case, seemingly built in pairs for this particular set-up.
The handles have been set low, presumably for the new, shorter, target audience; the 'penny arcade brigade', who, as we all remember, regarded the insertion of a 'tanner' as a gross waste of five 'goes', and something only the 'grown-ups' would do.
Are these conversions a 'one-arcade' special, or did someone offer them as a commercial product?

Love the picture, which is on eBay (Paul you redacted most of the watermark apart from the dot above “I” )

Looks professionally made piece and one wonders if there were even Mills mechs inside at all, maybe replaced with something else... Maybe the maker is on the name plate below the reels... can’t make it out.

This could possibly be the infamous Pontin's Brean Sands in happier days.
Can anyone confirm?

UPDATE:
On closer examination, the badges read not BREAN, but BRENN.
Another of George Brenner's enterprises, perhaps?

JC wrote:The allwin on the wall behind the bandits looks like a Wonders '24 Cup'

That is what I also thought Jerry - very distinctive backflash

I don't remember seeing handles like those on the machines in the photo. Then today I was sent this photo and, although not exactly the same, they could be the same maker(?)

Screen Snapshots is almost certainly by Tom Boland of Leeds.

Not the hardest assumption to make, although I wonder if the case is newer.

Paul,

This is a fairly standard Bolands machine and probably original case wrapped in later Formica or similar, but am sure Patrick will update his Facebook group with info pics as he restores. Handle is also one of their standard types, look through boland thread you will see lots of them.....

I can't find anything further regarding 'BRENN' on the original photo, but it looks as though the illuminated top-box is part of the package.

treefrog wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 10:22 pmHandle is also one of their standard types, look through boland thread you will see lots of them.

That is what I meant. It possible the handles on the original photo are on old Boland mechs recased yet again?

brigham wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 4:19 pm Screen Snapshots is almost certainly by Tom Boland of Leeds.

Good point to make.
There are many newer collectors who wouldn't know that.

BP