Super Deluxe, Cresta, Victor mystery bandit

[hjss1996uk]

I’ve been handed down a one arm bandit. My granddad bought it over 50 years ago for my dad. It's sat collecting dust for the past 40 years. Broken when it was stored, I found it in the loft and have started to restore it for my dad. It’s a mess. I’ve stripped it but can’t find anything about it online and have no clue about them. I’d like to find some pictures of a machine restored to compare mine to. Any information or history or a place for parts would be brilliant, also any tips.
Thanks guys, first post,

[treefrog]

Welcome there....you certainly are getting stuck in......

In answer to the what am I restoring, very good question as a no certain maker has been attributed to these machines, possibly a company called Bolands, but not certain. Quite a few have turned up over the years, often with car badges as their logo like the Victor and Cresta below. These are British machines made probably in the late '50s using old American mechanisms by Mills from the 1920s/'30s....

Next question is what was wrong with the machine in terms of what was not working as it was unlikely to need a total strip down. I have rarely taken a machine down to raw components as often is all is need is a clean and lubricate of key areas like clock, kicker and moving linkages....

[hjss1996uk]

Thanks for getting back so soon and I wanted to strip it to understand they work and give everything a good clean and oil now after abit of research I can see that this machine has a few things out of the norm so of it I understand or at least I think I do and the others I can’t fathom where would the best place be to maybe get hold of some parts? and thank you I’ve never even seen or been able to find another one!

[coppinpr]

I assume the machine came to your father in working condition. As it's been in your family since then I also assume no parts have been removed. As parts on these rarely break, I'm wondering what parts are missing/broken. I can't see anything missing from the photos. When you say it was broken when being stored what do you mean?

You have certainly taken a big step in breaking the machine down as far as you have. For someone who says they know little about slots it may prove a challenge but not impossible.
Remember not to oil any part that comes close to a coin.
You say from what you can see it varies from the norm. This would only be in so much as these old Mills mechs were often simplified by the revamper - jackpots removed, slides replaced, escalators removed and simple coin detectors installed. However, the difference you might have noticed is that this mech, being a very old mech, has only 10 stopping points but has 20 reel symbols. This was a ploy by the maker to con the player into thinking all combinations were possible when they were not. The mech would have been fitted with a trip device that switched the mech to the alternate set of 10 symbols every other play. This did mean all the symbols got used but didn't mean every combination was possible. Many revampers removed this trip, vastly reducing the payouts and increasing the profits. I can't see for certain, but I think yours may still have the trip.

Most of the problems will be dirt old grease and (possibly) weak springs. Let us know what it does and doesn't do and what, if any, parts are broken. We can and will help once we know what's going on.

[brigham]

Most Mills 10-stop mechs just had ten symbols not in use. The 'trip' was specifically devised for the Mills Futurity, which offered ten coins returned for ten losers in a row, although some of the Mills Bonus mechs also have it.
Tom Boland worked until about 1960, so these could - just- be of his design. Style is borrowed from Ainsworth, of course.

[hjss1996uk]

Hiya guys,
Thanks for the tips. The whole thing was solid. Unjammed coins I could see - no luck, so it’s now fully in bits. Had a good clean, I’m just about to start re-assembling it. Here’s a few pictures so far. Notice the slides that drop the coins and where the coin catcher attaches to the main frame of it. That’s where I feel it’s been altered, but as I’ve said, I don’t know how they are meant to look so I’m sorry I don’t know the lingo as of yet.

[hjss1996uk]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

So in regards to my last post the machine is now back together and has a whole lot more life to it. It seemed to be working brilliant then after 3 spins the reels stopped spinning but happy to see things moving after reading and watching videos, Still no joy, so I’ve called it a day. Any more tips and history would be amazing. Here’s my pictures and progress so far.
Thanks guys I have a video that I’m trying to upload of what’s happening. I’ve left some bits off while I get it working. I don’t expect it perfect.

[treefrog]

May well be timing the issue.....check what is stopping it run, probably the upper fingers that go into the reel pay discs. If they are in one of the holes, then either timing is out or you have a spring missing in the finger.

Interesting that part I can’t quite work out what it is you are holding has Firman on it. May give a maker to these machines who did bandit conversions.

[hjss1996uk]

The bit that has fireman on it is the bit that pulls the reels and spins them is there a thread that gives a basic understanding on timeing and how to rectify it? Also the fingers are retracting fully as far I can tell

[coppinpr]

The 'trip' was specifically devised for the Mills Futurity, which offered ten coins returned for ten losers in a row, although some of the Mills Bonus mechs also have it.

Actually Mills made at least 6 different cams for the trip so operators could change the payouts to several options.

One thing learned is, as Tom says, it's looking like these were Firmans made.
It's looking like a timing problem now. Unfortunately, this is a common problem when a machine has been re assembled. It's not a disaster but it can be hard to sort out as several areas are performing at the same time and one or more could be out of sync at the same time. From the video it looks as if the fingers are retracting fully but moving forward too soon. Check the back of the mech - the clock (as part of its job) controls an upright bar that engages the main reel stop and allows the fingers to fall back towards the payout discs at the end of the cycle. This may not be dropping into its start position during the wind up part of the cycle, allowing the whole cycle to end very early.

[hjss1996uk]

I’ll give that a try going to have a day off it
Thank you

[pennymachines]

Interesting that part I can’t quite work out what it is you are holding has Firman on it. May give a maker to these machines who did bandit conversions.

Yes, interesting. I thought Tom Boland was unlikely because his trademark was fancy exterior castings and the Spinning Reels seems to have been his last hurrah.



If Bert Firman is correct, that dates them to very early sixties, before he retired from manufacturing.

[brigham]

The car badges are correct for that period.

[hjss1996uk]

Does anyone have a valuation on what it's worth?

[pennymachines]

The car badges are correct for that period.

And they can't be earlier than the Aristocrat Sheerline/Arcadian/Starlite range which they imitate, but I've not seen a precise date for those. They're advertised in an edition of the Cash Box trade paper of December 1961, but when were they introduced?

Does anyone have a valuation on what it's worth?

This one sold for £120 at the Elephant House, 2017. Don't know if that's typical.

[hjss1996uk]

Interesting. Good to learn more about it - thanks for taking the time. Still struggling with timing on it, if that’s what it is. Can’t keep my hands off it.

[coppinpr]

As it looks very much like a timing problem I was looking closer at the clock. Although the clock itself looks Mills, the clock arm assembly is, I think, not (unless it's very early Mills and a mystery to me). Question for perhaps Tom, as I know he's seen Firmans machines before: would this arm (A) and the linkage (B) be part of the Furman's conversion? If it is, it's going to effect the timing and I for one wouldnt know how it worked although I'm guessing it simply pushed the reel lock and vertical finger lock out of the way once the cycle was complete, allowing them to fall into place.