Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co. bandits

[highfield]

Great memories of times spent with your dad.

[industrialmuseum]

Hi,
I represent Nottingham Industrial Museum.
We are trying to acquire a Bell Fruit machine manufactured in Nottingham at the recently closed Leen Gate factory. I wonder if someone could confirm the manufacturing location of this machine?
https://pin.it/2wE6rZH
The vendor has sent me an additional picture which indicated the model is 7-T Bell Fruit Serial No. 602419.
Help appreciated!

[pennymachines]

Yes, I believe that bandit was made at the Leen Gate factory. As I understand it, they didn't have other facilities until the 1980s.
See http://www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Bell-Fruit-Article.pdf

[badpenny]

Here's one I have recently acquired.

I've not long returned from a trip down North to visit a good friend, fellow collector and a forum member.
Turns out the first two were out at bingo so I was stuck with the last one.
Taking the opportunity to revisit the private pub in his garden and gaze upon his machines, I was also there to pick one up.
A Bell Fruit 1960s Bandit
For this post I shall protect his identity and refer to him as Wilbur, that's not his real name of course. His real name is Heath Breckenbridge.

If you've ever been to visit him you'll already know that whichever direction you sail in from it's the final 5 miles that gets you. Unlike Rome, no roads lead to Wilbur's house. On this occasion even the woman who lives in my dashboard threw in the towel.
I'd just exited the bypass around the red light district when her despairing voice wailed out “GPS signal lost” Which in itself is a quandary when you consider that you're currently at 1,214ft above sea level. Any higher and you'd have to duck so the bloody GPS gizmo missed your head on its next time round.

As a consequence I missed the turning opposite the “The Flat Cap & Whippet Emporium (Clogs & Hobnails a Speciality) ” and had to go on to where the cobblestones end and the bridleway commenced. Luckily I was able to turn in the car park of the pub named after the famous Yorkshire Cowboy “Tex the Piss” and try again.
20 minutes later and I find him in his garage sanding side vendors, we haven't seen each other since Parkhurst and retire to his garden pub where it isn't snowing to catch up.
For any of you who don't know him, he's a name to watch. His standard of restoration is to be seen to be believed. In my opinion he has an eye for detail that can't be faulted, he puts it down to his OCD.
It wasn't an easy decision for him to sell me the Bell Fruit. He describes it as his first bandit and was his Father's.
Like everything he does if it needs something doing he does it.
In this case the whole of the front door and other parts have been rechromed, and the graphics redone. The metal case expertly sprayed.
It's always good to see him, especially has he has another bandit I covert ...

Finally for any of you who don't know, these machines have never really been very collectable. I think that's probably due to them not being very popular with arcade/fairground operators. The business model that supported their manufacture was the licensed trade/clubs/pubs which itself lasted only a few years before those industries took charge and created their own sub divisions to supply and control AWP machines.
So it's easy to see how many have missed out on appreciating such a superbly engineered 3 reeler based on a Watling Mechanism with a rotary escalator, and in the case of mine a goose neck coin entry!

BP

[bert]

Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Good evening all.
I can buy this machine but I can't find any information.
It's a Bell-Fruit fruit 5 liner, year 1982.

Thanks, Bert

[pennymachines]

Hi Bert,
At first I thought this wasn't by the UK-based Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co., but I see from the images on marktplaats, it carries their badge.

I've not seen that model before, but you can read about the company and some of their other products in the topic now merged above.

[pennymachines]

Leen Gate - Old Lenton: Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 'The Lenton Listener' Issue 44, February - March 1987

Archived Bell-Fruit Manufacturing website

[bert]

Hello Pennymachines

That's the machine from marktplaats that I can buy.

Thanks for the information. I go look.

[coppinpr]

Interesting how people's attention span has changed over the years and how it shows up in the slot world. Bell Fruit are proud of the fact that they introduce a new game EVERY 4 WEEKS!

[pennymachines]

Most definitive history of the company I've seen, from Novomatic: The World of Gaming, June 2013, issue 38. (The Bell-Fruit Group was acquired by Astra Games Ltd, part of the Novomatic Group of companies in July 2012).

Magazin_issue38_BFMC.pdf

(6.05 MiB) Downloaded 19 times

Early Bell Fruit Penny Special sold by Brighton & Hove Auctions recently.