Bally Wild Arrows identified

[coppinpr]

A guy in the USA has this machine and has asked me if I can find out something about it (date, maker and the like). All he knows (or has been able to find out in 5 years) is that it was UK made. I know it's a late machine for our remit but someone might know?

[pennymachines]

I believe at heart it's a Bally, as described in this eBay advert, but maybe a British modification?

The handle looks characteristically Bally.

Wild Arrows is similar to these other Bally consoles of 1968: Las Vegas and Lucky Draw.

[coppinpr]

thanks, Mr P. much obliged,I've asked Nursey to give you an extra Saw Palmetto capsule for new years day, As Terry Pratchett said when asked how old he was "Im of an age when a man knows he's got a prostate"

[pennymachines]

I believe I discovered my prostate long before I discovered Terry Pratchett, and possibly before he discovered his...

Check out Richard Bueschell's Lemons, Cherries & Bell-Fruit-Gum - it's an essential reference to anyone with more than a passing interest in one armed bandits. Ask your local library to purchase a copy. Bueschell has a long paragraph on these, "uniquely British consoles". In short, they were not made in England, but by Bally in Chicago for the British market.

The initial [sales] activity was British, with a wave of models designed by Jerry Kelly and named by their British distributors moving across the Atlantic by ship and air... Uniquely British at first, and reaching into European and other international markets (but never the United States!), the newly formatted Bally slot console combined the electromechanical MONEY HONEY format with an upright cabinet and backglass display. The first was the British named Model 837 WINDSOR CASTLE of summer 1968, soon followed by CAMELOT, REEL DEAL, LUCKY DRAW, TREASURE CHEST, DUCK SHOOT and other models well into the 70s.