Mini Falls, Penny Falls

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riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

Wow and glad you have. I have a surprise for you in a few hours :) regarding Mini Falls..... he, he, tease ................
pennymachines
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by pennymachines »

Could we be talking about this one? Sold for $220 in New Zealand on 28th March !PUZZLED!
Antique Cromptons Mini Falls Coin Pusher
This was originally made in the UK by the leading arcade machine company Cromptons who are still in operation today!
This was one of the early machines and was a non production line that would suggest they were made as a prototype but never carried forward into production it was built around the mid 1970s and I have been in touch with both the Cromptons company and an avid collector and follower who is currently writing a book about coin pushers who have valued this machine at anything from a minimum of 300 (UK pound sterling) upward.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-colle ... 755052.htm
Crompton Mini Falls
Crompton Mini Falls


Crompton Mini Falls close-up
Crompton Mini Falls close-up

It looks almost like a copy of the aforementioned Jezzard Mini Cascade (also Mini Falls), being a similarly scaled countertop game on a stand.
Jezzard Mini Cascade
Jezzard Mini Cascade

riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

We could indeed - here is mine :) I picked it up last night :)
Need a motor - any ideas?

The motor in it does work but then stops... You push on the side of the motor and it works happy, take side pressure off the motor and it stops again?

Any ideas? Mine's marked Cromptons and has a vin plate :)
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slotalot
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by slotalot »

What type of motor is it? Do you have a photo? !!PHOTO!!
riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

I've stripped the motor down and re-greased. It seems to be a lot better now.

Hopefully, here is a pic of the motor.

I did have better ones, but deleted them - sorry.
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riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »


P1110596.JPG


the motor
the motor

It's a keeper :)
P1110627.JPG

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badpenny
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by badpenny »

Good old Parvalux, the mainstay of many a good electrical piece of gubbins.

They power many a Doner Kebab machine and are bloody expensive if you need to replace, check eBay.

Should you ever need to replace, ensure you go for the same Voltage AC or DC and RPM, as they do just about every combination you can think of to cater for the world. And above all, make sure you get constant or continuous rating.

We have seen them at the Coventry Auction and they usually go for about £90.
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

badpenny wrote:We have seen them at the Coventry Auction and they usually go for about £90.
The machine or the Parvo gearbox?
I may have paid over the odds, but I love the machine.
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slotalot
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by slotalot »

riche100 wrote:I've stripped the motor down and re-greased. It seems to be a lot better now.
I was going to say strip the gearbox and see what condition the worm wheel is in. When they get worn, they can tend to jam up, but too late, as it would seem you have got the job sorted !!THUMBSX2!!
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badpenny
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by badpenny »

riche100 wrote:
badpenny wrote:We have seen them at the Coventry Auction and they usually go for about £90.
The machine or the Parvo gearbox?
I may have paid over the odds, but I love the machine.
I was talking about Parvalux motors with gearboxes, usually taking the drive through ninety degrees.

Table top pushers at Coventry can be checked through Auction Results in the Arena but, off the top of my head, they often go for £300 plus.

As for paying over the odds, many of us on here don't consider that an issue when talking about our favourite machines.

Well done in getting it running. :cool:
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

Wicked :) .. Played it a lot last night. My mum came over with my dad and she loved the machine.

Coins kept getting stuck in coin slots - I think it's because no coins have been through them in a long time. Also to mention, the sliding shelf seems to slide a long way back and lift slighty the small top shelf. Is this common?

If not, how do I rectify?

As for the coin slots, even though simple, I'm having trouble setting them for pennies, so that pennies go in every time down the rails and into the machine. Can take a picture if helps?

rich :)
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by pennymachines »

Some close-ups might help us resolve those problems.
Also, if you post a full picture of the machine with the front on, I'll add it to the Mini Pusher article and credit you with a year's free access to the Arena.

It's now clear from your pictures that this is not a counter-top on a stand, but a single unit floor stander. I'm sure it's the same game that the original poster in this thread was asking about, so it's not a one-off prototype as the New Zealand seller suggested. The similarity to the Jezzard Mini Falls leads me to speculate that Dennis Jezzard designed it when he worked for Cromptons and then produced it as a countertop machine when he set up his own business, later changing the name to Mini Cascade. The classic triple tiered arrangement makes it an enticing game to play. Nice find.

A few days ago I saw another small floor-standing one-station pusher made by Jamiesons but, frustratingly, I can't remember where. Ebay perhaps?
riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

Hello there . Wow that's so nice of you. Here are some pictures of my machine. I bought it from a free ads paper. It was described as simply a Cromptons one player pusher. I was expecting a big new thing. I'm very happy it wasn't and it's this :)

!!>*<!!
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pennymachines
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by pennymachines »

Wow! That's quite a bell!
Thanks for the pictures - you can now log into the Arena.
pennymachines wrote:A few days ago I saw another small floor-standing one-station pusher made by Jamiesons but, frustratingly, I can't remember where. Ebay perhaps?
Maybe I was thinking of this Royal Jubilee pusher sold in the Elephant House 2011. Apparently made at the time of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, but I don't know by whom...


RoyalJubilee.jpg

riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

Thanks for the Arena pass :) ..

My mate owns that Jubilee pusher ... if not the exact same one, he deffo has one :)

I love my Mini Falls :)
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by pennymachines »

I wonder if your mate knows who made the Royal Jubilee?
riche100
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by riche100 »

You've actually linked to his video off YouTube.

I will ask Mike if he knows. He may be a member here, so if he's reading, I'm sure he will respond himself. He did mention to me he knew it was made for the jubilee year :)

I know he loves the retro styling and colour of it...
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flippa_winna
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by flippa_winna »

Royal Jubilee was manufactured by Alca Electronics Limited of Oldham, Lancashire in 1977.
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badpenny
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by badpenny »

Thanks for that and welcome to Pennymachines.

A quick squint at them on Google indicates they also were involved in pinballs and video games.
Do you know anything else about them?

BP
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flippa_winna
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Re: Mini Falls, Penny Falls

Post by flippa_winna »

Thanks for the welcome. Have been a follower of the site for a while and there's some real interesting stuff gets posted here.

Alca manufactured pool tables, fruit machines, video games and pushers. Their demise was in 1982.

My main interest is pushers. As well as the Royal Jubilee single player pusher Alca also manufactured a 4 player square pusher called Lucky 10.

Returning to the single player Royal Jubilee pusher of 1977, it was aptly named as it was the Queen's Silver Jubilee in this year. There were three horizontal coin entries to insert pennies in. If your penny (new penny) was lucky enough to trigger the microswitch on the way down the coin run, in the centre, then a higher denomination coin would be released onto the pusher box (this coin would more than likely have been the old 10p coin as the new smaller 10p's hadn't come out by then and the £1 coin didn't come in to circulation until 1983). Those 10p coins were stored in a tube directly behind the coin run, the microswitch triggering a solenoid which in turn dispensed the coin. In the top right corner was a change slot where you inserted an old style 10p coin and received ten pennies in a separate cup, which was situated to the right and lower down than the actual payout cup. The machine was also alarmed.
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