Hi Guy's,
The comments from two of the top professionals in their fields ( WatlingBoy and Swarmi ) is of great interest to me, as I feel the very same about the comments from various members on this Forum. These very few, like Swarmi and Watlingboy says , sometimes just want to see their names amongst the various responses to several subjects that these responders have no clue about and are obviously interjecting only what they have read somewhere else.
I am not an expert on any of these subjects, but I answer various questions from my experience as a businessman in the coin operated machine industry for more than 60 years, I was also fortunate to be a collector in this great hobby during those years. If for instance I wanted to know about the Frank Polk figures of which I owned several during my years of collecting, I would not essitate to contact Chris (Swarmi) in fact Chris as a picture of me with Ron Brooks and a Polk Miner that I bought in 1980, this picture was taken at the that time, or John Herman another knowledgable person on the subject, who have spent many years of research on the subject of the Frank Polk figures, I was lucky enough to meet both John Herman and also Ron Brooks who himself was a very knowledgable person on the subject, when I first got interested in the Frank Polk characters more than 35 years ago.
Regarding Watling, my only Knowledge on this subject was when I researched the company for an article I wrote to celebrate the 50th, anniversary of the Bell-Fruit Manufacturing Company Ltd who had purchased the Watling tooling in the late 1950's, during that research I did talk to people who were actually involved in that purchase.
When I comment on this Forum about any of the various questions put forward, I do it either through my experience as an actual operator and restorer in the early 1960's, or from actual reports and articles reported in the various trade magazines at that time.
Another member of this Forum is Bill Whelan (SlotDynasty) who is with out a doubt the most Knowledgable person on Trade Simulators on the planet. I know for a fact that he was there in the thick of it during the early days of collecting, and wrote many an article on the subject and got his information also first hand.
I get annoyed when some collectors on this forum make such a big thing about a spring on a coin rejector, or the 2nd coin rocker arm on a Mills escalator, during my days of operating or restoring, I removed these items and threw them away, because they caused a problem for an operator in the field. Things like these small items are not that important, it is the same when a collector wants to use these antique machines, they should be restored, but not to be played, when I collected antique machines, I would not allow them to be touched, how many people collect rare objects and constantly handle them, not very many, so you newbies and know-it-alls should leave the answering of questions to the above people who know what they are talking about, one recent question was about wha Bally models was in the Mapes Hotel in Reno in the early 1960's, one Forum member suggested they could be E1000-E2000 models, but could not see the LED on the machine, he would have been better not even commenting as the E models never came out until the 1990's.
I am sure that there will be some snyde comments about my remarks, but who am I , I have only been in the business for 60 odd years on a daily basis, and still manufacture amusement games.
Swarmi, Watlingboy, Slotdynasty, Steppane, Dave I salute you all, the rest of you, look and listen, you might learn the true facts about some of the great collectable machines of times gone by.
Freddy Bailey
The Official British Coin Machine Historian