This is my restoration of a Wondermatics penny arcade allwin machine.
Wondermatics machines or ‘Wonders’ are classic and very collectible allwin machines. They are known for the colourful, interesting and often humorous backflashes.
I was lucky enough to happen across quite a number of machines which had been stored in a boatshed since the 1970’s. They looked pretty much like you would expect for wooden machines stored in this way – dirty, corroded metal, rotten in places, eaten by woodworm to varying degrees and a bit smelly! Among them were a few Wonders machines – this being one of them.
Restoration of this allwin machine from the 1950’s meant a total strip down – not the easiest job as the metal parts were corroded together.
I cleaned metal parts, polished and added a delicate amount of paint to the distinctive ‘1’ where the penny goes. The track was stripped from the playfield and I polished this. The win cups were removed and finally, the back flash. The back flashes on these are printed on thick card and then a new sheet of acetate laid over the top. This often yellows with age so I replaced this punched new holes in it for the win cups etc.
The track was replaced with new fasteners before I replaced the cups and mechanism together with new springs and finally adjusted. I polished whole thing with a rich furniture wax a few times.
The beautiful oak case was sanded and a replacement made for the missing cash door at the bottom. New locks were added.
I then had fun playing to make sure all was in order!
If you have a penny arcade, allwin restoration you’d like carried out or any other machine you need repairing or restoring or have one to sell, whatever the condition contact me.
You can find out more about Wondermatics penny arcade allwin machines on this website
