Letters to the Editor
Hi Jerry
Regarding the 'Plentywin', when I opened the envelope, pulled out the mag and saw the
front picture .... well! Unbelievable!!! Because during a freezing cold day on a pier in
North Wales (wonder which one)? I bought what I now know was a Plentywin. I say
'now know' because mine too had the top flash missing. (Who is the sod who just nicks
the top flashes)? I, like Alan, had no idea what it was called and even after asking two of
the fountains of machine knowledge (Maurice Felce and Jez Darvill) nothing was forth-
coming.
So, regardless of no top flash I started to restore it and casually mentioned it to my
mate Bob at work. I showed him a picture I'd taken of it and Bob trawled the internet. (I
know most people 'surf' but this took Bob much, much longer)! Sure enough, after a few
days Bob found a Plentywin on the Toy Museum's website and I was setting myself up
for a visit to Stansted, digital camera in hand. But, prior to this Carters Steam Fair was
making it's annual visit to Herne! Hempstead and as usual a few of us went, only to find
that there, sitting in the arcade was a Plentywin! A few clicks later and Bobs yer uncle!
Top flash captured, printed, given to Bob the following Monday and he did all the
computery wizardry ...... result!! Machine is now completely restored, back on all
payouts and works brilliantly. Regardless whoever made them, I think they are a good
game to play.
And finally, another Plentywin turned up recently at Bonham's auction, so there
must be quite a few about!
All the best, I'll look forward to reading more about this subject as I'm sure I won't
be the only one to put pen to paper.
Graham Millard
Thanks for your letter Graham. Thanks also for the post-it note attached to it (I'm keep-
ing quiet about that. Hopefully, no one else noticed)! Yes, there does seem to be a good
number of these mystery machine about, although I still can't recall seeing a Plentywin. I
came across a Double your Money many years ago, and of course, Jackpot is quiet a
common machine. Although I didn't mention it last month, I actually operated a Jackpot
allwin at Brighton for a while. When I first took over from John, I was using John's
machines, one of which was a Jackpot. After the school summer holidays, John started to
sell his machines and as the machines were sold, I filled the gaps with my own.
So, a Jackpot had been hanging on the wall for six months, and because it was a
very reliable machine, I never had cause to look inside. Jsn 't hindsight a wicked thing!
Jerry
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