Unknown gumball machine

rod90

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Unknown gumball machine (Homemade ?)

I just bought a gumball machine that I have been unable to identify. It is a penny machine that has the cabinet made of wood. The front has a plinko game on the front so that if you make the penny hit dead center on the bottom you get your penny back. It measures around 17" by 9". I saw something earlier that had a baseball theme, but now I cannot locate it.

The more I look at it, it is either homemade from a kit or a different cabinet was added later. It was so unique, that I bought it without looking at it too closely
 

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The name escapes me, but I have an NOS original glass for that machine. Yours is a replacement. I have about 50 old gumball machines. I will go take a look and see if I can find the brand name for yours.
 
That looks similar to mine, but after some research, I believe mine to be "Hit the Taget". Mine is made out of plywood. I do not know when this happened, but the paint job appears to be pretty old. I can only assume that the original cabinet was not of use and someone had some talent and rebuilt it in this state. Thanks for your interest, but to do any more modifications would be a disservice to this rebuild.
 
I have seen a bunch of variations on the glass. They called them all kinds of things. I have not, however, seen one made of wood. The ones I have had were all VERY heavy. Most machines from the time period were fairly light sheetmetal, but Metalsmiths were about four times the typical thickness. Sure makes shipping them expensive.

For the operator, these were not collectibles but rather ways to make money (just like arcade games). So, if that meant replacing the glass with a cheap replacement to get the machine up and running again, that is what happened. Bottom line, who knows what has happened to that machine over it's lifetime!
 
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