Tomy – Mr.Money bank

What the listing stated:

Not working 

May be an easy fix

EBay

Now I don’t half buy some junk to fix, but this one struck a chord with me. Looking into its history I believe it’s a toy made to encourage children to save money from around 1987. So he’s currently around 38 yrs old.

As you can see in the photo above, you could originally buy a set of these, incorporating Dollar, Pound or Euro stickers for the serving hand, the one i have made an offer on is the dollar one.

What appeals to me about this item is that I’ve been looking for a way at work to raise some money for the local LOROS hospice, and this might be a fun way to do it if I can get it working. I plan to brand it with the local hospice details and just thought it would be a fun way to use it. This is a fun object where you put a coin on its hand, its mouth opens, the eyes go up and the coin goes in the mouth. There is a munching motion and then the tongue licks its lips. Or at least it should do. This one I have ordered is having none of that and this is the challenge ahead. These units are notorious for having issues with the power switch, a simple fix if that is the case, but this is me…nothings ever that simple.

And as usual it’s dirty, has marks on it and needs a good clean.

As with everything retro (New antiques 🤦‍♂️) items are attracting some crazy prices, though I do think the general public are not as stupid as the sellers seem to believe they are, as all the above listings have yet to attract any bids. Now the one I have bid on is broken, and yes it has its battery cover. My current bid is £6.70GBP and I must now wait to see if it is a winning bid. With postage (Rip off as usual) the price will be £10.20GBP in total, so compared to the prices in the listings above it is an absolute bargain.

Good news – I have won the auction at this price. Nice.

Assessment:

Well, he’s arrived and just like Frankenstein he’s very dead. He needs an electrical kick start and that’s what we need to do. He’s obtained a lot of scuffs and marks but I think these will buff out. Cosmetically everything is there, even the battery cover and that pleases me immensely. With batteries in place there is not even the tiniest sign of life even if the on /off switch is operated many times. We need to get inside and take a look. Hopefully it’s not too big an issue.

And I’m just so happy he has a battery cover. Exceptionally rare and unexpected.

Repair:

I’ve headed straight for the switch as this is where there is usually trouble and straight away there was a problem. There was no continuity at the switch when operated, so this was removed, opened, cleaned and the brass contacts ground and cleaned. The switch was then reassembled and tested and was all ok.

But this was not the problem. Damn it, I now have to take it apart and there is a lot of mechanical items within.

Once dismantled I’ve had a good rummage around and have checked voltages around the electrical circuits until I found no voltage at the motor. The culprit was a small 3inch length of wire that had been crushed. This was replaced and the continuity was now restored to how it should be but still there was no life. I was confident that the electrical issues were no more so it must be a mechanical issue. There is a part of this unit that involves a tongue 👅 that pokes out. This was our issue. The cog and lever system had somehow been knocked out of sync, and once put back into its correct position the unit has now sprung into life. See the little video of this stage below:

Happy with this I’m now going to review all the pictures that thankfully I’ve taken, and ensure it’s reassembled and cleaned as I go along. The marks and dirt have buffed out nicely and the unit is now extremely clean and looking as good as the day it was purchased. And it works:

Result:

Here it is now in all its highly polished and clean glory

Thoroughly enjoyed this little project, I love the electro mechanical items from this period, they really get you thinking.

This unit is now going to have a LOROS hospice logo placed on it to cover the Tomy one as discussed at the beginning of this post. We can then start to gather all that loose change in my work place to pass onto them. They need every penny we can raise. Every penny helps, especially in the current financial climate.

Thanks for passing by, as always it is very much appreciated.