mechanical – Foxes Den

The clock – heartbeat of the home.

Stick with me on this one, I’ll get there eventually it’s a bit of a ramble but I promise I’ll get there.

It’s 04:45 in the morning and I am awake. I’m beside my lovely wife in a bed in her friend’s house in Sunbury west London. It’s a lovely old house with a beautiful back garden in one of Londons leafier suburbs. I’m awake as I’m listening to a beautiful dawn chorus where the birds have awoken and are obviously discussing avian issues quite vocally and beautifully through birdsong. It s a lovely sound and one of natures most pleasant daily occurrences, by the sounds of it it’s going to be a lovely sunny day.

I’m blessed with exceptionally good hearing. Some may call it a curse but to me it’s a godsend. My wife states that i,”Can hear a fly fart from 50ft away” and she’s probably not wrong to be honest. It’s a godsend, as it seems the female members of her family, yes all of them, have particularly bad hearing and my dear wife is in fact registered as partially deaf, and if it wasn’t for her super duper high tech hearing devices she would more than likely be totally deaf. Therefore, my superb hearing doubles as her safety blanket when I am with her. It’s just one of those strange coincidences in life when you are magically paired with someone to be their help, in their time of need. I’ve already stated in earlier posts how she has helped and nurtured me through our life together. There is truly a mystical tie that binds.

I dropped my wife off at her friends house about 11 days ago, just prior to me heading back north to begin a stint of night shifts. It’s allowed the two of them to have some real good time with each other to catch up and do the things they enjoy doing. Her friend as you would already know, if you follow my journal posts, had some quite serious issues last year with some mental health issues after the passing of her long time partner a couple of years back. The wife switched into full time angel mode to help her, and I remain so proud of them for what they have both achieved. You don’t just suddenly get better from such an episode, but she has improved so much she is pretty much back to the old her we used to know, and have always loved. Thankfully my wife has a constant eye on her, and is speaking to her at least 3-4 times a day, so there is really no chance of her sinking back into the abyss she has just come out from, as my wife firmly has hold of the support rope keeping her back from falling down once again.

Now the clock analogy. I love clocks. Good old fashioned clocks that tick mechanically, not the digital versions that silently do their thing within the scope of silence. I’ve stated that my hearing is above par, and you’d think noise would be a curse. Well it is sometimes. In a silent house such as our own that has those very same digital clocks, I do hear everything. It’s an old house that makes noises. Pipes clank, floorboards creak and changes in temperature cause expansion and contraction noises all around. My hearing is such that I’m not at peace until I can associate a noise with the potential creator, yes I overthink even when I am attempting to sleep, i want total silence and that is not possible in an old house.

However at my wife’s friend’s house it is different. It’s an old house, digital clocks do not exist here and all clocks are mechanical, this house has a heartbeat. I have something to focus on and that comforts me into the most peaceful sleep, and awakes me at the other end with the most wonderful birdsong from outside. I love it.

When I delivered my wife here 11 days ago I had focussed on that clock heartbeat in our bedroom only to be mystified as to why, half way through the night the clock had stopped ticking, its heart had stopped. Why?

It became apparent the next morning that I looked at the clock that the hour hand was bent out of shape, and on its journey around the clock face the minute hand had clashed with it and it had come to an abrupt stop. This had occurred, and come to light when her friend had spoken with her step-son and found out that he hated the sound of a ticking clock and had fumbled in the night to hide it away causing the damage to the two hands.

Now as you know, I love fixing stuff and this item needed my help. The hands were very delicate and to be honest I didn’t think they were strong enough to take being bent back into shape. I used some tweezers and gently moved them back into position and I was able to restore that heartbeat.

I sit here now writing, getting great comfort from that ticking in the background. I don’t know why, I can only presume that like a child laying against its mothers breast, they gain great comfort from hearing their mothers heart beating. Maybe it’s the same with me? That constant, accurate non stop repetitive sound gives me something to focus on, turning my good hearing away from all the other little distractions that keep me awake.

I know one thing, I’m on the lookout for a good old fashioned mantle clock, or wall clock to have within listening distance of the bedroom at our house, that I can focus on.

I wish I could have been a horologist, working on clocks is tantamount to being a heart surgeon in my eyes. A most fantastic invention, and how I would love to be someone who looks after these fantastic mechanical masterpieces, however my eyesight is what lets me down here. But guess what? My wife’s eyesight is perfect. See, we are truly made for each other!

A house needs a heartbeat.

Have a super day everyone.

Tomy / Palitoy Missile strike

Here’s what the listing stated:

This is a nice example of a Tomy ‘Missile Strike’ electro/ mechanical handheld game. It was made circa 1979 and is battery operated. It appears clean for age and works, apart from the missile light not illuminating. Battery terminals very good. This is a nice genuine item that is shown as I found it. NOTE – NO BATTERIES ARE ENCLOSED. Nice example for any collector.

EBay

On first seeing the listing for this item, my thoughts are that it looks quite clean and tidy. The usual state of these units are quite tatty with scratched screens. This looks good, however pictures, especially from EBay can be greatly misleading so I’ll guess I will just have to be patient and wait.

This units only issue seems to be with the LED missile light, so hopefully it will be a quick fix. These units are currently selling between £52-£79GBP as per the picture below. I managed to secure my unit for a total including postage of £24GBP so I think I’ve done well in that aspect. I’m quite happy with this.

A little history:

Tomy released Missile strike in 1979 in its international line of electro/mechanical handheld games. Known under different titles in other regions such as Terra-Hit (UK), Missile Strike (UK), and Space Attack (Japan). One of TOMY’s electro-mechanical handheld games, Missile strike is a Space Invaders-like shooter game, the units small motor winds strips of aircraft across the screen, which the player attempts to hit in order to earn points. There is a mechanical wind up timer that controls the action, and the purpose is to score as many hits on aircraft as possible with in the time it takes the winder to stop. The game includes one small, flashing LED light as the exploding missile.

So it’s another game that has reached its 46th year, and for the only issue to be its one light source, I think that’s acceptable. Let’s wait to see what arrives.

Assessment:

On arrival the first thing that hits you is that this is yet another filthy item. I seem to attract these kind of sales, so it will require a deep clean. Cosmetically the game is in good shape with no deep scarring and only minimal fine scratches on the screen lens commensurate with its 46 year old age.

It was sold as the missile light not working, this is partially right as it is an intermittent fault, I suspect this is down to dirty contacts.

This game has two bands of film that run across the top of the screen displaying aircraft, the top band is intermittent and needs attention. The score counter will also need attention as it is not turning smoothly, again I suspect this to be as a result of the build up of dirt.

Repair:

First thing to do is dismantle the unit and to get some cleaning done. The small video below shows the issue with the top band aircraft not moving.

Film transport fault

I’ve taken the counter out after removing the case and all exposed buttons and switches.

Off to the kitchen sink. let’s get these items washed.

Whilst I’m waiting for the washed items to dry I clean the counter mechanism of old dirt and fluff.

Counter mechanism cleaned, fluff removed. Silicon grease applied

I’ve slightly greased the counter with silicon grease and it’s behaving well and doing what it should. This will go back in place when we do the final reassembly.

The issue with the film movement was a strange one. There was no way to tension the two capstans that the film roll over and there were no teeth missing off the capstans. One capstan pulls whilst the other pushes, all I’ve done is swap these around and the issue has disappeared. About as simple a fix as you can get.

I’ve put a little before and after video here that shows the effect of swapping the capstans around.

How swapping capstans worked

The issue with the intermittent light was easy as expected. This is the only electrical piece on this game and it was down to contaminated battery contacts that just needed a bit of a clean with my grinding pen and a wipe over with IPA.

Final little touch was just to accentuate some of the old lettering by the timer. This was just with a white paint pen.

Now we can reassemble and test again.

Result:

The game has been reassembled and tested and is now working fine. All intermittent issues have gone and it has now been polished and now looks superb.

I’ve attached this small video that shows the game working as it should, with no film slipping and lights and counter now working.

Working perfectly

It’s really pleased me this repair, as it’s another one of those mainly mechanical games. Dirt featured big time, and age issues have been overcome and the game given a new lease of life. Another one for my personal collection, it will go on now for many more years to come.

The best outcome that was possible, we have another superb seventies product that has been saved from the scrap heap.

And that is the biggest win of all.

Thanks for passing by, it’s always appreciated.

Tomy / Palitoy Blip LED game

What the listing stated:

Boxed Tomy Palitoy Blip Vintage 1977 LED Game

Good condition and powers up but need to shake it to make ‘ball’ move.

Could be a spring tension has weakened or something

Box is very worn

EBay

This purchase kind of excites me as it was a couple of years before games started to go truly digital. The year was 1977 some 48 yrs ago from the current time of writing. It was labelled as a digital game however that was a bit of a misnomer, it was more an electro mechanical game as the battery source in this unit had only one purpose, to power the LED light source. The main guts of the unit are mechanical being powered by a wind up motor that does the majority of the work. However the mechanics within this unit are superb and it’s worth a look under the cover just to revel in its construction.

These units were released at the time when pretty much the only video game available was the tennis game “Pong”. The TV game units produced at the time were selling for around £70GBP where as this unit was priced somewhere around the £8GBP mark. Hence, it was a cheap option for the children and didn’t need extra hardware such as a TV and a power supply. However, it wasn’t a match for the far superior “Pong”. It was in theory a totally different and far more frustrating game.

Want to give it a try? There is a really good true to life version available from the App Store to play on your phone. Believe me it will have you cussing as it’s not as easy as it looks. So realistic right down to the motor noise and light movement. It’s really addictive and annoying in equal measure.

This video below by Randi Rain shows a total refurbishment start to finish and is a great source of information regarding the breakdown and repair of this item.

Breakdown and restoration of a TOMY Blip

Some history:

Blip was designed by Hikoo Usami for the Tomy Kogyo Co., the patent being filed in 1976 and awarded on December 19, 1977.

Tomy marketed Blip in the U.S. starting in 1977. In Japan, Blip was marketed as World Tennis and differed from the U.S. game by having the words “World Tennis” emblazoned on the screen and replacing the 1, 2, and 3 on the screen with silhouettes of tennis players. The Blip name remained on the Japanese version. In France, the game was marketed by Meccatronic. The German version was called Blip-o-Matic, although the Blipname remained on the case.

It is the timer which provides the motor function to the game. Upon the timer dial being turned, a spring is wound which then, via several gears, drives the arm upon which the LED light (the ball) is mounted. The movement repeats after the ball hits each player’s side 36 times, so it is possible to memorise the sequence of buttons to press.

Wikipedia

I’m really looking forward to receiving this unit and can’t wait to get it up and running again. I’ve been after one of these for quite a while.

For those who may be interested and who have a photographic memory this is the sequence that the movement repeats in its 36 movement cycle: