Alkmaar
Bayswater
Hi Robin, I have heard that you should not fill the gumball machine with sweets, as it can attract ants and other unwanted creatures. Mine has been filled with the fake gumballs via ebay, by the last owner. Your gumball machine looks fantastic, but are you worried about ants and the like? Cheers, Leigh.
Operation "Gumball"
Written by robin, published December 11th, 2007. 6 comment(s).
Bally's Twilight Zone must be one of the greatest pinball machines ever made. The amount of playfield toys must have been a true revolution, when it came out back in '93. And these features must have been an operator's nightmare if I try to imagine all the mechanical features that can break down and break down earnings. The gumball machine must have been one of them, I recon, after having been trough the trouble of de-assembling it.
The idea for this little project were some posts on the newsgroups. Obviously some people went to the trouble of using a dremel tool to cut holes in their gumball machine plastic. I settled with an afternoon of (de)assembling work. 
Having walked around with the tought of putting 'real' gumballs in my Twilight Zone, I must have been in all toy stores in the vicinity. None of them had marbles which resembled real gumballs. A sweets store was my last resort.
Remove some parts so your gumball machine will be easier to reach.
I started taking of the plastics around the machine and at the backside of the playfield. This is also a nice opportunity to clean stuff in areas you 
normally never go. Some plugs have to be losened, some screws losened, no big stuff.
After doing this, you will have a perfect view of what this assembly is really about.
It's time to tear this machine apart! Well, let's first take a sip of coffee and not rush things. The assembly is pretty self-explanatory. Just some screws and nuts to losen and you're done.
Now it's time to clean the whole assembly and then.. fit in your gumballs!
After cleaning the asembly you can put the parts together and before tightening the screws, insert your gumballs. Don't forget to create a nice composition of colours!
And you're done. It's that simple! Good luck and I hope this article will bring more gumballs to gumball machines in pinball machines or whatever..
Robin
Comments
15 years ago
Well, it's been a few years since I put those real gumballs in there and I have never seen any ants. But I should note that the gumballs are starting to crack and aren't looking as bright as they used to. The fake plastic ones are a much better idea!
Annville, PA
14 years ago
The only problem with that, is once you put them in, you can't get them out, you have to disamble the gumball machine to do that, although if you get the right look after dropping them in, there should be no problems.
Love the Twilight Zone....
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WoLfZ
Inactive member
15y 28,500 39 4 34
I won my rare TZ game on e-bay so the're going to ship it and a couple other games I won from the same store this week hopefully. From the pictures it looks like the gumball machine is empty so I can't wait to get it and try this out. Your picture makes the gumball machine look way more realistic. I'm glad you wrote this article, it gives me the confidence to tackle this project.