hankins history

[shamus]

can someone shed a little light on the history of hankin & co newcastle.did they import pins and design thier own aussie themes ?
thanx shane.

[Extra Ball]

Thats exactly what they did. As a kid I went into their factory a few times, they had a stack of gottliebs in there. They designed their own Hankin Pins, they also operated a ton of machines themselves. I met one of the techs that helped design FJ Holden couple years ago, he was still maintaining an amusement machine run.

[shamus]

wow! must have been like a lollie factory for you at the time.

[Extra Ball]

Not really, they were cranky buggers in that place. The general public were not really allowed to buy parts from them, think management were a bit funny about it all. But yeah I can still remember all those machines lined-up.

[v200juke]

Although I did not see it first hand the final weeks of Hankins shutting there old factory here in Newcastle was a horrible thing. N.O.S parts by the SKIP load going to the tip.  True story.

[Rod71]

Yeah i did hear a story of a pallet of NOS backglasses being smashed.

 

[pinball-collector]

l bet,,they would be a bit grumpy,as they had to compete against bally, in those day,,,lm a bit of a hankin fan,, l have the full collection of 5..

[v200juke]

I think the reason Hankins dumped all there N.O.S. stuff was to stop everyone  coming through and `cherry picking`. It`s like when you have a garage sale and a few items sell and you are left with all the crap left over that you then have to take to the tip.Sometimes it`s easier to go straight to the tip.