Year: 1973
Company: NSM-Löwen [presumed] & オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo) [presumed]
This is a curious machine that I have only ever seen in a single photograph, where we have two copies side-by-side:
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| Amusement 1973-02 |
On the left is 1968 Colorette - コロレット by 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho)
on the right is 1972 Football - フットボール [import, 1970] by 太東貿易 (Taito Trading) & NSM-Löwen.
The upper game portion looks similar to Big Strike Bowling except with different art. A payout mechanism has been added to the bottom. The plastic that covers the ball-release at the lower-right also seems to be on the Blonde 9 playfield near the center-top? It is hard to tell what kind of modification that might be.
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| ~1969 Big Strike Bowling - ビッグ・ストライク・ボウリング [import, 1967] by NSM-Löwen |
Big Strike Bowling was made in 1967 by NSM-Löwen and imported into Japan as early as 1969. Taito released a version of of Big Strike Bowling in 1971.
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| 1971 Big Strike Bowling - ビッグ・ストライク・ボウリング [import, 1967] by 太東貿易 (Taito Trading) & NSM-Löwen |
Standing next to Taito's similarly modified Football on a pedestal, it might be easy to assume Blonde 9 was another Taito import. And it might be as well! They also could have distributed it. We do not have enough information from this era.
But there are two aspects of this machine that make me think this was オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo). There is a payout mechanism installed and Taito did not add one to any of the machines they imported, that I know of.
But Oriental Kogyo did modify Super.Match machines (made 1967 by NSM-Löwen and imported and modified by オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo) circa 1970. The Super.Match payout slot looks cruder than Blonde 9's , but also is from 3 years before it.
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| 1970 Super.Match [Super Match] [import, 1967] by NSM-Löwen & オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo) |
But the key indicator for me is the logo on Blonde 9's base:
Super.Match used the original NSM logo, or at least a decent representation of it:
NSM logo from a regular Super.Match:
One big difference is the space between the tail and the head.
But on both, note how the angles on the knees are quite soft. Note how the tails have strong geometry.
I submit that the Blonde 9 lions are more similar to the lions we see on Super-Scope:
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| from Super-Scope [Oriental Super-Scope] - スーパースコープ by オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo) |
The history of Super-Scope is a bit messy. As best we know, Bonanza began selling them in 1975 and contracted construction out to オリエンタル興業 (Oriental Kogyo). Oriental Kogyo was then selling a slightly different version (coin slot moved location) by 1977.
Also note the angle the lion's head is at.
