Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although there were many negative reviews complaining that the machine stopped working after a few days, I decided to order it anyway and try my luck. Ours arrived nicely packaged and worked right away. It even came with some starter toys to grab. My kids got several hours of play out of it. It is indeed very loud and needs some dampening cardboard or tape on the underside (can be done inside too). Unfortunately, the next day it stopped working. Inserting more coins would not activate it. I tried replacing batteries, but no luck. Although I could simply send it back, I figured it's a trivial product...can't be that complicated, so I decided to open it and check for loose connections. What I found is that the coin slot has a somewhat error-prone design in that it can get stuck thinking there is a coin the whole time. In other words, the circuit is constantly closed instead of momentarily opened-closed-opened as the coin falls through. The way it works is there are a pair of thin metal strips that touch when the coin passes. That closes the circuit momentarily and starts the game. When the coin is inserted, it pushes against a red plastic slot guide that in turn pushes the strips together. In this case, the slot guide was stuck holding the strips together. You cannot see this from the outside, so it was not obvious that it was stuck. I think it could be unstuck with a light tap on the coin slot, but I simply loosened the screws from inside so it moves a little more freely. Attached are pictures showing the inside and a close-up of the coin mechanism. You can see the metal strips touching when the coin passes. I suspect many of the reviews complaining that it stopped working after a brief time are due to this coin mechanism getting stuck, which is unfortunate as it's a simple fix. I hope this review helps!