Thunder Blade Deluxe

[Bods]

With 2 machines gone in the last week

it's nice to have a little more room to work

This Thunder Blade I've had about 4/5 years I bet now, trip to Holland to pick it up and then because other machines come up for sale and have no space it's just sat in bits ever since. So decided its time to put it together, some things need replacing as been bodged over years, on the whole it's in reasonable condition. It's 220v one and I forget where Sander said he bought it, but from Europe anyway yet Plate says Made In England

Some pics loaded in the car for Journey back and then as it's been all this time, my original HRV was off the road, bought this cheap off ebay and it was only in next road to me, i'd done no maintenance at all on it, used it for work a bit and then we took it over there, no breakdown cover and i didn't think about Insurance

was all a bit last minute. This is slightly smaller than the 5dr, that 100mm would of helped though, we only just made it on the ferry going there as one of us is always late and slow and it's not me

parked up on Ferry and of all the cars we could park behind, another 3dr Super Sonic Blue HRV, whats the chances when you don't see many, guy in his was surprised too

Hadn't really got room for more machines then, years back 2002 probably was I remember one on ebay down in south wales, I was so tempted to bid back then but had no where for it, thats when I thought I should sell dining table, didn't bid in end but I did get rid of the table a year or 2 later

So few years back I just thought wonder if i could find one at decent price, one years before ended at £230 area, wasn't really expecting to find one but we only did so ended up buying it

Cleaning it a bit as i assemble it, might need some advice on some area's as not sure how some things should be

 

[Alpha1]

I remember you picking that up.

 

[Bods]

It was a good weekend Ol

Apart from our Phones not working over there despite speaking to service provider saying no problem, yes they will work! So we had no Sat Nav either and driving on other side of road, how stressful

But weekend we went, it was the Gaming Expo so got to meet quite a few of the guys from DLF as well as see and play some cool machines

Lots of little things that need sorting out, could of just thrown it back together but it like things right if possible.

for some reason it has Crate Paper? shoved in top of monitor, assume to stop light shinning through onto screen, not sure what should be there

Coin door frame clamps used when they have lip around edge so only need the bolts straight in and plastic cover over the Label from new.

Service Panel loose with one bolt fitted which can't be original, the Flu Tube Ballast is on the back of this

Coin Entry slots on front have small bolts with nuts on back when its already threaded metal so bolts straight on

Then when I remove the Coin Slot extender the bracket falls off, so had to drill out and rivet on

 

[esoteric_rt]

Congrats,

I recently picked one up too and now near the end of a full strip down:

https://www.aussiearcade.com/forum/arcade/video-and-electromechanical-arcade-restoration-forum/2209518-sega-thunder-blade-dlx#post2214215

Sing out if you need any info

Luke

 

[Body pop]

You drove to Holland and it’s still in bits lol
You really do sound like you need to let some stuff go and make room
It’s so frustrating when you get bunged up with stuff ,you can’t work on it
Cool cab that ,not my fav sega game .but definitely worth having that deluxe model
Maybe I need to play it again ,I played it a good bit at the time .
I think maybe the master system version put me off it .

 

[Bods]

When Thunderblade was on Emulator it was great to see this game again, never had a go on it in Arcade, played it on C64

Always thought it was better than Afterburner, or it appealed to me more i probably should say, its the shift between view of behind to top down i thought was cool and flying between buildings but another game you cant really play in mame without proper controls

bought an upright originally, well swapped it for Sega Turbo, was converted Afterburner cab with Thunderblade kit fitted, then i bought this Deluxe so Converted Upright back to AB, its better that way as Thunderblade stickers cover the Lock On panel so not so good if you put AB pcb in to play. I sorted replacement monitor as that was only fault, got it all working and moved it to back corner to start new line up, left on for 20 mins, while sorting next cab to go in line, next thing Helicopter just goes up on its own and wont do anything else so still never really got to play it, then i filled the room so couldn't get to it.

Really should of had a good go on it before buying deluxe, not always a case of liking the game for me as not that good at playing some, if i'm hopeless at it then its probably not worth keeping just because i like the cabinet design when short on space, so time to get it together and have good blast on it. Was working when i bought it, though i suspect the Strobe Lights didnt woek

Interesting to see the difference in these cabs, see yours just has side Bars like on Manual Cover, mine has full flat step. Also the service manual shows the lower coin door other way round which yours is also, this one has standard double doors. Other UK one that sold a few years back on here had different variation again with seperate coin tower that bolts onside of where our doors are, that sticks out past the the bottom bars making it wider so glad i dont have that type, this also has slots on front higher up so you can put more coins in easier. Dont know what the button under that is for though

Yours is looking good Luke

be nice to see it finished

The manuals dont help much with assembly.

 

[Bods]

You drove to Holland and it’s still in bits lol
You really do sound like you need to let some stuff go and make room
It’s so frustrating when you get bunged up with stuff ,you can’t work on it
Cool cab that ,not my fav sega game .but definitely worth having that deluxe model
Maybe I need to play it again ,I played it a good bit at the time .

I think maybe the master system version put me off it .

I know, tell me about it. Thats when you think should i have really bought it to be in bits that long. Dinning table is going if i can sell it for decent price, thats space of a nice sitdown cab like this and probs small upright, table is to big for the area its in now as its 1m x 2m

Job i really need to do is move half machines out arcade building, get old carpet tiles up and new ones down, move rest to other side and do same, thats a good load gone and more money selling old ones, there taking up space of 2 cabs i bet and the porcelain tiles for extension another cab

 

[Hawkeye]

Wow..is this all complete & was it working!?...this is another favourite i remember playing!..its amazing what folks have here!...love these dedicated cabs.
Looking forward to some progression!.

 

[Bods]

Was all complete and working when I picked it up yeah

hopefully it will be again when I find everything and get it back together

While weather good yesterday I got stuff moved and carpet tiles in shed ready to clean so today if weather crap, and it is I can get one with this again. so just cleaned up the monitor to go back in, photo's arent great as it's dull day

 

[Hawkeye]

Ah, that's looking much better now..looks a decent crt..no burn ?.
I spent hours cleaning one recently..all day in fact, their nature attracts crap like a magnet!.

Keep em clean folks...prolongs life no-end.

 

[Bods]

I didn't think tube had any screen burn but it does very slighty, at some point the image must of been set very small as its got HIT in bottom right corner burnt in really small and much further in than should be, same top with score numbers etc and Insert Coins burn in middle but not bad at all for 1987 monitor

It has matching sega serial number on inside of cab and monitor frame so original monitor it came with

Should have it all together today and have proper go on it, only had couple of quick goes when i bought it

 

[Bods]

Monitor Back in, I did wonder if it was original monitor as it's not easy to get frame sides on these Hantarex past the brackets for glass but with matching serials and slight screen burn from the game its the original one, being made in england they often use these ones and the marks where it bolts in shows it was there from start.

Slight Burn in a few places but a really decent monitor and I try to keep many of my cabs with the MTC9000 chassis to make it easier for repairs

Put the brackets back top and bottom which also bolts in the monitor, flu tube clips and starter and the Screen mask fixes to them

The screen mask doesn't fit brilliant, things like this bug me, don't know if things get a bit warped, just didn't fit properly from new as there are no adjustments, maybe they made for different monitor and how they are, it's original though as it's got TB-3003 on back as in Manual, the bottom left corner is where the Official Sega Seal should be which is missing.

 

[Bods]

Luckily when I bought my Upright Thunder blade it was After Burner with TB kit, so when I converted it back to After Burner after getting this Thunder blade I took the Seal off and under it was orginal AB one so have this to put on it

cleaned old glue off and some double sided tape and put this one on, the numbers don't match up to anything like pcb anyway

This shows I haven't plugged it in, still euro plug on it

So with 3 pin plug on and Monitor all connected see if it still worked

Still working

Image is very wide though, turned width down all way, before I put all the monitor plastics back on with about 30 bolts it was time for Cap Replacement. Couple of leaky ones.

Now have border at each side, much better

slight adjustment on width and great working monitor

 

[_Matt_]

Thats great news that monitor and pcb are working after all this time well done! I remember seeing your post when you went to get it.
It was never one of my favourite games but I always loved getting in that cab when I was a kid. Very cool machine.

 

[Bods]

Yeah it's amazing really how many machines still work after a few years, always nice to plug in and go

Took dials out to clean them and the monitor surround, wondered what this button was for in middle of bottom plate, Thought it was supposed to be there as manual only shows drawings and looks like button in the middle of that plate but all I can find out is the istructions go there. took it out and clearly it's been done poor so shuldn't be there and it had Mains Cable to it,

Maybe it was connected to Coin Mech Switch to save using coins, too wires off for now leave button in

Another thing that I can't work out, the Price Plastic trim had bolts and nut on back, looking at others it should have Security Torx but what ever you use the nuts on back of plastic hits on Coin Mech Slot metal, really need to see inside of another one to get idea how it should be

scraped off the old double sided pads from cable clamps and replaced so I can reuse them

 

[Hawkeye]

Great work here... Almost ready for take-off!!

 

[Bods]

Great work here... Almost ready for take-off!!

Aye not far off

One thing I can't work out, think other cabs have same issue seeing pics of them on, someone solved the problem on this putting create paper above the monitor, as the light from the Tube shines through the gap and onto the top of the monitor, just wonder why they didn't have something to stop the light or have Tube higher up as there is space for it

Be nice to see pics of others, the manual is pretty useless.

Redone the cable ties for the light fitting

Can see the light shining throught the left and right top corners so need to address that issue

 

[Bods]

Think I should of put this in Artwork and Restorations, was only supposed to be putting together and thought i'd clean it while doing so, then I end up redoing things better, recapping monitor, repairing parts and it takes much longer than you think

Looks good with Dials lit, just need to address light leakage onto crt

Front section nearly done but need to sort couple of things on it so onto seat, this has wrong type screws in the sides of it. Front has original Security Torx but the rest I assume have been over tightened and threads stripped, 2 options are drill holes out and fit Rivet Nuts so original side Torx can be used or leave as is and use these Torx ones with right thread size

Seat plastic has worn grooves into the wood, sure thats wrong way round too. all needs cleaning, was bound to be some Chewing Gum somewhere, they should ban the stuff and cigarettes too, they have ruined so many things

 

[Bods]

All the wires are loose, so I've cleaned the old double sided pads off and applied some new to fix all the cable clips back in place, tapped out the threads as the philips screws didnt look good on threads

Took seat off and cleaned underneath

 

[Vamino]

Dunno how I missed this thread!

Nice job so far mate!

Man, it seems to be a common thing among arcade collectors to have cabs in bits for years. I've also got a couple here that have been in bits for years.