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I consider myself still a newbie, even though I've only been into this great hobby for only 7 yrs. I have learned a lot from this site and the guys that have been doing this for almost a lifetime and their knowledge has help me when looking at machines. So the other day I drove 110 miles to look at a Jennings Sun Chief light up. The guy selling it has been selling and repairing for over 40 yrs. and wanted $2500 for it. Prior to going there, he sent me some pics and we talked about how it is all original, so anyway I took the bait. As soon as I saw the back door it had only the "J" not the "ODJ" emblem embossed on the door which is a UK door, when I opened it I needed a pair of sunglasses because the chrome shined so bright and the parts look like the machine was never played, the bonnet weighed about 2oz, no numbers on the case, no stickers inside and the mech had some numbers stamped on the back to the far left that were all cockeyed ,so I was kinda of pissed because my trip will be over 220 miles and tolls. When I explained to him that I think this is a total repro mech, and worth about 1500 bucks if that much, he played the I didn't know that card, come on "REALLY" over 40yrs in the business and a house full of high end machines and you couldn't tell a fake from a real one. So my question is because I can be wrong did Jennings make Repro Sun Chiefs. Of course I left and didn't buy it....

Hans Havilicek made reproduced castings. Pretty sure he made them so it was unmistakable they were his creations. I have no idea where his mechanisms came from.

THE PICTURE OF THE SUN CHIEF DOOR IS CORRECT AND IT SHOULD HAVE AN ACE LOCK. THE ODJ DOORS WERE USED ON THE VICTORY CHIEF THRU STANDARD CHIEF SERIES. THE SERIES OF MACHINE MODELS OVERLAPPED BY A FEW YEARS BUT THE DOORS REMAINED PROPER TO THE SERIES MODELS. SO NO J DOORS ON VICTORY OR STANDARD CHIEF SERIES. NO ODJ DOORS ON LATE MODEL LIGHT UP SUN CHIEFS.

Interesting thread as I also just looked at a Hans Havilchek fifty cent and dollar light-up recently. Very much like this quarter machine - they looked and were brand new gorgeous machines. I really wanted the machines but had no idea on the value of Havilchek repos - quarter fifty cent or dollar. Any one care to estimate value of the Havilchek machines?

flipper77 wrote:Interesting thread as I also just looked at a Hans Havilchek fifty cent and dollar light-up recently. Very much like this quarter machine - they looked and were brand new gorgeous machines. I really wanted the machines but had no idea on the value of Havilchek repos - quarter fifty cent or dollar. Any one care to estimate value of the Havilchek machines?

Hey flipper, they are absolutely beautiful, I owned one of his Jennings Golden Nugget dollar machines and loved it!
Story I heard was he created these so others could enjoy owning a reproduction GN because obtaining an original was nearly impossible. My ponder is, where did the mechs come from? How about the back doors? Wood cabinets could easily be reproduced. Surely these mechanisms could not have been reproduced, that would seem quite labor intensive to recreate entire mechanisms. As far as values are concerned, I believe they are of the finest quality and as long as they are presented as being what they are should garner a good price, maybe even match the price of an original Jennings light up, sun chief standard chief etc. HH Jennings Golden Nugget machines would never be as expensive as an original nor should they be, but in my opinion, the quality of the build does make it a desirable machine. The HH machines are not typical knock off machines like so many of the Mills knockoffs that are just pure junk, Aikens front knockoffs, golden nugget knockoffs etc.
I know the HH molds for the castings still exist, they were here in Northern California but I believe they were sold to another collector. Would be interesting to get more information on Hans Havilcek, there must be some here on the forum that knew him.