ZOLTAR SPEAKS is wishing (or fortune-telling) machine form Tom Hank’s 1988 film “BIG”. Here it inserts a quarter, or 25 cents, into it, aims the ramp at Zoltar’s mouth, makes a wish, presses a red button to release the coin, throws the coin in Zoltar’s mouth, and tosses out a card that says, “YOUR WISH IS GRANTED”. This version of ZOLTAR SPEAKS is very rare.
Another fortune-telling machine is ZOLTAN way back 1969, which was NOT in the movie.
Here it inserts a dime, or 10 cents, picks up a telephone, presses a button on the bottom scale, lights up the crystal ball, and tells your fortune through the phone.
ZOLTAR and ZOLTAN sound alike, don’t they? Well, that doesn’t mean the 2 machines are identical. They are pretty much different from each other.
Zoltar moves his head up and down, but the only sound he makes is breathing. Zoltan talks completely, but he’s nots mechanical or animated, which means he does not move at all.
Zoltar has a hat that is genie-ish. Zoltan’s hat is sort of egyptian-ish.
ZOLTAR SPEAKS shoots out cards. ZOLTAN does NOT shoot out cards.
ZOLTAR SPEAKS a practically like a long rectangle throughout the entire machine. ZOLTAN is practically like a small box on a pole.
ZOLTAN has a crystal ball. ZOLTAR SPEAKS has NO crystal ball.
ZOLTAR SPEAKS costs a quarter. ZOLTAN costs a dime.
The next 2 videos down below show how ZOLTAR SPEAKS works.
And another video down below explains you ZOLTAN works. Notice ZOLTAN is between a bunch of other fortune tellers, and none of them are ZOLTAR SPEAKS.
Starting at 0:15 in the ZOLTAN video, the guy even stated,
“….This is NOT to be confused with the one in the Tom Hanks movie “BIG”. That is ZOLTAR SPEAKS, not ZOLTAN. As this one clearly says, “ZOLTAN”. Okay, they are not the same, and this one was NOT in the movie. The one in the movie was actually a custom-made fortune teller, and it was not available commercially…..”
The only place on Earth where you can find BOTH of these machines is at the Kilroy’s slot machine store in the Warehouse district of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
(ZOLTAN and ZOLTAR SPEAKS as they appear at Kilroy’s Minneapolis shops.)
(Notice that the phone in ZOLTAN has only half of a phone, but I still think they’re both very cool!) BUT…. if you get very, very close-up to the ZOLTAN photo, it just actually costs 25 cents, just like ZOLTAR SPEAKS….
You’d probably remember ZOLTAR SPEAKS and ZOLTAN when I talked about ZOLTAR SPEAKS in one of my previous posts-and you never know-I just MIGHT do a post all about ZOLTAN sometime in the future! I bet Zoltan sees me doing his post through his crystal ball.
But for now I’ll say that THIS post is finished, and just wait until you see my further posts and updates!
CATCH MY OTHER POSTS!