A few pics of my MVS-4-25 (ver. 3) - Big Red. Picked this up last month in Michigan (drove out from Windsor, Ont. in a rental pickup just to grab this) and have been in the process of trying to fix it up.
When I first got it the CP was full of crappy Happ rip-off buttons, but at least the sticks were Happ. Not that it mattered, everything felt very worn out and loose.
In the process of putting new buttons/sticks in the cab. I have a bunch of Seimitsu screw-in buttons I wanted to put in, but screw-ins don't fit in the holes!!!
So I used some barely used Hori proprietary buttons I ripped out of a Tekken 5 Anniversary stick (snap-ins) as place-holders. The white start/select buttons ARE Happ, which were spare from an old MAS arcade stick I was working on.
Externally, everything looks pretty good I think...
...except the previous owner ripped out the original wooden mounting board for the EL panels, put in his own lighting, and lost the red 4-slot header! He still had the original EL panels, but neglected to give them to me. When I asked if he actually had them, he said he would look and send em if he found em. Few weeks later I see he's selling them on ebay along with some MVS carts. What an asshole!
He also failed to mention that his retard sons smashed in the pins on the 1st slot in the 4-slot motherboard. Didn't discover that little gem till I got this thing home. After I figured it out, I called him on it and he refused to do anything about it. Didn't even apolgize.
Afterwards is when I noticed his auction with the El panels, overall - I'm not impressed.
My biggest regret is leaving him positive feedback before I realised what was up with the 4-slot!
I eventually replaced the motherboard, I bought new EL panels - I just need to get a new 4-slot header and fabricate a wooden mounting board that's somehwat close in style to the original.
The cab cost me $450 USD, and about $150 USD to drive out to Michigan and pick it up. Spent $130 USD for a new 4-slot board and $20 for the EL panels.
So roughly $750 - too much money in my opinion. Live and learn - I really wish I had just went all out and bought a really nice candy cab...