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Grandstand Munchman General Maintenance

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TOMY LSI PACMAN handheld electronic game
Tomy's Puck Man, the Japanese release of the game Grandstand sold in the UK as Munchman. Grandstand's version has the same round yellow case with a "Munchman" sticker above the window (うぃき野郎, retouched by Pittigrilli; CC BY-SA 4.0).

Care, cleaning and dismantling of the Grandstand Munchman, the round yellow tabletop Pac-Man game with a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) that Tomy made in Japan and Grandstand sold in the UK. Tomy sold the same game as Pac Man in the USA, Puckman in the UK and Puck Man in Japan; the versions differ only in the name sticker, the instructions on the base and the packaging, so everything below applies to all of them.[1][2] No Grandstand or Tomy service manual has been found. What follows is drawn from Tomy's instruction sheet, the MAME driver notes, and four owners' repair write-ups and videos, two of them on Grandstand-branded Munchmans. Faults are on Grandstand Munchman Troubleshooting Guide and the electrolytic capacitors on Grandstand Munchman Capacitor Replacement Guide.

What is inside

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Munchman construction
Part What it is Source
Case Two round yellow shells. The base holds the battery box and the boards; the top shell carries the smoked window and a black control panel insert Videos and photographs[3][1]
Main board Marked TN-08 TOMY 2E108E01; NEC D553C 160 microcontroller; the display supply (a blue transformer, a TO-126 power transistor and a few small parts) at one end MAME, photographs[2][4][5]
Display NEC FIP8AM18T VFD with eight grids, held at its ends in black rubber blocks; every position of Pac-Man, the monsters and the dots is printed on it MAME, photographs[2][6]
Control board Marked 2E108E02 TN-08; contact pads under a grey rubber key mat for the four direction keys; contact tracks for the two slide switches; a W06A diode between pads marked AC GND and GND; joined to the main board by a six-way flat cable Photographs[4][5]
Switch carrier Yellow plastic frame, screwed down over the boards, that guides the white keys and the red slide-switch knobs (AMA/PRO and OFF/ON) Photographs and video[4][3]
Sound Piezo sounder Ingmar's Retroblog[4]
Power Four C cells in series (6 V) in the base, or an adaptor through a socket in the case rim Tomy leaflet, blogs[7][4][6]

Before you start

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  • Take the four C cells out before opening the game.
  • Photograph each stage. The white keys, their rubber mat and the red switch knobs are loose once the top shell is off.[3]
  • A second, scrap Munchman or Tomy Pac Man is the best source of spares: the microcontroller, the display and the rubber parts only come from another copy of this game.[2][8][9]

Opening the case

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  1. Switch off and remove the battery cover. Tomy's leaflet says to turn the game over and push the cover in the direction of the arrow to slide it open.[7] Take out the cells.
  2. Remove the screws that hold the two shells together. They sit at the bottom of holes in the base.[3][10]
  3. Turn the game the right way up and lift the top shell off. The window and the black panel stay in the top shell; the keys and switch knobs may fall out.[3]
  4. Inside, the display tube lies across the battery-box moulding in its rubber end blocks, and the yellow switch carrier is screwed down over the boards. Leads run from the boards to the battery terminals, the DC socket in the rim and the piezo sounder.[3][1]
  5. To reach the control board, unscrew the switch carrier. The control board and the main board stay joined by the flat cable; lift them together and do not bend the cable at its joints.[3][5]
  6. The main board and the display come out as one unit; the tube's pins are soldered into the board.[4]

Handle the display by its rubber end blocks. It is a glass vacuum tube with a sealed glass tip at one end; a crack lets air in and the tube will never light again. No new replacement tube is known; a broken one can only be replaced from another Munchman or one of Tomy's releases of the game.[2]

Reassemble in reverse. Check that the slide-switch knobs engage the switch sliders and that the keys sit square in the rubber mat before closing the shells.

Batteries and contacts

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Tomy Pac Man Instructions battery compartment drawing
The battery box under the base: four C cells in two rows. "Illustration 2" from Tomy's US Pac Man leaflet.
  • The game takes four C cells, fitted as the moulding shows, in two rows. Tomy recommends long-life or alkaline cells.[7]
  • Leaking cells are the commonest damage. On the Puckman restored by Ingmar's Retroblog a previous owner had left the cells in; the battery box needed the most work and was cleaned with gall soap, a brush and abrasive paper.[4] Neutralise and clean the residue as described on Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage, then follow the battery leads to the board and check them for green, broken copper.
  • Clean the spring and flat contacts back to bright metal. If the plating has gone, replace the contact: a rough surface corrodes again quickly.
  • Tomy's care notes: take the cells out when the game is put away, and never leave dead cells in it.[7]

The DC socket and adaptors

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  • Tomy's US leaflet specifies an adaptor of 7.5 V DC, 200 mA, with a 2.1 mm coaxial plug, tip (centre) negative, and names the Archer 270-1551 A and Recoton AD-10UL. Unplug it when the game is not in use.[7] Centre negative is the reverse of most modern adaptors: measure the plug before connecting it.
  • Four C cells give 6 V. The windytan blog ran a Puckman from a 6 V DC adaptor wired to the battery terminals.[6] Grandstand's own Munchman leaflet has not been found, so the setting it gave for the Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor is not known.
  • The socket also switches the cells: with no plug in, its internal contact connects the battery box. A worn or damaged socket can leave the game running only from an adaptor.[11] On one Grandstand Munchman every insertion of the plug pushed the socket's pin out of place and the cells stopped working; a new socket cured it.[3] Test the game on cells alone as well as on an adaptor.
  • The control board carries a W06A diode between the pads marked AC GND and GND, in the adaptor's return path.[4]
  • One Korean repairer fitted a miniature (pico) fuse in the supply lead of a Tomy Puck Man after repairing its board.[5]
  • Wrong adaptors are the commonest cause of damage to VFD tabletop games in general, usually a blown transistor.[9]

Keys and switches

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  • The four direction keys press a grey rubber mat onto contact pads on the control board. The mat's contact points carry a conductive coating that wears. Ingmar's Retroblog cleaned the pads and the mat and re-coated the mat's contact points with a soft graphite pencil.[4]
  • Clean the board's pads with isopropyl alcohol on a lint-free swab. Do not scrape them.
  • The AMA/PRO and OFF/ON knobs move sliders whose wipers run on contact tracks printed on the control board. Clean the tracks and the wipers; analo9 cleaned the switch contacts on a Puck Man that would not switch on.[4][5]

Window, panel and sticker

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  • The smoked window scratches and sometimes cracks. Small scratches polish out; cracks cannot be repaired.[11]
  • The window and the black panel are held in the top shell by heat-staked plastic pegs. On a Grandstand Munchman, retro_restos cut the pegs, wet-sanded the window with abrasive paper and polished it, touched up the panel's white lettering with a paint marker, and glued both parts back with hot glue.[3] Once the pegs are cut, the parts have to be glued back.
  • The "Munchman" name sticker above the window fades, peels or goes missing; keep solvents and polish away from it.[11]
  • Wash the plastic shells in warm water with a little detergent once all the electronics are out, as analo9 did, and dry them fully before reassembly.[5]

Display

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  • MAME's notes on these NEC tubes record that the phosphor colours fade after decades.[2] A faded display is wear, not a fault that can be cleaned away.
  • Keep the tube clean with a soft dry cloth; never press on the glass tip at its end.

Storage

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Tomy's care list: keep the game away from heat (a car glove compartment on a hot day, a heater vent) and extreme cold, keep it dry and clean, do not shake or drop it, switch it off after use, and take the cells out before storing it.[7]

Maintenance checklist

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  1. Cells out; inspect the battery box and its leads for leakage.
  2. Clean the battery contacts.
  3. Test on fresh cells alone, then on a measured 6-7.5 V, centre-negative supply.
  4. If it works only on the adaptor, replace or repair the DC socket.
  5. Clean the key pads, the rubber mat and the slide-switch tracks if any control is unreliable.
  6. Polish the window only if scratched; protect the name sticker.
  7. Store with the cells out.
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Handheld Museum, "Tomy Pac Man, Etc." and "Guts" (retrieved 2026-10-18): model TKY-7612, four C cells; the Pac Man, Puckman, Puck Man and Munchman releases are "identical except for the sticker with the name on it, and the instructions on the bottom"; "Munchman was released in the U.K. by Grandstand (but says Tomy on the bottom.)". The Guts page photographs a Tomy Pac Man with its top removed: the VFD in black end blocks above the board, the control board with its contact pads, and leads to the battery box and the socket.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 MAME source, hh_ucom4.cpp (retrieved 2026-10-18). Driver notes for Tomy Pac-Man: made in Japan; PCB label TN-08 2E108E01; NEC uCOM-43 microcontroller labelled D553C 160, 1-bit sound; cyan/red/green VFD NEC FIP8AM18T no. 2-21; bright yellow round casing; releases Puck Man (Tomy, Japan), Pac Man (Tomy, USA), Puckman (Tomy, UK) "and also published by Grandstand as Munchman", Pac Man-1 (Futuretronics, Australia); "The game will start automatically after turning it on"; dots can only be eaten going right to left. The machine configuration clocks the D553 at 430 kHz. File header: NEC FIP part numbers give the number of grids after "FIP"; "after decades passed, all the colors fade".
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 retro_restos, "Munchman Pacman Grandstand VFD Tabletop Game Repair. No power and Scratched Screen Repair", YouTube, 7 April 2023, 21:47 (watched 2026-10-18; no transcript available, facts taken from the frames and the burned-in captions). A Grandstand-branded Munchman that worked on an adaptor but not on batteries. On-screen caption at about 6:10: "I managed to briefly get the batteries to work, but every time I plugged the power jack in, it moved the pin and the batteries wouldn't work again. I ordered a new jack socket". Shown: screws taken out through holes in the base (4:05) and the top shell lifted off (4:22); inside, the VFD in black end blocks over the battery-box moulding, the yellow switch and key carrier screwed down over the boards, and the DC socket in a slot in the case rim with its leads (5:00-5:48); the old socket removed and a new one wired in (7:50-8:40); the smoked window and black panel, held in the top shell by heat-staked pegs, freed with a rotary tool (11:30-11:40), wet-sanded and polished (13:00-16:24), the panel lettering touched up with a white paint marker and the parts refitted with hot glue (16:48-18:30).
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 Ingmar's Retroblog, "„Puckman" (oder „PackMan")?", 26 May 2020 (in German; retrieved 2026-10-18). Restoration of a Tomy Puckman (model TKY-7612) with photographs: four C cells in series, 6 V, plus a socket for a plug-in adaptor; four white direction keys and two slide switches (power and difficulty); NEC μPD553C, whose outputs drive the VFD segments directly at about 30-38 V while the chip itself runs from up to 10 V DC, clocked between 150 and 440 kHz; a small discrete DC-DC converter (a transformer with a driver transistor) supplies the display; sound from a piezo sounder; the keys are on a separate board whose contact areas are closed by a rubber membrane with a conductive coating. The game was taken fully apart and every part cleaned; the membrane's contact points were re-coated with a soft graphite pencil. Most work was in the battery box, where a previous owner had left the cells to leak; it was cleaned with gall soap, a brush and abrasive paper. The boards were cleaned with alcohol. Photographs at full size (4000 × 3000 originals) show the main board marked TN-08 TOMY 2E108E01 JAPAN, the D553C 160, a blue transformer and a TO-126 power transistor at the board edge, a lying 3.3 µF 50 V electrolytic, the control board marked 2E108E02 with a W06A diode beside the AC and ground pads, the rubber key pad, and the slide-switch carrier with its contacts.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 analo9 (아날로그 탐구생활), "1981 토미 LSI 휴대용 게임기(팩맨 Pac-Man)", Naver blog, 25 May 2022 (in Korean; retrieved 2026-10-18). Repair of a boxed Tomy Puck Man that would not switch on even from an adaptor: control switches removed and contacts cleaned; supply DC 6 V; piezo buzzer; plastics washed; NEC D553C 4-bit 42-pin microcontroller and NEC VFD; board repaired and tested, display brightness checked; "a pico fuse connected for circuit protection" in the supply lead. Photograph 23 (1280 px) shows the component side legibly: TN-08 TOMY JAPAN 2E108E01; resistor networks EXBR89154M and EXBR86473M; C2785 transistor; 1SS53 and W06C diodes; RD12EB3 zener; SL121J and FZ223Z capacitors; resonator position CSB400P; a 2.2 µF 50 V electrolytic beside the W06C; a grey NTK electrolytic beside the C2785; D553C 160 lot E2464D-218. Photograph 21 shows the ribbon cable from the control board to the main board.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 windytan (Oona Räisänen), "Tomy Electronic PUCKMAN", May 2013 (retrieved 2026-10-18). A Tomy Puckman bought at a flea market: D-pad controls, on/off and AMA/PRO switches; VFD with every sprite position pre-printed; main chip marked D553C-160 (photograph shows "NEC JAPAN 8228EK D553C 160" and the board silkscreen PCJTN-08); four C cells, 6 V, or an AC adapter; run from a 6 V DC adapter "hooked up to the battery terminals"; the sound is "very loud".
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Tomy Corporation, Tomytronic Pac Man instruction sheet, copyright 1981, Carson, California, printed in Japan; the US edition of the leaflet for the game Grandstand sold as Munchman. Hosted here as File:Tomy Pac Man Instructions.pdf. Page 1: controls drawing (game selector switch AMA/PRO, ON-OFF power switch, four PAC MAN control buttons); "Insert batteries": turn the power switch off, turn the game over and push the battery cover in the direction of the arrow to slide it open; four C cells, long-life or alkaline recommended; recommended AC adapters Archer cat. no. 270-1551 A and Recoton AD-10UL; adapter requirements 7.5 V DC 200 mA, 2.1 mm ID coaxial plug, tip (centre) negative; "Taking care of your game": no excessive heat or cold (car glove compartment, heater vent), avoid wet or dirt, "Don't take it apart", don't shake or drop, turn off and remove the batteries for storage, no dead batteries left in; "If the batteries become weak the display screen will become dark and show incorrect action". Page 2: unplug the adapter when not in use and use no other adapter; switching on plays a fanfare and shows P-01 with the remaining Pac-Men and the number of monsters; the game begins when the monsters flash; Pac-Man cannot eat bait behind it; two monsters in segments 1-3 on AMA, three from segment 4, three throughout on PRO; when all Pac-Men are lost "the game screen will flicker until the power switch is turned off".
  8. ↑ Handheld Museum forum, "Invaders from Space repair", December 2019 (retrieved 2026-10-18). While repairing an Invader From Space (TDK FCR 400 400 kHz resonator), the owner notes he could not borrow the oscillator from his Munchman because "the Munchman uses a 430 kHz oscillator"; the site administrator notes that the game microcontrollers are specific to each game, so a replacement must come from another copy.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Handheld Museum forum, "Astro wars / galaxy ii repair", December 2018 - February 2019 (retrieved 2026-10-18). The site administrator (Rik), writing about VFD tabletop games in general: the wrong AC adapter "will usually fry" a transistor, "the most frequent damage I've seen to VFD games"; keep rubber buttons, springs and speakers from scrapped games as spares.
  10. ↑ Retro Tech Repair, "Fixing a Broken 80s Pacman Game (It Went Horribly Wrong)", YouTube, 13 December 2018, 17:30 (watched 2026-10-18; no transcript available). A non-working Grandstand Munchman bought on eBay ("Pacman - Tomy Munchman Grandstand Electronic Game"). Shown: base screws removed and the board lifted out; about 6.0 V measured on the supply; the TO-126 power transistor tested out of circuit with a 2SD882 data sheet on the bench, and a TO-92 transistor tested with an NPN data sheet; the display lit on the bench after repair and the game playing at the end. The video does not state on screen which part was faulty.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Retro Games Now, "Grandstand Munchman 80's handheld review", 17 March 2012, value section updated July 2024 (retrieved 2026-10-18). Collector's review: the Grandstand, Tomy Pac Man and Puck Man versions differ only in the name sticker and packaging; buying checks: "the screens can become scratched and sometimes crack, although smaller scratches can be polished out, cracks cannot be repaired"; the sticker above the screen "can fade, peel or end up missing"; "Check that the game powers up under battery power alone as well as via transformer ... if the power connector is damaged it can lock the game in 'mains power only' mode"; Munchman "always faces to the left" and can only eat going left.


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