We phoned around all over europe, but it showed out that nearly all booth operators had already switched to digital, and, horrible as it is, thrown away and destroyed the older machines. After a phase of disenchantment, we did some more desperate calls in Moscow, and it showed out that one - the last - M-22 had escaped the massacre by miracle, and was standing in the rain in the courtyard of a former soviet ball-bearing plant - some 2000 meters from our own house. We acquired it for a modest amount of money.

Inside was a mayhem: flash generator and capacitors were stolen, as well as nearly all plugs, switches and other somehow vendible equipment, most of the cable harnesses were dumbly cut through. The mechanics (transmission, spider, paper transport, even camera) though were intact.

Then followed three months of work in the evenings in a rusty soviet garage. We got a flash from an operator in europe, rebuilt all the rest ourselves, including wiring, money accepting system, outside decoration etc. etc.