Taeyoung Fanta Lever Black (Original made by Taeyoung Company)

The Taeyoung Fanta has been regarded as the original Fanta Lever. In Arcades throughout South Korea, "Copper Contact Levers" were common among arcade cabinets. These levers had leaf switches and were silent in use. While still using grommets for tension, these levers did not provide a click or any feedback for input actuation. Fantasia Arcade, a famous arcade in South Korea among Tekken enthusiasts, was known for having a specific lever that had a clicky feedback, utilized grommet based tension, full collar, and integral bat top. This lever was the Taeyoung Fanta. Others, like Myoungshin and Samducksa (Crown) replicated the lever design, but the Taeyoung is known to be the original. Since its use in the Fantasia Arcade was so popular, it was referred to as the "Fantasy/Fanta" Lever. Over the years, other brands referred to their levers as "Fanta" or "Fanta style" to depict that their lever used the same design as the famous Fantasia Arcade levers. Examples include the Crown 305M (Fanta) and even the 303N that was marketed as "Fanta" lever, regardless of its grommet system. 

In the current era, levers that utilize the same style of grommet as the Taeyoung are recognized as a "Fanta" lever, since the inherent design is based on the Taeyoung and Myoungshin Fantas. In contract, the circular style grommet used by Samducksa (Crown) provides a design lineage to "Crown" Style levers. 

Once Fantasia Arcade closed, as well as Taeyoung halting their production of levers, the legendary "Taeyoung Fanta" was difficult to find and became a rare collective. The owner/found of Etokki, nicknamed "Laugh", started a company to make fightsticks. We know this as Etokki, who made the popular Etokki Omni Arcade stick. Originally furnished with Myoungshin Fantas (the argued successor of Taeyoung), Etokki was able to purchase the Taeyoung Fanta mold from the original company. Etokki began producing the Taeyoung Fanta and a Low Collar HEMI Varaint of the Taeyoung. The Etokki Fanta is almost an exact copy of the original Taeyoung, with added switch stabilizers and some quality control improvements. Therefore, most of the Taeyoung Fantas seen today were made by Etokki.

However, this lever was purchased with a batch of other Taeyoung Fantas from an older gentleman residing in South Korea, who is a retired Arcade Manager. Due to his excess stock of these old levers, he sold us a lot of these levers. Some were in 100% original form (old hardware, factory grommet, early generation Gersung A2 switches) and others were modified by him to his preferences for cabinet use (Gersung A3, Panasonic, or OMRON switches, Grommets with punched holes for diagonals, and updated hardware). Regardless of his modifications, the entire batch of levers were original Taeyoung Fanta Levers purchased many years before Etokki started to recreate the lever.  

As a collector, I only keep 1 of any item for myself. I kept a one red, one green, and one black top of this lever for my own collection, and gifted the others to friends. I had one lever left that I decided to list for sale. The pictured lever is the remaining item.

- Taeyoung Fanta Lever (Original)
- Green Fixed Bat Top Shaft
- Gersung A3 Swtiches
- Updated Hardware
- Modified Grommet

If I acquire another Taeyoung, I will add a stock quantity with updated photos to this listing.

Cheers!

This item is a "FLASH SALE" listing (minimum quantity available with no plan to restock).

Makai Arcade occasionally acquires discontinued arcade parts as we purchase inventory for arcade cabinet repair, lever research, or collector inquires. This listing was last live on 7-04-2025 for 1 item available. If the item is out of stock, you can check back in to see if stock is available at a later date or subscribe to get notifications for stock updates. 

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