Lucky Star

Lucky Star, manufactured by the Lucky Star Manufacturing Company of Baltimore, Maryland in February 1932, is a pure mechanical counter game from the earliest days of the coin-operated amusement boom. Interestingly, the short-lived company, which appears to have operated only in 1932, also made a full pin table under the same 'Lucky Star' name but with a very different playfield, so the two games are easily confused.

This tabletop version carries a football theme and offers 10 balls for 5 cents, with players aiming for any of 46 trap holes scattered across the playfield. The abundance of trap holes gave every ball a wide range of possible outcomes, which was the core appeal of these simple counter games in the era before flippers and electric scoring.

The cabinet was advertised at 31 inches long, 16 1/2 inches wide, and 39 inches high, weighing just 36 pounds, compact enough to sit on a store counter. As an artifact of pinball's formative first years, Lucky Star offers a glimpse of the small regional manufacturers that briefly flourished as the industry took shape.