Magic Pins

"Magic Pins" is an electro-mechanical (EM) payout machine manufactured by Rock-ola Manufacturing Corporation in January 1937, during the early, pre-flipper era of pinball (flippers would not be introduced until 1947). By this time, other manufacturers such as Bally and Gottlieb had already been producing pinball machines for several years, so Magic Pins is best understood as part of that established early wave rather than a machine that predates them.

Very little detail survives about Magic Pins' specific gameplay features, playfield layout, or artwork. As a pre-flipper payout machine, play would have relied on the ball's path through pins and obstacles rather than player-controlled flippers, with the operator paying out winnings based on the result.

Rock-ola Manufacturing Corporation was one of several companies producing coin-operated pinball machines during the 1930s, and Magic Pins offers a glimpse into that competitive early landscape. Its rarity and the scarcity of surviving documentation add to its mystique for collectors and historians of early pinball.