Mandalay

Mandalay, released by Nate Schneller Incorporated (trade name Nasco) in November 1949, is notable as one of the earliest conversion kits in pinball history. Rather than a standalone cabinet, it was Schneller's first conversion kit, consisting of a new backglass, bumper caps, and three score cards designed to convert an existing game -- it was previously thought to be based on Genco's 1948 'Trade Winds', and surviving examples show it installed in Trade Winds cabinets, sometimes requiring wood shims to fit the taller of Genco's two Trade Winds backbox variants.

Mandalay's gameplay features two flippers and nine scoring bumpers, along with a kick-out hole, providing a variety of ways to accumulate points on top of whatever base game it was converted from. Its World Places theme is reflected in the exotic destination name, typical of the era's evocative theming.

Because two different Trade Winds cabinet artworks exist, Mandalay games can be found with either style of cabinet art beneath the conversion backglass -- an interesting quirk for collectors trying to identify authentic examples of this early conversion-kit approach to pinball manufacturing.