Mike & Ike

Mike & Ike is an early and rare example of pinball, manufactured by R.H. Osbrink Manufacturing Company in Los Angeles from 1932 to 1933. This Pure Mechanical (PM) table-top/counter game dates from August 1932, placing it among the wave of copycat games that followed the runaway success of Gottlieb's 1931 'Baffle Ball.' According to the Encyclopedia of Pinball, Mike & Ike's playfield was itself a copy of Gottlieb's 1932 'Five Star Final Jr.' Unlike Gottlieb, Raymond Osbrink patented his design (Patent D87,938, granted October 1932), and later licensed it for use in Lindstrom's 1934 'Gold Star.'

In terms of gameplay, little detail survives about Mike & Ike's mechanics beyond its classification as a single-player, pure mechanical counter game, typical of the compact, coin-operated bagatelle-style machines of the era. Its small table-top format made it suitable for placement on store counters rather than the floor-standing cabinets that would become standard later in the decade.

Unfortunately, very little additional information has surfaced regarding Mike & Ike's design and production run, making it a true point of interest for collectors and historians researching the earliest days of coin-operated pinball, and the wave of patent and copycat disputes that shaped the industry's formative years.