Circus-Junior

The Circus-Junior, manufactured by Tura Automatenfabrik Gmbh of Leipzig, Germany in August 1933, is an example of early European pinball manufacturing. It is also sometimes found listed under the name C.M. Schwarz G.M.B.H. of Leipzig, reportedly an earlier name used by the same manufacturer.

The Circus-Junior's gameplay details are largely undocumented, but it operates as a Pure Mechanical (PM) machine -- meaning it relies solely on mechanical components such as pins, gates, and gravity to guide the ball around the playfield, without any electrical parts, and predating the invention of the flipper by more than a decade.

Despite a lack of information on its theme or design, the Circus-Junior's age and provenance make it an interesting subject for collectors and historians. Its rarity is matched by the scarcity of documentation surrounding early European pinball machines generally, making examples like this valuable to our understanding of the game's evolution.