Gold Star

The Gold Star bagatelle from Lindstrom Tool and Toy Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut is a modest, single-player amusement device from the early-to-mid 1930s. Its precise manufacture date is uncertain, but two distinct versions are documented: a square-top metal model, estimated circa the 1930s, measuring 15 1/4 by 9 1/2 inches with no game listed on its reverse side, and a later square-top wood model, estimated 1935 or later, built on a Masonite board measuring 24 by 14 1/4 inches with no label.

Like most bagatelles of this period, gameplay likely involved a simple plunger mechanism sending a ball around a fixed pin layout toward scoring targets, predating the electromechanical and flipper innovations that would come to define pinball later in the decade. Little further documentation survives about the game's specific design, artwork, or original packaging.

As one of Lindstrom's smaller and less-documented offerings, this Gold Star model offers a glimpse into the variety of low-cost bagatelle games the company produced during the Depression era, though much about its history remains uncertain.