Lucky Strike

The Lindstrom Tool and Toy Company's Lucky Strike is a rare and enigmatic artifact from the early days of pin-game history. As one of the pioneering manufacturers of Pure Mechanical (PM) games, Lindstrom's output was limited in scope and duration, producing games only between 1932 and 1934. Lucky Strike was released as part of the "Gold Chest of Games," a boxed set of three double-sided games alongside Gold Star/Backgammon and Bank Shot/Checkers, with a horse-race game reportedly on its reverse side; each panel measures about 15 1/4" x 9 1/2". Two versions are known: one with a lock on the box and one without.

As a Pure Mechanical bagatelle, gameplay on Lucky Strike would have relied on a manual plunger to send a metal ball into a scoring layout — this predates the pinball flipper, which wasn't invented until 1947, so no flipper-based play would have been part of the experience. Players would have needed a steady hand and an understanding of the table's layout to score well, typical of tabletop bagatelle games from this period.

No date appears printed on any of the Gold Chest of Games titles, and detailed records or images of Lucky Strike specifically are scarce. Despite these gaps, its status as part of an early boxed game set from one of the pioneering pin-game makers of the 1930s makes it an intriguing subject for collectors researching the pre-flipper roots of pinball.