Euro Star

Euro Star, sold under the trade name Skillpins by Collins Entertainment, Inc. of Greenville, South Carolina, is not an original pinball design but a conversion of an unidentified bingo machine manufactured by WIMI, whose logo remains visible on the coin door. Dating to roughly the 1990s, Collins imported bingo machines and added a single flipper to the playfield, a modification that reclassified the games as flipper pinballs for licensing purposes rather than the more heavily regulated flipperless bingo machines. A large 'SKILL FLIPPER' sticker on the backbox was used to call attention to the added flipper.

The game plays five balls per turn across a field of 25 trap holes, typical of its bingo-machine origins. Collins also fitted these conversions with a printer that issued redeemable merchandise tickets for credits won, tying the machine to the redemption/skill-game market rather than traditional competitive pinball.

Little else is documented about Euro Star specifically -- its exact production year and the identity of the original WIMI bingo title are unknown -- but it stands as an interesting example of how bingo-pinball hybrids were adapted to fit American licensing rules in the late 20th century.