Baby Flip

The Baby Flip is a rare and intriguing electro-mechanical pinball machine from Stella Baby-Foot, a French foosball-table manufacturer of Tourcoing, France, in business since 1928. No exact date is known for this game, but since 3-inch pinball flippers first appeared in the late 1960s, Baby Flip is believed to date from around that era.

The cabinet resembles a foosball table: balls are dropped into a trough at the start of play, and each player removes a ball and drops it through a hole in the cabinet wall onto a playfield that is otherwise bare except for eight 3-inch flippers, four red and four yellow. This is a head-to-head design in which two players at opposite ends of the playfield compete simultaneously; each player's flipper buttons control only the flippers facing their opponent, so the aim is to flip the ball back across the table at your rival. A bead counter in front of each player keeps score, and a large round applique bearing the Baby Flip and Stella names covers the ridge across the mid-playfield.

Despite its rarity and obscurity, the Baby Flip remains an unusual artifact in pinball history thanks to its head-to-head, foosball-inspired design. Little else is known about this machine beyond its basic specifications, leaving much to be discovered by enthusiasts who come across it.