Derby King

The Derby King, manufactured by Western Products, Incorporated in November 1938, is an electro-mechanical one-ball payout machine from an era when coin-operated pin games were closely intertwined with gambling. One-ball games of this type gave the player a single ball per coin, with results determining a payout, and they were a staple of the late-1930s coin machine trade.

The playfield features 28 trap holes, the defining mechanic of this style of game: the ball settles into one of the holes, determining the outcome of the play. The machine was housed in a console cabinet, a furniture-style format used for payout games of the period. Information on the game's theme and designer is scarce, leaving enthusiasts to focus on its place within the payout-game market of its day.

Despite limited documentation, the Derby King remains an intriguing piece of the early pinball canon. Its manufacturer, Western Products, Incorporated, operated only from 1938 to 1941, making surviving examples of the company's work relatively uncommon and of interest to collectors and historians of the pre-war coin machine industry.