I have a 1934 Pamco Contact Master. Does that count as a bagatelle? My friends and I love playing dollar games on it. Terry from Pinball Life liked it so much he remanufactured it!

I have 1930's pins but as far as actual bagatelle's I have a 1876 M. Redgrave bagatelle that I bought at a local auction for $55.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

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I own 3 of them, and I manufactured ScoreGasm Master, as Yancy noted.

Does Catacomb count?

I used to own about 125 bagatelles including an early 1800's bagatelle that folded up so that it looked like a side table. Unfortunately they all burned up in two separate fires that destroyed my home and my warehouse about 12-14 years ago. I now have about 25. The ones I find most interesting are the one that are home versions of 1930's pin games. I have home versions of Five Star Final, Baffle Ball, Ballyhoo, Hy-Ball, Steeple Chase. Others are unofficial copies of coin-up pin games like Kick-Back which is a bagatelle version of Exhibit's Rebound. There even was an Electric Kick-Back.

I used to collect them many, many years ago. My constraint was no plastic ones. So only the wooden ones from the 30's and 40's with open playfield tops or glass enclosed. Had a few dozen at one point, but sold them all off except for maybe 8-10 to use as wall hangers. I'd gotten into researching them, including the patents and such, back in the day.

One interesting company was Northwestern Mailbox Co. from St. Louis. They made a very early version that had a glass enclosed top (case), and had a patent applied for on how the balls left the playfield and returned to the plunger. They made some nice-looking games with wood frames, glass top, wire stand. They eventually changed their name to Northwestern Products, and settled on a game theme called "Push 'M Up" or "4-in-1". This now seems to be the most common bagatelle encountered, and was made into at least the 1950's, with many variations. Sears&Roebuck offered a version of their game too (called "Happi Time"), and probably carried the Push 'M Up as well.

Other manufacturers that were prevalent included Lindstrom, Schneider, Boyd (Boyd's "Sharp Shooter"), and each of these produced many different titles. So it's possible to form collections of games from certain manufacturer's, and form interesting groupings around that.

I found the ones from the 1930's to be the most attractive/interesting though.

I have just about all of the G.I. Joe ones. Look similar to the picture. I think I'm missing one but don't remember.001_big.jpg
This one is not mine... all the ones I have are out of package.

Just bought my first 30's bagatelle yesterday. Rambler by Rich Toys. It's missing the bell. Anyone know where I can find a replacement bell for it?

That was a decent price for that one. There are a couple variations of Rambler too.

An old-style bicycle bell shell might be about right.

These are pretty cool. I visited a collector last weekend that had a bunch lining the walls on the way down to his gameroom. They are a lot of fun to look at and don't take up too much space.

Here's an example of the one you got showing what the bell should be.

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Good call. I hadn't thought of that. I think I'll look for something around here today or tomorrow.