Castle Toy Kingpin (1978, LED/Pinball, 9 Volt, Model# ??)
Designed by: David Weindel

Very small handheld Pinball game. The only LED is the little score board, and the only moving parts are the flippers and the ball. It even has a tilt mechanism that activates if you tip the game too far. :) I qualify this as a handheld becuase of it's size, it's only about 7 inches long, you can very easily hold it and play at the same time. (Plus I have one, and I had one as a kid, so it's special to me. :) There was a sequel made: Kingpin II which has different scoring and game play (slightly).

David Weindel (the designer of this game) recently sent me some pictures of the top and bottom of the first handmade prototype of this game that actually said Kingpin on it (there were several before, and after this one though). This one has no electronics in it, it was simply made to test ball-rolling patterns and such. The picture of the bottom also shows the first time the little fingers groves were designed into the game. David had a '61 Porsche that had indentions on the steering wheel similar to this and he liked the way it felt so he incorporated it into the design of the game.

Back to Castle Toy page.

Back to Main page.