Step right up to the big top — this is Circus from Exhibit, an electromechanical single-player wrapped in a cheerful circus-and-carnival theme, from one of the pioneering names of the earliest coin-op amusement industry. With light-based scoring, it’s a genuine antique from the formative decades of the modern game, radiating midway charm.
The layout has a distinctive, bumper-heavy character: two flippers, a flipper bumper, a remarkable eleven passive bumpers, and four kick-out holes. That extraordinary complement of eleven passive bumpers is the machine’s defining feature, promising a wildly bouncy, unpredictable ball that caroms endlessly across the playfield, while the four kick-out holes offer captured-ball awards to chase. It’s a gloriously kinetic, bumper-driven design that captures the elemental bounce and energy of the electromechanical age, rewarding a player who keeps the ball alive through that busy field, all in service of its festive circus theme.
This Exhibit Circus is a piece of history for the collector who cherishes the earliest chapters of the hobby and the pioneering companies that built it — and it’s worth noting that several manufacturers built machines called Circus, so collectors should mind which one they’re chasing. Exhibit was one of the industry’s foundational manufacturers, and that eleven-bumper layout makes this a genuinely bouncy, distinctive play. For anyone who reveres the roots of the game, it’s a worthy find — a relic from an age when the whole industry was young. Ride that wild field of bumpers, work the four kick-out holes, and enjoy the show under the big top. Some machines are cherished for their history and their bouncy charm alike, and this Exhibit circus classic is one of them. Come one, come all, and drop a coin.