# Episode 329: The legacy of Marc Mandeltort

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2022-01-16  
**Duration:** 36m 14s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-329-the-legacy-of-marc-mandeltort/

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## Analysis

A tribute episode to Marc Mandeltort, founder of Marco Specialties/Marco Pinball, who passed away unexpectedly before the holidays. Hosted by Jeff Teolis with guests Paul Mendeltort (Marc's son), Marco Ramirez, and Emoto Harney, the conversation covers Marc's 35-year legacy building the world's largest pinball parts distributor, the company's transition from mail-order catalogs to a 100,000+ customer online business, and plans to continue his vision of keeping vintage pinball machines alive. The team discusses rebranding efforts, manufacturing challenges including 3D printing applications, community engagement at major events, and Marc's passionate personality.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Marco Specialties was founded in 1985 by Marc Mandeltort and his wife Nancy — _Paul Mendeltort discusses the founding: 'when Mark first started the business, he didn't know what he wanted to do. This was back in the mid-'80s.'_
- [HIGH] Marco Specialties currently serves over 100,000 customers across 50+ countries — _Paul Mendeltort states: 'we've come to where i think last we checked out over 100 000 customers'_
- [HIGH] Marc Mandeltort grew up in 1970s Brooklyn and this influenced his conservative business philosophy — _Paul explains: 'Mark grew up in the 70s in New York City in Brooklyn, and so he's seen the world when it wasn't such a good place... he's always been concerned about maintaining something for a rainy day'_
- [HIGH] Marco Specialties operates as the largest pinball parts distributor globally with 50,000+ parts in stock — _Marco Ramirez implies this in discussion of the company's scope and procurement capabilities_
- [HIGH] 3D printing is effective for cosmetic parts but not durable parts that contact the ball — _Paul Mendeltort explains: '3D printing by the physics of it lend to like it doesn't have the durability of injection molding plastics so for things that the ball's hitting... you'll never see a 3D-printed flipper bat'_
- [HIGH] Marco Specialties attends 10-15 pinball events annually and has done so for the past 10 years — _Paul Mendeltort states: 'we're doing 10, 15 events a year for the last 10 years'_
- [HIGH] The company recently added an email waitlist feature allowing customers to request parts availability — _Paul describes: 'we recently added a really cool feature on our website that it'll allow you to sign your email up for availability on the part when it becomes available'_
- [HIGH] Rising pinball prices have made reproduction of vintage parts economically viable — _Paul explains: 'So somebody's going to put a $500 part in a $600 game. But if your game's worth $5,000, they'll think about it. So that's helped keep a lot of games out of the landfill'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Mark always used to like to say it was recession-proof. We didn't even notice the 2008 crisis was happening until after the fact. It turns out when people get laid off and lose their jobs, they go home and work on their pinball machines."
> — **Paul Mendeltort**, ~mid-episode
> _Reflects Marc's philosophy about pinball's resilience and the home market's role in industry survival_

> "Pinball is not just a game. It's a media in itself. It's very unique, and that's special."
> — **Paul Mendeltort**, ~mid-episode
> _Core philosophy of Marc Mandeltort and Marco Specialties' mission_

> "He would engage somebody who doesn't own any games at the same level as he did Gary Stern. And that was phenomenal about Mark is he cared about pinball so much that he wanted to introduce it to everybody."
> — **Emoto Harney**, ~late episode
> _Illustrates Marc's passionate and egalitarian approach to community engagement_

> "He was like, you know, he's our mentor. You'll hear that from Marco, too. Marco's known him for a lot longer than I have. But, you know, to me, too, is also the muse."
> — **Emoto Harney**, ~late-mid episode
> _Personal tribute from Emoto about Marc's mentorship and inspiration_

> "We realized a lot of our customers are suppliers, and there's a lot of overlap between all of that, and it's all because of the community. And so that's why we've invested so heavily in all the pinball show circuits."
> — **Paul Mendeltort**, ~late-mid episode
> _Explains the strategic importance of community engagement in Marco's business model_

> "We like to consider, or I do like to consider us as carnies. We're like pinball carnies. We come in, set up a big, wild spectacle of events, and then pack it all up and go to the next town."
> — **Emoto Harney**, ~late episode
> _Describes Marco's event philosophy and brand identity_

> "He's a pretty quiet guy, and so the shows is where he really opened up, and I think that was really rewarding for all of us."
> — **Paul Mendeltort**, ~late episode
> _Reveals Marc's personality duality and passion for in-person community interaction_

> "Stern had closed their doors in 2008. We probably wouldn't be having this discussion right now. So we're, you know, pinball, like the game itself, sometimes you've got to be a little bit lucky, too."
> — **Paul Mendeltort**, ~early-mid episode
> _Contextualizes pinball's near-extinction and the critical role of Stern's survival_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Marc Mandeltort | person | Founder of Marco Specialties/Marco Pinball (1985-present); passed away unexpectedly before the holidays; passionate about pinball preservation and community |
| Marco Specialties | company | Leading pinball parts distributor founded 1985, serves 100,000+ customers globally, 50,000+ parts in stock, currently rebranding to 'Marco Pinball' |
| Paul Mendeltort | person | Marc's son; now leading Marco Specialties/Marco Pinball; VP or senior leadership role; oversees company strategy and operations |
| Emoto Harney | person | Director of Marketing at Marco Specialties; joined company recently; manages rebranding project, Marco TV Twitch stream, event coordination; was mentored by Marc |
| Marco Ramirez | person | Guest on episode; associated with Marco Specialties; expert on manufacturing and parts reproduction processes |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; interviewer; active in pinball community events like InDesk |
| Nancy Mandeltort | person | Marc's wife; co-founder of Marco Specialties in 1985; helped build early mail-order catalog business |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; nearly closed in 2008; kept pinball industry alive during crisis period |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Major annual pinball event; Marco Specialties' first major sponsor; event occurred 3 years before this recording |
| Marco TV | product | Twitch streaming show run by Marco Specialties; educational content about pinball restoration and parts; features Q&A and detailed responses |
| Southern Fried Gaming Expo | event | Annual pinball event in Georgia region; Marco Specialties primary sponsor; formerly hosted Hotlanta Eating Challenge |
| Houston Arcade Expo | event | Smaller pinball event in Texas; one of Marc's favorite shows; known for strong community participation |
| Museum of Pinball | venue | Museum featuring vintage and modern pinball machines; benefits from Marco Specialties' parts support |
| Kim Martinez | person | Recent hire at Marco Specialties; Canadian; involved in event presence and customer engagement |
| Crystal Gemnick | person | Team member at Marco Specialties; Canadian; involved in podcast studio operations |
| Midwest Gaming Classic | event | April pinball event; Marco Specialties will attend with booth |
| Northwest Pinball Show | event | Upcoming 2024 pinball event on Marco's calendar |
| Pinball Roundtable podcast | media | Pinball-focused podcast; mentioned in context of broader community media landscape |
| Gary Stern | person | Leadership at Stern Pinball; referenced as example of person Marc treated equally regardless of status |
| InDesk | event | Upcoming 2024 pinball event; Jeff Teolis helping with live stream; Marco team will attend |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Marc Mandeltort's legacy and impact on pinball community, Marco Specialties business history and evolution (1985-present), Pinball parts reproduction and manufacturing techniques (3D printing, injection molding), Community engagement and event strategy at pinball shows
- **Secondary:** Pinball industry resilience and recession-proof economics, Rebranding from Marco Specialties to Marco Pinball, Vintage pinball machine preservation and parts sourcing
- **Mentioned:** Marco TV Twitch stream and customer education

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Extremely positive tribute episode celebrating Marc Mandeltort's life, legacy, and impact on the pinball community. Guests express deep affection, admiration, and gratitude. The tone is respectful, celebratory, and forward-looking about Marco Specialties' future under Paul's leadership. Some emotional moments acknowledging Marc's passing and the gap left by his absence.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Marc Mandeltort established conservative financial foundation (no loans, self-financed, rainy day fund) enabling company survival and succession (confidence: high) — Paul explains Marc's philosophy: 'we never took out loans. We never did anything too risky. We always self-financed everything and grew for the Rain Day Fund'
- **[business_signal]** Company successfully transitioning leadership from founder to next generation (Paul Mendeltort) with retained operational focus and expanded marketing (Emoto Harney) (confidence: high) — Paul now leading operations, Emoto hired as Director of Marketing, team expanded with Kim Martinez and Crystal Gemnick, rebranding project underway
- **[community_signal]** Marco Specialties utilizing customer base as primary research and testing resource for parts discovery and validation (confidence: high) — Paul describes 'rabbit holing' process where customers identify high-mortality parts, company implements email waitlist feature for demand signals, customers beta-test parts
- **[event_signal]** Marco Specialties planning 2024 show calendar including InDesk, Midwest Gaming Classic, Texas Pinball Festival, Northwest Pinball Show, Southern Fried Gaming Expo with live streaming and email collection efforts (confidence: high) — Emoto details show schedule for 2024; mentions live streaming at InDesk with Jeff Teolis, email/survey collection, Twippies Award Ceremony
- **[community_signal]** Marco Specialties deeply embedded in pinball community infrastructure through event sponsorships, parts supply, and Marco TV educational content (confidence: high) — Paul discusses 10-15 annual events, first major sponsor for Texas Pinball Festival, Marco TV Twitch shows, and customer collaboration in parts discovery
- **[market_signal]** Pinball characterized as resilient 'media form' with unique cross-appeal (game, art, engineering, collectible) rather than simple arcade game (confidence: medium) — Paul articulates: 'pinball is not just a game. It's a media in itself. It's very unique'
- **[market_signal]** Expanded pinball manufacturing ecosystem with 10+ companies creating new games, contrasting with near-extinction risk in 2008 (confidence: high) — Paul references 'over 10 companies making games now' vs near-closure of Stern in 2008; describes pinball renaissance
- **[personnel_signal]** High-profile community content creator Emoto Harney recruited to Marco Specialties as Director of Marketing, indicating talent consolidation (confidence: high) — Emoto hired as marketing director; Mark reportedly surprised/thrilled by her joining; she describes daily mentorship with Marc for 3 years
- **[market_signal]** Rising secondary market prices for vintage pinball games making reproduction parts economically viable that previously were uneconomical (confidence: high) — Paul notes: game worth $600 makes $500 part uneconomical; game worth $5,000 makes same part viable; contributes to keeping games out of landfills
- **[technology_signal]** 3D printing emerging as viable manufacturing tool for cosmetic pinball parts but not structural/impact-resistant components (confidence: high) — Paul explains 3D printing works for decorative parts (GoldenEye satellite dish) but fails for ball-contact parts; discusses durability limitations and finishing requirements

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## Transcript

 it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofile.com all your subscriptions and past episodes we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile we have a facebook group and you can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com the pinball community got some unfortunate news before the holidays when mark mendeltort of marco Pinball, Marco's specialties, passed away unexpectedly, and we've seen some lovely tributes. So I wanted to talk to some of the people that obviously knew him the best, worked with him, and even more. And joining us right now, Paul Mendeltort, we've got Marco Ramirez and Emoto Harney, three people that are keeping the legacy alive, making sure everything that Mark wanted with Marco and his love for pinball will continue for many years to come. So I want to thank each of you. First of all, Paul, for coming on. Thanks, Jeff. It's a pleasure to be here. And hello to Marco. Hey, Jeff. Thank you so much for allowing us to be here. My pleasure. And once again, hi, Emoto. Hello, Emoto. Oh, that's me. Nice to talk to you, Jeff. Always a pleasure. And I'll be seeing you soon at INDISC, won't we? Yes, that's right. We're going to dominate the live streaming out there. Well, going to different places is something that is important to a lot of pinball players. It's exciting. And I know big events such as the Texas Pinball Festival, Southern Fried Gaming Expo, some major events, just recently Houston Expo. Boy, you see that Marco Pinball display. Marco Specialties is everywhere. And I keep going back and forth between Marco Pinball and Marco Specialties because it is marcospcialties.com, but I've been seeing more and more Marco Pinball. So I should probably find out, should we be referring to this as Marco Pinball or Marco Specialties? Paul? We've been slowly rebranding. It's one of those projects that takes a lot longer to finish than you would expect. So we found that it's hard to type specialties into the website. When Mark first started the business, he didn't know what he wanted to do. This was back in the mid-'80s. And so he's called it specialties. And we kind of stumbled into the pinball world from there. So it's now clear, and we're actively working to rebrand all that and get everything updated. But it takes a long time. We got to update all the logos and get all the graphics updated. And before we brought Emoto on board, that project was kind of halfway done and installed, so she's been finishing up a lot of that work. Yes, pass it off to the director of marketing. Emoto, that's on your plate for now. But, Paul, you mentioned it was 1985 when Marco Specialties began. Your father, Mark, had a wonderful vision, a certain passion and love for pinball players, pinball machines, and his goal was the same as it is today, to keep pinball alive. And you have done that with so many of these machines. It's amazing when you look at all these big events and tournaments and people's home collections and see these vintage pinball machines still going strong years after the fact because you can fix things, you can maintain them, and Marco Specialties has been such a major player in all those aspects. Thank you. Yeah, it's been, looking back, it's pretty incredible how far we've come since we started in the early years of, you know, so Mark used to operate a route here in South Carolina, you know, pinball machines, video games, pool tables, all over the place. And one of the areas that he got frustrated with is really hard for him as a small little guy that wasn't a big operator to get parts for these games. So that's what kind of started the hunt for these things. And as he started building a supply chain and all these things, we eventually determined, oh, wow, there's a vacuum here for actually getting full parts, especially to end users. And at the time, you know, there was, you know, the Internet didn't exist. So he, and actually him and mom, both, Nancy, both started the business. And they put together a hand-printed catalog, you know, cutting and pasting stuff. And they had me over there, Xerox and stuff, and we're mailing out catalogs to everybody. so it's uh come a long way since uh just mailing our small little customer list of a few hundred people to uh where we are today where i think last we checked out over 100 000 customers it's kind of crazy to see how far it's come it is amazing too and obviously big transitions to in the late 90s as the internet became more prominent and people started shopping online you know marco specialties was there i'm talking to marco right now the last couple of years unfortunately due to this pandemic, we're seeing more and more people shop online. But again, you've already got that base. You've already got that experience from doing this. But now, because people were either in lockdown or whatever the case may be, or really maybe wanting to get into some home gaming and a pinball machine is fun. And oh, geez, I don't know if I want a pinball machine because what if it breaks down? What if the parts don't work? Marcus Specialties is there and able to help you in every possible aspect. And that online experience for now 20-plus years really transitioned well into what everyone else had to do over the last couple of years. So the Internet is just such a big, big part, and I can only imagine it's exploded over the last couple of years. Yeah, it's funny. Pinball in general seems to be fairly – Mark always used to like to say it was recession-proof. We didn't even notice the 2008 crisis was happening until after the fact. It turns out when people get laid off and lose their jobs, they go home and work on their pinball machines. And if you look back over the history of pinball, it kind of, once the home market became a thing, which wasn't really until the 90s, like, that's kind of what set it off for success down the road. So, like, you know, pinball as a whole industry is very close to not being existing right now. Stern had closed their doors in 2008. We probably wouldn't be having this discussion right now. So we're, you know, pinball, like the game itself, sometimes you've got to be a little bit lucky, too. So it's pretty fascinating. Like, it always comes back. Like video games kind of came and went, and you see the entertainment come and go. But pinball always comes back in a new form, and we're in the middle of another renaissance of pinball. I mean, last week's Jets was like over 10 companies making games now. Never thought I'd be saying that, honestly. And, yeah, it probably won't go back to what it was in the 90s, but in our opinion, Wall Street blew it up in the 90s anyway. They made it too big, and that's one of the reasons it collapsed. But, yeah, it's a resilient little art form, and it's got a little bit of magic to it. And Mark saw that, and that was one of the reasons he was so passionate about it. It wasn't just a game. It was art. It was engineering. It was a mechanical thing. It was collectible. So it kind of ticks all these boxes in a sweet spot that most other – and we finally determined that pinball is not just a game. It's a media in itself. It's very unique, and that's special. It is, you know, from a collector standpoint, from a competitor standpoint. It's just been growing over the past few years. You mentioned the different companies. It's not just Stern. and Stern kept the game alive, if you will, when the dark times happened around 2008. But there are more people involved in pinball, and it's not like these old machines are finding dumpsters. They're being refurbished, and it could be complete playfields, it can be plastics, it can be LED kits, but they're surviving. And I love nothing more when I see a game I liked from the early 80s or 70s, or whatever the case may be, and I go and play it, And it's like, wow, was this new in box? And in a lot of cases, it's been refurbished many times. And I would have to think Marco's specialties has been a big part of that. Yeah, I think that too. So Marco's always big on, like, we had to put the logos on all the bags because he knew those would stay in the bottom of the games. That's pretty smart, though. That's good. Yeah, it's definitely one of his passions and a passion that we continue as a company to source or sometimes create, get created parts for these older games. So these older games won't find a landfill, like you said, Jeff, and you can go and play pristine 1970s games because we found a way to get the proper parts for it and ramps and working with other people in the community to source all of these where you can find it just on our website. Right, so it's a lot of, you know, we care about the new games, and that's exciting that there's new games being created, you know. Yay, Rush Pinball looks awesome. We just got that epic announcement. You don't have to tell a Canadian. I know. Mine's already on order. You were excited about Led Zeppelin. Now, look. Yeah, Rush is getting all your wishlist games. It's all good. But, yeah, we don't want to see these older games that are symbols of history for all of us to disappear. So a lot of it is just working. We have a very strong procurement team and an NPI team to make sure that we can find, keep, and store parts for these games so they can last forever. It's a hefty goal, but that's our livelihoods. Yeah I collect them all I mean Enomoto when you interviewed Wally back at Texas Pinball a few years ago he really hit the nail on the head It like one of the magic parts is just the hunt for the part Yeah. Especially Wally personally spent a bulk of his time hunting for parts. That was his favorite thing to do. We'd be in a meeting, as Mark, shopping for parts, instead of paying attention to what we're trying to do. I'd get notifications at like 3 a.m. in the morning that he was adding new parts to the website. He never stopped. Story checks out, yeah. because Marco is such a big part of the community, is it safe to say you would get a lot of requests? Hey, do you have this? I haven't either found it on your website or I, I'm just asking in general, I'm looking for this machine, this part, do you have it? And the tough thing for me, imagining your business is that there are so many different parts for so many different machines and so many unique game specific parts. It's different than saying, Oh, I need a coil stop. Okay, that's easy. You can stock up on those or whatever. You know, flipper bats, got it. But specific plastics and I don't even want to say mods, but just things to games only. What was it? The Simpsons pinball party. There's this long, long flipper shaft, and I can't think of that in any other game, so that's a unique part. There's so much of this stuff, and yet Marco seems to find it. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that Mark really would always tell us to remember was that our customers are our most important employees as well, because they're the ones that are giving us the information to help us find, you know, help us look for parts. Right. They're saying, hey, this thing is always broken on this game or we really need this part. And you guys should really go after and look for it or make it for us. and it was always we call it rabbit holing we'd always start going down this rabbit hole of like okay you know how many games does this one specific part go into and or is it a high mortality part that was something that he used a lot if the ball hits it it's going to break and we need to go and make that part but yeah we use our customer base as our biggest resource for really going out and looking for game specific parts and then you know we recently added a really cool feature on our website that it'll allow you to sign your email up for availability on the part when it becomes available back on our website. So if we get enough people that go out there and register for a part and we see, oh my God, you know, we've got 35 people that want this particular flipper part, then we go out and we try to source it. And, you know, you have to look at things like, is there an IP restriction there? You know, do we want to make sure that we're abiding by licensing agreements and things like that. But if it's something that we can make and we can reverse engineer, then we go out and we try to source it. And we do a lot of testing. We have a lot of games here at our studio that we test parts in. And then we also will put things out, send things out to customers and customers test them for us as well. So it's a very, very unique cycle of how a part goes back into production and back in stock on our website. And most of that work is done really by the customer. And then we kind of finish up the idea and bring the part to life. Emoto knows this because I frequent the Marco TV on Twitch. I really get a kick out of that. In fact, today I was on it as well. And I really learn a lot because everyone knows that I know nothing about fixing machines. But I am trying to learn. And you can ask questions. You're ahead of a lot of our customers. Yes. You're honest. but I still, I want to learn. And I find these Marco TV shows on Twitch spectacular for that. You can ask questions and get good responses, good detailed responses. But you were mentioning on your website, you know, if there are a lot of people that want this part, okay, you might outsource it and reverse engineer it. Is something like 3D printing a real game changer? Is that something that helps or is that not quite enough? Yes and no. It's funny. 3D printing by the physics of it lend to like it doesn't have the durability of injection molding plastics so for things that the ball's hitting yeah every every year till you see something i made these three printed drop targets and then a year or two later like oops those don't work no because they get broken so it three printing is a miracle for rapid prototyping and i think the folks that benefit the most from 3d printing are actually the maker community which is our new favorite segment by the way but um for reproduction parts it depends like if it was a cosmetic thing that the ball's not hitting, and it can be polished up. Because once you 3-print a part, you still have to finish it and make it look good. So there's a lot of extra steps there. And so there's a subset of parts, yes, that we are able to source 3-printed. Especially, like, for any manufacturing technique, there's a sweet spot with, you know, how many do you need, how durable does it have to be, what's the finish on it. And 3-printing attacks a subset of those parts, but it's not a panacea for reproduction parts. So, like, you'll never see a 3D-printed flipper bat, for example. But you'll see a lot of things like, and Marco, what are you showing me here, a bushing? No, this is the… Oh, a satellite, yeah. The GoldenEye satellite dish, which, you know, it's a 3D-printed part because the original mold is, you know, it's probably destroyed or lost or, but that's a perfect example of something where 3D printing will work in the pinball environment. Yeah. It's cosmetic. Yeah. So the tricky part is an injection molded plastic tool can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Now here's the calculus that you have to do is, all right, well, there's only so many games out there, and you've got to sell these things for $100 each. There's a lot of math and a lot of just judgment that has to go into when to pull the trigger on what type of process for what part we're getting made. And everyone's a unique project. That's why Mark got really good at it after 35 years. Marco is now our expert on that. But it's an evolving art and science at the same time, the same manufacturing techniques. And there's other advances, too, like injection molding tools are getting cheaper because now you can actually sometimes laser center the injection molding tools, and so the cost on those is going down. And, yeah, so there's a lot of just things going on. And thanks to the renewed interest in pinball, and a lot of people gripe about the rising prices of pinballs, But one of the benefits of that is it makes it cost-effective to reproduce some parts now when a game is worth more. So somebody's going to put a $500 part in a $600 game. But if your game's worth $5,000, they'll think about it. So that's helped keep a lot of games out of the landfill, actually, these rising prices, believe it or not. I know when I see Emoto at events, Emoto, you and I and others are really fascinated by seeing all kinds of different pinball machines. when we were at the Museum of Pinball. I mean, you couldn't have asked for more machines there. Replay, same kind of thing. Yeah, so it's nice to see these games, the new ones for sure, but certainly the retro ones. And you just mentioned the prices are going up and up, especially for the secondhand market. Well, I've got to tell you, when I sell a game, I want to make sure, okay, is everything okay? Are the pop bumpers cracked? Okay, let's get some new ones. He says, can I replace the ball on World Cup Soccer 94? Oh, yeah, I can. And I have with Marco. And get a nice one. It's funny. I'm getting ready to sell these games. I'm like, oh, look at how nice it looks now. Maybe I should have done this earlier. But the point is, it does really preserve these wonderful pinball machines. And, Modo, you see it firsthand everywhere you go. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's beautiful. Without the impact that Marco Specialties, Marco Pinball has had, And, you know, to be fair, all the other parts companies, pinball parts companies out there, too, we work with them. We work with everyone. We don't have competition, so to speak, because we all have the same goal, which is just to keep these games alive. Yeah, so you can. Yeah, right. Exactly. So people can enjoy and go to places like the Museum of Pinball. Rest in peace. And, you know, the Pacific Pinball Museum and all these other museums and places that really take care of these games and bring back even like, you know, old 50s, 60s wood roll games. And it's a it's a group effort and it's so much appreciated that people go out of their way to preserve these things, Jeff. And that's why you are talking to me here on this side of the fence, working directly with Marco, because I just love everything that they stand for. And I want to help in that fight and keeping pinball alive for newer generations to see. Imota when I contacted you about this and certainly wanted to pay a nice tribute to Mark you told me how much he meant to your career and just how he really changed a lot of things in positive ways for you Yeah I mean I talked to Mark every single day for the past three years And Jeff he was so passionate about everything that he was doing and everything at Pinball And I just attached to it. He was like, you know, he's our mentor. You'll hear that from Marco, too. Marco's known him for a lot longer than I have. But, you know, to me, too, is also the muse. You know, he wanted to see this happen. He wanted to have a Marco TV. How can we make this happen? And I loved helping him realize and create his dreams. So it's definitely been a little empty gap and, you know, trying to get re-motivated into this new phase of our lives together. He was awesome. He was just inspiring. Like when you talk to him, he would just inspire you to action. And that's the type of thing I thrive in. So I will miss that relationship a lot. Yeah, we hear that in your voice for sure. And Paul, from what I've heard and what I can see is that Mark set up Marco Specialties, Marco Pinball up for success long after he's gone. And it's a business goes on and the vision that he had will continue, correct? Yeah, that's fine. Mark is always a push and pull because he always ran the business very conservatively. We never took out loans. We never did anything too risky. We always self-financed everything and grew for the Rain Day Fund. A little history there, Mark grew up in the 70s in New York City in Brooklyn, and so he's seen the world when it wasn't such a good place. It was not a good time to be there, and so he's always been concerned about maintaining something for a rainy day. and that attitude has laid the foundation for us one of the core values of the company is for us to you know build for the future and not just for tomorrow so it's uh we're very lucky and we and we've been doing a ton of work over the last couple years to get mark's brain downloaded for lack of a better term um you know his you know the database we've been building over the last 20 years our library of pinball documentation manuals which we think is the most complete in the world and And then the last part of that was collecting people, which was the hardest part. Never forget when I told him that, hey, Emoto wants to work for us. He couldn't believe it. Yeah, he loved your work, Emoto. Like, everyone at the company was like, really? Emoto wants to work with us? So it was a match made in heaven there, right? We both thought the other person was too good for us, right? Yeah, it's not just Emoto. You've brought a lot of wonderful people to Marco in the last few years. I know Kim Martinez made the move. Yay, I love Kim so much. Yeah, we got Kim now. Crystal Gemnick. a fellow Canadian. I'm going to spend the rest of this podcast talking about how awesome all of our people are. Go ahead. We're using your studio right now. Sorry, Crystal. Yeah, we're in our podcast studio. I kind of didn't tell her, so let's make sure I don't see a beer on our desk. We'll be fine. We're definitely building a huge team of people passionate about pinball. It's such a fun environment to work in, Jeff, with like-minded individuals and we're just trying to make pinball even more popular than it is you know keep growing it and just keep exploring how we can help the community and the early years is tough because we go around these pinball shows and we were the first major sponsor for texas pinball festival pinball sponsor anyway and you know we always used to look around go oh wait we're the only people doing this for a living which is uh interesting position to find yourself thing because you're not able to do some of the things other folks – because a lot of people in the pinball hobby have other jobs that are subsidizing, and we're the ones having to actually make sure that they have a little bit of money for tomorrow to buy more parts with at the end of the day. So that's always been an interesting balance between a hobby and a business. And I think we found that balance where we've been able to provide some good careers for a lot of people, which honestly we never imagined that 20 years ago. So it's been pretty amazing. And that just goes to show us how amazing this community is. And we've really doubled down on the whole idea behind the community. I think we realized about five or ten years ago that that was the secret glue that was making all this work. We realized a lot of our customers are suppliers, and there's a lot of overlap between all of that, and it's all because of the community. And so that's why we've invested so heavily in all the pinball show circuits and going out to all these events. And, you know, we're doing 10, 15 events a year for the last 10 years. I was looking at a spreadsheet of Modo. It's been crazy how deep that list has gotten. Have you shown any regular marketing managers that, like, why are you spending all that money on travel? What's wrong with you people? We always stay in the Motel 6s, you know. Yeah, seeing you at Texas Pinball Festival, and it's sad to think that the last one was actually three years ago, but the last one was. Feels like yesterday. It was that big Munsters display. Oh, yeah. Seeing that big pyramid was something to see. Can't miss it, but it's a lot of work. when you go to the shows how do you measure success i'm just curious oh my gosh survival is a good one um not anybody going to jail is a good one that's on my checklist too that's so funny i know these are the hard questions they ask me all the time how are you measuring the smile the smile on everyone's face jeff is how we measure the success uh it's always about Making the party even bigger, everything's a spectacle with us. We like to consider, or I do like to consider us as carnies. We're like pinball carnies. We come in, set up a big, wild spectacle of events, and then pack it all up and go to the next town. So if people are enjoying it and they're having a good time in that moment, to me that's the most important ROI. But we do collect emails and sell games and stuff while we're there too. Yeah, Mark and I personally had a little contest. It was just between me and him with how good we were doing at a show. The thing was, whoever lost their voice first would be the person that would win. Most of the time it was Mark, because Mark, he was twice as old as everybody there and on the team, and he would stay there from morning till, well, not morning, he was a late riser, but he would stay there late, late, late, late. Mark did a lot of things, it's not mornings. Yeah, but he would talk to everybody. It doesn't matter if you were if you didn't own a game or you owned 100 pinball machines. He was always excited about speaking about pinball and the knowledge base and his little spiel that he would do 150 times, you know, about the industry in this heyday and just all the fun stuff. And so, you know, it was really exciting to see him. My first time was Texas Pinball Festival and just seeing him in action and watching him engage everybody at the same level. I mean, I've watched him engage somebody who doesn't own any games at the same level as he did Gary Stern. You know, and that was phenomenal about Mark is he cared about pinball so much that he wanted to introduce it to everybody. And he was always excited about it, no matter who it was. I remember the first time he met my wife, he did the same thing. He was talking the spiel to her, and I was like, Mark, that's my wife, and that's Jessica. He starts laughing, and then he switches his mode off, but it was just hilarious to see him and fun and exciting to see him with the passion that he had for the industry. It's funny because if you're around the office or just you meet Mark in public in general, he's a pretty quiet guy, and so the shows is where he really opened up, and I think that was really rewarding for all of us. Yeah, exactly. Even our employees would say that, right? Oh, yeah. He never talks to me at the shop, but then you go to his show, and he's all about it. Okay. Yeah, but if any employee would go get a pinball machine, now you're Mark's best friend. Tell me, Emoto, if the measure of success at these shows is excitement and fun and good times, please tell me, some way, somehow, you got Mark to go to Houston Arcade Expo. Oh, we love Houston. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. He loved that show, too. Yeah. Yeah. We all went a bunch in the early years, and then we had a bunch of conflicts the last couple of years. But that was one of Mark's favorite shows. Such a party show. I know. He always made sure that we went to that show. Even though it's a smaller one compared to some of the others, it always lived on our list because we love the Texas community down there. And they just, boy, do they know how to have a good time. Yep. you mentioned you've got a bunch of shows this year probably 10 or so i mean the calendar's filling up yes so we are starting off with going to indisc we not doing a booth or anything like that but i will be there helping carl and you Jeff with the live stream And Kim Martinez will come out too I going to try to get her to play some but we be collecting emails and doing some surveys with tournament players trying to get more into what do y'all need from us? How can we help you on the pinball part side? So a little bit of exploration there. And then we are going to Midwest Gaming Classic in April. Of course, Texas Pinball Festival at the end of March. Before that, it's also where we will have the Twippies Award Ceremony live again. And then what's after that? Northwest Pinball Show will be coming up. Southern Fried Gaming Expo, of course. You know, we'll just have to see about all the other shows if they're going to come up. for, you know, what, unfortunately, what this virus is going to do for us this year already. And Southern Fried Gaming Expo is kind of almost like your backyard in a way. It's certainly close by there. So, Marco, just curious, a lot of our listeners want to know, will you be defending your former Hotlanta Eating Challenge contest at SFG? No, no, no. I let him retire. I let him retire. The insurance company won't let him do it anymore. Yeah. You were the Kobayashi of pinball, the Joey Chestnut. That was you. No, no, no. Unfortunately, one of the last conversations that I had with Mark was the week prior to his passing. I had been out of the office for a couple of days, and I remember even calling Paul, and I never call Paul about taking time off. And, man, my body has really taken a toll with all that stuff. And I just thank you, Emoto Harney. but I definitely will not be doing that ever, ever again. My wife would definitely not like it, but most importantly, I'm getting older, and at some point in time I have to stop, and I think that winning it twice is good enough for me, and it's not in the cards for me, I don't think, to be able to do that again. And but, you know, the funny thing is the first time I did it at Southern Fried, the first thing that Mark told me when we got off the stage and I was hurting really bad. And he's like, we have to do this at every show. And I was like, oh, my God, no. He loved it. But I not just that last round of this last time that we did it, it was just horrible. And I don't think I can ever do that again. Retire your jersey. Yeah. A little ceremony. Yeah. He won every time he played, which has convinced us that no matter what, he would win because this guy just doesn't give up. So we are gracefully letting him retire, and he will always be the hot pepper eating champion in our lives. I'm still waiting for the challenge throwdown to go down on Marco TV where a challenger appears and drags him out of retirement. I'll give you the challenge right now. I want to see it. I wasn't at Southern Fried. I think Jeff's going to challenge you. No, no challenge. The funny thing, too, was like, you know, the right before this first wave of COVID happened, the first shutdown, Craig Hassel from Fun right there at TPF. We were supposed to do a Pacquiao hot chip challenge and it was going to be Craig, me and I want to say maybe Jared Gwines. I think I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that exactly. But we were supposed to do something at the Marco booth, and he was trying to set it up for us. And anyway, the show didn't happen, so we weren't able to do it. But he told me the last time I talked to him that he still has the chips, and he's, like, ready for it. So I think I want to volunteer Moto for this one. So she graciously volunteered me for the Southern Friday one. Unvoluntary. Yeah. But it's not going to even be spicy for you. If you can eat the hottest peppers in the world, you can eat the little Pacquiao chip and be fine, and you'll win. Yeah, Amato, I have trouble with spicy sauce from Chick-fil-A right now, so I can't do that. I've opened a can of worms. I apologize. I didn't know it was such a hot topic. My goodness. All right, fine. I'll eat the chip. There we go. All right. I, and I'm sure other people listening, would like to know something we might not know about Mark and his legacy. I'm sure you have great tales of some of the fun times there over the years at Marco's Specialties. Mark was a brilliant piano player, actually. I remember growing up, he used to play Scott Joplin tunes like The Entertainer, the ice cream truck song. So, yeah, he was a brilliant musician. He used to run a comedy house in New York City for a little bit out of college. Wow. So he's a little dabbler in a lot of things. He's a videographer. He did a lot of video. But when VHS first came out, he was that guy with the camera everywhere, annoying mom to hell. So he's always had a passion in all these media forms over time. We see a lot of that coming out of the company now, MarkoTV. That's why we encourage Chris to do the podcast and a bunch of other things like that. That's always been his side passion, his media in general. He's actually a brilliant artist at the end of the day. He's really funny, and he was a great writer. And so he was a poet. A little Easter egg for y'all is that if you're ever looking on our website and you're reading the product descriptions and they just sound a little fun, more fun than you would have thought a description would be, then I promise you that was definitely Mark. So, for example, like our pen buddy, which is, you know, the little cup holder for the games, his description was, This rugged ABS plastic beverage Casey Butler provides sip support for the seismic side effects of shivering machine slam situations from sloshing sloppy squirts of spilled soda, shakes, suds, sangria, sarsaparilla, sea grams, or other satiating solutions surrounding your sensational silver ball spectacle from saturating your pinball systems. How much fun does he have writing that? I know, and he's giggling. He is big on alliteration. You know, so there's so many of those in our website. You know, we're leaving them there, obviously. They're nice. It's just fun. And Mark wrote a lot of the content. Yeah. He was really big on self-sustainability. So he was all into, you know, the solar side of things. And he was probably Tesla's biggest fan and probably Tesla's biggest salesman. You know, he, I mean, I remember him. Hopefully the FedEx people are not hearing this, but I remember him meeting a FedEx guy who was just interested in his Tesla, and all of a sudden I'm outside on the phone with the customer, and I see Mark inside the Tesla and the FedEx guy driving his Tesla down the road because Mark would always want someone to just take a ride in the Tesla, and he wanted people to buy more of these things because he saw that as the future. So he always thought in the macro and always was about self-sustainability. Our building, our warehouse, the whole thing is covered in solar panels. And I remember I was like, Mark, are you sure? And he's like, no, no, no, this is the future. And he was right. I mean, he was very into all that stuff and a huge fan. So much so that I remember the Monday after he passed away, Tesla actually went down in the market. And I joke with Nancy. No way. Yeah, I swear to you, you could look it up. I believe it. And anyway, he was all about that. And he was a gadgeteer too. He loved his gadgets. Any little thing that would spark an interest in him, and he was an expert about all this stuff too. He read up on it, spent hours and hours on YouTube looking at videos and reviews. he was always always always looking at at other markets and other resources for just different things that made life easier and that was his thing his legacy will definitely live on for sure and i can't thank you enough for sharing these wonderful stories and again check out marco tv on twitch check out marcospecialties.com check them out at a show near you, including TPF coming up and, of course, InDisc. So I want to thank each of you for being on this program. Paul, Marco, and Emoto, thank you very much. Jeff, thank you very much for all you do. None for the community, too. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find us at pinballprofile.com or on Facebook or on Twitter and Instagram. I'm Jeff Teolis. you

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 4c292a1c-a77b-4c44-935f-a89c45bdabab*