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The Pinball Show Ep 171 BONUS: American Pinball Updates: Pee-Wee Pinball, AP's Rebuttal, & A Clue To How They Move Forward

Pinball Show Patreon Feed·podcast_episode·18m 31s·analyzed·Feb 24, 2025
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TL;DR

American Pinball pivots to contract manufacturing via Funds Up subsidiary; Pee-Wee pinball license deal fell through.

Summary

The Pinball Show discusses American Pinball's latest developments, including a leaked Pee-Wee's Playhouse pinball artwork by Christopher Franchi that was never produced, an official dealer update from new director of sales Ron Lindman confirming commitment to Games 7 and 8, and the discovery of a subsidiary called Funds Up Manufacturing that handles contract manufacturing services. The hosts analyze American Pinball's strategic pivot toward manufacturing-for-hire and speculate on implications for overseas manufacturers facing tariffs.

Key Claims

  • Christopher Franchi created artwork mockups for a Pee-Wee's Playhouse pinball game for American Pinball

    high confidence · Pismo posted on Pinside showing Franchi's artwork; hosts confirmed its existence and visual quality

  • American Pinball had Paul Reubens and his team interested in licensing Pee-Wee's Playhouse for a pinball machine but failed to follow through

    medium confidence · Pismo's post on Pinside claiming Reubens was 'all in' on the idea and willing to sign the license

  • Dave Fix is no longer involved with American Pinball

    high confidence · Official email from Ron Lindman, director of sales and marketing, stating 'Dave Fix no longer involved'

  • American Pinball is committed to Game 7 (Cuphead) and Game 8 and will continue supporting previously released games

    high confidence · Official dealer update email from Ron Lindman confirming commitment to Games 7 and 8, with parts arriving daily

  • American Pinball operates a subsidiary manufacturing company called Funds Up Manufacturing

    high confidence · Ron Lindman's email listed team members with company affiliations; fundsupmanufacturing.com website confirmed

  • Funds Up Manufacturing claims to have built over seven pinball machines and offers contract manufacturing services

    high confidence · Website copy states 'With more than seven pinball machines built, we know how to bring your pinball project to market'

  • Funds Up Manufacturing has access to 125 distributors worldwide

    medium confidence · Website states 'you will have access to our 125 distributors worldwide'

  • Cuphead (Game 7) has beautiful artwork but severely lacking code, leaving players unclear on the game's purpose

    medium confidence · Host commentary on player feedback: 'it shoots pretty well, but the code is nowhere' and 'People say it's beautiful and it's kind of fun, but what do you do with that?'

Notable Quotes

  • “They could be in their own commercial for liquor. I don't always play pinball, but when I do, I want them to work.”

    Host (Zach Minney implied) @ ~0:45 — Humorous commentary on American Pinball's chronic operational issues and constant industry drama

  • “As a company going forward, we plan to say less with words and say more with our quality and action.”

    Ron Lindman (via email read aloud) @ ~8:30 — American Pinball's official messaging shift away from public communication toward action-focused approach

  • “Funds Up Manufacturing is the name of the new company. So they're doing this contract manufacturing, Dennis and Lister, within a different company under Ametron.”

    Host (Ken Cromwell implied) @ ~15:15 — Key revelation of American Pinball's subsidiary strategy to separate manufacturing-for-hire from core operations

  • “I think makes sense for them to go ahead and use another subsidiary for this style of work. It avoids a lot of the American Pinball baggage but all being linked together means they can take advantage of all of the facilities and capabilities.”

    Host (likely Greg Bone) @ ~18:30 — Industry-informed analysis of why American Pinball created a separate subsidiary brand

  • “The industry already exists. And here with pinball, most of the industry is actually already here. So, yes, the pricing could become absurd to import anything that wasn't U.S. built in pinball, hypothetically.”

    Host (discussing tariff implications) @ ~21:00 — Analysis of how tariffs could reshape pinball manufacturing geography and create opportunity for domestic contract manufacturing

  • “I think their big struggle has been the development, design phase of stuff, building-wise, historically at least. They were able to make product and then move it.”

    Host (likely Greg Bone) @ ~17:45 — Diagnosis of American Pinball's historical weakness in design and development phases

  • “We thought eggs were high. Oh, yeah. This is the biggest egg of all, a goose egg of zero sales.”

Entities

American PinballcompanyChristopher FranchipersonDave FixpersonRon LindmanpersonPaul ReubenspersonMitesh PithvapersonPismopersonFunds Up ManufacturingcompanyAmetroncompany

Signals

  • ?

    machine_intel: Unreleased Pee-Wee's Playhouse pinball artwork by Christopher Franchi posted on Pinside by user Pismo; indicates advanced development stage before project cancellation

    high · Pismo posted artwork mockup on Pinside; hosts confirm artwork existence and quality; described as 'mock-up' stage development

  • ?

    licensing_signal: American Pinball failed to secure or complete Pee-Wee's Playhouse licensing deal despite Paul Reubens and his team being 'all in' according to insider Pismo

    medium · Pismo's post claims Reubens was interested and willing to sign; artwork mockup exists suggesting negotiations advanced; project appears completely abandoned

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dave Fix, American Pinball executive, is no longer involved with company; Ron Lindman took over as director of sales and marketing

    high · Official email from Ron Lindman explicitly states 'Dave Fix no longer involved'; Lindman described as person who 'took over Dave Fix's spot'

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball created separate subsidiary Funds Up Manufacturing to handle contract manufacturing and third-party development; enables separation of brand baggage from manufacturing services

    high · Ron Lindman's email lists Funds Up Manufacturing as separate entity with dedicated leadership; fundsupmanufacturing.com website active; hosts confirm discovery of subsidiary structure

  • ?

    product_strategy: Funds Up Manufacturing explicitly offers contract manufacturing, development, engineering, and art/animation/coding services to external clients; positions itself as platform-agnostic manufacturer

Topics

American Pinball operational status and strategyprimaryPee-Wee's Playhouse pinball license failureprimaryFunds Up Manufacturing subsidiary business modelprimaryGame 7 (Cuphead) development and code qualityprimaryTariffs and their impact on pinball manufacturing geographysecondaryDealer communication and company transparencysecondaryContract manufacturing as viable business model for pinballsecondaryChristopher Franchi's artwork composition and design philosophymentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Hosts appreciate the Pee-Wee license concept and Franchi's artwork, but express frustration with American Pinball's repeated failures to execute. The Funds Up Manufacturing discovery is viewed with cautious optimism as a potentially sound strategic pivot, but skepticism remains about the company's ability to follow through. Some positive sentiment toward Ron Lindman's measured, action-focused messaging compared to previous communication.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.055

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Dennis, a lot going on over at American Pinball. Apparently, I didn't know all this was going on. Why are they always in the news like they are? It's just they're the most interesting company in the world. They could be in their own commercial for liquor.
0:33
I don't always play pinball, but when I do, I want them to work. Okay. Pismo. What do you know about Pismo? He's a follower. I've heard of Pismo. I think most of the time he likes us. Sometimes he doesn't. Yeah, well, I mean, people are complicated. Complex creatures will accept him for who he is. But Pismo on Pinside posted a pic of Franchi, a mock-up of Christopher Franchi, the artist, and stating that Christopher Franchi has a mock-up of Pee-wee's pinball.
1:12
She's Pismo Pinside posting a pic of Pee-wee's pinball for American pinball. so if you guys are not following along Christopher Franchi posted a picture of his rendition of what artwork may look like on a Pee Wee's pinball machine it does look good and this would be for American pinball so here's the deal Pinsider Pismo saying Franchi had American pinball speaking with Paul Rubens and Paul's
1:43
people and they were all in like Paul Rubens was all in on this idea and signing license the license for a pinball machine but american pinball did not follow through what a shock no this is nostalgia gold though it looks really good this one especially for a company the size of american pinball peewee's a pretty good idea i like the license my opinion but i i think this could really have moved a lot i mean i watched that growing up.

Host @ ~27:30 — Comedic commentary on tariff impacts using running egg/pricing joke

Flippin' Out Pinball
company
Stern Pinballcompany
Cupheadgame
Pee-Wee's Playhousegame
Whitewater 2game
The Pinball Showorganization

high · Website explicitly lists services: 'We can manufacture your finished product or handle the development with electrical and mechanical engineering, art and animations, sound and coding'

  • $

    market_signal: Hosts speculate that incoming tariffs will drive overseas manufacturers to use U.S.-based contract manufacturers like Funds Up to build games for North American market; could reshape manufacturing geography

    medium · Extended discussion of tariff impacts; host predicts European manufacturers may use Funds Up within 2 years; comparison to Stern's Brazil facility model

  • ?

    product_concern: Cuphead (Game 7) reported to have significant rule/code deficiencies despite having attractive artwork; players unclear on game purpose or depth

    medium · Host feedback synthesis: 'it shoots pretty well, but the code is nowhere' and 'People say it's beautiful and it's kind of fun, but what do you do with that?'

  • ?

    industry_signal: American Pinball officially shifting from word-based communication to action-focused messaging; new leadership philosophy of 'say less with words and say more with our quality and action'

    high · Direct quote from Ron Lindman's email: 'As a company going forward, we plan to say less with words and say more with our quality and action'

  • ?

    operational_signal: American Pinball maintaining dealer network including Flippin' Out Pinball; distributing official updates through dealer channels; Funds Up claims 125 worldwide distributors

    high · Email distributed to 'all dealers' including Flippin' Out Pinball; Funds Up website lists distributor network access as service offering

  • ?

    product_launch: Game 7 (Cuphead) in active testing with samples being built daily; 'parts arriving every day'; no specific launch date provided but Ron Lindman promises updates as 'closer to launch'

    medium · Email states 'parts are arriving every day with some samples built and being tested' and 'we will have updates as we get closer to launch'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Funds Up Manufacturing model enables overseas manufacturers to dodge tariffs by contracting U.S. builds; hosts predict this could become standard practice for European manufacturers

    medium · Extended discussion of tariff implications; hosts theorize 'European manufacturer builds it for the rest of the world and the American audience builds in america kind of like how stern does in brazil'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts show cautious approval of Ron Lindman's measured, professional tone in dealer update compared to previous American Pinball communication; described as 'already a good turn'

    medium · Host reaction: 'Nicely done. You know what? That right there is already a good turn.' and appreciation for professional tone when discussing Dave Fix departure

    • 2:13
    I did too. Now. Cherry. But not the pterodactyl. What was that? The blue chair. Oh, cherry. What was the pterodactyl's name? Oh, I don't remember the pterodactyl. Oh, the green pterodactyl? The green one? Yeah, no, I don't remember its name. Or, yeah, chair. I did like chair. The chair was cherry, wasn't it? Or am I wrong? I think. But chair like a chair, not cherry like the fruit. I've smoked weed since then. I got, look, I'm going to type it up now. chair name from peewee google tell me it's cherry with a y yeah cherry that's that's a clever name
    2:49
    i thought it was always like a toilet i was like i wouldn't want to sit on the face and go poo but it wasn't all right it's just pterodactyl name let's find that out pterodactyl name from peewee was was terry perfect with a silent p what about the uh the genie jamby jamby that's right and Globie or whatever they glow and the little ventriloquist dummy. I was always annoyed by him. That was a great show. Yeah. Cause the pterodactyl, then he worked for captain Carl.
    3:21
    Yeah. He's the right hand pet. Yeah. Well, I would still prefer at least in the HBO version, the big adventure to the TV show. I mean, you have a plot to work around if you do the movie is the thing. Yeah. and you get Francis and you get the bike and the Rube Goldberg machine making the breakfast. But I'll take the Pee Wee's pinball, like the television show, The Playhouse. I'll take it. And Franchi's not going to like to hear this.
    3:52
    His art does look great on this. However, I need a little more from Franchi. What more do you want? I don't. I'm not super crazy about the composition. Not super crazy about it. What, the back glass or the sides? I need more storytelling rather than item montaging or item Lego. Again, it's the show, so just showing all the iconic set pieces. I'd rather see a set piece rather than just –
    4:24
    I disagree with you. I don't want the Beatles stuff everywhere. I think this was the right way. Okay. This is the pro model. He just threw everything. The version that will fold up into cherry can be different Oh my God Now we talking No Look I got lots of ideas Oh now we talking I mean, you already have, like, the trim on the sides and stuff, the color of cherry. Just imagine the whole thing being cherry and it folded into a chair, a cherry. I'm trying to think. Who is that little bastard Randy? Oh, I hated that thing.
    4:56
    It was like a little puppet named Randy, king of cartoons, Captain Carl. That was Phil Hartman. I forgot about that. I like that Lawrence Fishburne was in here. So overall, I think it's a good idea. But also of note, so AP, man, wish you wouldn't have fucked that up. What a shock. So hopefully somebody else can get that. I still want the movie version, but I'll take that. Also, we received as dealers, flipping out pinball, as well as other dealers, not the, what was Dave Vick's call?
    5:27
    The executive vice president of sales? No, the big dealers or something. Oh, yeah. The Justice League of Dealers. Oh, yes, the Justice League. You're not a member of that. You're a member of the Thunderbolts or something. That's right. Okay. Yeah. So the dealers got all dealers, not just the – what did he say on this recent podcast? The premier dealers or something? But all dealers got an update from Ron Lindman, the director of sales and marketing. Basically, the person who took over Dave Fix's spot. Dave 2.0.
    5:57
    Yeah. Now, and I'm going to read, I'm going to summarize what the email said, but it's kind of a rebuttal and update to Dave Fix trying to just destroy that company. It said, some dealers have reached out for American Pinball Update on the path forward, but Dave Fix no longer involved. As a company, we don't discuss details on employees that have departed. Nicely done. You know what? That right there is already a good turn. Yes, it's true that we're working to grow our amusement business for pinball arcades and FEC Redemption with contract manufacturing.
    6:30
    So there's confirmation right there that Dave was right about that. But with that said, we are committed to game seven and eight for American pinball and continued support on previously released games. Game seven isn't on the line yet, but parts are arriving every day with some samples built and being tested. we will have updates as we get closer to launch. Okay. That feels like there is commitment for 7 and 8, but maybe no plans after that.
    7:01
    How far along is 8? I don't know. Because 7 is Cuphead, right? 8 is probably just Whitewater 2. Okay. Who knows? I mean, because I'm hearing more people talk about 7, talk about their experience with Cuphead, and it's been a resounding, eh, it shoots pretty well, but the code is nowhere. Yeah. People say it's beautiful and it's kind of fun, but what do you do with that? That alone is not going to have a game supported in itself. So we will see.
    7:32
    And then he goes on to say, as a company going forward, we plan to say less with words and say more with our quality and action. Isn't that like carrying a big stick kind of thing? Yeah, yeah, some Teddy Roosevelt stuff going on here. Okay. Ask not what you can do for your pinball company. Dealer way. Ask not what the pinball company can do for you, but what you can do for your pinball distributing company. As we review future projects. Start palleting up your gains before you send them in. Yes, that would help, actually. Zach doesn't want them in on legs.
    8:04
    Too pricey. Our goal is to build products people want with the quality they deserve. You deserve nothing. This feels like AI at this point. The management structure as a sales and manufacturing organization are going to be led by me as the director of sales, bringing dealer orders to Mitesh Pithva, our director of operations. And behind the scenes, yes, there's going to be a larger team for production, development, and support. Thank you for the team efforts. Includes you dealers providing great products to the customer.
    8:37
    Feel free to reach out anytime. So, okay. Good message overall. Nice update. Flipping out. Is it staying as a distributor for American Pinball? At this point, I think we're still a dealer. Okay. Yeah, I think so. What I did find interesting was this was a follow-up email about inventory this past week, but I caught something that was different than all the other emails in the past. He was talking in there about contract manufacturing and different things.
    9:07
    But this not only confirms it but it gives us a lot more information I don know if any of the other dealers seen this but down at the bottom of the email he shows a picture and lists the names of each individual as part of the team and what they do right Like such and such is in tech, Lloyd, tech for American Pinball. But for himself, Ron, and the Matesh individual, it said American Pinball. But it also had another company named by it that was not Ametron, Dennis. And that name was, I think, I'm going to try to pronounce this right.
    9:40
    I think it's Funsup. Funsup Manufacturing. Or maybe it's Funs Up. Funs. Funs Up. Funs Trending Up. The Funs are up. I don't, Funsup. Funs Up. Or it could be F-U-N-S-U-P. Yes, it could be that as well. F-U-N-S-U-P Manufacturing. Or it could be Funsu P. Maybe the P is silent and it's Funsu. I like that. Fun-su, the art of fun. Fun-su sounds like something I would want to watch.
    10:11
    Ay-yi-yi-yi. Fun-su. Oh, tonguey. Yeah, like karate. But Fun-sop manufacturing. That's a lot of nuts. I like that one. Ay-yi-yi-yi. Fun-sop. Chosen. Chosen one. this is a bad loop we need to get out right in there you know what american pinball was screwed that up why can't they do that
    10:41
    and the back glass is going to be a guy with tiny gopher chucks it's going to be with the gopher chucks yes okay fun's up so bad You close up black. Funds Up Manufacturing is the name of the new company. So they're doing this contract manufacturing, Dennis and Lister, within a different company under Ametron. American Pinball is not doing the contract manufacturing.
    11:12
    It's going to be Funds Up. And they also had a link to the website, fundsupmanufacturing.com. And if you go to that, it was dead for a while. I've been following it. But then if you go to it, now it pops up and it's pretty plain right now, almost like a holder. Okay, a little placeholder page. Almost, yeah. It just says about pinball manufacturing, and it says our expertise. With more than seven pinball machines built, we know how to bring your pinball project to market using our American pinball brand or your own custom brand.
    11:47
    Oh, this is interesting. Development. Our team can manufacture your finished product or handle the development with electrical and mechanical engineering, art and animations, sound and coding. We also offer licensing support. I hate when people put animations. Isn't it plural already? Animation manufacturing. Our team will work with you to source parts and materials to complete your build. We will develop a testing and Q&A process to make sure machines are built to your specifications.
    12:21
    Final product. And by final product, there's a row of GTFs on the line. After your machine is approved for boxing, we will pack the machine in your custom packaging. And then punch it. Oh, wait, no. That's the wrong type of boxing. Sorry. We can then ship it to you or serve as your warehousing and distribution partner. Oh, hey. We're getting. Wait. Hey. If you use our service for distribution... What is with all these pinball manufacturers replacing their distributors? Oh, okay, wait.
    12:51
    Okay, it says, if you use our service for distribution, you will have access to our 125 distributors worldwide. Oh. There's a number there. Combo breaker. Do they really have 125 distributors worldwide? Well... That's quite... This is more than I would have assumed. I wonder how many are part of the Justice League. only the top five. Yes. The select few. The prepped. The Justice League. The tailors. I'm interested to know more about this.
    13:24
    And they have an address and everything. Telephone number? Should we call it? No. Okay. Let's not. I guess flipping out pinball is now an official dealer of fun stuff? Congratulations. Or is it only if it's under American pinball? I don't know. But they have access to us. My arms are open. I just it was interesting to find out that this is how they're doing that. Any takes on this? I mean I think it makes sense for them to go ahead and use another subsidiary for this style of work It avoids a lot of the American Pinball baggage but all being linked together means they can take advantage of all of the facilities and capabilities that they built up with American Pinball
    14:03
    So it does start to get a little weird when you start obfuscating with all these different names and it's all sort of the same. Magnum. It's all the same. Yes. But I think it makes sense for them, and I think this is an angle that may work well for them. I think their big struggle has been the development, design phase of stuff, building-wise, historically at least. They were able to make product and then move it. So the idea of them doing more of this sort of manufacturing I think makes sense for them and might be their future where they get out of development entirely and design.
    14:39
    Do you think within the next two years, and then we'll close it out, do you think within the next two years we will see a current overseas manufacturer use funds up to help manufacture their games, either partially or in their entirety? I'm going to say yes, I do think so. I think maybe as well. especially um given the threat of tariffs that's that yeah doing the build in america so you don't
    15:11
    have to have the uptick in charge for the import it could it would make sense here to to try and dodge the tariff for the american eye so i could actually see a game maybe european manufacturer builds it for the rest of the world and the american audience builds in america kind of like how stern does in brazil where they have a brazil manufacturer to build the games there because Otherwise, I believe it's a tariff system that results in the game being out of the price range for collectors. I think that going forward, if these tariffs do end up how they're being described, that may be the only option for overseas companies like a Dutch Pinball or a Pedretti.
    15:48
    Yeah. I mean, quite frankly, it's the way tariffs, when done normally, tariffs are kind of lose-lose in most instances. The one thing that it can do really well is protect an existing industry. So like back in the day in the 70s and stuff, like we, you know, protectionist tariffs on steel, U.S. steel and stuff, because we had those manufactured. It doesn't make, I don't want to go into a whole huge economics thing, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to say put in a tariff on something that we don't really have a homegrown ability to build. Like we don't do a lot of circuit boards here.
    16:20
    We import most of our boards. Sure. Because you have to spin up the entire industry. But the industry already exists. And here with pinball, most of the industry is actually already here. So, yes, the the pricing could become absurd to import anything that wasn't U.S. built in pinball, hypothetically. So if you but if you if you've done the design and you have the U.S. build it, you dodge that. So the other thing is most of these European manufacturers and really other other non U.S. nations, they're not selling a whole lot of product in general.
    16:50
    so because my main question would be could these sort of funds ups absorb doing this much work and i think the answer is yes because i don't think it's that much work well and they've been because they're supported by aimtron they can really feed this as much as they want or as little as they want they already have the space that you know because let me give you the give you the other side of it though to kind of paint that picture so like if it was stern overseas it wouldn't work like funds up wouldn't be able to absorb building the number of stern games that
    17:22
    stern would sell to the u.s or really probably even to other parts of the world because one of the interesting things that we'll have to see if happens let's say that you see these sort of tariffs go into play and let's use the hypothetical of europe because europe is being discussed and europe buys a lot of pinball and they retaliate with their own tariffs on our pinball industry like Canada was going to do. Where does Stern go to get their games built in Europe? I don't think there's anyone with enough capabilities to do it and to build the Stern standard. So I think Stern's just stuck losing that market.
    17:54
    But anyway, neither here nor there. That might make for another discussion in the future. Sure. I mean, the Canada one was a good example because we saw the initial proposed list and Canada was going to impose tariffs on pinball machines. And there's no place in Canada to get anything at scale built in pinball. So it would have been like those games just aren't going to sell. We thought eggs were high. Oh, yeah. This is the biggest egg of all, a goose egg of zero sales. Thank you for all the support, people.
    18:24
    You can turn it off now. Or turn it on. No, off.