Episode 381: Mezel Mods at 10 years!

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·16m 59s·analyzed·Dec 5, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Mezel Mods celebrates 10 years with interview on design philosophy and upcoming mod projects.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Kristen and Catherine from Mezel Mods at Pinball Expo to celebrate the company's 10-year anniversary. They discuss the design and creation process for various pinball machine mods across games like Rush, Foo Fighters, Godzilla, Godfather, and the upcoming Elton John release, emphasizing how mods enhance base game designs through 3D improvements and thematic accuracy.

Key Claims

Catherine joined Mezel Mods approximately 3 years ago and has significantly improved the quality of mod designs
high confidence · Catherine states 'I'm coming up on three years next month' and Kristen expresses how Catherine's work 'just gets better and better'
Early mod designs took 2-3 months to develop, but current designs are completed within a couple of weeks due to experience
high confidence · Catherine: 'one of my first major mods took two, three months to fully develop, and now they're out within a couple of weeks'
Mezel Mods designs mods to look like they could have come with the game originally, fitting seamlessly into existing design language
high confidence · Kristen: 'she wanted to make sure that everything we made looked like it could come with the game already'
New games at Expo include Labyrinth, Turner Pinball, Elements, and Elton John, with Elton John releasing publicly within the hour
high confidence · Jeff: 'in an hour's time, the public is going to see, for the first time, Jersey Jack's Elton John'
Tim, the third partner at Mezel Mods, works in semiconductor manufacturing in New Mexico and does not attend shows
high confidence · Kristen explains Tim 'is running a pretty important operation for a semiconductor manufacturer in New Mexico'

Notable Quotes

“a lot of what I try to do is backwards engineer from what they already have in the game...it's a lot easier to not go past the dimensions of what the game makers have already done”
Catherine @ mid-interview — Reveals core design philosophy: working within game constraints rather than against them
“one of my first major mods took two, three months to fully develop, and now they're out within a couple of weeks. So a lot of it has just been experience and really learning how to execute certain things in a timely manner”
Catherine @ mid-interview — Documents improvement in production speed and efficiency from experience gained
“you've got to make sure it fits. It can't clash...some of them I'm like, I immediately know what I want to do. And then some of them I'm like, oh, my gosh. I've got homework.”
Catherine @ late-interview — Illustrates varying difficulty levels of mod projects depending on game theme compatibility
“the factory buildings the one on the left it just says subway it's a completely glass office building, but it's labeled a subway...that's what they're trying to sell you, but that doesn't really evoke the feeling of a subway”
Catherine @ Godzilla discussion — Shows critical analysis of original game design and how mods correct thematic inconsistencies
“we definitely have a much shorter design time than I would say most other, just in general, like product companies. We are very quick relative to when we start on something and when we finish it”
Catherine @ production timeline discussion — Claims competitive advantage in speed versus traditional product companies

Entities

Mezel ModscompanyKristenpersonCatherine NavarropersonTimperson Jeff Teolisperson Pinball Expoevent Rushgame Foo Fighters

Signals

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business_signal: Mezel Mods returning to Pinball Expo after multi-year absence, celebrating 10-year milestone with expanded team and product line
high · Kristen: 'we decided we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary. We would come back, make a comeback tour'; Jeff: 'It's been a long time since you've been to Expo'
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design_philosophy: Godfather playfield buildings designed at 'very strange angle' with second story 'completely cut off' to match film perspective when viewed from player angle
medium · Catherine: 'it's at a very strange angle, and the second story is completely cut off. But from the angle that it is in the game, it looks like how you see it in the film'
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design_philosophy: Mod designers intentionally work within manufacturer constraints and design language to create enhancements that appear factory-original rather than aftermarket
high · Kristen: 'she wanted to make sure that everything we made looked like it could come with the game already'; Catherine's backward engineering approach from existing game dimensions
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event_signal: Four new games being publicly unveiled at Pinball Expo including Elton John reveal scheduled within one hour of interview
high · Jeff: 'There's Labyrinth, there's Turner Pinball, there's also Elements, and, of course, Elton John...in an hour's time, the public is going to see, for the first time, Jersey Jack's Elton John'
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personnel_signal: Catherine Navarro transitioned into professional mod design role at Mezel Mods approximately 3 years ago; rapid skill development documented

Transcript

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0:00

🎵 Well alright, something's got you going tonight 🎵 Doing all she can tonight 🎵 Go on, can't you see And when we all let go We get higher and rock and roll Journey to the stars Rock and roll guitar I like to rock It's time now for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter slash X. We're on Instagram at pinballprofile. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. We've got a great Facebook group. And if you're so kind and would like to show your support, we're on Patreon. Patreon.com slash pinballprofile. Don't you worry. The show will always be free, but this helps it keep going. And I appreciate good people like GME Law, Lua W., William M., and so many more. I'm here right now at Expo. You can hear the noise in the background. It's exciting. There's so many great games, but it's the vendors that really come out. And in fact, these vendors I haven't seen in a while since TPF because they're located in New Mexico. You know them. You love them. In fact, the last podcast I even talked about them. Measle Mods right here. And hello, Kristen. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. So great to see you again, Jeff. It's good to see you. It's been a long time since you've been to Expo. It has been a long time. And we decided we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary. We would come back, make a comeback tour. I think I was at TPF when I think Rob Burke came and said, you've got to come back. I think I saw the pitch, and so he must have sold you. Glad to see you here. You've got a wonderful display. We're going to talk about some of the mods and even the mod makers, too. You're even helping out ULUX Store, I see here, with some of their nice flipper bats. But Measle Mods, 10 years of doing incredible creations, and I mean, I know personally you've been wonderful to me with the Pinball Profile World Tour and the Pinball Profile Played in America Tour. Thank you very much for your generosity and really making a lot of people all over the globe very happy. Well, thank you for letting us be a part of that because we have enjoyed you and your contributions to the community. You don't have to say that. I'm still doing the interview. I appreciate that. It's true, though. I wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't true. Well, you're here right now. I know you might have to step out if some people want to buy these wonderful mods, but we've got someone else that you alerted me to back in Texas. In fact, I think it was maybe over a year ago, and she's here right now. Catherine Navarro. Hi Catherine. Hi. Good to see you. This young woman has created unbelievable mods here. I just got a good display. I'll show you on the pictures too. So go to Facebook, go to Instagram. You'll see these pictures of what Catherine has created. My goodness. First of all, when you see a new game come up, what goes through your head? Like, okay, there's a void there. Oh, there's a space there. There's a ramp there. I could do something. I like this theme. They're missing this. What goes through your head? So a lot of it is just kind of searching for what can be improved, things that seem like really great ideas on paper but probably weren't able to be fully executed, whether that was due to budget constraints or just because it's very hard to do injection molding for 10,000 games. So that's kind of the first thing I think about to what we can improve on. I love seeing people mod up their games, and you see it at shows like Expo, like TPF, and other shows around the globe too. But it has to come from somewhere, and Measle Mods is a great source for that for sure. You can see it on the website, and I highly recommend that. But when I see, the first one I think I looked at was Rush. It was the first one I saw when I walked in here. And you did some amazing things with Rush. What did you do? So Rush is actually probably one of the hardest games we've worked on. Visually they have a lot less to go off of say versus like Foo Fighters compared to a lot of other music pins They have an actual story going on So it kind of hard to convey like Tom Sawyer and Ayn Rand in pinball mod form So that one, I had to do a lot of pre-planning. I had to do a lot of research because I didn't know too much about Rush. I'd heard Tom Sawyer on the radio and that was kind of it. So... I just want to point out, you're talking to a Canadian. Be very careful. Treadwater. Be very careful. I like what I found. We're talking about the holy trinity of rock. Go ahead, finish. I did enjoy what I found. But so I, a lot of what I based my work on was their 2012 tour that they did. Yeah. It was very steampunk based. And so I saw when I was growing up, I saw a lot of the steampunk movement, kind of game traction online. That was a good avenue to take the visuals. Well, you see the cogs, you see certainly the time machine, and you've done great creations. You talked about Foo Fighters, too. So the Area 51 certainly opened up all kinds of possibilities of what you can do. Again, look at the pictures, too, of the fence, the little details. That's what I like about what you've created. That one's a little more difficult to come up with. I mean, certainly you can have aliens in your background because of the story of Foo Fighters, but it's really not band material. You're not throwing on drumsticks or guitars. It's really kind of the alien base. and you captured it. Well done. Thank you. So one of the first things Kristen told me when I started working there was that she wanted to make sure that everything we made looked like it could come with the game already. So for Foo Fighters, the buildings actually had really good base designs already. They fit the game really well. The color theory was done really well, in my opinion, and had a lot of really nice details. But they were just flat plastic that was screen printed. And so those, I kind of took those elements that they already had in there, and I made it 3D. And I made it in a way that it was very easy to mass produce. But you know what I think you do at Miso Mods, and anyone who puts mods on their machines, you know, if you're buying, say, the Pro model versus the Premium, you're probably getting a lot of those 2D flat plastics and whatnot. But the mods can really, pardon the expression, pimp up the game, so to speak. They really do. They really add a lot to it. And even so on the premiums as well, Godzilla, I saw what you did for Godzilla, and I thought, holy cow, there's a lot of real estate there, but they'll all fit, and it's still playable, nothing gets in the way. Tell me about your Godzilla mods. So that game was actually probably one of the most fun to work on. I'd definitely say that was my Renaissance era. A lot of what I try to do is backwards engineer from what they already have in the game. it's a lot easier to not go past the dimensions of what the game makers have already done and sometimes we'll do that but for me especially with those buildings it's such tight real estate that a lot of what we do is I take that building out I measure it and I basically recreate it in the computer and then I work from there and so um kind of what we noticed is that when you actually take a look at the the factory buildings the one on the left it just says subway it's a It's like a completely glass office building, but it's labeled a subway. And it's like that's what they're trying to sell you, but that doesn't really evoke the feeling of a subway. So I went, okay, I'll just recreate this plastic, but we're going to take elements from when you're actually in the subway. So the brick, the tile, some of the windows, posters that you see, those are all elements that I tried to incorporate to give it that feel. We just talked about three games. We've talked about Rush, we've talked about Foo Fighters, Godzilla. There were some Godfather things you did as well for J.J.P. Yeah, Godfather was also really fun to work on. There was a lot of tiny details. Okay, I saw the building, the house, you know, the compound, if you will, for the Corleone family. And the house looks fantastic. I've seen the movie a lot of times. It's one of my all-time favorites. I'm like, how did you come up with a house? And you told me before we started interviewing, you want to share that? So part of it was that the area that the compound is in is already supposed to be the compound in game but again it just flat plastics kind of layered onto each other And the angles that it at you have to really be looking hard And so what I wanted to do was to make that a lot clearer. And so I did a lot of research and I made it so that basically in my mind, I visualized this house. And then I went, OK, how can I cut it up to where it can fit? And so if you actually take a look at the compound, it's at a very strange angle, and the second story is completely cut off. But from the angle that it is in the game, it looks like how you see it in the film. Well, that just made me think, when you're creating these, the first thing you have to do is find out the real estate you have to work with. Forget the idea in your head. What's the actual dimensions I can fit something in here? and keeping in mind things like air balls that sometimes might bounce off the mods. So it certainly has to be sturdy like they are here with Measle mods. So before you do anything, you have to actually get the machine, don't you? Yeah, we're always very excited on game day.

9:34

I guess, is there a bit of a race too? Because when a new game comes out, people who love mods, it's a very addictive thing, right? Like they say, buying one pinball machine, oh, that's great, you have one, it'll multiply. Well, once you start modding one game, you do it to the others. So I imagine people want this as quickly as possible, but the creation time, you know, it's artistic. It's not just going to poof, there it is. We definitely have a much shorter design time than I would say most other, just in general, like product companies. We are very quick relative to when we start on something and when we finish it. Of course, we don't rush anything, but a lot of it is just kind of muscle memory at this point. Because when I first started, one of my first major mods took two, three months to fully develop, and now they're out within a couple of weeks. So a lot of it has just been experience and really learning how to execute certain things in a timely manner so that I can focus on doing stuff that's really going to elevate it. Kristen was just off helping customers, some satisfied customers here at the Measlemods booth at Pinball Expo. But we were talking about new games when they come out. It's the race to get the mods done. So here we are at Expo, and in an hour's time, the public is going to see, for the first time, Jersey Jack's Elton John. This is a race time, I assume, for you at Measlemods. Yeah, and we started, I don't know if Catherine talked about the process of you know about a theme, theme and you immediately start that research process and thinking about what it is that will be important in that theme even before you've seen it and then also really thinking about what is likely to be the sweet spot that we can really enter into with the game once you see the pictures of it and finding those things that are missing that you want to begin to think about and sketch and kind of play around within your mind so that when the game does get in, you can hit the ground running. I haven't seen much of the Jersey Jack playfield, so I could be talking out of the side of my mouth here, but when I think of Elton John, and I'm certainly not artistic, I think of those big famous boots. I think of the crazy sunglasses, the wigs and whatnot. If you've seen the movie Rocketman, there's some ideas there. Are these the kind of things that go through your head? Yeah, I mean, in this case, there's a lot of really interesting kind of artistic opportunities that I think will be really fun to try to execute. And it'll also be an opportunity for us to bring in a kind of a multitude of different materials to make something look really, you know, like a pair of glasses as an example. Like really being able to make that in a way that looks really neat and fits with the theme. I see the game has got a lot of purple and I think that will be fun and also will be kind of the subject I sure of the purple pinball lovers out there Oh for sure I mean look at the popularity of Foo Fighters In fact Catherine and I were just talking about that kind of purple You know you like seeing the different colors when they come out and some of them really pop. And, Catherine, you see a game, you've got to make sure it fits. It can't clash, like you mentioned, too. But I saw you last at TPF. At TPF, I think there were seven new games. Here we've got, I think, four being shown. There's Labyrinth, there's Turner Pinball, there's also Elements, and, of course, Elton John. and who knows what else is going to be shown here at Expo. But is it kind of like Christmas when a new game comes out for you?