Thunderstruck Party Truck a Business on Wheels

“This has been probably seven or eight months in the making,” says Mandy Smith, looking up from her seat on the long silver and black padded seat where she sits gluing letters to a sign. “We just got it up and going last month.”

Mandy and her brother Todd Smith are the owners of San Angelo’s newest mobile business: the Thunderstruck Game Party. Built from a converted utility trailer, the gaming center on wheels features four flat-panel screens along a carpeted wall, with a padded bench seat opposing where up to 16 gamers can play either PS3, XBOX, Wii, or K’nect. The interior of the trailer has been completely redone to feature colorful party lighting that fits in with the glow-in-the-dark theme the Smith’s are shooting for with the truck.

The Smith’s had been looking to open businesses individually when the two united on the game party mobile. “We hadn’t seen it, but we’d heard, so we did research on it and we were like, ‘oh my goodness’,” Mandy Smith said. “We saw one in Midland and there was a YouTube video and she showed it to me and we said, ‘this is it’,” Todd Smith chimed in.

The siblings haven’t worked together before, but aren’t worried about any rivalry. “Mandy and I have always gotten along,” Todd smith said, “always”. While the two hadn’t intended to go into business together initially, neither wanted to go into to debt to start a business either, and when Mandy found the idea for the mobile game center both knew instantly that this was the one.

Within months, the pair had started working on the project and by Valentine’s Day were ready to roll up to their first event: the carnival at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo. On their first night, the Smith’s chose to open their doors free of charge and saw an impressive response, with an estimate 300 people stopping to look and play throughout the afternoon and night.

The popularity of the trial run had reinforced the Smith’s conviction that they’d chosen the right business. ‘There have been a lot of people here, and they weren’t just teenage boys, but all ages,’ Todd Smith said. The first night on the fairgrounds had seen a draw of boys and girls in their teens all the way up to their late 40s, Smith said.

The Smith’s are marketing to families and youth events, and plan to set up all over town as events crop up. “We would love to get involved in community events. That’s another reason that we chose this…it’s a way to get families together, we are very family centered. We want to be with our families, so it’s a way to include them,” Mandy said.

As Christians, Todd and Mandy Smith have vetoed all incredibly violent videogames or those with foul language, and say that they not only refuse to by them, but won’t allow them to be played. “It’s good, clean, family fun,” Mandy said. “If you want to play them alone, we won’t hold it against you, but we’re not going to let you play them here.”

The Smith’s have hundreds of games for each console on the truck, many of which are top-sellers, such as Call of Duty and Just Dance, but allow patrons to bring their own as well at birthday parties and smaller occasions.

Having just officially launched, the Smith’s have already booked six events, including every weekend in may. The party truck may be rented for private parties as well as public affairs, and there are several packages that have been put together for potential customers. The basic rental is $199 per first hour, which goes down to $99 an hour after the first one is up. For the full party experience, the Smith’s will include a cake and “every glow thing imaginable” from glowsticks, to shoelaces, to necklaces and armbands for $299.

“If it’s a benefit, we’ll work with them so they can make the maximum profit,” Mandy says. “If it’s a birthday party and they’ve only got eight kids or so, we’re not going to say ‘no, you have to pay $299’. It’s just real laid back. We want everyone to have the best time possible and the biggest party they can have.”

Both Mandy and Todd Smith have children and full-time jobs outside of the Thunderstruck party truck. Todd works for Tel-Pro and Mandy is an RN for Mosaic. In order to select the name, the Smith’s visited the 5th grade class at Bonham Elementary, and gave them a selection of five names to choose from. The class overwhelmingly chose “Thunderstruck”.