Author Topic: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff  (Read 19331 times)

Offline erik1925

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Re: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff
« Reply #25 on: October 02, 2015, 03:16:54 PM »
kobun37, again, your work, detail and passion to rebuild and restore your Chuck animatronic are to be commended.

He looks fantastic!

 clap clap clap clap
« Last Edit: October 02, 2015, 03:18:02 PM by erik1925 »


-Jeff

Offline kobun37

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Re: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff
« Reply #26 on: November 02, 2016, 10:42:30 PM »
I collect Chuck E. Cheese stuff up through the mid-90s, and over the years they have made some awesome posters and wall art to decorate the stores. One of the mods asked me to make a thread so they could split one of my older threads that went off topic. So here's some pics of my other stuff!



He actually has a friend.



Chuck and the "guest" character are mechanically identical. About a year ago I was part of a group buy from a huge lot in California. I and another collector split a huge barn find from a store that went out of business due to a sprinkler mishap around 1986. An eclectic collector guy went to the closing auction and bought up almost all the animatronic stuff and some of the interior signage. I got Chuck and all the guest cosmetics, so eventually I hope to do a series of videos where the original Chuck is a cynical talk show host and the second animatronic will be whatever character I need. Here are a few more things I picked up in California:









Shortly after this store closed the company started requiring stores to destroy anything used for decoration with character likenesses on it, a practice that continues today. They'll happily sell you a shirt with an image of Chuck on it at the redemption counter, but if it's a poster hanging on the walls when the store closes it gets trashed. They used to just throw everything away but people were rescuing it out of the dumpsters so now they have it sent back to corporate so they can destroy it. So yeah, this stuff is pretty rare.

Offline erik1925

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Re: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff
« Reply #27 on: November 02, 2016, 11:16:04 PM »
kobun37, I dont think you mentioned it, (and if you did , apos for asking again) but how did you get bitten by the Chuck E Cheese collecting bug? What first drew you to it?

And your 2 new animatronic figures look to be in great condition, too.   thumbsup.gif  Are both fully functional?


-Jeff

Offline kobun37

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Re: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff
« Reply #28 on: November 03, 2016, 04:11:20 AM »
kobun37, I dont think you mentioned it, (and if you did , apos for asking again) but how did you get bitten by the Chuck E Cheese collecting bug? What first drew you to it?

And your 2 new animatronic figures look to be in great condition, too.   thumbsup.gif  Are both fully functional?

I've always thought animatronics were cool, but I actually got started collecting CEC stuff about three years ago when the indie game Five Nights at Freddy's came out. I grew up in the early 80s, so I remembered seeing these guys in the stores. As I looked into the history I ran across old video recordings and got to see some of the skits from the early, early days. Back then the company made an effort to write the material for both kids and adults, since the adults were left to watch the show while the kids played video games. The characters say suggestive stuff that went right over kids' heads but they could never get away with now. Plus I find Chuck hilarious because he's kind of a snarky asshole. I got hooked up online with a bunch of other collectors who are a group of awesome and amazing people and it just kind of grew from there.

Collecting CEC stuff is a lot like collecting rare movie posters. There's also kind of a treasure hunt aspect. A few of the things I have (such as the neon sign) are "only one known." The company is generally indifferent to the collector market. They don't target mass merchandise toward collectors, and as I've mentioned before they have a strict policy of destroying things used to decorate the stores, mascot suits and animatronics. Just like the film distributors required theaters to destroy or return old posters. In CEC's case, competitors have bought out that stuff when the stores closed and shipped it down to Mexico and other places where copyright laws are less strict and opened competing restaurants. So there is a sound economic reason for the policy, but that doesn't make the collectors any happier.  :P Mix in stuff given as gifts to executives and as employee awards, franchisee convention merchandise, short-run redemption prizes and there is some really neat and seriously rare collectibles out there. Getting what you want is often a waiting game, and stuff even long-time collectors have never seen before comes up every now and then. I get jealous of people with collections where everything is always available and who can just save up and buy whatever they want when they have enough money.  ;D

The animatronics are functional, but I need to buy the hardware to split the air line so I can run both of them off the same compressor. The first Chuck bot had good cosmetics but needed a lot of cleanup and repairs on the mech inside after 20+ years of service. The second bot was in much better shape mechanically because he was only in service for about 5 years, but his cosmetics were in horrible shape. Full of holes and absolutely filthy from sitting in storage. The store had them dressed in Halloween costumes right before it closed and Chuck was dressed as Dracula with a black wig that went down the sides of his head. Some idiot tech put the pieces on with hot glue instead of pins like they were supposed to and there were globs of it all twisted up in the fur and fabric on his snout. That pink fabric is no longer made and impossible to get, so replacing it wasn't an option. What you're seeing the results of literally hundreds of hours of cleaning, stitching and mechanical restoration work.  There are still some minor things left to do, but I've worked on them so much they are almost members of the family.

Offline erik1925

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Re: Kobun37's Pizza Rat Stuff
« Reply #29 on: November 03, 2016, 12:22:22 PM »
Thanks for the detailed back story as well as all the information kobun37. Sounds like there is quite the niche of collectors of this material that you linked up with, too.

And I can tell that the animatronics and bringing them back to life both functionally and cosmetically, have been true labors of love. Good for you, and the end results certainly show that to be true. clap clap



-Jeff