Starting to add posters to my larger collection

[kobun37]

I mainly collect Chuck E. Cheese stuff, but I signed up because I recently got my hands on a rare CEC poster with some condition issues. You see, back in the late 80s and early 90s the company created a series of about a dozen parody movie posters to hang in the stores. I think they're really nice posters and do a great job of capturing the art style and layout of the originals. They hit four interests of mine: movies, arcades, robots and terrible, terrible puns. Here's a page with a few of them. Mine is "Crocodile Chuckee".

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.145772935616232.1073741830.145226862337506&type=3

Unfortunately, they have a policy called "corporate de-identification" which means everything with recognizable characters made for in-store use (signage, wall art, costume, rides, games and robot parts, etc.) is supposed to be destroyed. Most of the stores have been redecorated several times since these posters were made, so they're very hard to find in any condition. Mine was obtained from a company that did fabrication work for their robot parts. It hung in their warehouse for decades and has a couple of small tears, a bunch of pinholes and some areas where creases have removed the ink. I'm thinking about shipping it off to have it restored and framed.

BTW, if you have any Chuck E. Cheese wall art or other corporate/in-store materials from the period when Chuck wore a derby hat (1977 through the mid-1990s) you're willing to sell, I'd definitely be interested.

[CSM]

A Chuck E Cheese collector? That's something different and cool!

Welcome

[erik1925]

  kobun37 and enjoy.

Chuck E. Cheese posters and material.... who knew? (and now we do). 

Would be great to see what some of these items look like, too.

[kobun37]

Thanks. I'm hoping to eventually get the complete set to hang in my collection/gaming/theater room. Can't hurt to let people know you're looking, right?

Most of the ones that survived came from employees (either corporate employees who brought them home for their kids or store employees who thought they were too neat to destroy) so they pop up in weird places sometimes. I know someone who found a couple at Goodwill still in their original frames.

Also interested in the "oil painting" character posters that were used about the same time:



And the album and TV show parodies that came a bit later:



On these the artwork is separate from the background and made from either resin or really thick card stock. Not sure if they really count as posters since they are not all one piece, but I definitely like the art.

[kobun37]

Unfortunately, good pics just don't exist for a lot of them. Best images are probably in that facebook album. Here's a pic of my poster and the original:



Just for comparison, here's another:



I LOLed when I noticed they made Chuck into Short Round.

[Neo]

  aboard, K.  That CEC stuff is rad. 

It looks like Crocodile Chuckee isn't in too bad of condition, but of course it could be spiffed up a little bit, and preserved.  I'd recommend Poster Mountain.

The CEC items you're in search of sound like they're ultra-rare.  Good luck on your quest.

 

[MoviePosterBid.com]

interesting!

[kobun37]

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. I know my collection interest is kind of narrow, but I do love looking at the neat poster images people have posted.

Unfortunately, those buildings hide a lot of spiderweb type creases that are pretty apparent in person. The paper has yellowed a bit and it has some tiny brown stains on the back. Foxing, maybe? The warehouse was in Orlando so it may have been exposed to humidity. Still, I'm ecstatic I got one period. I looked on WorthPoint and there are only two sales records, both in worse condition than this one. It should look really nice once it's restored.

I managed to dig up a better image of the Indiana Jowls poster. This one is probably my #1 most wanted out of the set, both because I like the Indy movies (I even enjoyed Crystal Skull) and it features several popular characters who were retired in the early 80s. This poster is their last known appearance.



My #2 is the Beetlejuice parody, which is called Beaglejuice. It's one of my top 10 favorite movies. No images of that one that I could find, but it features Jasper the dog dressed in Beetlejuice's outfit sitting on the house just like the original poster.

The company also made some parody posters for ShowBiz Pizza Place, which they ran before converting over to all CEC in the 90s. Here's one for all you Star Wars fans:



It may not be official, but it's probably one of the rarest SW-related posters ever.

[Neo]

That one for Pizza Wars is very cool.  It may be a unicorn for some Star Wars fans, eh?

Here's another, Beverly Hills Bob:

[Ari]

haha wow, I thought id seen it all.
Never seen a chuck e cheese, its like Macdonalds or something right?
I like to see someone collecting something other than bloody horror movie posters

[Neo]

haha wow, I thought id seen it all.
Never seen a chuck e cheese, its like Macdonalds or something right?
I like to see someone collecting something other than bloody horror movie posters

Chuck E Cheese's is so much cooler than McDonald's.  CEC is more like a sit-down restaurant combined with a bunch of arcade games.

There is one not too far from me, and I went there a few times when I was a kid.  It was awesome.  They have a bunch of animatronic characters in the restaurant area that play a few songs periodically, although I thought they were real people back then.  It's a good place for kids to have parties and for families to bring their kids to play arcade games and have lunch/dinner.

[CSM]

Not my kids:

[kobun37]

Chuck E Cheese's is so much cooler than McDonald's.  CEC is more like a sit-down restaurant combined with a bunch of arcade games.

There is one not too far from me, and I went there a few times when I was about kid.  It was awesome.  They have a bunch of animatronic characters in the restaurant area that play a few songs periodically, although I thought they were real people back then.  It's a good place for kids to have parties and for families to bring their kids to play arcade games and have lunch/dinner.

It's changed a bit since then. Since the arcade scene is just about dead, they have a few arcade games but most are ticket redemption games these days. Some restaurants don't have an animatronics show, just a big video screen. That's the direction they're going because the animatronics are aging and are more expensive to maintain. There's only a few of those locations so far, though. Most of them still have some form of robot show. About half have a single Chuck bot, and the rest have a couple of variations on the full 5 character animatronics show. It's still a fun place for the kiddies, though.

Without getting too into it, there are four major versions of Chuck. Classic Rat, Tux Chuck, Cool Chuck (the one on the Skee Ball marquee pic) and Modern Chuck (the CGI one that debuted in 2012.) I was a kid in the early 80s, so Classic Rat is the Chuck I remember (and prefer.) He was a snarky wisecracking douche with a thick Jersey accent who was prone to malapropisms and liked insulting the other characters. Kind of like a cross between Archie Bunker and Joe Pesci. Really fun to watch. Fans (that's right, I'm not alone) have ripped the audio for most of the shows and it's available online. Back when the early stuff was written they created the character dialog with both kids and adults in mind, so they're still entertaining now that I'm grown.

I like their store artwork with the exception of the most recent update (which mostly has really boring artwork most fans hate.) It's worth noting that some stores update more often than others so a few still have the old artwork I've posted. You really get a sense the artists were having fun when they were doing them. Especially the period from the late 80s through 2000 when they were doing all the parodies. Anyway, a few more examples of their parody wall art:







Some more of their ShowBiz stuff:

[DekeThornton]

I have fond childhood memories of visiting Showbiz Pizza when we would visit my grandma in Kansas City.

Since I saw the Showbiz Pizza characters posted as well as Chuck E Cheese, well I just have to be sure everybody has seen this video.  Your life will be richer after watching:
http://youtu.be/QBhuBrWlmeA

[DekeThornton]

By the way, I love the stuff you posted.  You inspired me to go check out ebay (don't worry, I won't be competing with you).

Are you mainly interested in posters/wall-art?  Or are you collecting costumes and animatronics too?

[kobun37]

I'm pretty much interested in the wall art, some signage, animatronics and the higher-end knick-knacks they made either for the redemption counter or for employee awards and gifts. Kind of a "I'll know I want it when I see it" thing. Don't worry about competing against me, though. If it's up on eBay, it's fair game.

I'd like to get a couple of the bots, but everything I said about the wall art goes double for them. The CEC bots are practically impossible to get, especially the full body ones currently used in stores. The parts are expensive so the company is keen to reuse any that get decommissioned when the stores close or are remodeled to the new "no robots" format. Most of the CEC bots owned by collectors are 1/2 body bots that came from franchised stores that closed back in the 80s. There's one up on eBay at the moment I wouldn't mind having, but it's local pickup only which is probably why it hasn't sold.

The Rock-afire Explosion bots are easier to find, but only by comparison. The company that made the RAE bots sold a few dozen shows to other restaurants in the 90s after breaking ties with ShowBiz. As those places closed, the bots sometimes came on the market so they occasionally show up for sale along with their various parts.

I don't collect costumes, but those are easier to find. Most of the ones that have come up recently are Cool Chuck, because they were in use for a long time and the company switched out walkaround costumes to the new look storewide in the last year or two. Employees were supposed to destroy the old ones, but some escaped onto the secondary market. Be prepared to fork out some cash, though. A complete Chuck walkaround with little to no damage runs approximately $800-$1,000 when they're available. Other characters pop up occasionally but are extremely rare.

The pride of my collection is actually a plushie. Bought it from a former corporate employee thinking it was one of the first known CEC dolls. They only had two stores when it was made and it has only popped up for sale three times in 15 years. Once I got it in the mail, it turned out to be a smaller version of the same doll, which no one knew even existed. Possibly a prototype that was never put into production. Pretty cool feeling knowing you've discovered something no one else has.

Anyway, if you are interested the CEC/SPP fan community board is here:

http://w11.zetaboards.com/Retro_Pizza_Zone/index/

Accounts are activated manually so it takes a day or two after joining before you can post.

[archie leach]

Great read, thanks for sharing...  I still remember bringing in my report card for free video game tokens.  I made out like a bandit...

[jedgerley]

Ya Chuck E Cheese in the 80's was amazing! Climbing through Cheese mazes, skeeball, pinball and the show. I still have a bunch of the tokens.  The posters made are quite interesting! Good luck on your treasure hunt!

[kobun37]

Some nostalgia fuel for the folks who went there in the 80s.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/NaOGWTnvIMA" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/NaOGWTnvIMA</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/CKS2xJcx8G8" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/CKS2xJcx8G8</a>

For Chuck's 5th birthday back in 1982 all the stores held a huge party/media event. Here's some video from one of them. The person in the Chuck suit riding a unicycle is amazing. Most people can't ride one period, let alone ride one backwards in a character suit with extremely limited vision.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/GNdAbsRGmSk" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/GNdAbsRGmSk</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/AE8wC4P8WG4" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/AE8wC4P8WG4</a>

Hard to believe the 40th is only a couple of years away...

And last but not least, the only working show from the 80s, which a fan has set up in his garage. It took many years and a lot of money to assemble all of the parts.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/33qszbYvpW8" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/33qszbYvpW8</a>

And if you want to see what a tremendous jerk Chuck could be back then, his bots can demonstrate!  

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6OXKY3VBD4M" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6OXKY3VBD4M</a>

He's usually not quite this big of a douche and there are skits where he's nicer and even sentimental at times, but can you imagine the parental reaction if they made something like this today?

[Neo]

Wow.  Those old school setups are a blast from the past.  

I had no idea CEC changed so much.  Granted, the only times I went there were probably between 1984-1986, but the "Classic Rat" and his pals from that time have so much character and great dialogue.  Also, having some arcade games would be way cooler IMO than having only ticket games.

Thanks for sharing the info. and videos, K.

[Ari]

apparently in Perth (here) in the 70's or 80's there was a place called PIZZA SHOWTIME that must have stole this idea.
Robotic animals singing etc.
I never went there as I grew up a country lad. But I found a brass plaque in an op shop from it (that was on the outside wall when it opened)
And my (ex) wife told me she went as a kid.

[kobun37]

I've heard of this Pizza Showtime place, but the only thing those in the fan community know about it is it existed and that's only because a coin collector who is into arcade tokens was sent a picture of one. If you come across any more info or pictures of the place, it would be awesome to find out more about it. A lot of people in the fanbase are also interested in the copycats, retrofits and one-off restaurants that used the same animatronics-and-games concept.

There were at least two official Chuck E. Cheese franchise stores in Australia in the early to mid 80s. For the Australian market they were named Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse and Charlie was supposed to be Chuck's Australian cousin. One was at Grundy's Amusement Centre at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, and the other was in the city of Carindale near Brisbane. We know almost nothing about them other than what appeared in the company newsletter, which amounts to a few blurbs when the franchise deal was signed and financial reports on how the original restaurant was performing. Here are the only known pictures, all from Grundy's:







I recently got in touch with someone who went to the one in Carindale when I bought a Charlie Cheese token on eBay Australia. He said he was pretty sure the characters had Australian accents, so it's likely they had their own show skits or at least the dialog was re-recorded over there. Grundy's main business was television broadcasting and production, so they definitely had the ability to create their own new material. If they did, at this point none has been found.

I do know there is some merchandise that was unique to Charlie Cheese's. I'd definitely like to get my hands on it. If you ever run across anything at yard sales or antique stores or whatnot maybe we can work out a deal.

And just to keep this nominally poster-related, here's a pic of the Pizza Wars original artwork. It currently hangs in CEC headquarters in Texas.

[Ari]

OK, no worries, sadly Queensland where these 2 were is exactly the furthest away from me as possible within Australia (about 4,500kms away)
But I have friends there and who would have known it I guess.

If I find my brass plaque from Pizza Showtime Ill post a pic, I haven't seen it in years, but I have a lot of junk I haven't looked at in years in boxes.And I never throw things out.



PS- yes Grundy was a big name in television down here.

[kobun37]

Mailed Crocodile Chuckee off for the resto job today. I sent it to Sue at Hollywood Poster Frames. She uses Lumiere Poster Restoration. It's a standard 24" x 36" but the backing is going to make it a custom size so I figured I might as well get the frame done too.

I took lots of up close "before" pictures so once I get it back I will make a post in the before/after thread. 

I can't wait to see it hanging on my wall. 

[CSM]

You're in good hands with Mario (like Allstate)