Aaron Fechter

At an early age, Fechter exhibited signs of technical genius: taking apart a radio at age 4, putting it back together at age 5, and starting a television repair business at age 11. He reportedly stopped that service because he could not lift the television sets. After graduating at Edgewater High School,[4] He earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of South Florida at age 19.[5]

In early 1975, rech founded Creative Engineering Incorporated (CEI) to produce a small car called the "Jutta" that was claimed to achieve 75–90 miles per gallon of gas. While trying to find financial backing to mass-produce the car, Fechter developed other products, such as an automated pool cleaner, called the "Leaf Eater", to raise capital. At about the same time, Fechter was commissioned to build an electronic control system to operate the guns and targets of an automatic shooting gallery, as well as a new control system for an animatronic horse.[5] Though he was never paid for the work completed on the target range and horse controls, Fechter began creating animatronics for the amusement park industry. With Fechter's father as an early investor, CEI entered the market of designing and creating animated characters – some of the first being The Scab (a single talking head), Willie Wabbit (anthropomorphic rabbit), Friendly Freddy (anthropomorphic bear), Count Dracula, and "Lazlo The Great" (fortune teller machine).[5]

In 1978, Fechter created the "Wolf Pack 5", his first animatronic success, featuring "The Wolfman", Fats, Dingo Starr, Beach Bear, and Queenie the Fox ("Mini Mozzarella" for ShowBiz), showcased at the IAAPA show. "The Hard Luck Bears", another show, featuring a hillbilly band of bears (Billy Wilbur [guitar], Billy Boy [drum], Billy Bill [piano], Billy Bob [bass]), two gas-station bears (Pete & Repete), and the bears' mother (Mama Grandbags) joined by a bird who repeats whatever she says (Gooney Bird),[6] debuted in 1979. By 1980, The Rock-afire Explosion, a more complex show that was a combination of the Wolf Pack 5 and the Hard Luck Bears with improved animation and other changes, was completed and installed at all ShowBiz stores.[5][7]

In 1980, Fechter opened Showbiz Pizza Place, a restaurant with games, pizza, and animation entertainment (The Rock-afire Explosion) in conjunction with Robert L. Brock of Brock Hotel (largest franchisee of Holiday Inns at the time); who was a franchise of Chuck E. Cheese's. Creative would own 20% of the company (owning all the rights to the characters, animation and parts for shows) while Brock owned the other 80% until 1984 when ShowBiz bought Chuck E. Cheese's (then known as Pizza Time Theatre), with Fechter still owning the rights to the Rock-afire. The first Showbiz opened its doors in Kansas City, Missouri in 1980, located in The Antioch Shopping Center. Oddly enough, this store did not contain the RAE, but instead the Wolf Pack 5, which was also produced by CEI. The RAE was in development at the time, and could not be brought out yet. Queenie the Fox (of The WP5) was replaced by "Mini Mozzarella" (a precursor to Mitzi of The RAE) per SPP's request for a mouse character; to compete with Chuck E. Cheese.[8]

After a few years of CEI and ShowBiz feuding over the rights to the Rock-afire, The RAE shows were stripped of cosmetics (fur, face, clothes, ETC) from Showbiz Pizzas from 1990 to 1992 in a process called "Concept Unification", which included removal of cosmetics, rearranging of characters, and replacement of shows to "Munch's Make Believe Band", using Chuck E. Cheese characters.[9] The licensing agreement Showbiz and CEI agreed on allowed CEI to license the RAE band and characters to other businesses. Some of these shows lasted throughout the 1990s (and some are still in operation today), in businesses such as Pistol Pete's Pizza and Billy Bob's Wonderland.

Even during Showbiz's span, CEI began to pursue other interests outside of animated shows. Starting in 1982, CEI began the production and research of The Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine (AGFM), a device that can send messages through a phone line, like E-mail. Around 1983 CEI began to enter the games business again with "Moon Goons", a Whac-a-Mole clone. In 1985, a miniature animatronic doll of Billy Bob was produced. Much like Teddy Ruxpin, which came out the same year. It was able to "read stories and communicate" with children. According to the Release Manual,[10] It could be plugged into a computer, as demonstrated with an Apple II, and be programmed to "sing". On the drawing board, it could sing with characters on video. There were also plans to make Mini Fatz and Mini Mitzi, but never saw the light of day. Prototypes of Mini BB Still are owned by CEI, and even to the extent of being staged with "Props, Drapes, & Spotlights". In 1992, The New Rock-afire Explosion was made as a "New, Fun, & Exciting Feature to CEI'S Electronimation Lineup". In 1996, animation from the New RAE was used in a karaoke game shown at the IAAPA. In 1997, Looney Bird's was a new restaurant that housed the classic RAE, but one Looney Bird's Markets used "The New Rock-Afire Explosion" show. As with The New Rock-Afire, "Marvelously Electronic Animation" debuted as a Karaoke, Trivia and Video Recording area that features a NRAE Looney Bird Robot that is controlled with The Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine. In 2000, CEI developed "The Mezmerizer" arcade game, which was licensed for manufacture to ICE and morphed into their Wheel of Fortune Game (which can be found at Many Family entertainment centers today). 2003 arrived with a new game, The Starlauncher. The Starlauncher was described as "An American Idol Kiosk" by Fechter in the 2008 RAE Documentary, and has yet to be seen publicly. The Rock-Afire Explosion resurgence came in 2005 with YouTube videos (such as "Ms. New Booty" by Chris Thrash), followed by The Rock-afire Explosion Documentary in 2008. In 2010, research began on the Carbohydrillium alternative fuel source, a safer way to cook cleaner than propane that emits little to no pollution from its combustion process.[11][12]

On September 26, 2013, an explosion occurred at the headquarters warehouse of Creative Engineering. Fechter had been developing a system to manufacture an alternative fuel derived from water and graphite called "Carbohydrillium" in partnership with a paid mentor, William Richardson. A high pressure bottle ruptured and released its contents, causing an explosion. It was later discovered that Richardson had had a very similar explosion in his own warehouse in 2001 when he was developing his systems for making this gas in a company he called Aqualux.[13] It was later determined that water vapor introduced into high-pressure carbon steel cylinders during the production of the gas caused several chemical reactions which eventually led to a cylinder's catastrophic failure.[3][14]

Creative Engineering and Fechter seemed to still be a success, still offering warehouse tours and selling Rock-afire merchandise online. In 2014, indie game developer Scott Cawthon made Five Nights at Freddy's, which in part was inspired by both Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza Place. The game revolves the player trying to protect himself from animatronics (reminiscent of The Rock-afire Explosion cast) that are possessed by ghosts, and survive from 12 am to 6 am. Five Nights at Freddy's is set in a restaurant similar in style to Chuck E. Cheese. CEI has gained modern popularity, as fans of the game learn about the RAE from the suggestions of internet personalities.

In 2015, CEI released a new arcade game to the IAAPA Convention. The game is called Bashy Bug (stylized as BASHyBUG, "y" letter is a pink flipflop shoe) and it revolves around a flipflop shoe stomping on a bug in a skill game-like timed area with multiple levels (1 through 5). On the top arcade cabinet, a character named "The Barker" tells you what level you are on and if you lose, he will tell you how good you are compared to an age group (Level 1 is 4 years old, etc.). "The Barker" is wearing Uncle Klunk's clothing items.[15] Another individual is helping Fechter restore the older Mini Billy Bob animatronic models to work with all older and soon to come Classic Rock-afire material, retaining the programming from the actual Billy Bob robot.[16] His company also launched the "Rock-afire World" merchandise website, which sells RAE-themed merchandise with official art from the only other employee. The website is running on the CafePress platform.[17]

The 2016 film Keanu, by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, features a scene in which cat Keanu jumps through a window into an abandoned building that used to manufacture animatronics; to escape kidnappers/a gang (per plot of the movie). Makers of the movie reached out to Fechter about putting some of the decaying robots he has sitting in CEI in the movie. Fechter states and teasers show that they used 2 Beach Bear (no face cosmetics), Billy Bob (No face cosmetics), Fatz (no face cosmetics), The Wolfman Rolfe retrofit (commonly called "Rolfeman" by fans), Mortimer the Moose and Buford the Buffalo from The Hard Luck Bears (accompanied by their table, their TV, and the circuit board on the table, all covered in melted plastic), Reginald J. Flootsnoot (dragon character), and multiple set pieces such as a large rack of character masks, Fatz's keyboard, RAE sign, Trees, and 2 Rolfe Rainbows.[18] The materials were shipped back to CEI in boxes with stickers with the RAE Logo and CEI's name, and Fechter is currently using them to organize CEI's costume room. He also states they will appear in the background of the warehouse scene.[19] Keanu was released on April 29, 2016.

In July 2016, Fechter released "Ask Adam", a commercial promoting Adam Kent-Issac, a "super-realtor" from Indianapolis, Indiana. The song was the first to feature Duke Chaupetta as Dook in a CEI production since the 1990s.[20] In September 2016, Fechte started selling a limited run of a second vers ion of "The Animatronic Experimenter's Kit", a kit using its own character, "Gary Gargoyle," and a new mini-control system and computer interface.[21]

• Creative's Official Website
• ShowBiz Pizza/Rock-afire fan Website
• The Rock-afire Documentary Online
• PopRewind's 2012 interview of Aaron Fechter
• 2015 interview with Aaron Fechter