Aaron Fechter

Aaron Fechter (born December 22, 1953)^[1] is an American mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, voice actor, singer, and musician who owns and operates Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI). He is best known as the creator of The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic show featuring a variety of characters created primarily for Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants throughout the 1980s. A fallout between Showbiz and CEI, along with the chain's dwindling revenue, led to the show's decline and eventual removal by the early 1990s.

In CEI's early beginnings, Fechter intended to manufacture fuel-efficient vehicles, but the company's focus soon shifted to the animatronic industry. The company later developed other products and concepts, but they failed to gain commercial interest. Fechter also claims to have been instrumental in the early development of Whac-A-Mole, an arcade game from Bandai that became popular in the late 1970s, but his involvement was never officially recognized.^[2] His animatronics gained renewed interest decades later, when fan-made Rock-afire Explosion performances set to modern music began appearing online in the mid-2000s. They also partially inspired the horror video game franchise, Five Nights at Freddy's.

Early life and career

Aaron Fechter graduated from Edgewater High School in Orlando, Florida.^[3] In 1973, he graduated from the University of South Florida, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, at the age of 19.^[4]^[5] The United States was in the midst of an energy crisis, and Fechter decided to build a fuel-efficient, small car prototype in hopes of eventually manufacturing the vehicle under a new car company.^[5] He founded Creative Engineering Incorporated (CEI) in 1975 for that purpose, but in order to raise money for the project, he resorted to selling smaller inventions door-to-door, such as his "Leaf Eater" contraption that collected leaves from swimming pools.^[5] Fechter knocked on the door of an individual who solicited his help in designing an electronic control system for a shooting gallery, designed for sale to amusement parks.^[5] The gallery featured an animatronic horse, and its success led to other offers in the animatronic industry, which became the central focus for Creative Engineering.^[5]

Fechter's father was an early investor in CEI, helping it enter the animatronic industry. Early projects included The Scab, a single talking head, Willie Wabbit, an anthropomorphic rabbit, and a fortune-telling machine called Lazlo The Great.^[6] By 1978, Fechter had finished work on the "Wolf Pack 5", his first animatronic series featuring multiple characters including The Wolfman, Fats, Dingo Starr, Beach Bear, and Queenie the Fox (later changed to a mouse and renamed Mitzi Mozzarella).^[6] It was showcased and deemed a success at the 1978 IAAPA show.^[6] He completed work on another animatronic show called "The Hard Luck Bears", featuring a hillbilly band of bears and a mimicking bird, which debuted at the IAAPA in 1979.^[6]

Fechter combined elements from both shows to form "The Rock-afire Explosion", which debuted at the IAAPA in 1980 with improved animation and other changes.^[5] The Rock-afire Explosion concept was ultimately selected by Showbiz for inclusion in its family entertainment pizza chain.^[5]^[6]

Showbiz Pizza Place

In 1980, Robert L. Brock opened the first ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, featuring Creative Engineering's Wolf Pack 5 display. Although ShowBiz wanted the "Rock-afire Explosion" (RAE) concept, RAE was still in the final stages of development when the first store opened. The pizza chain also featured other amenities including an arcade and restaurant tailored to accommodate both children and adults. Brock owned an extensive chain of Holiday Inn hotels, considered the largest of its kind at the time. Brock originally partnered with Pizza Time Theatre but backed out after discovering Fechter's work. CEI was given a 20-percent ownership stake in the chain and retained all rights to characters, animation, and show development. Queenie the Fox was converted into a mouse and became briefly known as Mini Mozzarella at the first location. Her name was changed a final time to Mitzi Mozzarella as ShowBiz expanded and utilized RAE in future locations.^[7]^[8]

Following financial troubles in the mid-1980s, Showbiz explored the possibility of reverse-engineering the animatronics and producing their own shows. This led to a feud with CEI, unwilling to relinquish the rights needed. In 1985, Showbiz purchased their competitor Chuck E. Cheese (CEC), who had filed for bankruptcy a year earlier. After failing to make progress with CEI, ties were severed in 1990, and Showbiz began replacing the RAE with CEC characters, forming a new show called "Munch's Make Believe Band".^[9] All Showbiz locations, which were renamed Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza, were eventually converted by the mid-1990s.

Other ventures

During CEI's involvement with Showbiz, the company pursued other interests outside of the restaurant industry. They explored the production of toys, including Billy Bob, Fatz, and Mitzi animatronic dolls that had the ability to play pre-recorded showtapes, narrate fairytales, and connect to an Apple computer for custom programmability.^[10]

CEI invested $1.5 million in research and development of a secure messaging device called the Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine, capable of sending electronic messages over a phone line.^[2] By 1998, however, web-based email had gained traction, and the project went unreleased.^[2]

In 1996, animation from the New Rock-afire Explosion 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, an arcade game licensed for manufacture to ICE that evolved into their Wheel of Fortune game.

The Starlauncher, developed in 2003 as "an American Idol kiosk", was never publicly released.^[5] In 2015, CEI showcased an arcade game at the IAAPA convention called Bashy Bug (stylized BASHyBUG), where the player attempts to stomp on a bug with a flipflop in a timed skill scenario with multiple levels of difficulty.^[11]

Carbohydrillium project

In 2010, research began on an alternative cooking fuel derived from graphite and water called Carbohydrillium, billed as safer and less polluting than propane.^[12]^[13] On September 26, 2013, catastrophic failure of high-pressure carbon steel canisters led to an explosion at a Creative Engineering warehouse in Orlando.^[2]^[14] A company operating as AquaLux experienced a similar explosion in 2001 at their plant in Largo, Florida, which at the time was blamed on a leaking fuel storage tank.^[15]

In media and pop culture

Renewed interest in The Rock-Afire Explosion began with the release of several YouTube videos in the mid-2000s, such as "Ms. New Booty" by Chris Thrash, in which fans recreated several new RAE animations depicting modern musical themes. This led to the 2008 documentary, The Rock-afire Explosion, which explores the rise and fall of RAE and the impact of the childhood memories it created, with interviews of Fechter, Thrash, and others.^[5]^[16]

In 2014, indie game developer Scott Cawthon released Five Nights at Freddy's, a horror video game that takes place in a family entertainment restaurant setting similar to those found in a Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza Place in the 1980s.^[17] In the game, a single player tries to evade possessed animatronics that were partly inspired by Fechter's RAE.^[17] In the 2016 film Keanu, by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, a cat named Keanu jumps through the window of a fictional, abandoned building that used to manufacture animatronics.^[18] CEI characters such as Beach Bear, Billy Bob, and Fatz appear in the background.^[18]