#misc animatronics

[animatronicappreciation]

hi there! so my boyfriend has always been obsessed with wendell, an animatronic that rides on a unicycle. It's by Garner Holt.

do you have ANY idea how that thing works?? or like how/if theres a way to see something like a blueprint of its mechanics? is there a database for thag stuff or is it all like top secret??

additionally, im so so so warmed at how lovely a community you've made here. it's such a wonderful thing to see! :)

If I'm going to be 100% honest? I don't know a damn thing about how animatronics work lol! I appreciate them as an art form, but the mechanical side of things baffles me. It seems that Garner Holt himself is pretty tight-lipped about how Wendell works, though, and I wasn't really able to find anything online about how he works, so I'm stumped!

Here's what Mr. Holt himself has to say about the figure in question:

"This really isn’t tooting my own horn, and I really do love this character—I promise! About 1987, I had an idea for an animatronic character that I hoped would really blow people away with his performance. What could be cooler than having a figure ride a unicycle with no visible means of support? It took me two years to design and build (back then, Garner Holt Productions was just me and one or two part-time employees and the shop cat), and in 1989 I premiered Wendell the Unicyclist at a big technology show in Los Angeles. In addition to the unicycle gag, Wendell was a fully-functional animatronic human with 26 different moves—he could tip his hat and look at you with a variety of expressive facial functions. He was a huge hit, and helped launch my company forward with work on major projects at MGM Grand Adventures in Las Vegas, at Knott’s Berry Farm, and elsewhere. Wendell still makes occasional appearances, and hasn’t taken a tumble yet!"

Here's some photos of Wendell during the production process, courtesy of cyberneticzoo.com (descriptions in alt text):

That's Garner Holt in the last picture, standing in front of his creation!! Doesn't he look so proud? :D

If anyone more technically inclined than me (or anyone that's better at researching than me) has more information, feel free to shoot us an ask!

-Mod Possum

[chuckecheeseshippingdiscourse]

Hot Take: The Rock-A-Fire fans that constantly bash on Chuck E Cheese and keep trying to say that the Rock A Fire are superior to every other animatronic band annoy me so much that I cannot stand the Rock-A-Fire. I do like Dook, Mitzi, Choo-Choo, and some of Creative Engineering's other animatronic bands [although I still don't like Air Infector] though. Another hot take: the cartoon-y style that animatronic bands like Captain Andy's have are actually cuter and better then the style the Rock A Fire use.

I love the rockafire but I agree, there are so many other cool animatronics out there. I’m always surprised to see people write off cec entirely because there are 4 decades of content with tons of variation depending on the “era”.

I do like the more stylized, cartoon-y looking shows too but they’re less expressive, imo. the latex masks on the rae allow for more movement and detail which works well for the characters.

[numeroletter]

Anyone remember Diva Starz? When I was little, I had Alexa... which was ironic, because I was never much of a "fashionista", and I never really identified with her much, though I really tried to. This one was at the thrift mall today. According to Wikipedia, this is Summer. This is what they have to say about her: "Summer (light tone skin, red hair, green eyes) - a model citizen who'd "love the outdoors so much, that she'd bring it inside", she was an animal lover and compassionate environmentalist. She also owned many pets, including a pet rabbit named Sunny Bunny. Her representation color was green, which was also her favorite color. She was eventually replaced by Miranda. Voiced by Amber Hood What surprises me the most about this is that she actually still has her pants. With the Diva Starz dolls, you snapped their plastic clothing onto their bodies, and then, using the metal contacts on their bodies, the dolls were able to identify which clothing item they were wearing. For example, when you snapped the evening gown on Alexa, she said "I love my pink evening gown. Do you think it makes my eyes look bluer?" However, these clothes, like any doll clothes, were extremely easy to lose. By the time I got rid of Alexa, I had lost all of her accessories. Unfortunately, that was one of the main appeals about playing with them, so I had pretty much lost interest and eventually gave her to a friend who took an interest to her. So the fact that this doll still has one of her accessories is actually pretty remarkable! Despite eventually losing all her accessories, my Alexa doll is something I'm pretty nostalgic about, so this was pretty neat to see. It was a nice flash to the past!!

[chuckecheeseshippingdiscourse]

clearing out my drafts, here’s a video of some weird animatronic shopping mall teddy bears singing a rocky horror song. you’re welcome.

[chuckecheeseshippingdiscourse]

questy and the cometeers fandom rise up

[chuckecheeseshippingdiscourse]

The Family Album animatronics are starting to grow on me, although maybe I may be biased because their humor sort of reminds me of the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation shows [not CEC related but they are AMAZING, not without flaws, but still fantastic].

I read “supermarionation” as “super mario nation” at first, lol. I’m not familiar with the family album shows, they always freaked me out but maybe I should give them a chance!

interesting short clip that explains the mechanism of the thunderbirds puppets, if anyone’s curious about what op is referring to

[numeroletter]

@animatronicappreciation I can’t figure out how to submit multiple pictures at once, but this is a Tex Critter’s Pizza Jamboree show that someone found in a storage unit in January! The characters are reportedly complete aside from their masks, and they were found with original documentation! As far as I know, the guy hasn’t been able to sell the show yet, but I’m not certain.