Fechter Creative Engineering (Johnsonverse)

Fechter Creative Engineering, Inc. (often known simply as Fechter) is an American engineering company based in Orlando, Florida and a subsidiary of Johnson Technologies. Founded in 1975 by inventor Aaron Fechter, the company is most famous for creating The Rock-afire Explosion for ShowBiz Pizza Place in 1980. The company was originally founded as a way to produce Fechter's various engineering ideas. Drawn to animatronics, Fechter began designing shows for Orlando-based theme parks when he failed to receive payment from one park for the control system he had built to work a shooting gallery game.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the company was well-known in the animatronic business, before being purchased by Johnson Industries in 1996. It has continued to produce or co-produce new technologies such as AnimeTronics, as well as the Starlauncher and Bashy Bug. From 1990 to 2012, Fechter co-owned the Looney Bird's franchise with Johnson Foods.
==History==
===Beginnings===
In 1975, aspiring inventor Aaron Fechter founded Creative Engineering to market a three-wheeled car known as the Jutta, which would get approximately 90 miles on a gallon of gas. When he was unable to find investors, Fechter turned to producing animatronics. The first animatronic Fechter built was a rabbit named Willie Wabbit, which was built in 1976 to advertise for Mystery Fun House at an airport in Orlando, Florida. Fechter and a team of employees later created other animatronics such as Friendly Freddy (CEI's first fully-animated character), The Confederate Critter Show, Hard Luck Bears, and Wolf Pack 5.
===ShowBiz Pizza Place and early success===
In November 1979, Fechter met businessman Robert L. Brock, owner of Topeka Inn Management, which at the time was the largest franchisee for the Holiday Inn chain of motels. Brock had cut ties with Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. (which owned the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre franchise) after discovering Fechter's animatronics, and ShowBiz Pizza Place, Inc. was formed in December 1979. The first location opened at the Antioch Center in Kansas City, Missouri on March 3, 1980. Originally, the restaurant was to use Pizza Time Theatre's animatronics until CEI could provide a custom show, but once the company expressed its intentions to sue Brock for breach of contract, CEI was forced to provide the Wolf Pack 5 show, changing the character Queenie Fox to a mouse named Mini Mozzarella at ShowBiz's request. 
Later in 1980, the second ShowBiz Pizza location opened in Jacksonville, Florida, as the first location to feature a new band, The Rock-afire Explosion, which featured three stages; the left side contained an overall-clad brown bear named Billy Bob Brockali, who only existed as a walkaround character when the first ShowBiz opened, and his sidekick Looney Bird. The center stage was the most active, featuring four characters: a brown mongrel named Duke LaRue, who served as the drummer, a silverback gorilla named Fats Geronimo, who played the keyboard, a surfer polar bear, Beach Bear (the only character to be carried over from The Wolf Pack 5), serving as the guitar player, and Mitzi Mozzarella, a cheerleading teenage mouse who was the female vocalist; the right stage featured comedian Rolfe DeWolfe and his puppet sidekick Earl Schmerle. In 1981, Duke and Fats' names were changed to Dook LaRoo (although the new surname was only rarely used, resulting in the "LaRue" name becoming the official spelling) and Fatz, respectively.
In 1982, work began on a planned second-generation version of the animatronics. The most notable changes were to Dook, who could actually play the drums rather than tap a single drum and cymbal, Mitzi, who had the ability to dance rather than flailing her pom-poms around, and Beach Bear, who could actually stand up off his surfboard; Fechter announced that there were plans to one day have the characters be able to actually walk. At that time, a guest character named Uncle Klunk was created. The character was designed to pick up objects, and was accompanied by his bird sidekick Click. The character only received a mild public response, and was short-lived. An animatronic Paul McCartney was in the works as well, before work was stopped due to ShowBiz's financial issues at the time; the chain would buy out and merge with competitor Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. (owner of the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre franchise), which had been affected significantly by the Great Video Game Crash of 1983, to create ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. in 1984. As a last-ditch effort, Fechter would create a space-themed Rock-afire Explosion retrofit, the Moonrockers, in 1985. That same year, CEI would release the Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine, capable of sending electronic messages over a phone line. It began development in 1983 with backing and assistance from the Johnson family, and was a success. It was the most prominent way of sending emails until web-based email gained traction in the late 1990s.
===Split with ShowBiz and later years===
When ShowBiz Pizza Time went public in 1989, the company began work on unifying the two chains; Fechter stated in 2008 that the company wanted Fechter to hand over the rights to The Rock-afire Explosion; he refused, saying the company offered little-to-no monetary compensation, and that he had aspirations to make a Rock-afire Explosion cartoon (which was eventually released on Netflix in 2016 as The Rock-afire Explosion Show). A process called Concept Unification began, with the intent of converting all Rock-afire Explosion shows at ShowBiz locations to a new band, known as Munch's Make-Believe Band, which combined the Rock-afire Explosion and Pizza Time Theatre's band, the Pizza Time Players. Fechter, disgusted, cut ties with SPT in September 1990, and by 1993, all ShowBiz locations were converted to Chuck E. Cheese's.
Having lost their biggest customer, CEI attempted to find other clients, most notably forming a somewhat successful restaurant chain with Johnson Foods called Looney Bird's, selling surplus shows and continuing to create new shows in the 1990s. The company created a new version of the band, known as The New Rock-afire Explosion, which featured smaller, articulated animatronics known as "mijjins", albeit with specialized mechanics for each character. Outside of Looney Bird's, however, very few customers purchased these shows. In 1993, then-Johnson CEO Sheldon Johnson, Jr. convinced Fechter to create a user-friendly program to create new Rock-afire Explosion shows. The program, named Looney Bird's Lab, was released in September 1995 and has been continually updated ever since.
===Acquisition by Johnson===
In 1996, Johnson Technologies purchased CEI, and a year later, it was rebranded to Fechter Creative Engineering as part of Johnson's plan to expand the company. A CEI manufacturing facility on 333 West Michigan Street that operated in the late 1970s and early 1980s before being sold to Johnson in 1987 was renovated, and Fechter bought back its recording studio at 742 West Amelia Street, as well as another warehouse in Kansas formerly owned by ShowBiz Pizza Time and which held leftover Rock-afire Explosion shows.
===Reunion with ShowBiz and resurgence===
In February 2010, Johnson acquired CEC Entertainment, Inc. and rebranded it back to ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. days later. Fechter also announced that they would be involved in the reanimated ShowBiz Pizza Place, and would renovate their building to accommodate their anticipated workload; engineer David Ferguson, owner of Goofy Gas Fillin' Station, was hired as a consultant, along with Rock-afire Explosion fan and Smitty's Super Service Station owner Damon Breland. Ferguson's signature BlueBox technology was integrated into Looney Bird's Lab in 2011 when he joined Fechter. Another Rock-afire Explosion fan, Chris Thrash (who owned a restaurant called ShowBiz Pizza Zone in Phenix City, Alabama between 2008 and 2010, and became a franchisee for the revived ShowBiz) was hired as a lead programmer.
The Fechter building space was expanded to incorporate the building next to it, while an expansion was constructed as a Fechter museum. The existing Fechter building was renovated inside and out throughout 2010 and 2011. The renovations included new paint and signage, a modernized interior, the addition of a Rock-afire Explosion mural on the building next to it, a recording booth, and an underground floor for storage.
In 2014, Moon Rockin' Pizza was founded, using the Moonrockers as its entertainment.
The last operating Hard Luck Bears show, in Fantasilandia, Chile as "Show De Osos", was reacquired and heavily restored by Fechter in 2017 and donated to Tim Johnson; in exchange, Fechter supplied the animatronics for its replacement, "The Robotoons".
==Projects==
===The Rock-afire Explosion===
The Rock-afire Explosion is CEI's most well-known creation. It was created for ShowBiz Pizza Place in 1980, and continued being used in ShowBiz restaurants until 1992; it was brought back to ShowBiz in 2011. It is known for its detailed movements, proportions and overall designs. In 2015, the second-generation version first started in the 1980s was completed, giving Dook the ability to play a full set of drums rather than tap a single drum and cymbal, Mitzi Jr. the ability to actually dance rather than flail her pom-poms around unconvincingly, and Beach Bear the ability to stand up. Starting in 2020, a third-generation version was introduced, allowing the characters to walk around; those versions are now used for ShowBiz Pizza Place locations alongside first and second generation animatronic shows.
===Other animatronics===
=== Looney Bird's Lab ===
In September 1992, development began on a new program for animatronic shows.
===Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine===
CEI also invested $1.5 million in the research and development of a secure messaging device called The Anti-Gravity Freedom Machine (AGFM), which could send messages through a phone line similar to the concept of email. With the backing of the Johnson family, the AGFM was completed and released in 1983 to great success, innovating the tech industry; due to the rise of the internet in the mid-1990s, the AGFM was rendered obsolete.
===Looney Bird's===
In 1990, with the beginning of Concept Unification, Fechter partnered with Johnson Foods to create a competing restaurant chain called Looney Bird's. There were plans to make it a large-scale competitor to Chuck E. Cheese's; however, due to royalty disputes with then-Johnson CEO Phil Stacker, all further expansion and new shows were halted. When Sheldon Johnson, Jr. replaced Stacker on October 23, 1991, those disputes were settled, and new shows continued to be produced, with more locations continuing to open throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. All Looney Bird's locations were rebranded to ShowBiz Pizza Place in 2011 and 2012, though the name was used again in June 2020 as a virtual kitchen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
===Hydrillium project===
For more, see Hydrillium (Johnsonverse).
In 2010, research began on an alternative fuel source concept for cooking called Hydrillium (formerly Carbohydrillium), which is described by CEI as a safer and cleaner way to cook when compared to propane, emitting little to no pollution from its combustion process. Fechter had been developing the alternative fuel system derived from water and graphite in partnership with a paid mentor, William Richardson. Hydrillium has been used prominently in the revived ShowBiz Pizza Place since 2017.
===Miscellaneous===
==Buildings==
The Fechter Creative Engineering building on 47 West Jefferson Street in Orlando, Florida was constructed in 1930 and purchased by Fechter in January 1978. It is used for designing, recording, and programming all of Fechter's animatronic shows. A brick-and-mortar building next to the headquarters is used as a museum. Fechter formerly occupied different properties on 4521 West Concord Avenue and 3626 Silver Star Road.Another building, on 333 West Michigan Street, was constructed in 1973 and acquired by Fechter by 1981 as a production plant. Fechter moved out of the property in 1987 and sold it to Johnson, moving all production to the main building on Jefferson Street. After Fechter was purchased by Johnson in 1996, it moved production of animatronics back to the West Michigan property.
Category:Johnsonverse