Aaron Fechter

**Aaron Fechter** is the founder of Creative Engineering Inc., and has created various other projects such as Carbohydrillium, the Whac-A-Mole arcade game, and the Rock-afire Explosion animatronic band.

## **History & Career**

### **Humble Beginnings**

Aaron Fechter was born on December 21, 1953 and he has gone down numerous career paths including inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, manufacturer, musician, and voice actor. However, before that, Fechter graduated from Edgewater High School in Orlando, Florida, and at the age of 19 in 1973, he graduated from college. During the time Fechter graduated collage America was amid and energy crisis, and Fechter decided to build a fuel-efficient car that had great gas mileage. It almost resembled a go-kart, but it was very successful in doing it's job. Fechter soon after founded Creative Engineering Inc., originally conceptualized as a vehicle manufacturing company. However, Fechter did have enough money to start producing vehicles, so he started inventing smaller things. Fechter sold these smaller inventions door-to-door, such as his "Leaf Eater", a pool cleaning device. Fechter eventually ended up knocking on the door of a man who was in need of an electric control system for an amusement park shooting gallery game. One thing led to another, and the main focus of Creative Engineering Inc. was now animatronics, or "electronimation" as Fechter called it.

### **Animatronic Entertainment**

Early projects of Creative Engineering's included The Scab, Willie Wabbit, and a fortune telling machine called Lazlo The Great. By 1978, Aaron Fechter has finished work on the Wolf Pack 5. This was CEI's first fully fledged animatronic show featuring multiple characters; those included The Wolfman, Fats Gorilla, Dingo Starr, Beach Bear, and Little Queenie (later changed to a mouse named Mini Mozzarella). The Wolf Pack 5 was shown at the 1978 IAAPA convention and was a huge success. Fechter then started work on what was known as the "Bear Country Jubilee", a group of singing hillbilly bears that closely resembled Disney's "Country Bear Jamboree". The name of the show was changed to the "Hard Luck Bears" to minimize confusion just before the setup was shown off at the 1979 IAAPA convention.

### **Showbiz Pizza Place**

In 1980 Robert L. Brock teamed up with Aaron Fechter to open "Showbiz Pizza Place", featuring the Rock-afire Explosion. This was a rival chain to the then extremally popular "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater" chain. The first Showbiz Pizza Place opened up in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3 of the same year. However, Fechter's new "Rock-afire Explosion" show was not ready by then, so to compensate, the Wolf Pack 5 was placed in temporarily. Eventually, the Rock-afire Explosion was ready. It began being placed in every Showbiz Pizza around the country. The show was to be mass produced at Creative Engineering's warehouse on 47 W Jefferson St, in Orlando, Florida.

### **The End Of An Era**

By the mid 1980s everything seemed to be going great for Fechter and Brock. However, just as quickly as things started, they came to a screeching halt. Creative Engineering was told to stop producing shows, as the last Showbiz Pizza Place had opened. Showbiz grew too fast for their own good, and because of the video game crash of 83' interest in video games was dwindling. This had left both companies at a stand still, with almost no cash flow at all. The same had happed to Chuck E. Cheese, which left Showbiz Pizza with one choice. They had the ability to merge with Chuck E. Cheese, and merge they did. While that was occurring, sometime in 1985 Fechter took a few of the left over Rock-afire shows and attempted to convert them to the Moonrockers, a new retrofitted show that featured the characters Admiral Orc (formerly Fatz Geronimo), Ozone (Dook LaRue), Quasar (Beach Bear), Princess Hayley (Mitzi Mozzarella), Molgama (Choo Choo), and Sismis (Antioch). This was an attempt to get new customers to purchase the Rock-afire show, however it was mostly unsuccessful.

The last show that Fechter ever created for Showbiz Pizza Place was the New Rock-afire Explosion. This show featured much more advanced animatronic characters referred to as "Mijins", and for the first time used servos instead of standard pneumatics all the way throughout. The show featured Billy Bob Brockali, Fatz Geronimo, and Mitzi Mozzarella all on center stage on a massive turn table, Beach Bear and Looney Bird on stage left also on a turn table, and a large television, as well as Dook LaRue on stage right, also on a turn table. Oddly, this new show excluded Rolfe DeWolfe and Earl Schmerle, which were staples of the classic Rock-afire Explosion show. However, this new show was costly, and was only placed in a few stores before Concept Unification took place.

### **Concept Unification**

After multiple failed attempts to bring the Rock-afire Explosion back, Showbiz Pizza brought Aaron Fechter an offer. If Fechter was willing to sell Showbiz the rights to the Rock-afire Explosion's characters, songs, and trademarks than the company would keep Aaron on board. If Fechter refused to sell the rights to his characters, Showbiz Pizza would take all of Fechter's Rock-afire shows and turn them into "Munch's Make Believe Band", a new Chuck E. Cheese show. Aaron ultimately turned down the offer and cut ties with Showbiz.

Concept Unification was tested between 1989 and 1990 as a few ideas were thrown around, but eventually we ended up with the Munch's Make Believe Band 3-Stage setup that we know today. By 1993, the last Showbiz Pizza Place was transformed into a Chuck E. Cheese location, and it was truly the end of an era. Fechter had much to do before he could get back on his feet. For instance, he planned to develop new "2nd Generation" versions of the Rock-afire characters, but with Showbiz funding cut, the project was at a stand still.

## **Present Day**

Aaron Fechter has invented and tested many new ideas since he left Showbiz in the 1990s, but none of them were ever quite as popular as the Rock-afire Explosion once was. Fechter and his company moved from the building on Jefferson St to a new warehouse in Palatka, Florida (exact whereabouts unknown as of writing this). Fechter plans to open up a public Creative Engineering museum in Palatka, but hasn't revealed much more than that. Many years have gone by and Fechter keeps promising to bring the Rock-afire Explosion back in a new and exciting way, but we're yet to see that happen. Of course, Fechter is still inventing things as well. New concepts for arcade games, a multi-use fuel, and more.

## **Voice Acting**

Fechter has also had a long voice acting and music career. Here are all of the known voices that Fechter has done for his characters.

### **The Wolf Pack 5**

* The Wolfman
* Mini Mozzarella
* Beach Bear
* Announcer

### **The Hard Luck Bears**

* Billy Wilbur
* Gooney Bird
* Repeat Thornsberry

### **The Rock-afire Explosion**

* Billy Bob Brockali
* Looney Bird
* Rolfe DeWolfe
* Earl Schmerle
* Mitzi Mozzarella (1980-1982)
* Beach Bear (1980 - 1982)
* Fatz Geronimo (2006-Present)