The Rock-afire Explosion

The **Rock-afire Explosion** was an animatronic band created by Creative Engineering Inc. in 1980.

## **History**

The Rock-afire Explosion was created specifically for Showbiz Pizza Place in 1980. However, the first Showbiz Pizza Place opened before the Rock-afire Explosion was ready, so one of CEI's older shows, the Wolf Pack 5, was put in it's place temporarily.

### **Beta**

The first few Rock-afire Explosion shows to be installed actually had a slightly different appearance, and were usually set to a higher PSI. Some differences include:

* The background art for center stage being completely different.
* Fatz Geronimo's keyboard having a different design on the front.
* The "Rock-afire Explosion" sign looking different.
* Some prop characters that were cut from the final Rock-afire, such as the owl.
* Dook LaRue's cosmetics being completely different.
* All characters featuring completely different latex masks.

The different latex masks on the beta Rock-afire has to be one of the most immediately notable features. The masks were much more "expressive" then, closely resembling the style of the Hard Luck Bears masks.

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

The Rock-afire Explosion as we know it now has come a long way. The show is almost like a mix of all the things that CEI's past shows did right. It features 3-Stages like the Hard Luck Bears, a wide variety of songs, many diverse characters, even some returning ones, and much more. The show features voice acting from original cast members, and new ones.

With the amount of things the Rock-afire Explosion has to offer, it's hard to see why it wouldn't have been a success.

### **Concept Unification**

When Aaron Fechter and Showbiz Pizza parted ways, Showbiz had to find a way to recycle Creative Engineering's animatronics whilst removing the Rock-afire brand, so they came up with a process called "Concept Unification" in the 1990s. This process would take all of the existing Rock-afire Explosion stages and turn them into Chuck E. Cheese shows, dubbed "Munch's Make Believe Band". The final Rock-afire Explosion was converted in 1993. This meant the end for the Rock-afire Explosion's life at Showbiz, but that didn't stop Aaron Fechter.

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

With hundreds of shows still left over and nothing to do with them, Fechter started marketing toward smaller family entertainment centers, even creating things such as the Moonrockers, a retrofitted Rock-afire show. Fechter eventually ended up selling every single show, but 1. The last crated Rock-afire show sat in CEI's warehouse for over a decade waiting to be sold. Eventually, parts of the show were auctioned off 1 by 1.

There are plenty of places where you can still view the Rock-afire Explosion today such as Creative Engineering's warehouse, Billy Bob's Wonderland, Smitty's Super Service Station, Gulliver's World, and more.

## **Characters**

The Rock-afire Explosion has 8 main band members, and a few prop characters. These include:

* Billy Bob Brockali
* Looney Bird
* Fatz Geronimo
* Mitzi Mozzarella
* Beach Bear
* Dook LaRue
* Rolfe DeWolfe
* Earl Schmerle
* Choo Choo
* Antioch
* Sun
* Moon

## **Trivia**

* At one point in time, Aaron Fechter had voiced 6 of the 8 main band members all by himself.
* Billy Bob Brockali draws heavy inspiration from Billy Wilbur of the Hard Luck Bears show. Both looking and sounding nearly identical.
* Once again, Looney Bird clearly draws heavy inspiration from Gooney Bird of the Hard Luck Bears show. Both looking and sounding nearly identical, and being named very similarly.
* Beach Bear and Fatz Geronimo are returning characters that originated in Creative Engineering's older Wolf Pack 5 show, with Fatz only having a slight name change from Fats Gorilla to Fatz Geronimo.
* Mitzi Mozzarella and Rolfe DeWolfe are both heavily inspired by the Wolf Pack 5 show. Mitzi Mozzarella being very similar to Mini Mozzarella, and Rolfe DeWolfe being a clear reference to the Wolfman, even reusing the Wolf Pack 5's theme song for his opening theme.
* Dook LaRue is named after his voice actor, Duke Chiappetta.

## **Gallery**

Billy Bob BrockaliLooney BirdFatz GeronimoDook LaRueMitzi MozzarellaBeach BearRolfe DeWolfe & Earl SchmerleChoo ChooSunMoonBeta Billy Bob BrockaliBeta Fatz GeronimoBeta Dook LaRueBeta Beach BearBeta Mitzi MozzarellaBeta Rolfe DeWolfe & Earl Schmerle