The Rock-afire Explosion

Posted on by Thor

It was a very hot day. The band members of “The Rock-afire Explosion” waited silently on the loading dock of Creative Engineering. The loading dock door was open with the hope of some cross breeze. A kinder gentler Fats sat at the keyboard. Athena, Aaron’s doberman pincer checks on my progress periodically. She still got spooked if I ran across her unannounced on the factory floor. Aaron sat in the next room programming another performance for You Tube. Periodically the Rock-afire Explosion Hits the road. For instance they performed for all the artists and staff at EA sports. Aaron had talked before of the band traveling the country like any other Rock and Roll band on a tour. The problem of course that these guys are heavy and they can’t walk themselves into the venue.

In the foreground of this sketch is Billy Bob and behind him is Mitsy Mozzarella. Beach Bear’s elbow is barely visible be hind Billy Bob. There is Fats Geronimo on the keyboard and right behind him is a darker version of himself. Dook Leroo is on the drums. Earl was the first animatronic to ever perform as a puppeteer. The voice talents were all recorded in a sound stage in the Creative Engineering factory.

Rock-afire Explosion fans are hard core however. There is a whole subculture out there of fans who love these characters. After over 30 years in storage The Rock-afire Explosion is staging a come back. Aaron is single highhandedly keeping the dream alive. The Phoenix will rise from the ashes. His creative enterprising spirit still burns bright.

I’m Melting!

Posted on by Thor

The Creative Engineering factory doesn’t have air conditioning anymore. It gets sweltering hot inside in the summer. It is so hot that the rubber faces of some of the characters have started to melt. This poor moose’s snout has melted away oozing down and dripping onto the TV below it. I returned many times in the heat because everywhere I looked was new and unexpected. These characters were part of a Country Bear Jubilee.

On the floor there were isolated pools of saw dust from termites that had infested the wooden beams. There were banks of 1980’s computers many of them still operational. It reminded me of NASA’s mission control. Yet here there was little to control, just the single band that Aaron used to program videos for You Tube. I’m not sure I fully appreciate the fan base. I never went to a Showbiz Pizza when I was a kid so some of that early magic is lost. On one of my sketching excursions I did bring a huge fan. Erika Wilhite grew up loving “Rock-afire Explosion” and she had a blast when Aaron gave her a tour of the factory.

Aaron is first and foremost an inventor. When he was young he invented an automatic pool vacuum and he sold it door to door. In 1974 when there was a gas crisis he created a small car that got 75 miles per gallon. Today he is dreaming of starting an algae farm that could possibly be used to create an alternative fuel. He feels fuel could be harvested drop by drop rather than being pumped from the earth. Although he has had reasons to be disillusioned, he still dreams big, and is eternally optimistic.

Animatronic Drummers

Posted on by Thor

Aaron Fechter had a dream to build a perfectly designed animatronic drummer. His animatronics research team worked on designing a fully articulated drummer in the basement of the Orlando factory tinkering with the engineering needed to make that happen. He considered bringing the Beatles back as an animatronic band. He even hired a female sculptor who created a beautiful bust of John Lennon. She grew upset one day, feeling she wasn’t getting paid enough for the work she was doing. She destroyed the sculpture and left. Aaron said he tended to put each of his employees on a pedestals. He considered many of them to be geniuses. He couldn’t believe that over time he had to lay them all off.

The dream for this animatronic drummer was that it could one day perform the drum solo from “Wipe Out!” Duke, the drummer for “The Rock-afire Explosion” had somewhat limited drumming capabilities. That dream was put in storage in 1983. When the factory shut down there were 80 Rock-afire shows waiting to ship. These crates remained sealed and slowly over the years they were sold off. It would cost at least $300,000 to build a show today and yet fans have been able to purchase the Explosion for much less.

Thanks to You Tube, “The Rock-afire Explosion” has been experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Fans who have the entire band assembled in their homes have started programing their own performances. Modern Rock Stars are realizing it is hip to have “The Rock-afire Explosion” as their backup band. Aaron has always admired Rock bands that have stood the test of time like the Rolling Stones. He always felt that as long as “The Rock-afire Explosion” stayed together then they could stage a come back.