Mini RAE Stage?

[YoungCaliHottie]

I have read about the mini rae stage. What was it? Just center stage, or something different? Any pics? Who all was on it? Anyone have info? Thanks!

[captslappy]

It's Mitzi, Fatz, Looney Bird and Billy Bob on a single stage. It mostly uses the Billy Bob props but there is a tree and a "Used and Abused Tars" sign. Mitzi and Fatz are reversed so Mitzi is on the outside. I have a pic somewhere of a good one. There are no skits for the show. Just songs. Most Mini show tapes have 7 songs on them. This show dates back to the Showbiz era and was created for smaller stores that were not big enough to hold all 3 stages. The show does not have any prop characters.

[looneybird78]

There are atleast 2 of these still in operation. One is in a Bowling alley in TN. Snapper installed it a couple years ago.

Also there is a "Traveling" Bear Show from the Chicago area. I belive it is Bear a Dice? Anyway... it is a Mini Show too. Really neat is that they have custom costumes and scenery! Menutia would have more info on that. I know there is a link around somewhere for the Bear a Dice show.

[anastaciacominatcha]

Im still pissed I didnt get to see it when I went through TN! I was pretty hopped up on energy drinks and I only had yahoo directions (how the @#%$ does it give u directions from IA to FL just fine but anywhere in a big city it messes up?) if that tells u anything. It said something like Exit 4A or something and I remember being like 'Exit 1, 2...,3....,5?!' LOL! SERIOUSLY! So after almost getting lost and turned around I gave up but I would have loved to have seen it!

[YoungCaliHottie]

i think ive seen the traveling bear one. where is the one in TN? does anyone have the address? i used to go there so frequently. too bad i didnt know about that place sooner.

[captslappy]

I have been there. It's the not the Traveling one tho. That is in Chicago and called the Bear-a-dice show. It uses custom outfits and a custom stage set up although the characters are still Mitzi, Fatz, Billy Bob and Looneybird. The one near Nashville is called Hillwood Strike and Spare Family Fun Center. It's a bowling alley. I have pics I took. I will find a place to post them shortly and give you guys a link to it.

[djsmurf]

The link to read about Bear-a-dice and see pics is www.astroamusement.com/ourmidway/new/bear_show.html

[YoungCaliHottie]

who plays the drums? lol
jk

[joshferrell]

fatz plays the drums on his keyboard....:hat

[captslappy]

The robots are the same. Looney and Mitzi don't play intruments just like in the normal 3 stage so it's all Billy Bob and Fatz. Anyway, take a look for yourself:

mini show (http://www.geocities.com/mscherpenberg/rockafire.html)

[YoungCaliHottie]

great! a pic! thanks capt!

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!! did mitzi join the service? they shaved her! :lol

i like the "high quality h20" lol

hmm... isnt it kinda weird having a show at a bowling alley? how does that work?

[captslappy]

I did it big so you guys could get a good look. The "bad frog" was apparently a SHowbiz mini stage exclusive. The few mini shows I have seen all use the regular frogs. Aaron got on a kick about not using Mitzi's wig. He was really surprised we all cared that much. I remember a whole thread on that very subject a year ago.

[looneybird78]

I have a great pic of the Used Abused sign... If anyone is interested I can get the pic uploaded for viewing.

LB78

[CEC3066]

interesting note the song "End Of The World" was only programmed for that version of the Classic Show.

[captslappy]

hmm... isnt it kinda weird having a show at a bowling alley? how does that work?

Not really... I mean it's in it's own section where the snack area is and the arcade games. I mean it's not like right there where the bowling lanes are. Every bowling alley I have ever been to has other things there besides bowling... pool tables, video arcade, etc.

[Snap]

Well there was actually props back in the Showbiz days when the mini show was used (Singing Flowers) Also Mitzi did have her wig in the mini show...just not the one in Nashville. Here is the story on that. The show was sold new but Aaron let them have Mitzi,Fatz,and Billy Bob out of the crate. Mitzi didnt have a wig on because she was out of the crate and there wasnt a wig lying around I could find. The only ones were new in the crate. I asked Aaron "What do you want me to tell the owner when he asks about Mitzi's hair"? (which he eventually did) Aarons response was "(laughing) Just tell him the wig comes with the 3 stage show and if he would have bought that one he would have got a wig"

[CEC3066]

AH HA! so the concept of the flowers for the C/Rocker stage @ CEC must have been ripped from the Classic Mini show.

[captslappy]

Very, very doubtful. The mini show is a very rare thing. Only a very few shows had them. The CEI singing flowers also did not look like CECs. I think it was just a coincidence. I mean singing flowers aren't really that unique a concept when you think about it.

[VegaNova]

That 'Entertainment 87' catalogue that was put out by ShowBiz shows the conecpt of singing flowers (that eventually were put into the porch/rocker stage). In fact, there's a page in there that shows the flowers from the Mini-stage RAE retrofitted into a 'concept' wheelbarrow of sorts. So I do think there was a connection between CEI's version and CEC later using them for the porch stage.

Not that it matters too much though, anyone who's ever seen the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disney knows where CEI got the idea for them. ;)

Here, I wanted to make sure I wasn't dreaming this up so I dug up the pages of that guide. I have some of these mini-stage flowers and they're the exact ones used to make this prototype:

rock_afire.tripod.com/inf...t87_15.jpg (http://rock_afire.tripod.com/info/misc/spt/ent87/ent87_15.jpg)
rock_afire.tripod.com/inf...t87_16.jpg (http://rock_afire.tripod.com/info/misc/spt/ent87/ent87_16.jpg)

-VegaNova

[captslappy]

For what it's worth I like the CEC version of the flowers better. I was really kind of disappointed when I did see the CEI flowers at one point. They just weren't what I was expecting them to be.

[VegaNova]

Yeah I agree. The CEI ones are kinda neat looking, but they're really kinda cheaply put together. J had the latex face to one of CEC's flowers that I got to see up close and it looked pretty neat.

I don't care for the pansy one myself. Plus mine are all falling apart... the material on their mouths is falling apart and petals keep falling off. I need to glue them all back together one of these days. Either way I'll probably incorporate these into my stage once I get it set up. Not aired up to anything, but tucked somewhere in the other foliage.

-VegaNova

[captslappy]

The CEC version would actually be quite easy to make. I may do this at some point. We'll see.

[MSOFW]

There was a Mini RAE show made available about 10 years ago. It's aka the "new rock-afire explosion." They were not a big success and we have the only 2 left in operation to my knowledge per aaron. One in Tinley Park, IL and one in Naperville, IL .

If you look under the Information section/CEI Brochures of this website, you can see pics of this version under "New Rock-afire Explosion".

It is actually 3 stages like the classic, but smaller. The center stage has Billy Bob, Mitzi and Fats. The characters are dramatically smaller and do not play instruments. Each of them is on a small turntable allowing them to rotate 360 deg. They are all also on one large turntable allowing them to move around the stage.

Each of the two side stages (revolving turntables) has 2 characters on each side. Left side has Beach Bear on one side and Looney Bird's lab on the other. The right side has Dook's junk yard on one side and a TV monitor on the other for the skit footage. A lot of the classic show's songs are featured on version. One unique thing on the Mini version is the audiance gets to choose the song they hear off a song selector console. In actuallity they see two shows - a skit and a song.

I'm still new to this board, but I promise I will get some pictures to the webmaster asap. I've been spending time at both locations putting a lot of energy into a lot of overdue repairs.

~Mike
Odyssey Fun World
Naperville & Tinley Park, IL

[menutia]

Mike,

Greetings from BERWYN! There are 5 or 6 other Chicagoans on the boards so you are among family.

Welcome to the board. The shows you have are infact called the NEW RAE. The Mini show many people are talking about was a 4 character - single stage made up from the original full sized robots. Your shows use the smaller and more delicate Mijjin (spelling) robots. They hade more "realistic" movements, but esch character was exactly the same for each robot.

Welcome to the club, and don't be shy to post and chat here as often as you can.

Welcome.

Michael Garay

P.S. Would love to get out to the stores one day to see your work, and maybe get a backstage tour of the facility.