Hello from San Antonio!

[theuberbob]

Hello there! My name is Bob and I found this site after a friend sent me a link to one of Aaron's new Rock-afire YouTube videos. I then found out about the RAE movie and finally ended up here. I've been lurking for a month or so but figured I may as well set up an account.

I remember both Showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese from my youth. I preferred Showbiz, partly because the Rock-afire Explosion was much cooler than the CEC animatronics, but mostly 'cuz I couldn't quite cotton to the idea of a cigar chewing rat as a kid's entertainment mascot.

I must admit that I found the animatronics, particularly the RAE both interesting and quite creepy. I found them endlessly fascinating from a technical standpoint but they also gave me the shivers sometimes...one of those classic Uncanny Valley responses.

I was surprised to see so many other San Antonio denizens on the board. One of these days I'll have to take a road trip around South Texas and hit up some of the CEC locations to check out what they've got going. The last time I was at one was for a nephew's birthday party several years ago. My memory is that the restaurant had a converted RAE 3-stage set up that was in pretty poor condition, especially poor Pasquale who barely worked at all. I think it was out near North Star Mall, but I know there isn't one there anymore. My memory may be faulty as well. The thing I mostly remember is that Pasquale had weird fabric hands like mittens with the drumsticks just attached to the palms so he wasn't really gripping them, they just hung from his hands. Again, don't know if this really happened or if my brain invented it.

Anyway, thanks to everyone on the site for making it such an informative, entertaining place!

-Bob-

[CalvinandCEC]

Welcome to the boards, I haven't been around the introductions section lately. But why not?>:D<

[ChuckEFranchize454]

Hey man Welcome to the forums. Well I wouldlike to confirm the CEC your talking about is the Chuck over there by on 410 and Ingram. They still have the 3stage, however its been phased 4ed. I use to work there but now I work at the CEC on Stone Oak Parkway. There was a CEC over there by the North Star Mall but it was a Pizza Time Theatre.

[pasqually333]

welcome to the boards:)

[raebigc]

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

[theuberbob]

Hey man Welcome to the forums. Well I wouldlike to confirm the CEC your talking about is the Chuck over there by on 410 and Ingram. They still have the 3stage, however its been phased 4ed. I use to work there but now I work at the CEC on Stone Oak Parkway. There was a CEC over there by the North Star Mall but it was a Pizza Time Theatre.

Hello there! After my previous post I looked around the forum a bit more and checked out some more YouTube videos and there were some recent ones of the Ingram store and the Pasqually had the plastic gripping hands, not the fabric ones (which I was pleased to find my brain didn't invent as I found some other videos with the "mitten" Pasqaully in them) although it seemed like they were actually upgrading the Ingram animatronics. (Was it you that posted them?)

It's weird, I have very clear memories of Showbiz Pizza and the RAE, but no memories at all of the CEC animatronics. I remember the walkaround Chuck, mostly because (and I feel bad about this now) myself and a some friends would sometimes mercillously heckle the poor employee in the suit.

-Bob-

[theuberbob]

They still have the 3stage, however its been phased 4ed.

Oh, I forgot to ask...what did you mean by this? I've learned way more than any normal human should know about the histories of CEC/Showbiz during my short time here but this is the first time I've heard of "Phase 4".

-Bob-

[Harmony Howlette]

Oh, I forgot to ask...what did you mean by this? I've learned way more than any normal human should know about the histories of CEC/Showbiz during my short time here but this is the first time I've heard of "Phase 4".

-Bob-
Phase 4 is the latest renovation that's gone down in CEC stores...includes the removal and replacement of alot of existing stages with Studio Cs, purple walls, ect ect.

[Rockafirecheese]

:cec_thumbs: WELCOME!!! :bb_happy2:

[pizzacam]

Phase 4 is the latest renovation that's gone down in CEC stores...includes the removal and replacement of alot of existing stages with Studio Cs, purple walls, ect ect.

Welcome! Always nice to see another person pop up on here from San Antonio... As for Ingram and a few other stores having the "fur" hands, those are just goofs of either the store's tech or the parts dept sending them the wrong items for their show. Those "fur" hands are actually for the other style shows that evolved from the old Pizza Time Theatre shows that now have full bodies(cause in the 80's they were all "half body" shows at Pizza Time Theatre...

Now Studio C, was the last incarnation of the show they've done in 1998... It's just a Chuck bot and the a bunch of TV screens like a TV station and meant to be like a late night talk show... The other character's appear on the screens in puppet form that the guys at the entertainment dept in Irving, Tx actually do for each show(but even the puppet footage is slowly going away now)

Anyway... lol welcome to the board! :-h

[theuberbob]

Thanks to everyone for the kind welcomings!

I do have one question, again going back to the Ingram CEC:

Is that now a fully converted Studio C or is it still a 3-stage? I was under the impression that it was the latter. What about the rest of the stores in town?

Thanks,
-Bob-

[pizzacam]

Yeah Ingram still has it's 3 stage... all the stores but one in town have gone through the phase 4 remodel though... The one on Military Dr. was the last one to be remodeled last year but they also kept their 2 stage which is a show like what they used to have in the 80s but with the later addition of legs instruments and working lift curtains this was added to most stores that had this version. The one here in town that's still in like "phase 3" is a newer one that opened in 2002 off Bandera Rd. and Loop 1604 but it opened with a Studio C just like the other 2 with Studio C here in town...

[theuberbob]

Thanks for the information! Looking through the photo archives earlier today I saw some of the other stores including the Bandera one and the one with the 2-stage. Once I get some time (and a car) in the next few weeks I think I'll go to the Ingram store and check out the 3-stage as that's what I mostly remember from my childhood (albeit with the Rock-afire Explosion, Billy Bob and Rolfe and Earl).

-Bob-