Shiney Happy Jenn
01-23-2006, 03:09 PM
Hi Gang...
Thought i'd start off a new thread that will hopefully be of some interest to those fans who are into collecting CEC memorabilia as much as i am.
A while back in the PTT Section of the Board, i started a thread covering the history of Birthday Parties at PTT/CEC from the beginning to today. Well, this thread will focus more on collectibles from that span of time...collectibles directly related to Birthdays at CEC! I figured this may be of interest particuarly to the newer fans who have "discovered" this fabulous website recently.
Okay...let's start at the beginning: 1977 thru 1979. During these first few years of Pizza Time Theatres' exsistance there was not a whole lot of merchandise availble that related to Birthdays specifically. Basically back then it was a low key affair, with a simple annoucement from the management and a short minute long skit performed by the Pizza Time Players suspended in their wall frames. You would also recieve a few free tokens from the manager as well for your Birthday, and in some cases even a free mini pizza.
Let's jump ahead to what i like to refer to as the "Golden Era" of CEC's---1980 thru 1983. During this period the resturants were multiplying like crazy...a new store would open every 3 days at one point. By 1980 it became clear that Guests were attracted to having there Birthdays at PTT so a marketing boom was born. PTT immediately started to advertise and market this new concept of having your party at a fun place like this instead of at home which was the order of the day back in the early 80's. Now that it was clear PTT had a success on it's hands ( regarding Birthday celebrations) they started to produce programs and related merchandise as early as 1980. Some of the earliest CEC items to be made related directly to Party use are the obvious ones: party hats, tablecloths, plates and napkins. CEC had many different series of these sets over the years, most of which i will cover here for the die-hard collectors.
The first set came out in 1980. It consisted of perhaps the coolest graphic ever produced for the hats in their history with the company. The large party hats were yellow and had a circle design in the front center featuring a nicely drawn image of Early Rat Chuck holding a Birthday cake and horn. Awesome graphic, as it's drawn in perspective to make it look as though the cake is being held right out to you! Below him is the original PTT script in black..spelling out "Pizza Time Theatre". The tablecloths, paper party plates, and cocktail style napkins all featured this great logo. All of these items are rare as heck...and so far i know of only one person who has most of these items.
The second set of party paper goods came out in 1981. These were the red and goldish yellow themed ( PTT colors) and sported the familiar "Classic Rat" design of Chuck. This time instead of a cake, he is holding a string of cut out letters that spell "Happy Birthday". Around the circle he is pictured in, large PTT letters spell "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre". There were hats, tablecloths, and napkins made sporting this logo. These hats can be seen in early PTT tv ads from the time.
As far as i know, no matching cups were ever made for these early sets. It was'nt until 88' or so birthday paper cups appeared on the scene.
Moving on...speaking of 85'/86' this is when the next set came to light. Since PTT Inc. was out of the picture now, and Showbiz Pizza was calling the shots, all the references to "PTT" were removed from all products. This meant that the party goods had to be updated and around 85' we see the first set. This set had a redrawn "Front View" classic rat on a bright blue hat. Above him was the old CEC sign logo, but this time no PTT subtitle. Along the bottom edges of this set of itmes it said "Happy Birthday" in hot pink letters ( hey, it WAS the 80's after all...) Again, this set has the usual items, but no cups as far as i know. This 85'/86' set also appeared at many Showbiz Pizza's at that time. There was a identical set made that featured Billy Bob that many here have probably seen. I think Veganova has one in the Collectors section if you want to look for it.
Next up was probably the crappiest set i know of....The 88' set which featured the famous "Blue Vested" Chuck. Not much thought went into the design of this set...it basically was a white hat with blue script and loud, poorly drawn letters. Chuck is shown wearing his funky blue vest and a matching party hat. The back of the hat sports the logo "Where a Kid...etc." This set was the first i know of to come with party cups. It also introduced a paper placemat, which was set at every table setting instead of the usual tablecloth. As far as i know, there were no matching tablecloths for this set...which did'nt last long as CM's complained it was much more difficult to clean up after a party without the usual tablecloth.
This set was in use until the early 90's, when Chuck's look was updated to celebrate his upcoming anniversary. "Tux Chuck" was featured on the first set of party hats...which were'nt really hats at all but "visors". From this point on CEC no longer used proper party hats. The fact that the points of the hats have been missused by kids to poke their friends with made the company decide to stop using them in the resturants. Visors had no pointed tops, thus no injuries could be the result of them and overzealous kids high on cake frosting! The 1994 set was nice..Tux Chuck and colorful baloons really made the items festive. I should note that during this period the familiar Cake Stands were introduced to help Guests locate what party table was theirs. A neat invention, these stands are still in use today. Early models were bright colors, then later turned to a yellow/green/purple tri color version. From 00' onwards the stands were bright lilac in color. Another awesome collectible not availble to the public well worth locating.
These party goods were used until 1996 or so, when he changed his look again...this time to "Sport Chuck". This is when the familiar striped visors appeared, featuring the new Chuck encirlced by a bicycle wheel. This was one of the first sets to sport the new Birthday mantra: "I say Happy...you say Birthday!" based on the then new Birthday Show song. This was a fun set..and it had plastic tablecloths, plates, cups, menu cards, and visors. Also i should note this is around the time the first plastic Birthday Deposit Cards were introduced. These were similar to Gift Cards but used for putting a deposit down on a party. Later on, they could be used to redeem towards your party price total. These are hard to find today...although these were used up until 99'. Read more about these below.
In 2000 the party tables were looking pretty bland. A revision in Chuck look again brought another line of items, but no hats of any kind. Here we have the eyecatching more modern set that shouts "Party Time!" from it's neat tablecloth and plates. This also saw the first introduction of "sticker puzzles" for parties sporting the then contempory new party Chuck logo. We also see in 01' the introduction of the glitzy Party Centerpieces. These are nice items..as they are shiney purple free standing table decorations. The first version ( Chuck with arms spread) appeared. A new paper menu card was also introduced as well as matching Birthday Deposit Cards. These are also very nice items..and rare as they were out only a year and you only could get one if you made a deposit on a party. Afterwards, they were disposed of.
After this period, it was a few years before the design was changed on the party goods. Eventually, as before, Chuck changed his image again to today's current "Toddler Chuck" look. All the new Birthday supplies had the new head logo and graphics in purple to complement the new store makeover. Now you have snazzy tablecloths, sticker puzzles ( let's put Chuck's dismembered body back togther! lol!) along with plates, a updated version of the Centerpiece ( Chuck blowing a party favor blowout) and updated Cake Stand graphics.
Thought i'd start off a new thread that will hopefully be of some interest to those fans who are into collecting CEC memorabilia as much as i am.
A while back in the PTT Section of the Board, i started a thread covering the history of Birthday Parties at PTT/CEC from the beginning to today. Well, this thread will focus more on collectibles from that span of time...collectibles directly related to Birthdays at CEC! I figured this may be of interest particuarly to the newer fans who have "discovered" this fabulous website recently.
Okay...let's start at the beginning: 1977 thru 1979. During these first few years of Pizza Time Theatres' exsistance there was not a whole lot of merchandise availble that related to Birthdays specifically. Basically back then it was a low key affair, with a simple annoucement from the management and a short minute long skit performed by the Pizza Time Players suspended in their wall frames. You would also recieve a few free tokens from the manager as well for your Birthday, and in some cases even a free mini pizza.
Let's jump ahead to what i like to refer to as the "Golden Era" of CEC's---1980 thru 1983. During this period the resturants were multiplying like crazy...a new store would open every 3 days at one point. By 1980 it became clear that Guests were attracted to having there Birthdays at PTT so a marketing boom was born. PTT immediately started to advertise and market this new concept of having your party at a fun place like this instead of at home which was the order of the day back in the early 80's. Now that it was clear PTT had a success on it's hands ( regarding Birthday celebrations) they started to produce programs and related merchandise as early as 1980. Some of the earliest CEC items to be made related directly to Party use are the obvious ones: party hats, tablecloths, plates and napkins. CEC had many different series of these sets over the years, most of which i will cover here for the die-hard collectors.
The first set came out in 1980. It consisted of perhaps the coolest graphic ever produced for the hats in their history with the company. The large party hats were yellow and had a circle design in the front center featuring a nicely drawn image of Early Rat Chuck holding a Birthday cake and horn. Awesome graphic, as it's drawn in perspective to make it look as though the cake is being held right out to you! Below him is the original PTT script in black..spelling out "Pizza Time Theatre". The tablecloths, paper party plates, and cocktail style napkins all featured this great logo. All of these items are rare as heck...and so far i know of only one person who has most of these items.
The second set of party paper goods came out in 1981. These were the red and goldish yellow themed ( PTT colors) and sported the familiar "Classic Rat" design of Chuck. This time instead of a cake, he is holding a string of cut out letters that spell "Happy Birthday". Around the circle he is pictured in, large PTT letters spell "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre". There were hats, tablecloths, and napkins made sporting this logo. These hats can be seen in early PTT tv ads from the time.
As far as i know, no matching cups were ever made for these early sets. It was'nt until 88' or so birthday paper cups appeared on the scene.
Moving on...speaking of 85'/86' this is when the next set came to light. Since PTT Inc. was out of the picture now, and Showbiz Pizza was calling the shots, all the references to "PTT" were removed from all products. This meant that the party goods had to be updated and around 85' we see the first set. This set had a redrawn "Front View" classic rat on a bright blue hat. Above him was the old CEC sign logo, but this time no PTT subtitle. Along the bottom edges of this set of itmes it said "Happy Birthday" in hot pink letters ( hey, it WAS the 80's after all...) Again, this set has the usual items, but no cups as far as i know. This 85'/86' set also appeared at many Showbiz Pizza's at that time. There was a identical set made that featured Billy Bob that many here have probably seen. I think Veganova has one in the Collectors section if you want to look for it.
Next up was probably the crappiest set i know of....The 88' set which featured the famous "Blue Vested" Chuck. Not much thought went into the design of this set...it basically was a white hat with blue script and loud, poorly drawn letters. Chuck is shown wearing his funky blue vest and a matching party hat. The back of the hat sports the logo "Where a Kid...etc." This set was the first i know of to come with party cups. It also introduced a paper placemat, which was set at every table setting instead of the usual tablecloth. As far as i know, there were no matching tablecloths for this set...which did'nt last long as CM's complained it was much more difficult to clean up after a party without the usual tablecloth.
This set was in use until the early 90's, when Chuck's look was updated to celebrate his upcoming anniversary. "Tux Chuck" was featured on the first set of party hats...which were'nt really hats at all but "visors". From this point on CEC no longer used proper party hats. The fact that the points of the hats have been missused by kids to poke their friends with made the company decide to stop using them in the resturants. Visors had no pointed tops, thus no injuries could be the result of them and overzealous kids high on cake frosting! The 1994 set was nice..Tux Chuck and colorful baloons really made the items festive. I should note that during this period the familiar Cake Stands were introduced to help Guests locate what party table was theirs. A neat invention, these stands are still in use today. Early models were bright colors, then later turned to a yellow/green/purple tri color version. From 00' onwards the stands were bright lilac in color. Another awesome collectible not availble to the public well worth locating.
These party goods were used until 1996 or so, when he changed his look again...this time to "Sport Chuck". This is when the familiar striped visors appeared, featuring the new Chuck encirlced by a bicycle wheel. This was one of the first sets to sport the new Birthday mantra: "I say Happy...you say Birthday!" based on the then new Birthday Show song. This was a fun set..and it had plastic tablecloths, plates, cups, menu cards, and visors. Also i should note this is around the time the first plastic Birthday Deposit Cards were introduced. These were similar to Gift Cards but used for putting a deposit down on a party. Later on, they could be used to redeem towards your party price total. These are hard to find today...although these were used up until 99'. Read more about these below.
In 2000 the party tables were looking pretty bland. A revision in Chuck look again brought another line of items, but no hats of any kind. Here we have the eyecatching more modern set that shouts "Party Time!" from it's neat tablecloth and plates. This also saw the first introduction of "sticker puzzles" for parties sporting the then contempory new party Chuck logo. We also see in 01' the introduction of the glitzy Party Centerpieces. These are nice items..as they are shiney purple free standing table decorations. The first version ( Chuck with arms spread) appeared. A new paper menu card was also introduced as well as matching Birthday Deposit Cards. These are also very nice items..and rare as they were out only a year and you only could get one if you made a deposit on a party. Afterwards, they were disposed of.
After this period, it was a few years before the design was changed on the party goods. Eventually, as before, Chuck changed his image again to today's current "Toddler Chuck" look. All the new Birthday supplies had the new head logo and graphics in purple to complement the new store makeover. Now you have snazzy tablecloths, sticker puzzles ( let's put Chuck's dismembered body back togther! lol!) along with plates, a updated version of the Centerpiece ( Chuck blowing a party favor blowout) and updated Cake Stand graphics.