My Animatronic Special Interest 🍨

It's time for my first actual blog entry written for this site :D This entry is going to be about one my biggest special interests; animatronics!!

I'll preface this by saying I genuinely have like almost zero technical knowledge of this stuff (being the actual robotics/engineering stuff) and my love mostly comes from the concept of it all and character designs and personalities. With that said, here's my silly story :o

 ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱

I was born the youngest of three kids in my family. My sister was born in 1994, my brother in 2000, and me in 2004. So I had a very stereotypical early 2000s low-middle class childhood. That means I spent a considerable amount of time at Chuck E. Cheese's. 

I didn't really like it (lol). I didn't really understand what it was for tbh. I had seen TV ads for the place, but I guess I was too young at the time to connect the dots? I dunno. I just know that every time I was there, I got sick from the pizza, hid under the table when the walk-around character came out, and really enjoyed the chocolate birthday cake. That was the full extent of the impact of irl animatronics in my childhood.

Here's a photo of my brother and I playing skee-ball at my 4th birthday party at CEC in 2008:

It was a long time before I even really thought about Chuck E. Cheese again.

I was a very early fan of Five Nights At Freddy's. And by that I mean I got into it almost immediately after the first game came out. I think I found out about it sometime between the very end of August and the very beginning of September 2014. I only know because I was 10 at the time and going into the fifth grade knowing about it and very excited about the potential to make new friends who might've also known about fnaf.

My interest in fnaf and the massive amount of time I spent on the internet consuming early fandom content on sites like YouTube and DeviantArt made the algorithm start to show me videos of something called The Rock-Afire Explosion, which seemed to be a bigger, better version of the animatronic band at Chuck E. Cheese's. The first video I ever saw was this one, and I really don't think I could've picked a better first video to see if this band. The show itself looked beautiful and was a great example of the realistic, flowing dialogue, dry humor and immense musical talent exhibited in all the best Rock-Afire showtapes.

This video was filmed by Aaron Fechter (as I would learn later), the creator of The Rock-Afire Explosion. It was his show that he kept on display at the company that created the show's old headquarters, a big warehouse in Orlando, Florida. That's why it was so well taken care of. Unfortunately. Since I mentioned Air Infector, I feel like I should take a moment to say fuck that guy. I'm not gonna get into why right now but fuck that guy!!!!! 

Anyway, by 2016 I had lost interest in animatronics for the most part. I wasn't the biggest fan of the direction of the fnaf series and there wasn't really anything going on with the Rock-Afire (and being an impressionable child I had been successfully manipulated by Aaron into believing that Chuck E. Cheese was in every way inferior and evil??? Idk man that guy's fucking insane) so I kinda went on with my life.

I returned to my animatronic band liking roots in 2020 after lockdown made a big group of people get back into fnaf. I kinda saw it coming. It was nice!! Towards the end of the year though, I went out to a local antique mall and somehow managed to find a vintage 1980s Chuck E. Cheese coin bank!!! I still hadn't learned much about CEC at this point but I thought it would be a nice thing to have so I bought it!!

It was in  really horrible shape so I repainted it, and while I was doing that I decided to listen to some old CEC showtapes. This was, like, the greatest decision of all time lowkey. I fell in LOVE with everything from about 1978-1993 and realized that CEC and the Rock-Afire are literally equals. They're both so great. I love them both so bad.

I went back to CEC for the first time since like 2010 in 2021. I went with a couple good friends and literally it was one of the nicest experiences ever. I was finally able to appreciate everything about the place and everything that came with it. The pizza was delicious, the show looked great, the arcade was in great shape, and I just had a lot of fun. It was really lovely.

Over the next few years I went back multiple times for fun. I took a lot of photos with my digicam and had a ton of fun with my friends!! The last time I went was for my 19th birthday. Then life got kinda crazy and I didn't get a chance to drive by my local again until 2024 and found out that it got converted to 2.0! So I haven't been back. Because that fucking sucks. Even if I miss the pizza and fries and cheesy bread and the fact that the fruit punch there was really delicious. Frown.

My love for animatronics is one of the best things in my life. I've made some of my best friends in the world because of my interest and participation in the online community. I've also almost been groomed a couple times and been bullied on multiple occasions but I'm focusing on the good stuff!!!!! LOL

My dad, when I was little, was one of the main people who used to take me to CEC. From what I understand he had a very deep interest in things like that. He died unexpectedly when I was 7 so I never really got to bond with him over it but going back to CEC as an adult kinda made me feel really connected to him in a cosmic kinda way. 

My love for animatronics also makes me more creative and prolific as an artist!! When it's my active special interest, I make so much art and write so many things!! And my dad was also an artist and a creative guy so that's another way that this makes me feel connected to him. :)

All in all, this special interest of mine is probably my favorite and the most important. I really don't know where I'd be right now if I never got into fnaf as a kid. I think I'd be very bored and very boring. Lol.

Favorites :D

Fnaf Game: Fnaf 1 or Security Breach!!!!!

Fnaf Animatronic: Classic Freddy or Montgomery Gator

Fnaf Hoax: FreddyLand :D

Fnaf Fan Project: BLOOD AND GEARS!!! My best friend voices Freddy in this game and also it's just extremely peak go support bag I love bag

Rock-Afire Stage: Classic 3-stage

Rock-Afire Character: BEACH BEAR ♡♡♡♡♡♡

Rock-Afire Showtape: Country 1 and 2 :P

Chuck E. Cheese Era: Tux (1985-1993)

Chuck E. Cheese Stage: Latex 3-stage (specifically the Mobile, Alabama playroom stage!!)

Chuck E. Cheese Character: Chuck E. Cheese (duh)

Chuck E. Cheese Guest Star/Cabaret Star: Sally Sashay, Dolli Dimples

Chuck E. Cheese Showtape: Personal Favorites 1987 :D

Non-RAE/CEC Animatronic Show: Circus Playhouse Band

Retrofit: Dandy Bear's (RIP)

Least Fav Fnaf Game: I'm gonna get KILLED for this but most of them lowk

Least Fav Fnaf Animatronic: Springtrap/Spring Bonnie

Least Fav Fnaf Hoax: Purple Guy animatronic..

Least Fav Fnaf Fan Project: Honestly I don't really interact with the fnaf fandom like at all I just put fan projects on here because I wanted to give Blood and Gears free promo HEH

Least Fav Rock-Afire Stage: Mini stage or New Rock-Afire Explosion/Mijjins

Least Fav Rock-Afire Character: Earl. Does this count. I know I should pick someone else because Earl just kinda hangs there off Rolfe's arm but I love everyone else too much 

Least Fav Rock-Afire Showtape(s): Not including the SPP-Voiced shows, Disco Christmas.

Least Fav Chuck E. Cheese Era: Avenger (sorry everyone I KNOW THIS IS AN UNPOPULAR OPINION)

Least Fav Chuck E. Cheese Stage: Road Stage (excluding the version of Pasqually that comes with the road stage he's so fucking cute look at him) 

[Insert photo]

Least Fav Chuck E. Cheese Character: Avenger Pasqually

Least Fav Chuck E. Cheese Guest Star/Cabaret Star: Harmony Howlette, Artie Antlers

Least Fav Chuck E. Cheese Showtape: Not including History Of Rock 'N Roll Part 1, that one weird showtape from 1986 where Scott Wilson voiced everyone except Helen????

Least Fav Non-RAE/CEC Animatronic Show: Major Magic's

Least Fav Retrofit: Hard Luck Bears...

If you read this far, thank you so much!!! I appreciate your time  ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱

Til next time!!

Kisses 💋

- 𝓖𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓮♡

(P.S. I talk about this and all my other fun silly interests on my Tumblr and post my art there from time to time! Go follow me there if u want!! Teehee)