A small group of enthusiasts have apparently been restoring and reprogramming the animatronic bands from the former Showbiz Pizza Place chain. Original engineer [Aaron Fechter] and car salesman/choreographer [Chris Thrash] have started performing modern pop songs with the bands and have a page where you can bid on new songs to perform. This feels like Billy Bass hacking on a much larger scale. The original machines were controlled by a four track reel, but now they’re using a hard disk recorder. The trailer above is worth watching just for the rows of partially assembled bears performing on the factory floor.
[via Waxy]
Anyone remember Bullwinkle’s in Santa Clara, CA?
man i loved that place
and i love robotics
what im interested in seeing is how they make these from ground up
as a small child, nothing creeped me out more than that singing bear. Those things are right up there on the ‘most evil things’ list with clowns and DRM.
Great video though. I didn’t think they could possibly be any creepier, but in their dismembered state they remind me an awful lot of a mix between the terminator and a carebear having roid rage. Gives me new ideas for my evil army.
I remember having nightmares about some robot-animal band at some pizza place malfunctioning and going on a rampage (seriously). I couldn’t remember what pizza place had the robots. It’s been nagging at me for years now, trying to remember. This post seriously just made my week.
Here in the UK, we never ever had anything like that. However, just the fact that somebody loved the experience so much as to want to recreate it, and somebody else loved that recreation so much that they wanted to make a film about it, makes me really interested in the whole phenomena!
By the way – the electronic trailer music – I’ve heard it before somewhere…anybody know what it is?
wow, something on hackaday i’ve already been following! i’m glad alot of people miss rockafire as much as I do, in spite of my being a bit afraid of them as a kid
@4 possibly chuckie cheeses?
Thats cool, but I like it better when the robots really play music, ie Captured by Robots. Now thats a kick ass robot band!
That helmet at 1:58 looks super excellent, like it could be a theremin rigged to drive a tesla coil.
peanut: It’s “Some Things Come From Nothing” by Super Furry Animals.