What is Rock-afire Explosion? Rock-afire Explosion is a band of robotic animals that sing in various locations, but most nabely at Showbiz Pizza. The first Showbiz Pizza opened in 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri along with the first Rock-afire Explosion. The Rock-afire crew lived a good life in the various Showbiz establishments across the states until 1990, when Creative Engineering, the company who created the robots for Showbiz, pulled out and refused to make anymore for Showbiz because of a dispute. Showbiz began to take hold of the band and create their own show tapes and additions that Creative Engineering didn’t like. Because Creative Engineering left, the Showbiz began to replace their remaining Rock-afire bots with their recently bought out Pizza time Theatre bots (Chuck E. Cheese). This was known as concept unification. By 1992, there were no more Rock-afire bands at any Showbiz/Chuck E. Cheese establishments. Some bands not associated with Showbiz did make it out of 1992, but as of today, not many are still around.
Learn more about Rock-afire's relationship with Chuck E. Cheese here
Who is in the band?
Billy Bob Brokali Dook LaRue Fatz Geronimo Beach Bear
Mitzi Mozzarella
Rolfe DeWolfe
Earl
Looney Bird Uncle Klunk*
*Uncle Klunk wasn't used in all locations and was discontinued before 1990.
Here's some footage of a show.
Interactive Billy Bob. Feature where a worker would control Billy Bob as well as voice him.
Concept Unification. This one's a sad one. I didn't fully understand what was going on the first time I saw this, but they are removing the skins of the Rock-afire band and replacing them with Chuck E. Cheese Characters. The music and the words they use make this video so much more sad than it should be. :(
To not end this on a bad note, they considered adding a few other character to replace RAE. There were a few locations that featured Yogi Bear instead of Billy Bob. (Funner fact: Garfield was considered for one of these characters)
Around 1992, Creative Engineering began to recreate Rock-afire into what's known as New Rock-afire Explosion. It had updated animatronics that were easier to mass produce and had a lower cost. The animatronics’ bodies were more similar as a result of this. The stages turned, making seem as if the crew were dancing. Cosmetics were changed. Looney Bird became his own character as well. This project was finished in 1996 but didn’t catch on as well as the previous incarnation of his band did.
In all honesty, I’m not really sure I like the New Rock-afire compared to the 1980 one. Yes, the bots were more advanced and could move in more interesting ways, but man, are they ugly. They had to make their bodies the same so that they could be easier to make, therefore making them easier to mass produce. These similar body types made them kinda uninteresting. They also took away their instruments in favor of having them dancing which is kinda boring. Dook and Beach Bear became less important characters, only appearing half the time as their stages could turn into other stages.
I do, however, like how Mitzi looks in some shows. I mean, look at her. Her hair’s cute. But in most shows, she’s bald. Which is not my favorite.
Watch some footage of the New show here.
Here is some more recent footage of the New show. It's deteriorating and is not properly kept. I mean, listen to those squeaks. Dreadful. Sadly, this is pretty common today.
Learn more about Rock-afire's relationship with Chuck E. Cheese here
