Dook LaRue was the drummer for the Rock-afire Explosion. He often played a smaller role in showtape scripts, but because of his amazing voice - arguably the strongest and most refined of the entire group, he has retained quite a fan following as one of the most popular Rock-afire characters.
Dook's origin begins with the Wolf Pack 5, as he was based on the character "Dingo Starr", a small drum playing Beatlesque dog. When Dingo was transformed to become a member of the Rock-afire Explosion, his size was increased, and his name was changed to Duke LaRue - based on the new voice actor that was hired to be his voice, Duke Chauppetta.
In 1981 the spelling of his name was officially changed to "Dook LaRoo" (possibly for trademark purposes). However, since the change, the latter spelling of his last name has had only one documented use. Therefore the fanbase has commonly referred to him by a combination of the two most commonly used spellings - Dook and LaRue.
His earliest design incorporated the appearance of Dingo. He wore a flannel shirt, gold chain, pants, and a hat. This design was quickly changed to a spacesuit. This sparkly-silver spacesuit - complete with bizarre antennae space hat gave him a weird, yet striking appearance.
As mentioned previously, Dook had a beautiful crooner-like singing voice. Unfortunately his speaking was not quite so eloquent. He often stuttered and stumbled over his lines during skits, and often times found himself to be the butt of certain jokes. Dook was never quite as sharp witted as the other characters, but therein lied his charm.
Besides being a prominent vocalist for the band (THE most prominent in the early years), Dook was known for declaring his own "trademarked" tidbits during showtapes. This was done several times - some examples being "A Christmas classic, by Dook LaRue", "How to celebrate Christmas in Mexico, by Dook LaRue", and "What is this thing on my head, by Dook LaRue". This little ongoing bit ended up being the most prominent uses of any character's full name and may have been a direct result of a 1982 survey's recommendation to help improve Dook's recognition.
As with many of the other characters, Dook was given a drastic makeover in the 1990s. He was included in the New Rock-afire Explosion shows, and his smaller (mijjin sized) robot was adorned in bright pink overalls with a green shirt and backwards hat. This hip and overly tacky new version of Dook was often referred to as the "Junkyard Dog". It was quite a dissapointing final note as Duke Chauppetta, Dook's one and only vocalist, hasn't recorded any "fresh" Dook material since the mid-1990s.