ISSUE #16 - September, 2001
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Creative Engineering was the main destination of this trip whether my roadtrip companions were aware of it or not. I've been hell-bent on getting to see CEI since I learned of it's existance back in 1998. It's hard to think of where to even begin explaining how cool CEI was to me. CEI not only made up for all the dissapointing events on our trip, but it made the entire vacation worthwhile. Creative is one of those buildings you can drive past everyday and never once realize what incredible wonders lie within. In fact, the only way we knew that we had found the right place was by a truck parked outseid with the CEI logo on it. Rather than try to find the right words for describing my visit, I should probably just back up and start at the begining...

We arrived at CEI around 7:40 pm, 20 minutes early. We all took one look at the building and figured there was no way in hell this was the place. After walking around downtown Orlando an killing some time we went back to CEI and at the we met up with guyver-x who was to be our tour guide for the night. He was really cool, and he was also the 2nd ShowBiz fan I've gotten the chance to meet in person.

Among the first items we got to see at Creative Engineering was Aaron's new project called the "Starlauncher". It wasn't up an running when we first saw it so we continued on through the building. After passing some shelves filled with Billy Bob costumes, we stumbled upon the Moon Rockers stage show, which was an alternate version of the RAE that Creative Engineering produced in the late 80s / early 90s. Very close to the Moon Rockers was a New Rock-afire Explosion show without it's cosmetics that was being prepared to be shipped to one of the new Looney Bird restaurants.

The next turn took us into a room that had several of CEI's other animatronic characters in it. We saw the Lazlo the fortune teller, the Wolf Pack 5 Rolfe, and a few of the early CEI characters from the Country Bear Jubilee. We also got to see the Singing Moose and Bison heads which was another little known animatronic creation of CEI. None of these robots were opperational of course, but we did get to shoot some great pictures. Plus it was really nice to see them in person - I had watched video clips of several of these shows, but when you get to see them up close they appear much more massive and extrordinary.

Also on the main level of CEI we got to see the programming room. It was in here where they had the Classic Rock-afire Explosion, and the new Rock-afire Explosion - both on opposite sides of the room. The programming station was in the center. We only stayed in here long enough to snap a few pictures because the show wasn't running and there was alot more to see. After going down a hallway lined with posters, and framed sketches of the characters, we got to see the secretaries office. This is the room that had the shelf holding the prototype Rolfe doll - which I was lucky enough to get to hold. It was nice to see up close some of the neat stuff that was on there such as prototype sketches of restaurants and shows.

There was also a room where board meetings used to be held. The walls had several plaques of awards that CEI had won at shows such as the IAAPA. There was also a washboard showing which locations around the country had the Rock-afire show and Show-Selector systems in their restaurants. If I remember correctly this room also had the "Anti-Gravity Freedom Machines" - an email-like system for kids.

At the end of the upstairs hallway we met up with Aaron Fechter. Luckily it kinda caught me off guard so I didn't have time to freeze up like I anticipated I was going to.

Aaron was totally cool with us. He was also very fast and witty, which made it obvious to me that much of the Rock-afire's humor that appeared in their shows was most likely unscripted and spontaneous. After we were all introduced, he showed us how his Starlauncher worked. My girlfriend actually got to test it out and he informed us about some new ideas he had for it. Aaron also let us all in on some "Behind the Scences" info on Creative Engineering and also his history of inventing different machines and forms of entertainment.

They had a few slight technical problems with their Rock-afire show, but since we had come so far Aaron fired it up for us. While waiting for the compressor to build up pressure we were given the tour of the basement. We rode down there in this cool, old, cargo elevator. It was pretty neat. The basement had most of the interesting stuff and old relics of CEI's history were buried in here. We got to see all kinds of stuff: Piles of unfinished masks and show parts, boxes of stage peices and holiday packages, rolls of fur material for the characters, other animatronics like the giant singing Gorilla, the fire breathing Dragon, the Wizard of Oz darkride mechs, cabinets full of old documents and records, and that's just to name a few of the treasures.

Some of the highlights included a few more mini-animatronic Billy Bob's complete with different stages and curtains. We also ran across 3 2nd Generation Dook mechs - the unreleased model with updated wrist and arm movements. Also located in the basement was a car that Aaron designed early in his career that had the appearance of a golf cart and could get up to around 90 miles to a gallon. Also located in the basement was shelves full of Rock-afire reels and the recording studio which had a wall-sized shelf full of master tapes of Rock-afire recordings.

By the time we got back up to the ground level, the show was up and ready to go. We got to see some of the "Gold Collection" shows - which was a mixture of new songs and some of the older songs they did. We must have watched the show for about an hour snapping photos and getting all the video we could with what little life was left in my poor camera. After watching the show I got to see an old scrapbook that CEI had kept that had original ads and pics from the 1st ShowBiz, and I got to participate in a project that was being put together by Greg and his friend.

So CEI was totally worth the trip. I was able to leave there with a few pamphlets, some video clips, about 4 rolls of pictures, and a head full of memories that I'm sure will last forever. But the trip was still young and there was even more Showbiz memories yet to come. We still had Disney (where the Rock-afire's early roots stemmed from) and Snap's center stage RAE show which he has running in his house. Check back next month to read about the last stretch of my trip!

To be continued (again)....
- VegaNova