Aaron Fechter (Johnsonverse)

Aaron Fechter (born December 21, 1953) is an American engineering entrepreneur, voice actor, and musician who owns and operates Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI). He is best known as the creator of The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic show featuring a variety of characters used within ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurants throughout the 1980s. A dispute with ShowBiz along with the chain's dwindling revenue led to the show's decline and eventual removal. CEI developed other products and concepts since its founding, but they failed to gain commercial interest. Beginning in 2015, the band returned to the revived ShowBiz. Fechter also claims to have been instrumental in the early development of the Whac-A-Mole arcade game from Bandai, which became popular in the late 1970s, but his involvement has been disputed.

Early life and career
Aaron Fechter graduated from Edgewater High School in Orlando, Florida. In 1973, he graduated college at the age of 19. The United States was in the midst of an energy crisis, and Fechter decided to build a fuel-efficient, small car prototype in hopes of eventually manufacturing the vehicle under a new car company. He founded Creative Engineering Incorporated (CEI) in 1975 for that purpose, but in order to raise money for the project, he resorted to selling smaller inventions door-to-door, such as his "Leaf Eater" contraption that collected leaves from swimming pools. Fechter knocks on the door of an individual who solicits his help in designing an electronic control system for a shooting gallery, that will then be sold to amusement parks. The gallery features an animatronic horse, and his success leads to other offers in the animatronic industry, which becomes the central focus for Creative Engineering.

Fechter's father was an early investor in CEI, helping it enter the animatronic industry. Early projects included The Scab, a single talking head, Willie Wabbit, an anthropomorphic rabbit, and a fortune-telling machine called Lazlo The Great. By 1978, Fechter had finished work on the "Wolf Pack 5", his first animatronic series featuring multiple characters including The Wolfman, Fats, Dingo Starr, Beach Bear, and Queenie the Fox who was later known as Mini Mozzarella. It was showcased and deemed a success at the 1978 IAAPA show. He completed work soon after on "The Hard Luck Bears", another show featuring a hillbilly band of bears and a mimicking bird in 1979. A more complex show called "The Rock-afire Explosion" debuted in 1980, which was a combination of the Wolf Pack 5 and The Hard Luck Bears concepts with improved animation and other changes. This was the concept Showbiz selected for inclusion in its family entertainment pizza chain.

ShowBiz Pizza Place
In 1980, Robert L. Brock opened the first Showbiz Pizza Place restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, featuring Creative Engineering's Wolf Pack 5 display along with other amenities that focused on games and a food menu for both children and adults. Brock owned an extensive chain of Holiday Inn hotels, considered the largest of its kind at the time. He originally partnered with Pizza Time Theatre but backed out after discovering Aaron Fechter's work. CEI was given a 20-percent ownership stake in the chain and retained all rights to characters, animation, and show development. Although Showbiz would move forward with the "Rock-afire Explosion" (RAE) concept in future locations, RAE was still in the final stages of development when the first store opened using the "Wolf Pack 5". Queenie the Fox became known as Mini Mozzarella at this stage.

Concept Unification
Following financial troubles in the mid-1980s, Showbiz explored the possibility of reverse-engineering RAE and producing their own shows. This led to a feud over rights with CEI that lasted for several years. Showbiz eventually stripped RAE of existing cosmetics, including facial and body features, and replaced them with Chuck E. Cheese (CEC) characters – Showbiz obtained the rights years earlier when it purchased the bankrupt CEC franchise. The transition began in 1990 under the label "Concept Unification", which involved the renaming of all Showbiz locations to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. A new show called "Munch's Make Believe Band" was installed in various locations. Showbiz and CEI eventually agreed on allowed CEI to license the RAE band and characters to other businesses, but the presence of CEI's animatronics within Showbiz-owned restaurants were retired by the mid-1990s, with the exception of the Mitzi's Pizza chain.