#cyberamics

Gonna be doing some stylized animatronic fanart featuring actual bots. It’s not the first time I’ve drawn real ones, but it’s a bit of an experiment, since typically I draw them super detailed instead of the toon shaded model look that you can see here. While they will be stylized, each animatronic will be drawn as close to the actual figures movement capabilities as possible. I just want to do artwork for the sake of appreciating animatronics as an art form in an era of them being exclusively seen as horror movie monsters.

I’m starting with Cyberamic Chuck E, as I feel that these bots are often misunderstood and dismissed as just cheap and creepy. While I won’t argue that the design choices aren’t questionable, I think it’s worth acknowledging just how cool these bots are for what they can do with such limited movements. That and with how simple they are, there’s endless possibilities in terms of cosmetics and even retrofits. (Sidenote: I’d love to see some Cyberamic OCs. That would be awesome.)

New world record set for the cheesiest day of all time!

Here's a video of these bots in action! (Footage of the bots starts at 2:16)

Marc's Funtime Pizza Palace was one of many FECs that popped up after Pizza Time Theatre's bankruptcy in 1984. While many locations reopened as Pizza Time Theatres once again after Showbiz bought them out, others didn't and either rebranded or sold off their animatronics and closed their doors for good. Marc's operated in the Cleveland, Ohio area during their heyday and used retrofitted cyberamic characters as their show. I found one store that used a balcony setup and another that used the C stage setup, both of which utilize half-body Cyberamic characters.

The titular Marc was something of a big-time businessman in the Cleveland area, owning not just these FECs, but also a water park, a bowling alley, and a chain of grocery stores, potentially amongst other business ventures, according to Sonic Master 21's video on the subject on YouTube. (found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM9PQ9v8KIQ since Tumblr isn't letting me hyperlink today.)

Unfortunately, I can't find much about the characters themselves, but like this asker said, there is one showtape that does exist, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IlAGf8QtYI

The showtape's pretty standard fare for a FEC of the time, relying largely on public domain music. The voice acting is actually surprisingly decent for what is essentially a knockoff! A couple of the voices are a bit grating, but then again, so were some of the early CEC voices! (Broadway Helen, I'm lookin' at you, baby girl.)

If anyone else has any more info on these guys, we'd love to hear it!! :D

For those in need of some lovely animatronic ASMR, here’s an unedited video I took of Capt. Slappy’s Harmony Howlette!! Includes all the lovely slamming eyelid noises and hissing air valves!! The balcony characters have noisy eyelids compared to other animatronics because the eyelids are actually weighted to make them blink better. This is in contrast to the cabaret characters like Dolli Dimples who don’t have weighted eyelids, and therefore have slower blinking. 

Also, you might notice that Harmony appears a bit aggressive or perhaps jerky in her movements compared to other cyberamics. This is because she’s a vintage lady, and as such, she doesn’t run well on the suggested air pressure, so Slappy has to up the air pressure a bit on her in order to get her moving properly. It doesn’t hurt her or anything, don’t worry! She just doesn’t move properly at a lower air pressure, so the extra air gets her up and going!! I’d compare it to drinking a coffee in the morning lol, it just puts a little extra pep in her step so all of her movements function in the correct way!!

Fun fact: This is one of two known surviving complete Harmony Howlettes! Everything but Harmony’s hat is original on this bot! The other known surviving complete Harmony belongs to Jojo King and can be found on his YouTube channel.