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Portrait Chuck E. & Crusty Restoration
Topic Started: Oct 23 2014, 02:26 PM (20,678 Views)
VegaNova
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I've been wanting to restore these guys but haven't made too much progress until recently. Had time off work a few weeks back so I was able to build a shelf for them and they now live in my living room. Our old house had a basement that was fairly climate controlled but the new house only has a garage - so I had to get them inside before it gets cold. But now that they're inside I want to get them restored even more.

I've gotten Chuck's arms reattached (they were detached at the elbow, torn apart inside from sometime in the past) and had a new shirt made for Crusty. I still need to give Chuck his missing teeth and bow tie, and Crusty needs the design placed on his shirt. Would also like to give them a better cleaning. I also need to get some material placed behind them - right now I only have some cardboard covering the window behind them so they don't get sunlight damage.

Still have Chuck's portrait frame in storage. Later on once I'm able to put them into a permanent display I'll get Chuck back in his frame and will try to have it replicated so Crusty can have his as well.

This is the progress so far. I'll post more photos in this thread as things move along :)

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Nace
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Travis, this needs a serious resize.
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jennylove60

how on Earth did you get them :O
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VegaNova
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Nace
Oct 23 2014, 11:18 PM
Travis, this needs a serious resize.
Got the CSS adjusted so now all images anyone uploads should fit properly. Uploaded this from my phone so I didn't realize how big it actually was, lol.

These bots both basically came from ex-employees who cared enough about things to save them from being destroyed long ago. Jul Kamen saved the CEC bot from being thrown out around the time of the merger (along with Jasper and Pasqually). All three bots were "loaned" to corporate in the early 90s I believe, for a little museum thing they were planning on making. They remodeled the corporate offices in 2004 and trashed Jasper and Pasqually. The CEC bot only survived because members of Dept 18 snuck it away and kept it from being thrown out. This was long after Jul left of course and she only discovered what happened after Gabe tracked her down and let her know. Anyway she still had the signed contracts showing she was the rightful owner and managed to get CEC back. It then went to Gabe and then ended up with me.

Crusty came from Paul Linden - he was with ShowBiz and was responsible to going to CA to gather together the PTT assets when the merger happened. Somewhere he found Crusty and tucked him away and kept him. I don't know of ShowBiz didn't want it or what but he ended up keeping it personally. He was under the impression that Crusty was a prototype and not actually used, until I showed him otherwise. I purchased Crusty from him along with two original pieces of artwork of Crusty - done by Bob Black who helped to design all of the original characters for PTT. These drawings were the pieces Atari sent to the US copyright office when making the official copyrights for the original characters.

Both of these bots came from the first PTT location on Winchester Blvd. Had the other two not been destroyed, all four of the original main characters from that first store would still have survived. The CEC and Crusty I have weren't the original ones from Winchester though - these are the upgraded ones, made in 1978 at the same time the bots for Kooser were constructed. The originals were really crude, and by the time the guests were designed, the characters had more features and movements. So they upgraded these bots to be more articulate and contain more movements. :)
Edited by VegaNova, Oct 24 2014, 09:40 PM.
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Cheezbat
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Looking great! Keep up the good work Travis!
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Biffer1995
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Awesome Travis i love how Crusty is looking
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dheineCECfan
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Too bad you never acquired from CEC HQ in Irving the Jasper T. Jowls portrait robot and the Pasqually robot before they disappeared or something like that.
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SuperMuppet64
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dead
I love how these are looking so far.
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theuberbob

Travis, Thanks for posting this. Please do keep us all updated about the progress, and good luck with everything!

One thing I've been curious about...before the Jasper and Pasqually bots were destoyed did anyong get any good pictures of them? ISTR hearing that folks had seen them during tours of the corporate office so I had always hoped someone was able to snap some. I've only seen the ones on ShowbizPizza.com, and have always thought from what I could see that Pasqually in particular seemed to look kind of grotesque.

-Bob-
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Sarahsaurus
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Wacky Weenis
I'm just wondering why they ever decided to switch the charming Crusty for the strange Mr. Munch...
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VegaNova
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Sarahsaurus
Nov 12 2014, 04:25 PM
I'm just wondering why they ever decided to switch the charming Crusty for the strange Mr. Munch...
This was actually a call made by Mike Hatcher when he was hired to become PTT's Director of Entertainment. Crusty had been installed when the restaurant was owned by Atari - Bushnell purchased it from them in June of 1978 and soon after hired Hatcher. The change to Munch happened when the second store opened in November of 1978,

Harold Goldbrandsen who built all the original bots and helped create the characters didn't want to see the change happen (there was only so many places on stage so someone had to get cut, and he was fond of Crusty). He lost out of course and Munch ended up getting the spot. Although nobody can say for sure since Hatcher passed away in the late 80s, Goldbrandsen always figured that Hatcher grew up watching Sesame Street and wanted someone similar to Cookie Monster in the cast.

It's a bummer that Hatcher isn't around anymore, because he would be the best source of knowledge of early PTT shows (aside from what was done before he got there). I still haven't gotten solid confirmation or all the details, but the story as told by a handful of ex-PTT employees is that Hatcher, who was gay, died of AIDS which ravaged the San Francisco area in the 80s. :(
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theanimatronicjunkie
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Why are there eyes so different from the ones today?
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VegaNova
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theanimatronicjunkie
Nov 16 2014, 07:40 PM
Why are there eyes so different from the ones today?
These were more or less hand-made prototypes, so the production was changed once they started making them mass-produced (the Balcony style bots). The eyes on those characters were made from croquet balls because you could buy them everywhere and they were a standard size, were made of wood, could be painted, etc.

The eyes on these 1st Generation bots were made from a resin material with hand-painted irises. They were made by pouring resin into light bulbs. Once the resin hardened, the bulb was broken and what was left was a perfect half-circle which then became the eyes. :)

Not sure what they're made from in the modern bots though.
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CECArizona
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Proud owner of a Studio C Alpha
Its so amazing to see that Crusty is still around. Some day I would love to see a YouTube video of them preforming.
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CECArizona
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Proud owner of a Studio C Alpha
Look at my picture. It has DOGE in it.
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Edited by CECArizona, Nov 23 2014, 11:05 AM.
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Mousester23
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Cool4491
Nov 22 2014, 11:24 AM
Its so amazing to see that Crusty is still around. Some day I would love to see a YouTube video of them preforming.
Same!
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jeffnov
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This is so cool that you're restoring them. I'm glad someone was able to get a hold of any of the portrait characters, let alone Chuck himself and CRUSTY, that's unbelievable! I'd love to see some video of the restoration process (and of course video of them performing if you get them to work) or some more pictures of these guys up close and detailed. I'm really curious about what their movements would look like and what the insides look like too.

It really sucks about Jasper and Pasqually, were they the '78 upgraded portrait models with the improved movements and the later 'doll-like' eyes?

This may be off topic for this thread but do we know the whereabouts of any of the other portrait bots at all (like the very original '77 ones or the Kooser location ones or guest characters)? And what about the portrait Mr. Munch? I've only ever seen one photo of him.
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CECWestCoast
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Looks great Travis!
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80sgirl
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Electroidal Animal Doctor
jeffnov
Nov 27 2014, 10:39 AM
This is so cool that you're restoring them. I'm glad someone was able to get a hold of any of the portrait characters, let alone Chuck himself and CRUSTY, that's unbelievable! I'd love to see some video of the restoration process (and of course video of them performing if you get them to work) or some more pictures of these guys up close and detailed. I'm really curious about what their movements would look like and what the insides look like too.

It really sucks about Jasper and Pasqually, were they the '78 upgraded portrait models with the improved movements and the later 'doll-like' eyes?

This may be off topic for this thread but do we know the whereabouts of any of the other portrait bots at all (like the very original '77 ones or the Kooser location ones or guest characters)? And what about the portrait Mr. Munch? I've only ever seen one photo of him.
There's more info about this in the versions thread.

At least as far as Chuck goes, the whereabouts of the other portrait bots are unknown. There's no evidence of what happened to them after the bankruptcy when Showbiz acquired all of PTT's assets. Some of the stuff was saved, though. They've still got the original "Rick Rat" costume head around. If they still exist, it's probably stored in some forgotten corner of their creative studio.

I wish CEC would go through their old stuff and maybe auction/raffle it off for charity.
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BBarker34
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These are looking great! Looking forward to see them when they are finished.
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