Barboursville, WV (5 Cracker Barrel Dr)

Store Exterior, June 14, 2022

5 Cracker Barrel Dr or "Barboursville" is a Billy Bob's Wonderland location in Barboursville, West Virginia, and is currently the only location of the franchise. It opened in 2003 around the time when the other two locations, East Barboursville and Ashland, KY locations closed.

History

The current Billy Bob's Wonderland would open in 2003 after the closure of the East Barboursville (Which was a former Showbiz Pizza Place) and Ashland, KY locations. The store would open with even more Arcade Games, Golf Course, and Laser Tag which wasn't possible to fit in at the former two locations.

Relationship with Creative Engineering/Aaron Fechter

In 2013, Aaron Fechter attempted to restore the show, but, according to Aaron, Rex was very rude toward him, and he has never returned since. He only ever posted one video from Billy Bob's Wonderland which was posted two years after the fact, that showed the condition of Mitzi's valves which were then covered with bubbling water.

Past Restorations

Around 2014-2015, David Ferguson, known for DSF Robots and Goofy Gas Fillin' Station, came to restore the show. Most of the broken movements were repaired, the previous show controller was replaced with David's signature Blue Box, and the cosmetics were also replaced. Though the show did get fixed, most of the parts and cosmetics were aftermarket and did not last very long (this was mainly caused by air pressure being too high, which caused the animatronics' masks to melt and some movements to break.)

In 2019, the show was in very poor condition, with deteriorating masks, and broken movements. Mitzi had a broken arm, Beach Bear wore a walkaround head, and Looney Bird was nonfunctional. The show went through a mechanical and cosmetic restoration by Braylon Giles and Anthony Ybarra until they were fired later that year. After they had been fired, the show began to deteriorate in condition yet again.

In late 2020, center stage was entirely shut down, to give the left and right stages more air pressure, Around this time, Beach Bear was covered with a garbage bag to preserve the bot from deterioration.

Braylon's Restoration

In late 2021, Braylon was hired again, to now attempt a restoration on the full restoration of the show, with changes made such as changing the character's positions on stage to be more accurate to the original, and adding artificial turf to the stage to also match an original show. Restoration was completed in February 2022, being unveiled to the public at one of two conventions the store has held, the other being in July of the same year.

Current State

In December 2022, Braylon was fired again/left after disagreements with Rex, and supposed stealing of items. He took the masks molds with him, due to the fact he created them, meaning it is likely the characters' masks will continue to deteriorate since he wouldn't be making any new masks for when cracks or rips occur.

Since his absence and to this day, the show has started to lower in condition slightly, though the current employees have been trying their best to fix them, such as in March 2023, Fatz's arm welds broke, leaking them to be non-functional, now being fixed. In addition, the masks have also started to fall apart slightly too, with visible cracks being around the mouth joints of a few of the characters, most noticeably Billy Bob and Dook. Not long after that, Mitzi's outfit was converted back to her default one.

Extra Shows

In addition to the main show at their current location, Billy Bob's Wonderland also has two extra shows inside trailers near the building, which originated from the previous locations in Ashland and Barboursville. In addition, they also acquired the Parkersburg, WV (3500 Murdoch Ave) location's 3-stage after their closure in 1998. Currently, their show uses a combination of East Barboursville's and Ashland's shows, with Parkersburg being used for extra parts.

Gallery

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  The showroom in July 2003

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  Rolfe and Earl in November 2022

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  Center stage in November 2022

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  Billy Bob and Looney Bird in November 2022

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  Fatz with broken arms in March 2023

Videos

Link	Description	Filming Date
Link	An attempt to restore the show by Aaron Fechter back in 2013	2013
Link	A video of the RockAfire Explosion at Billy Bob's Wonderland back in 2015 after a restoration.	May 22, 2015
Link	Abbey Road Medley being performed at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	January 2022
Link	Tune Machine 1 being performed at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 2022
Link	Rolfe & Earl performing "Rolfe And Earl Show 1" at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	July 16, 2022
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing the Beach Boys Medley.	July 16, 2022
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Monkees Medley at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	September 2022
Link	A well known YouTuber taking his son to Billy Bib's Wonderland for the first time.	October 3, 2022
Link	A video that shows pictures of the restored show while Braylon was still working with BBWL.	November 11, 2022
Link	A video documenting a trip to Billy Bob's Wonderland,	January 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing with walkaround costumes.	January 19, 2023
Link	Someone's first visit to Billy Bob's Wonderland	January 21, 2023
Link	A video of the RockAfire Explosion performing at Billy Bob's Wonderland	February 2023
Link	90+ Minutes of footage of the Rock-afire Explosion at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	February 22, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Segment 8 of Magic Night at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Cajun Medley from Country Night III at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Guitarzan from Country Night I at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Happy Birthday Medley at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Segment 6 of Magic Night at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	The Rock-afire Explosion performing Segment 1 of Magic Night at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	Billy Bob & Looney Bird performing Goofy Gas Medley from Segment 5 of the Showbiz Pizza '82 Tape at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 6, 2023
Link	Dook LaRue performing "Spaceman" at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 2023
Link	Beach Bear performing "Born to Run" at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 2023
Link'	A livestream recorded at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	March 29, 2023
Link	"Power Blew" being performed at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	April 2023
Link	The RockAfire Explosion performing Guitarzan from Country Night I at Billy Bob's Wonderland.	April 2023