Billy Bob's Wonderland: Difference between revisions

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Billy Bob's Wonderland is a long-running, well-known FEC chain owned by Mark Hoffman with its only currently remaining location at Barboursville, WV (5 Cracker Barrel Dr).

The remaining store is noted for being one of the last public places in the US and the world to view the Rock-afire Explosion, in addition to having a perpetual license for the characters - this being how they are able to use the Billy Bob character name and design in their branding.

History

Billy Bob's Wonderland originally opened in 1989, with the first location being in East Barboursville, Along with the East Barboursville location they had also opened a location in Clarksburg, WV, both of which were former Showbiz Pizza Places that rebranded the exterior and interior to avoid Concept Unification. They later opened a third location in Ashland, KY, and all three locations combined in 2003 to become the larger location which they still reside in today at 5 Cracker Barrel Dr, Barboursville, WV 25504. As of 2024, this is the last FEC in the United States where the Rock-afire Explosion is publicly viewable as all the others have been closed, privately owned, or in a museum.

Show Collection

Billy Bob's Wonderland had three shows, coming from three locations, Ashland, KY, Clarksburg, WV, and East Barboursville, WV. Two of which were originally Showbiz Pizza Place's. In 2003 they closed down the Clarksburg, Ashland, and East Barboursville locations to open up one huge location not far from the original East Barboursville location, The Ashland show went on stage and the Clarksburg and East Barboursville shows going into 3 trailers behind the building. Through out the years characters and cosmetics were sold from the trailers including 2 Mitzis being stolen, some bots from the trailer went missing which means they were either sold, stolen, or lost somewhere in the building. The characters that went missing including 1 Fatz, 1 Looney Bird, 1 Sun, 1 Moon, and 1 Choo Choo. They put the East Barboursville Mitzi, Dook, and Billy Bob on stage. Of the Remaining shows inside the trailer they have two Dooks, two Rolfes, one Fatz, one Looney Bird, one Mitzi, one Beach Bear, two Billy Bob's, one Sun, one Moon, one Choo Choo, and two Antiochs.

The Rock-afire Explosion at Billy Bob's Wonderland was known for being in extremely poor condition until 2021 when it was fully restored by their show technician, Braylon Giles. As of 2024, the show remains in decent condition, with most of the issues stemming from the imitation parts and cosmetics. Giles no longer maintains the show.

Gallery

The original East Barboursville location
The Ashland, Kentucky location

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Generic|desc=Store Exterior, June 14, 2022|image=Billy Bob's Wonderland 2022-06-14.jpg}}
+{{Generic|desc=Exterior of the Barboursville location, June 14, 2022|image=Billy Bob's Wonderland 2022-06-14.jpg}}
-'''''Billy Bob's Wonderland''''' is a long-running FEC chain with its only currently remaining location at [[Barboursville, WV (5 Cracker Barrel Dr)]], owned by Rex Donahue Jr.
+'''''Billy Bob's Wonderland''''' is a long-running, well-known FEC chain owned by Mark Hoffman with its only currently remaining location at [[Barboursville, WV (5 Cracker Barrel Dr)]].
-The remaining store is noted for being the last public places in the US and the world to view the [[Rock-afire Explosion]], in addition to having a perpetual license for the characters- this being how they are able to use the Billy Bob name and design in their branding.
+The remaining store is noted for being one of the last public places in the US and the world to view the [[Classic Stage|Rock-afire Explosion]], in addition to having a perpetual license for the characters - this being how they are able to use the Billy Bob character name and design in their branding.
-== History ==
+==History==
-Billy Bob's Wonderland originally opened in 1989, with the first location being in East Barboursville, which was a former Showbiz Pizza Place that rebranded the exterior and interior to avoid [[Concept Unification]]. They later opened a second location in Ashland, KY, and both locations combined in 2003 to become the larger location which they still reside in today at 5 Cracker Barrel Dr, Barboursville, WV 25504.
+Billy Bob's Wonderland originally opened in 1989, with the first location being in [[Barboursville, WV (3419 US Rt 60)|East Barboursville]], Along with the East Barboursville location they had also opened a location in [[Clarksburg, WV (209 Emily Dr)|Clarksburg, WV]], both of which were former Showbiz Pizza Places that rebranded the exterior and interior to avoid [[Concept Unification]]. They later opened a third location in [[Ashland, KY (12862 KY Rd. 180)|Ashland, KY]], and all three locations combined in 2003 to become the larger location which they still reside in today at 5 Cracker Barrel Dr, Barboursville, WV 25504. As of 2024, this is the last FEC in the United States where the Rock-afire Explosion is publicly viewable as all the others have been closed, privately owned, or in a museum.
-=== Show Quality ===
+==Show Collection==
+Billy Bob's Wonderland had three shows, coming from three locations, Ashland, KY, Clarksburg, WV, and East Barboursville, WV. Two of which were originally Showbiz Pizza Place's. In 2003 they closed down the Clarksburg, Ashland, and East Barboursville locations to open up one huge location not far from the original East Barboursville location, The Ashland show went on stage and the Clarksburg and East Barboursville shows going into 3 trailers behind the building. Through out the years characters and cosmetics were sold from the trailers including 2 Mitzis being stolen, some bots from the trailer went missing which means they were either sold, stolen, or lost somewhere in the building. The characters that went missing including 1 Fatz, 1 Looney Bird, 1 Sun, 1 Moon, and 1 Choo Choo. They put the East Barboursville Mitzi, Dook, and Billy Bob on stage. Of the Remaining shows inside the trailer they have two Dooks, two Rolfes, one Fatz, one Looney Bird, one Mitzi, one Beach Bear, two Billy Bob's, one Sun, one Moon, one Choo Choo, and two Antiochs.
-They are infamous for their current location's show varying quality over the years, up until recent years they had been in extremely poor shape throughout, with many air leaks, broken mechs, bad condition or dirty cosmetics and decaying latex masks, when in 2021 Braylon Giles started extensive repairs, mechanically and cosmetically, albeit with third-party masks and painting quality not as detailed as the originals.
+The Rock-afire Explosion at Billy Bob's Wonderland was known for being in extremely poor condition until 2021 when it was fully restored by their show technician, Braylon Giles. As of 2024, the show remains in decent condition, with most of the issues stemming from the imitation parts and cosmetics. Giles no longer maintains the show.
-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 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-IFQbLxlJk one video] from Billy Bob's Wonderland which was posted two years after the fact, that showed the condition of Mitzi's valves which where then covered with water.
+==Gallery==
-In 2014 to 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 Mozzarella had a broken arm, Beach Bear wore a walkaround head, later being covered with a garbage bag to preserve the cosmetics. Looney Bird was also nonfunctional.  The show went through a mechanical and cosmetic restoration by Braylon Giles and Anthony Ybarra until they were fired in late 2019. After they had been fired, the show began to drop in condition yet again.
-In late 2020, center stage was entirely shut down, to give the left and right stages more air pressure.
-In late 2021, Braylon Giles was hired again, to now attempt a restoration on the full restoration of their stage, with changes made to the show such as changing the character's positions on stage to be more accurate to the original, and adding grass 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.
-In December 2022, Braylon was fired again after disagreements with Rex, and supposed stealing of items, resulting in him taking his mask molds along with his departure.
-Since his absence and to this day, the show has started 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. 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.
-== 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. They also have a 3-stage show from Parkersburg, West Virginia, a Chuck E. Cheese's that closed in 1998. Currently, their show uses a combination of East Barboursville's and Ashland's shows, with Parkersburg being used for extra parts.
-== Gallery ==
 <gallery>
-File:Billy Bob's Wonderland East Barboursville.jpg|The original east Barboursville location
+File:Billy Bob's Wonderland East Barboursville.jpg|The original East Barboursville location
 File:Ashland KY BBWL.jpg|The Ashland, Kentucky location
-File:Rolfe and Earl BBWL.jpg|Rolfe and Earl in November 2022
-File:BBWL Center Stage Nov 22.jpg|Center stage in November 2022
-File:Billy B. and Looney.jpg|Billy Bob and Looney Bird in November 2022
-File:Fatz' broken arms.jpg|Fatz with broken arms in March 2023
 </gallery>
-== Videos ==
-{| class="wikitable"
-!Link
-!Uploader
-!Title and Description
-!Filming Date
-|-
-|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-IFQbLxlJk Link]
-|[https://www.youtube.com/@therockafire The Rock-afire Explosion](Aaron Fechter)
-|'''"Billybob's Wonderland Valves Condition"'''
-''This video was taken 2 years before I made it public.  I am NOT helping BBWL fix their show.I never shared this with you until now. I wanted to refrain from publicly embarrassing Billy Bob's Wonderland and when I made this video and it was my intention and hope that I would be helping them put their show back in good condition and this would just be a clip in the "Restoration Video". However, now that Rex Donahue, the owner of BBWL has publicly announced that he plans to hit me in the face with a cow turd, I guess there will be no "Restoration Video".''
-|2013
-|}