Billy Bob Talking Walkaround

The Billy Bob Talking-Walkaround costume was a product by Creative Engineering that did not garner much attention or see much success, but is unique nonetheless. The development of this head began around 1987 with the first prototype. Many crucial revisions were made after, and entered the market around 1990 at a price of $9,400. Though Aaron Fechter claims that this invention was "the greatest innovation in animatronics", the concept of a talking walkaround with pre-programmed signals had already been invented and perfected by Ken Forsse, the creator of Teddy Ruxpin, and William Munns, years prior.

This item did not sell very well. The only restaurant proven to have purchased the costume was Fun time Pizza in McAllen, TX (400 Nolana Loop). Creative Engineering tried pushing this product by creating a brochure and making several appearances at IAAPA conventions with the costume in the following years. Consumers continued to show zero interest. Because of said response, very few were ever produced. There are only four finalized heads that have proof of ever existing, and there is only one left today in Creative Engineering's costume shop. Other talking-walkaround characters were planned, like Mitzi and Fats. But, these concepts never made it out of the prototype stage.

Design and Technology

In terms of design, The Billy Bob Talking-Walkaround costume was essentially a normal Billy Bob Walkaround, but with a latex mask and electronics. The head and the rest of the costume was reused. The only available area of vision were through the mesh eyes.

Billy Bob was animated using servo controllers. This head had two movements: mouth and eyelids. Both eyelids were on the same servo. To send the pre-programmed signals to the costume in accompaniment with a Rock-Afire Explosion showtape, radio frequencies of the signals were sent to a receiver.

Prototype Version

Creative Engineering's objective with the prototype head was to test if they were able to make this sort of technology work, and fit it inside a standard walkaround head. This prototype was much different from the final revision. The head was controlled by pneumatics, instead of electronics. The animation was the same, in that it had the same movements. Each movement runs on a small pancake cylinder. A standard Billy Bob mouth plate and eyelids are reused. The mask version used might also be different than the one used on the finished head. There was no radio wave signals or receiver in the costume. It is believed that for testing purposes, an airline was ran from the head, through the costume, and connected to the Classic Rock-afire Billy Bob animatronic mac valves in the stage, or some sort of other condensed, alternative valve source. The test of the costume probably ran off of the typical reel show signals. Luckily, this prototype head made it out of CEI, and still exists today in the hands of a collector.