Rolfe Dewolfe & Earl Schmerle (Animatronic)

The Rolfe Dwolfe & Earl Schmerle Animatronic (Also the 3-Stage Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic) was one of the main Rock-afire Explosion animatronics produced by Creative Engineering Inc. The animatronic would first be developed in April of 1980, before debuting at the Jacksonville, FL (9820 Atlantic Blvd) on August 14th of that year. His character was based off the Wolfman from the Wolf Pack 5 animatronic show Creative Engineering had developed. This time, instead of having a gravely showman-like personality, his puppet Earl Schmerle would take that role.

History

Rolfe Dewolfe & Earl Schmerle animatronics would continue to be produced up until 1983. The January batch would be the last used inside Showbiz Pizza restaurants, and would be kept and stored for future openings, while Creative Engineering would continue to produce bots until June. Now with a surplus of bots, these would need to be sold to other family entertainment centers. Throughout the 80s, Rolfe would be replaced by Uncle Klunk at various locations before later returning. Rolfe was also retrofitted into the Statue of Liberty for its 100th anniversary in 1986.

Throughout 1989 to 1992, the Rock-afire Explosion would become Munch's Make-Believe Band, or more commonly known as the 3-Stage, through Concept Unification. This was a process to rebrand the Rock-afire Characters as their Chuck E. Cheese counterparts due to the expiration of the Rock-afire license for Showbiz Pizza, now Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc. Rolfe Dewolfe would now become Chuck E. Cheese himself, sporting a tuxedo, a derby, a wand, a derby, and his traditional rat like appearance. Earl would be scrapped during this process, and Rolfes right hand would be reworked. The only mechanical change outside of the lowering of air pressure for his movements, and later diagnostic changes to the air flow in the cylinders, was the swapping for his brown eyes with Bear Bear's blue eyes. Another process which some stores would also choose not to go forward with. In April of 2001 a major change would come for all 3-Stage bots in stores. Their previously latex masks would now be changed out for furred plastic ones, to reduce costs for the rapidly deteriorating latex. Around this time stores would also be offered the ability to purchase new eyes for their 3-Stage characters, now with smaller pupils and more detailed irises. Store owners were also encouraged to repaint the eyelids with Rust-Oleum Painters Touch spray paint. Several Chuck E.'s swapped out the tuxedo for outfits that represented the design of the character at the time. These would include shorts, a t-shirt, and a hat. In the 2010s, several locations would update Chuck's outfit to represent the current incarnation of the character. This new look included a new shirt, jeans, and the removal of Chuck's hat.