Winchester Crusty the Cat V1 (Animatronic)

V1 Crusty the Cat at the Winchester location

Winchester Crusty the Cat V1 (Animatronic) was an animatronic present at the opening of the San Jose, CA (370 S Winchester Blvd) Pizza Time Theater. It was used until it was replaced by an upgraded Crusty the Cat animatronic.

Development

Crusty was the second animatronic built for the Winchester Blvd location after Chuck E. Cheese by Harold Goldbrandsen. His original design called for him to wear a baseball cap to go along with his jersey, which was never implemented on the animatronic.

Design

V1 Crusty the Cat was a half-bodied figure which was fixed to the backdrop, similar to the original Chuck E. Cheese animatronic. Crusty wore a blue and yellow basketball jersey which read ‘Swingers 13’ in yellow text.

His eyelids are blue fabric, with green rounded eyes, unlike Chuck E’s black eyes. His face is covered in short white fabric, with thicker black fur covering his head.

Originally, it was planned to give Crusty flashing lights behind his eyes to add to his appearance of apprehension.

Movements

Sadly, due to no videos of Crusty in store or after his use in the store exist, the motions can be inferred due to his design being nearly identical to V1 Chuck E. Cheese and the few existing photos we have of him.

• Mouth
• Eyelids
• Arm Raise
• Head Turn (Possibly)

Replacement

In 1978, Crusty, along with Chuck E. Cheese was upgraded to a more advanced design to fit the style of the rest of the characters, since Chuck E. and Crusty, as previously mentioned, were the earliest models of animatronic. It is unknown what happened to V1 Crusty after he retired. It was assumed he was sent to Sunnyvale with Chuck E, but there are no photos of him there. It is speculated he was destroyed when PTT left the building following bankruptcy.