Winchester Crusty the Cat V2 (Animatronic)

The Winchester Crusty the Cat V2 Animatronic was an animatronic created by Fantasy Forest for Pizza Time Theatre in Summer 1978 based on the character, Crusty the Cat. The bot was a replacement of the original Crusty bot used at San Jose, CA (370 S Winchester Blvd). It used the Winchester Control System for store movement & Winchester Hardware Setup for programming.

The bot was used until Winchester replaced their Fantasy Forest Portrait show for a Cyberamics Portrait show in 1981.

History

After the creation of the 1978 Winchester Madam Oink bot & 1977 Helen Henny bot, PTT requested Fantasy Forest Manufacturing to update the Early Chuck E. Cheese & Crusty bots to have more movements. The bot was seen in an Australian broadcasting segment in 1979, which is the only footage of the bot at Winchester. Once the Winchester Blvd. location upgraded their show to standard Cyberamics in 1981, The V2 Crusty bot was relocated to the Pizza Time Theatre Sunnyvale, CA Corporate Office.

Once Pizza Time Theatre went bankrupt, Paul Linden of SPT's Entertainment Department acquired the Crusty animatronic and was thought to be a prototype animatronic that never ended up in a location. In 2011 the Crusty animatronic was discovered once again and later bought by Travis Schafer in 2012. The bot is currently in storage in Travis Schafer's archive.

Cosmetic Design

Crusty is a black cat with white fur patches, wearing a blue and yellow baseball uniform reading "Swingers 13"; to fit his theming he also held a red baseball bat in his right hand The animatronics eyes and hands are nearly identical to it's accompanying Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic, with the exception of color and eyes being more detailed.

Movements

The majority of the animatronic's mechanics were built onto the fiberglass body, leaving a mostly empty interior. As for cylinders, it appears that a majority of the head used small single acting cylinders for certain movements. The metal base Crusty was built on was bought up to an angle so it could come out of the frame more. An additional note, the body turns dictated the movement of the left arm like the future Cyberamics.


Movement
Mouth
Eyes Left
Eyes Right
Eyes Up
Eyes Down
Eyelids
Ears
Head Tilt Left
Head Tilt Right
Head Turn Left
Head Turn Right
Body Turn Left + Left Arm Twist
Right Arm Up
Right Elbow

Gallery

2011
Crusty the Cat collection of Travis Schafer, 2014
Close up of Crusty, 2020
2021
Crusty the Cat and Chuck E. Cheese in storage, 2022
Crusty close up, 2022