Wink

The Wink is an animatronic figure created by Diversied Designs for Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza locations from 1989 to 1998 as a part of Concept Unification, which turned the Rock-Afire Explosion into the Chuck E. Cheese characters. The Wink is an emblem of Chuck E. that is colored gold and winks at the end of segments or songs. It on the valence of center Stage. The Wink mechanism used the airline from Antioch from the Rock-Afire Explosion and was eventually incorporated into the design of multiple Cyberamic stages.

History

The Wink debuted with the Concept Unification retrofit in 1989.

The ribbons next to the Chuck E. head originally read "In Pizza We Trust" but complaints were given about the phrase regarding religion and the actual phrase "In God We Trust" so existing winks with this phrase were retrofitted to just have red and white ribbons covering up the offending phrase. Some stores do not have the "In Pizza We Trust" covered, making it more rare.

Design

Concept Unification/Road Stage

This version was the first version of the Wink made, it features Chuck E. Cheese in the middle, who winks his left eye, to the left and right of him are the words "In Pizza We Trust", a play on the phrase "In God We Trust", with two stars on each side. Below Chuck E.'s head is his signature reading "Chuck E. Cheese. There is also a TM symbol under the "We" part. This version was manufactured from 1989 to around 1992

CEC Stage

This version was the second version of the Wink made, it is the same as the 3-Stage, except the "In Pizza We Trust" was never in this version. There is only 1 star on each side, the Chuck E. Cheese signature is also not featured on this version, making it smaller than its Concept Unification counterpart. This version is used currently on the 2-Stage, 1-Stage, some Road Stages, and one 3-Stage. This version was manufactured from around 1992 to 1998. The CEC Stage wink reuses the bit Warblettes Body Tilt Bit#.

Colored Wink

This version was identical to the 3-Stage Wink, except the entire Wink is painted in unique colors. It was installed in Mobile, Birmingham (Roebuck), and Huntsville, Alabama. After the closure of the Birmingham (Roebuck) in November 2007, their Wink was sent to the Madison, Tennessee location. As of October 2022, only Huntsville remains. Some CEC Stages have their own variant of colored winks but this is only in the derby being red.

Movements

The figure features 1 movement in total.


Movement	Bit #
Wink	49
Wink (CEC Stage)	10

Gallery

CEC Stage Wink with a Red Derby
Mobile Alabama's Colored Wink

Stages Used In

3-Stage: Installed from 1989-1992. 10 left as of January 2023, Tallahassee, Florida and Corporate has CEC Stage version, West Des Moines, Iowa doesn't have Wink.
Road Stage: Installed from 1990-1992. 7 left as of January 2023, some have the CEC Stage version.
2-Stage: Installed from 1992-1997, 17 left as January 2023.
1-Stage: Installed from 1992-1998, 28 left as of October 2022. Murrieta, California has 3-Stage Wink. International locations do not have Winks.
Cyberamic 3-Stage: Installed in 2000 & 2017 at Lynnwood, WA and Springfield, MA locations. Lynnwood still in operation as of October 2022.

Current Wink Animatronics


Location	Address	Stage Type	Installed	Condition / Notes
Phoenix, Arizona, United States	8039 North 35th Ave	3-Stage	November 1990	Oldest 3-Stage and oldest Wink. In Pizza We Trust uncovered
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada	4141 Dixie Rd	Road Stage	Spring 1991	Oldest Road Stage and only in Canada. In Pizza We Trust uncovered
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States	5612 Albemarle Rd	Road Stage	November	Only Road Stage in North Carolina. In Pizza We Trust uncovered.