Click / Murray D. Bird (Animatronic)

Click with the doors open.

Release: Jul. 14, 1983 - Present
Units Produced: 40
Manufacturer: Creative Engineering

Click (AKA Murray D. Bird) was an animatronic produced for The Amazing Uncle Klunk Traveling Show event at ShowBiz Pizza Place locations by Creative Engineering in 1983. The animatronic is a large cuckoo clock with Click on the inside. The clock is intended to be hung up on the Stage Right wall on Uncle Klunk's left, with the doors being roughly at the same height as Klunk's head.

History

Click seems to have been a late addition to The Amazing Uncle Klunk Traveling Show, as the Save The Colander Telethon footage of Klunk from early 1983 doesn't have Click on the stage.

Prototype

An early version of the bird portion of the animatronic was found in the 2010's. This version lacks a mouth movement, meaning possibly Click was not originally meant to speak- or that he was originally deemed too small to need a mouth movement. On the inside of the animatronic 'This is NOT a standard' is written on the latex, meaning it could have also been a visual prototype that was not meant for any production units.https://youtu.be/-ggn55SEbSU

Initial Reveal

By the time Klunk's first reveal happened to the employees of Creative Engineering during a showtape premiere, the final design for Click would be seen rather than the prototype.⁽¹⁾

Reuse

Click's bird mech and latex mold would eventually go on to be used for the Crow (Animatronic)|Crow animatronic, which is currently believed to have been a part of the Wizard of Oz animatronic show.

Design

The animatronic is a large cuckoo clock made out of wood, with a fake yellow plastic clock face on its front. This clock has two handles that will rotate in opposite directions when powered on, shaped to look like Klunk's arms. The numbers on the clock are in a different order than usual, and are drawn to resemble other objects alongside its number. Starting from the usual 12th position and going clockwise:

6 - A hairy hand forming the number 6.
12 - Drawn to look like wood.
5 - Someone angrily screaming with their eyes crossed.
10 - A drink and a donut that's had a bite taken out of it from the top.
3 - A moon screaming.
11 - Candles that are lit.
8 - The number is personified into a creature with eyes on top, a smile, and hair all over.
2 - The number has a band-aid on its lower section, and a bandage on its upper half.
9 - Someone that is whistling.
1 - A balloon, which has its string attached to the 9.
4 - A pair of legs crossed to form the shape. The legs are wearing spotted pants and shoes.
7 - Two undiscernible grainy objects that form the shape.

Click itself is a blue furred bird with yellow neck fur and red hair. They wear white gloves and black sneakers with white striping. They have exposed skin for their belly, face, and a bump on the top of their head. Their red hair is fluffier than their body and sticks out in various directions. They have rosy cheeks, big cartoonish eyes, and a long beak with a separated jaw for their mouth movement. They rest on a single piece of wood- which is actually part of the latex mold that makes up their entire front half. Their arms are always outstretched. Despite the perceived thin appearance of the bird from expected angles, the inner bird animatronic fur extends about a foot behind him for his tail. The inside of the bird is formed out of latex and stuffed with plastic wrap, with the fur Velcroed on from the back.

Prototype Design

The prototype design features lighter skin, a more raised up belly-button, less defined cheeks, less outstretched arms, and no separated jaw for a mouth movement. The inner latex for the body has 'This is NOT a standard' written on the inside.⁽⁰⁾

Movements

The clock has one continuous movement of the handles going in opposite directions. This motorized function was plugged into the Special Effect Outlet One, which was previously used for the Red Floor Lights on Rolfe's Stage. It is currently unknown which bits are exactly used for Click's movements. It has been deduced that both are the Top Drawer bits 20 and 36 (1 indexed), but it is unknown which is which.

Click Door
Click Mouth

The Clock Hands movement, which was SE1, was Bit 94 on the Bottom Drawer. A miniature spotlight was also used to illuminate Click, which was plugged into the Green Ceiling flood receptacle on stage right. Both green bulbs were removed.