Yogi Bear (Animatronic)
The Yogi Bear Animatronic was a retrofited Rolfe Dewolfe & Earl Schmerle (Animatronic)
History
On March 4, 1987 ShowBiz Pizza Time, INC would obtain a quote from Creative Presentation, INC for how much Yogi Bear would cost. The cost would be $6,000 for a single, or $5,250 for multiple orders of 5 or more. A ‘Yogi with Ukelele’ is also referenced implying that Billy Bob (Animatronic) was potentially to be used instead of Rolfe Dewolfe & Earl Schmerle (Animatronic). This would cost $10,000 to produce.[1] By April 2, 1987 an agreement was formed between ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc and Creative Presentations, Inc regarding what would be designed and fabricated. Three sets of conversion kits to transform Rolfe into Yogi Bear would be created. The conversion kit for Yogi Bear would include ‘A new Yogi Bear cosmetic head, complete with eyes, left and right, mouth movements, head left and right, and head up and down’. ‘A new Yogi Bear mechnical right arm and hand, to replace the arm and hand previously required for Earle’. ‘A new Yogi Bear cosmetic left hand’. ‘A fur body suit done inn Yofi Bear style, including feet’. ‘A Yogi Bear costime, consisting of hat, collar, and tie’.The date planned for completion of the first set was May 14, 1987. For the remaining set of cosmetics were to be completed by June 15, 1987 ‘and delivered to locations designated by ShowBiz by June 31, 1987’.[2] The first location to debute with Yogi Bear was Omaha, NE in September 1987[4] during installation the packing list, instruction manual, iries for Yogi (later sent Boo Boo’s iries which could not be used), sign for the barrel were not included, the plugs or splices necessary to replace the arm, and three legs were shipped for Yogi, later that month Colorado Springs, CO would begin installation also missing the packing list, ‘Yogi’s arm had no airhoses at all to hook up to Rolfe’s body’. ‘The arm had incorrectly been assembled at the elbow and had to be disconnected and rotated 90 degrees’. ‘No iries for either Yogi or Boo-Boo’ ‘Only one leg was sent. Unfortunately – we knew where the other one was’. ‘The instructions were still incomplete, but included an unsigned apology’[3]. On October 1, 1987 an installation memo would be sent to Paul Linden & Stan Black from Jul Kamen addressing the installation issues faced at both stores and ‘unnecessary delays due to the lack of required cosmetic and mechanical parts which were not furnished by the manufacturer, C.P.I.’ ‘before Thanksgiving’ in 1987 Yogi Bear would be removed with Rolfe Dewolfe & Earl Schmerle (Animatronic) re-installed. While plans existed for a return in January 1988 those plans would never come to light. [3]
Design
Yogi Bear was a bear with brown fur and Beige highlights,he had a giant nose with large eye with black pupil and beige fur around his mouth, he only wore a Green tie with a whte collar and a green pork pie hat
Movements
The bot features seventeen movements in total.
| Yogi Bear | Number |
|---|---|
| Mouth | 1 |
| Right Ear | 2 |
| Left Ear | 3 |
| Left Eye | 4 |
| Right Eye | 5 |
| Head Left | 6 |
| Head Right | 7 |
| Head Up | 8 |
| Left Arm Raise | 9 |
| Left Arm Twist | 10 |
| Left Elbow | 11 |
| Right Arm Raise | 12 |
| Right arm Twist | 13 |
| Right Elbow | 14 |
| Body Twist Left | 15 |
| Body Twist Right | 16 |
| Body Lean | 17 |
