The Rock-afire Explosion (RAE) is an animatronic character band designed and manufactured by Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI) for use in ShowBiz Pizza Place restaurants in the 1980s and early 1990s.
At the end of the show's tenure, former Chuck E. Cheese marketing director Jul Kamen credited Rock-afire with being largely responsible for ShowBiz’s early financial success.
Unlike other animatronic shows of the early 1980s, The Rock-afire Explosion (RAE) was life-sized, with most of the performers about the size of an average adult human.
The latex masks fit over movable parts on the characters' faces, permitting a range of facial expressions, including smiling and the raising of eyebrows.
Additionally, thirty stores were outfitted with "Uncle Klunk" (voice: Jeff Howell[16]), a human character who replaced Rolfe and hosted talk-show segments with his bird sidekick, Click.
Cyberstar was also implemented at Pizza Time Theatre, and remains in use at all Chuck E. Cheese's locations, albeit using DVDs rather than VHS tapes.
The changes to the Rock-afire stage were very minor, as the company later decided to enact a process called "Concept Unification," in which all ShowBiz Pizza locations would be remodeled into Chuck E. Cheese's.
Dook was moved to Billy Bob's place and became Pasqually P. Pieplate, Looney Bird became Pizzacam, Beach Bear became Jasper T. Jowls, Fatz became Mr.
Munch, Mitzi was moved to Dook's place and became Helen Henny, The Sun became The Building, Choo-Choo became Munch Junior, and Rolfe became Chuck E. Cheese; The Moon was the only character carried over unchanged, and Antioch's computer and air lines were reused for The Wink, an animated Chuck E. Cheese head over the stage that would wink at the end of each segment.
[17] After ties between Creative Engineering and ShowBiz were completely severed, "Concept Unification" was announced in November 1989 and locations were gradually converted throughout the early 1990s.
[citation needed] As Concept Unification began at each location, the right and center stages of the Rock-afire show were shut down, leaving only the Rolfe and Earl characters operational.
[20] In the 1990s, an update to the band, known as "The New Rock-afire Explosion", was created, using new, smaller animatronics known as "mijjins", as well as other features such as revolving stages and dance choreography.
[27] The Rock-afire Explosion show at Billy Bob's Wonderland in Barboursville, West Virginia, remains operational and was restored in 2021 after decades of disrepair.
[31] Jack Turner, a close associate of Aaron Fechter and collector, has a fully operational Rock-afire show in his St. Joseph, Missouri warehouse.
[32] Although the Volo Auto Museum received a Rock-afire Explosion show slated for installation in 2020, there were licensing issues with Aaron Fechter preventing operation.
[41] Billy Bob Brockali is referenced in the song "Good Friday" by the American band Why?, with the lyric, "My fear of the bear at ShowBiz Pizza when I was six was overwhelming and not dissimilar to this".