There are so many amazing animatronics restorers that we needed to continue this series!
Today we're going to be taking a look at some more heroes that take abandoned and damaged
animatronics and props and bring them back to life as if they were new!
But first, if you consider yourself an animatronic fan, go and follow these three restorers right
now!
Links in the description and in the comments!
Norman / John Kolbeck
Back in 2004, Interpol released their second studio album, Antics, and the second single
from this album was Evil.
The single's music video directed by Charlie White shows a life-sized animatronic puppet
who travels via ambulance to a hospital emergency room following a car crash, being examined
by real-life actors as he sings the lyrics to the song to dramatize the song's theme
of losing one's self after a trauma, before breaking into a frantic dance on the operating
table.
White listened to the song on a loop for an entire weekend and hired the special effects
team that had worked on the films Hellboy and Fantastic Four to create the puppet.
The puppet's animatronic head was programmed to automatically sing the song; six puppeteers,
who needed to be digitally removed from the video, were tasked with moving its eyes and
body.
The video was a huge hit among fans, who thought the animatronic was cute and creepy.
They ended up calling him Norman, and he gained a huge cult following on Interpol's online
message board shortly after the video premiered.
But after a while, Norman was lost, and its whereabouts remained a mystery for almost
a decade.
When the video first came out, artist John Kolbeck remembers thinking that he would give
anything to own Norman, and strangely 17 years later, he ended up doing just that!
John describes himself as a weird guy who's into weird stuff.
He is an artist who grew up enjoying Jim Henson's creations and strange late-night T.V., and
according to him, this mix of interests has been reflected in the kind of work he does
and the stuff he collects.
Back in 2017, he created a Youtube Channel about two animatronics that live in the underworld
and go on adventures.
But he never forgot Norman.
So he began doing an online search and came across this L.A. prop auction where he could
see a ghastly puppet that they had listed as "A ghoul puppet from some music video."
After closer inspection, he realized that that ghoul puppet was, in fact, Norman!
He didn't lose a second before calling to ask about the animatronic, but to his horror,
Norman was not only not available anymore, but he had been given away because nobody
had wanted him.
John thought his dream was over, and he was ready to give up, but he decided to try one
more thing.
He asked for the help of his Youtube channel fans to search one last time for the animatronic,
and to his luck, a fan actually said there was a guy on Facebook that was a prop collector,
and he had Norman!
With the help of friends, family, and fans, he was able to pool funds together to buy
Norman.
Norman is now being used to host various videos on John's channel, and he has been semi-operating.
But, he is in terrible shape from years of neglect.
It's really awful how he was treated after he was finished in the video.
Servos are shot.
His skin, which is like a Nerf Football, is completely discolored and ripped.
To be able to restore Norman back to his former glory, John contacted Luna's Puppets, a company
that creates custom-made costumes, props & animatronics.
Once this is done and Norman is fixed up, John wants to put him back in the entertainment
industry by giving him his own talk show!
And also, make sure that he NEVER gets treated poorly again.
But to be able to do this, John needs our help!
He has until June 9 to get funds to restore Norman, and he has opened a GoFundMe page
so fans can help him out.
He has almost reached the goal, plus some more for the shipping and insurance!
And we know that the Ducksquad and animatronic fans can help him get to the final goal!
We'll leave a link in the description so you can go donate and help Norman get back to
Normal!
Be sure to also follow John on Twitter @kolbekjohn and Instagram and Instagram @john_kolbek and
@norman_is_evil also check out his channel, Odd Stories Wrapped in Plastic!
Film and T.V. Props / Kira Tidmore
We are huge horror and sci-fi film fans, and even though we are very impressed with how
far technology and special effects have come in these types of films, we know that they
will never replace the magic that props and animatronics give to a scene.
We've talked many times before about the props used in films like Gremlins 2, Alien, Men
in Black, Ghostbusters, and many more.
And we are always heartbroken when we find out that they were abandoned or destroyed.
But thankfully, that's not the case for every one of them.
In comes Kira Tidmore, an excellent restorer, and artist that has worked her magic on so
many iconic props!
Kira moved to Los Angeles 7 years ago from Alabama.
Ever since she was a kid, Kira has been an artist, ranging from drawing and painting
to stitching and sculpting.
She later settled on the idea of doing special effects make-up and started practicing all
the time.
A few months after she moved to L.A., she met her neighbor who, she learned, restored
props used on-screen from television and movies and also fabricated replica characters seen
in pop culture, horror, and sci-fi.
Kira began working side by side with him and learning the craft.
She spent three years building creatures out of spare parts, handling fragile artifacts
from cinema history, and putting her previous years of special effects make-up practice
to great use.
During this time, she worked on some fantastic pieces like the Daffy Gremlin puppet!
It was actually the first prop she restored!
This puppet was designed for shots where Daffy's entire body had to be shown.
When the puppet first arrived at the shop, it was in awful condition.
It was missing its skin layer on forearms and fingers; his jaw was completely agape
and had no neck.
But Kira worked her magic, and Daffy was just as new when she finished with him.
One day her business partner decided to stop working on prop restoration.
By that time, Kira had been handling the majority of restoration for the company she was working
with.
So, she knew that this was the perfect time to branch out and create her own company and
brand.
And that's how she started Kirasphere.
Kirasphere specializes in film and T.V. prop restoration and preservation.
The majority of work she gets is usually from private collectors that want to restore these
pieces, and she's worked on some seriously iconic pieces!
Kira has restored over 40 props and four animatronics from movies like Nightmare on Elm Street,
Beetlejuice, Men in Black, Gremlins 2, and many, many more!
The process of restoring these props and animatronics depends on what condition it's in and what
materials were used.
Some of them take a few days while others can take a few months!
One of her favorite pieces to work on has been the Jason Vorhees split head animatronic
from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
For this piece, a neck had to be created because its head was hanging on by a small piece of
"skin."
Also, the split on the forehead was lifted and restored to prevent further tearing.
Teeth and the bottom lip had to be hand-sculpted, and then all the patched and restored areas
were color-matched and detailed.
Another iconic piece she restored was the Werewolf Arm from the 1985 film Fright Night.
Kira is a big fan of Fright Night, and the director himself brought the arm to her so
that she could restore it to its former glory!
But according to Kira, probably the largest portion of the business has come from the
Alien series.
At any given time, you can typically find a series of Xenomorphs, Facehuggers, or giant
eggs scattered about the workshop.
The thing that really sets Kirasphere apart is the quality.
She sets the bar very high when it comes to restoring these amazing pieces, and she has
really high standards, so each piece that comes out of her shop is perfect.
You definitely need to check out her work, and you'll be amazed at how many impressive
pieces she's worked on!
Check out her website Kirasphere.net, and be sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook
@kirasphere!
We'll leave links in the description!
Animatronic Bands / Jack Turner
Guntown Mountain is a park with lots of history.
It first opened in 1969 and remained open until 2013, when it had to close because it
started losing popularity.
The park remained abandoned for two years until 2015, when Will Russel bought it, changed
its name to Funtown Mountain, and reopened it.
He planned to raise funds with a carnival road tour through 20 states where there would
be a live band, a menagerie of freakish animals, and other strange memorabilia.
But sadly, everything went wrong with his plan.
Russel lost thousands of dollars, but despite this disaster, he reopened the park.
This park's concept was pretty interesting.
Part of the park kept some abandoned areas and had new attractions with animatronics.
It also had Mitzi, Fatz, and Billy Bob animatronics from the Rock-afire Explosion.
Sadly, the park stayed open for less than a year because Russel's mental health was
not stable.
In one of his worst episodes, Russel started to destroy and vandalize the park, leaving
it devastated, and the Rock-afire animatronics were abandoned in the dark and left to rot.
After these episodes, the city shut down the property and put it up for auction along with
the stuff inside.
And thankfully, the Rock-afire explosion animatronics found their way into the hands of Jack Turner.
Jack Turner is an animatronic restorer.
He began his interests in animatronics at age 12 thanks to Five Nights At Freddy's.
Although he wasn't a fan of the game, he was intrigued by the concept of animatronics.
So he began doing research on them and found out that the Rock-afire Explosion had inspired
the game.
He quickly became a fan of the band and started work on a prototype miniature Billy bob doll.
And then, in June of 2015, he bought his first full animatronics character.
Mitzi Mozzarella, from Funtown Mountain.
It took Jack a while to understand how the characters worked, but after about a year,
he had Mitzi fully working.
While he was working on Mitzi, he was also trying to get the Billy Bob animatronic also
from Funtown Mountain; thankfully, he succeeded!
He restored Billy Bob and got both of the animatronics running on his own midi control
system.
When they were done, he presented them at the Santa Clara Maker Faire in 2017.
After this, Jack wanted to continue his work, and he began to search for a full Rock-afire
show.
He was able to purchase a center stage Rock-afire Explosion from South Africa.
All those characters went to other fans except Fatz, who he kept and restored to pristine
condition.
Then, in 2019, he brought the three fully restored Billy Bob, Mitzi, and Fatz to the
Maker Faire.
That same year, using only a single image provided to him by a fan, Jack tracked down
a full Rock-afire Explosion show that had been sitting since 1986.
He was able to purchase this show, and he is currently restoring them and documenting
everything for a series on his Youtube channel, SPTProductions.
He has also worked with Connor Leschinsky, another animatronics restorer who we talked
about in the first part of this series.
They have worked together for many years and collaborated to find the missing Lynchburg
Rock-afire explosion show but also, more importantly, the Gaslight Village Jamboree, which contained
Wolf Man, Friendly Freddy, as well as Fatz.
Jack had owned and restored over 40 animatronics, and they had almost all ended up with other
fans.
One of his recent restoration projects was to restore 3 Rock-afire explosion characters
for Harbour farm and vineyard, and he also replaced 3 of the masks on Aaron Fechter's
show.
Apart from restoring the animatronics, Jack also has painted dozens of masks for private
collectors.
He is currently working on many projects, including the restoration of the full Rock-afire
explosion, which he says will be done by the end of the year, as well as the Gaslight Jamboree.
And, of course, helping recreate the materials necessary to restore Rock-afire Explosion
characters.
He has also had fur fabric produced in custom batches to exactly match the original Rock-afire
fur, so fans will now be able to purchase this for their own characters.
Jack has been supported throughout his seven-year journey by Aaron Fechter, who he considers
a great friend and mentor.
And in the future, he hopes to restore other rare shows like the Hard Luck Bears, Wolf
Pack 5 and continue to help fans along the way.
He also plans to create his own custom characters!
You can follow Jack Turner's journey and work on his Youtube Channel, so go subscribe!
We'll leave a link in the description!
Beach Bear / Gabriel Studios
As animatronics fans, we know that the love of these machines starts early, and that is
also the case with Gabriel Studios.
Gabriel is 13 years old and lives in Louisiana, and he has always been interested in animatronics
and how they work.
He says that vintage technology has been one of his interests since he can remember.
And so, he wanted to work on a project related to this.
And the perfect moment came last year, when, looking for a special project to work on,
he went into eBay.
Here, he found a Beach Bear animatronic being auctioned off by none other than Jack Turner.
He bid on it and won, and Beach Bear was his, for $4000.
Gabriel bought this animatronic with plans of restoring it.
His work began with the animatronic's body fur.
When he got it, the body fur was very matted up.
It looked like someone stored it in a box in the heat for a long time.
So he cleaned and removed the mats from the fur and went on to the next step.
Gabriel took the mechanism apart, regreased everything, and replaced any parts that he
found damaged.
The animatronic's mac valves were in an awful condition when he got it, so he started replacing
every seal in the valve bank.
Next, Gabriel found a Beach Bear mask.
And while it had a couple of rips around it, it was in pretty great condition.
Especially for its age!
He was able to restore and repaint the mask using glue and repainting it.
Gabriel is still in the process of restoring Beach Bear, and he's doing a fantastic job.
He hopes to eventually get everything running, including lights, get a full set of cosmetics,
and finally build a stage for the animatronic.
In the meantime, he is also restoring a Zoofari and a Fruit Ninja game that he found in a
dumpster at Chuck E Cheese!
They need a ton of work, but Gabriel has been working on them ever since, and hopefully,
he will be able to restore them completely!
You can follow Gabriel's journey on his Youtube channel Gabriel Studios and on Instagram @gabriel_studios1.
So go check his work out!
All of these amazing creators and restorers are a perfect example of the passion that
runs in this great animatronics community.
So please, go check out their channels and support them so you can learn more about what
they do!
And also don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more animatronics and theme park
stories!