I would love a full and legal definition of the type of permission, as expressed in a contract signed if it exists, needed to program and publish videos of non-Aaron programming.
I'm not sure if there was ever any contract people doing their own programming to sign, but I do know he expected them to hand over the work they did for nothing and he expected to profit off of it through YouTube and by selling it to his commercial clients.
People were glad to share their Program Blue files with one another, but not so happy to have him make money off them.
He also wanted David Ferguson to give him the rights to the bluebox and software with no compensation either. Oh yeah, David was going to get to have his stuff sold by Aaron. That was it.
Looking at Kerry and Aaron - Behind the Scenes, which would no doubt be Premium Content now (despite how simple and informative regarding current projects it actually is compared to the “dirty work” he describes doing) I found something interesting.
The original price point of Aaron’s Animatronic Experimenter’s Kit he said was “around $129.99”. The same kit, albeit with a slightly better speaker system now retails for about an 800% markup.
Looking at Kerry and Aaron - Behind the Scenes, which would no doubt be Premium Content now (despite how simple and informative regarding current projects it actually is compared to the “dirty work” he describes doing) I found something interesting.
The original price point of Aaron’s Animatronic Experimenter’s Kit he said was “around $129.99”. The same kit, albeit with a slightly better speaker system now retails for about an 800% markup.
Of all the crappy things he sells and overcharges for, this thing pisses me off the most. There's more advertising copy about it on his main web page (which looks like absolute shit on mobile, natch). He talks about selling this to kids and educational institutions as a learning tool.
In terms of technology this is stone age level bullshit. The types of pneumatic valves used in animatronics are controlled by electrical current. They have two states, open when the current is applied and closed when it's off. Smaller or mobile animatronics use servos. All that matters is whether there's power or not.
Tone generators were necessary when the storage medium was analog and the controller had to listen on specific places on the physical tape to know when to send the current to each individual valve, but those days are long gone. No one needs to do that anymore. The audio and signals are digital now. All of that shit is now done in software with files that contain the audio and signals. All you need is the electronics part to communicate with the computer and send the current.
He's selling this antiquated piece of crap kit that is built on an outdated way of doing things that no longer applies. And he's selling it as an educational tool to help people learn animatronics for a thousand fucking dollars.
“I’ll help you weave your dreams - and when they come close to overtaking me in popularity, I’ll try and sue you.”
There may be a value in knowing that at one time analog ruled the world, but an education setting especially the STEAM initiatives he mentions are moving toward the digital future. When he markets himself he likes to make it a point his shows are programmed on an Apple IIe! One again interesting, but as a general marketing strategy not so much.
The only points I won’t take away from Aaron individually is the mobile webpage issue - I know at one time he had a fan/friend helping him with this new site and I do understand the complications involved for scratch designing, but this is WordPress, howwver
“There may be a value in knowing that at one time analog ruled the world, but an education setting especially the STEAM initiatives he mentions are moving toward the digital future. When he markets himself he likes to make it a point his shows are programmed on an Apple IIe! One again interesting, but as a general marketing strategy not so much.
I agree that it would be ok as a tool for a historical course teaching where animatronics came from, but as a tool that will give students skills that will carry them into a future career in animatronics... this ain't it and that's how he's marketing it.
I haven't seen any of the courses, but if they're anything like the original instructional videos on how to set up the kit they must be excruciating. The instructions used to be up on YouTube but I think he took them down. They were about six times longer then they had to be because he rambles so much. There were three or four videos that were 20+ minutes each because he goes down rabbit holes explaining where he got various parts in the kit back in the 70s and other details no one cares about. Then as his example skit he made it tell an anti-Obama joke. Why introduce something that's just going to polarize and offend people for no reason?
And is it really a good idea to be learning animatronics design and engineering from someone who hasn't designed a new one since the 90s at the latest? Even the Mijjins were originally created by someone else. I bet Aaron has never even opened a CAD program.
Story time again. In one of his deleted videos Aaron says he's like Deadpool. So let me tell you about his connection with Deadpool.
Back in 2018 some advertising firm was promoting the movie Deadpool 2 for Fox at the San Diego Comic-con and hired Aaron to make a booth display with Deadpool and some of the RAE characters. Thus people attending SDCC were entertained by Deadpool's Super Duper Dance Party.
Aaron must have been under an NDA because it came as a total surprise to the community. The vibe around the booth was completely positive during the convention. The attendees thought it was cool. The Rockafire fans loved it and wished they were there to see it. Even his critics admitted it was pretty awesome that the characters were out in public getting attention. All Aaron had to do to not fuck it up was sit back and bask in the glory. But then he couldn't make it all about him so he had to shit all over it.
After the convention ended he posted this to Facebook a couple days later...
Yes, he got himself tossed out of the convention center arguing with the people who paid him to be there. The next day we got this…
As for the wrapping and costumes, I'm sure they were still pissed at him from the day before. And Jesus Christ, how long does it take to cut off the shrink wrap, remove the costumes and apply some more? I'm sure he spent more time arguing with them than it would have taken just to do what they wanted and be done with it.
And about them not letting him pick up the characters, they couldn't have let him get the animatronics after the convention even if they had wanted to. The convention center has a contract with the local Teamsters union to load the exhibits and truck them to a warehouse off site where vendors can break down and load. It's so they can clear the site as quickly as possible and make it ready for the next event. Only union trucks can pick up from the site. Even Titus pointed this out.
And finally, it just wouldn't be Aaron if he didn't end it all with a lawsuit threat.
This is why people don't want to hire or work with him unless they specifically want the Rockafire and why there will never be a RAE comeback beyond an occasional one-and-done as long as he's in the picture. Can you imagine going on an extended business venture with him? It would be like climbing into a sleeping bag with a live rattlesnake. What potential business partner is going to look at those posts and go, "Now there's someone we want to bring on board!"
There was no reason anyone had to know about this. All he did was make himself look bad and hurt his chances for future business. If he had kept his mouth shut and not said anything no one would have known about this besides him, his client and a few people working at the convention center. But then he couldn't salvage his bruised ego with a giant drama pity party.
Although I don’t have the specific comments made by him, he was also quite upset over the fact that the press described the Deadpool booth as featuring “animatronics made by the Jim Henson Creature Shop and some characters supplied by an engineer from Orlando” or something along those lines.
I will add the links when I find them, but his ego sure was tainted when the news didn’t mention “godfather Aaron” with “1000 times the accomplishments” of the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
Yeah, let that set in. That’s the company most of Hollywood turns to when they need animatronics. Not the crazy from Florida.
I believe the famous musician he's referring to is Shooter Jennings. It appears Jennings used to be a fan of Aaron's.
There are videos of the two interacting and talking about the band. This is the meet up Aaron is talking about in the facebook post.
I also recall that Jennings promised a RAE themed album as homage to childhood nostalgia going to Showbiz. He even wanted to go on tour with the RAE as his backup band. It seems like that album concept has since fallen through. I wonder why? Perhaps Jennings got cold feet when Aaron decided to charge him an extraordinary amount of money for licencing the characters.
@Pizza Planet Alien , Do you mind explaining the Billy Bob's Wonderland/Rex Donahue vs Aaron drama in detail? All I know is that the two got in an argument when Aaron went to go look at the robots they had (which had not held up well).
I feel like Aaron has this obsession with having RAE-anything being exclusive to him (selling reproduction bot parts and merch for example.) Do you guys think he's butthurt at the existence of BBW because its a remnant of the bots he has no control over? Isn't it like one of the few shows that isn't privately owned at this point?
By the way, you know that parts/repair manual he sells photocopies of on ebay for like 300 dollars? Here's a searchable PDF of it. Don't get jew'd by him yall.
Do you guys think he's butthurt at the existence of BBW because its a remnant of the bots he has no control over? Isn't it like one of the few shows that isn't privately owned at this point?
I believe BBWL has the only public show at the moment. It's on it's last legs. The Owners have refused to pay for a half decent technician for the last 25 years. Only other RAE I heard of to date was Scandia Golf in Canada, but there's been no new footage of that show for years.
Update - Mr Fechter has left me an accidental voice mail where he recorded himself talking to police. I will post that as soon as I can transfer it somehow as it was on a home phone. His phone number 407 425 1001 is still active.
- dead link as it was struck for showing his number showing. Re-upload has been done so thanks for sharing the original here.
"...Just a little bit off, they didn't write any letters about how much they (dis)respected me... Just found out that i'm doing business with the guy and wanted to warn me that a person like me shouldn't be doing business with a person like him."
"...Way to go nice video...."
"the other three do things like... [?] One of the guys [?] and the other two just make hateful videos."
"...if he doesn't come by that proves it again, it proves that he's just trying to... [?] so we ain't.... [?]"
"All of the suspicions makes me think that he's part of a.... [?]... live my life in fear.. "
"One of the videos was a real psychedellic video that was intended to make me feel like i'm losing my mind. It would have spooky echo on it and weird images that said 'sometimes we're paranoid, and sometimes we're mentally ill' and go into this long thing where it would give you fear that you don't even know what you're thinking. They were attacking me from a psychological level and a fear level, and i can't really be attacked on that level even though I thought I can."
"Well, I believe that I've got enough to [?] assassination of character now. [?] the screenshots I've got [?] public [?] may not fall under a constitutable crime because [?]" [end]
Hey Kiwis, I've been watching this thread for the past couple of months and today I've finally decided to join in on the lols on this guy.
I'll tell you a bit on how I know this guy,
I used to look up to this man and love him like he was my best friend. I was once one of his die hard supporters who would leave nice comments on his posts and defended him when a "hater" showed up. This year I came to face the harsh reality of who Fechter really is, starting with a comment he made about someone (who was once a beloved fan of his) on his private social media. I did something that made Fechter delete me from his page and in response I wasted several months trying to repair the friendship I thought I still had with Fechter. Believing I was choosing the good side. I tried to express to Fechter how much his friendship meant to me; however the way I worded what I said only lead to some misunderstanding and a big fucking mess in general. I inevitably had my heart shattered when Fechter told me to basically just go the fuck away. What a fool I was to believe in Fechter. Anyways, I recently found a group of people who have been blacklisted as I was and now I'm happy hanging out with them instead of mean old Fechter. I want nothing more than to see this man get exposed for the stuck up narcissist he really is. I hope all his fans and supporters come to learn the devastating truth about Fechter as I did.
I don't have much as a lot has already been spoken here but I do have some dirt on this guy I'd love to share. One subject I hope to cover here is Fechter's safespaces. That's right, this guy has safespaces from his haters Lmao!
I want to take a moment to appreciate how thankful I am for this thread. I've been loling at some of the stuff that's been shared and spoken about here. For many months Fechter has censored me from speaking my mind and abusing his admin controls on me whenever I dared to speak up in one of his safespaces. As of now I've been blocked and permanently removed from his safespaces (fb group, yt channel). But that doesn't stop me. With this thread here I can finally share what I've been wanting to say for quite some time now.
Hey Kiwis, I've been watching this thread for the past couple of months and today I've finally decided to join in on the lols on this guy.
I'll tell you a bit on how I know this guy,
I used to look up to this man and love him like he was my best friend. I was once one of his die hard supporters who would leave nice comments on his posts and defended him when a "hater" showed up. This year I came to face the harsh reality of who Fechter really is, starting with a comment he made about someone (who was once a beloved fan of his) on his private social media. I did something that made Fechter delete me from his page and in response I wasted several months trying to repair the friendship I thought I still had with Fechter. Believing I was choosing the good side. I tried to express to Fechter how much his friendship meant to me; however the way I worded what I said only lead to some misunderstanding and a big fucking mess in general. I inevitably had my heart shattered when Fechter told me to basically just go the fuck away. What a fool I was to believe in Fechter. Anyways, I recently found a group of people who have been blacklisted as I was and now I'm happy hanging out with them instead of mean old Fechter. I want nothing more than to see this man get exposed for the stuck up narcissist he really is. I hope all his fans and supporters come to learn the devastating truth about Fechter as I did.
I don't have much as a lot has already been spoken here but I do have some dirt on this guy I'd love to share. One subject I hope to cover here is Fechter's safespaces. That's right, this guy has safespaces from his haters Lmao!
Hey Kiwis, I've been watching this thread for the past couple of months and today I've finally decided to join in on the lols on this guy.
I'll tell you a bit on how I know this guy,
I used to look up to this man and love him like he was my best friend. I was once one of his die hard supporters who would leave nice comments on his posts and defended him when a "hater" showed up. This year I came to face the harsh reality of who Fechter really is, starting with a comment he made about someone (who was once a beloved fan of his) on his private social media. I did something that made Fechter delete me from his page and in response I wasted several months trying to repair the friendship I thought I still had with Fechter. Believing I was choosing the good side. I tried to express to Fechter how much his friendship meant to me; however the way I worded what I said only lead to some misunderstanding and a big fucking mess in general. I inevitably had my heart shattered when Fechter told me to basically just go the fuck away. What a fool I was to believe in Fechter. Anyways, I recently found a group of people who have been blacklisted as I was and now I'm happy hanging out with them instead of mean old Fechter. I want nothing more than to see this man get exposed for the stuck up narcissist he really is. I hope all his fans and supporters come to learn the devastating truth about Fechter as I did.
I don't have much as a lot has already been spoken here but I do have some dirt on this guy I'd love to share. One subject I hope to cover here is Fechter's safespaces. That's right, this guy has safespaces from his haters Lmao!
Of all the crappy things he sells and overcharges for, this thing pisses me off the most. There's more advertising copy about it on his main web page (which looks like absolute shit on mobile, natch). He talks about selling this to kids and educational institutions as a learning tool.
In terms of technology this is stone age level bullshit. The types of pneumatic valves used in animatronics are controlled by electrical current. They have two states, open when the current is applied and closed when it's off. Smaller or mobile animatronics use servos. All that matters is whether there's power or not.
Tone generators were necessary when the storage medium was analog and the controller had to listen on specific places on the physical tape to know when to send the current to each individual valve, but those days are long gone. No one needs to do that anymore. The audio and signals are digital now. All of that shit is now done in software with files that contain the audio and signals. All you need is the electronics part to communicate with the computer and send the current.
He's selling this antiquated piece of crap kit that is built on an outdated way of doing things that no longer applies. And he's selling it as an educational tool to help people learn animatronics for a thousand fucking dollars.
I remember this shit from like almost a decade and a half ago from YouTube. He's still selling this outdated nightmare? That's utterly pathetic.
Also looking at that Deadpool video, why does the animatronic for him look so much stiffer to the point of being broken down than the Fats and Billy Bob accompanying him?
I am not familiar with any of the employees aside from the voice actors so as far as I know, no. However, there is one former employee of Fechter's that I knew of who is part of the mafia. The group I pay visits to and hang out with. You can find him Instagram @dsfrobots
There is a facebook group (which is currently run by Fechter) that I think you'll be interested in. It has several of the voice actors there and former showbiz pizza employees. I will go into detail about this group in a day or two.
I remember this shit from like almost a decade and a half ago from YouTube. He's still selling this outdated nightmare? That's utterly pathetic.
Also looking at that Deadpool video, why does the animatronic for him look so much stiffer to the point of being broken down than the Fats and Billy Bob accompanying him?
Given the time he probably had to refigure equipment for a Dead Pool character for a convention promo, and how he prioritizes things at his own pace and whims, I’d guess he couldn’t pull off a new character all by himself in a few months.
There’s a chance the client wanted a really stiff and hackney moving version of Dead Pool for exaggerated effect, but I think the former is far more likely.
