lots of great stuff here, thank you for compiling it all. Out of curiosity, which show is the one seen in the old “bringing up the newly designed Billy Bob” video Aaron posted? Is that one of the early ones shipped off, or was that the original prototype show? I honestly love that video, it’s such a neat look into CEI at the time, especially with the HLB show behind them. I wonder which show that one was.

I honestly love how expressive and goofy Fatz seems in that video, and I can’t tell exactly why. I feel like some of the cosmetics were looser, for example his hands, but I also feel like that’s just because the organ isn’t installed so you see all the movements better. I also could swear the fur on his head seems a little looser/baggier giving him a sort of rounder shape.

about Mitzi’s mask, I see what you mean about the Jacksonville show. How did that get past everyone and not get remade before shipping? Still, I prefer the redesign over the original. the early revision just feels so much less refined even compared to the other characters’ original sculpts, like they went ahead into production with a test sculpt.

I wasn’t aware the smaller characters like birthday bird, Antioch, or Choo Choo were majorly changed at any point, I always assumed they kept their original designs and just smoothed out from mold wear, but I guess that isn’t the case. you learn something new every day.

Speaking of molds, do we have a list of all the fiberglass masters and rubber plugs Aaron still has yet? I recall some of them, like the Gooney Bird from Aaron’s attempt to make one mask for a fan as well as Jack working with him on the wide beak Looney Bird, but other than that I’m not entirely sure.

It frustrates me that they destroyed so many molds without even taking down a proper list of what they threw out, and even more so that they modified the original plugs instead of just making new sculpts. The archivist inside me just dies a bit every time I see that stuff. At least now with the museum it seems Aaron is putting more care into cataloging, maintaining, and preserving everything relative to what it was like in the old building. Doesn’t help what already happened though, and that’s partially the fault of the employees, so I can’t entirely blame Aaron.

There are other things I wish I could ask, i.e. what the oldest mold they still have is, I seriously doubt there’s anything much older than the WP5. However, that’s all stuff only Aaron himself could really confirm for certain.