Good Ol' Bears
Five character country bear band restored for Gullivers Kingdom in Matlock Bath - England
Pre-Restoration
This show was built in the 1980s and has spent its entire time outside, this has made its mechanics slowly degrade along with the fur getting badly damaged and faded, as well as the mask being poorly repainted.
Mechanical
Restoration
We stripped the characters of their fur, their mechanics were quite worn out and many of the air cylinders needed re-building/replacing and some characters even had dislocated arms which we had to re-weld broken frames for.
Cosmetics
Many of the characters original fur was worn out, matted, faded and destroyed from age and being outside, so we knew it had to be replaced, with their hands and masks paints being cracked and damaged too, they had to have a complete overhaul, we added additional details to their re-painted masks to make them more unique and professionally finished characters.
Our overhauls made the bears much more friendly and brand new looking compared to how they were before.
Electronic overhaul
The old control system was dead, our client wanted a new control system which allowed custom programming, new led lighting and a start button that guests could use, we were able to add new songs and even revive older songs these bears haven't performed for years using the new system, old tracks where digitized by our team.
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We also revamped the animatronic's air system. the old system was dying out and unreliable, so we wanted to replace the valves with easier to maintain modern ones. Our new pneumatic and valve system breathed much needed new life into these characters and even allowed us to add a few new additions such as a squirrel who swings the bears chandelier around for added movement.
Before:
After:
Halloween Theming
For halloween, we made sure to make these bears get into the spirt of the season, we dressed them up in cobwebs and costumes, and programmed them to play fitting songs for the occassion.
