Charles Entertainment Cheese, The Pizza Time Theatre Rat

 

I grew up within walking distance to Showbiz Pizza Place in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.  Over the years, I watched as a rat named Chuck E. Cheese slowly invaded the restaurant (starting with redemption prize souvenir banks) before the Showbiz chain was eventually renamed to Chuck E. Cheese.  The Showbiz/Chuck E. Cheese drama is an insanely complicated story that I will not even attempt to explain here (go watch Defunctland's Chuck E. Cheese story on YouTube!).  But as a kid, I had never been to a Chuck E. Cheese branded location (though I remember hearing classmates talk about it).  Chuck E. Cheese started in 1977, and the animated figures used in the pizza restaurants were characters cut off at the waist inside picture frames mounted on the walls.  Chuck E. Cheese (AKA Charles Entertainment Cheese) himself was a tough New Jersey Rat with a cigar.  Even though I grew up with the full bodied, more advanced characters from Showbiz Pizza, I do find the original, clunky 1977 Chuck E. Cheese "Portrait Animatronics" to be charming.  Eventually, Chuck E. Cheese was redesigned and his species was reassigned to a somehow more acceptable mouse alternative.  I miss the sleazy, inappropriate, old rat version of Chuck E. Cheese.  So I made a figure of Charles Entertainment Cheese using Sculpey and paint to celebrate the flea-ridden pest who drank and smoked and served up pizza to video game-obsessed kids for decades.

Batman Beyond The Sea

 

The 1999 sci-fi animated series Batman Beyond featured a teenage Batman named Terry McGinnis (voiced by Will Friedle) in a cyberpunk future.  This new Batman was mentored by the original Batman, Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy).

Though I remember when the series aired on the WB (remember that network?) I never actually saw it until a friend introduced me to it on HBO Max.  It's rather shocking that this complex and striking series was a Saturday Morning show.  The series has a very strong cult following, and is beloved by many fans.

I live in Venice, Florida, and I decided to build Batman Beyond out of shells and shark teeth I found on the beaches here.  Batman's fingers, feet, and arm spikes are made out of shark teeth.  Batman's legs and arms are made out of cerith shells.  The iconic Batman Beyond pointy headpiece is made from boring turret snail shells.