1990 - Bobbleheads
Cute bobbleheads, a former security guard who worked at Flippy’s during its final weeks gave these to me. She says she stole them on the day of its closure.
Graciously, she also gave me some info about her last week. Over that week, more and more things were being taken out of the building by Roberts and a few other employees, until her last day, apparently, at around 5AM, Reed Roberts came in by himself, stayed in his office for about an hour, headed to the "backroom" (?) wheeled out a large crate along with some cardboard boxes, and never came back into work. Other employees who came into work that morning, my father included, were confused to find the building practically empty, and Roberts nowhere in sight.
I regret not asking about the backroom she mentioned. To my knowledge, there were three different rooms that could be considered a "backroom". There was the backstage, where animatronic parts were stored, connected to that was a small passage that was connected to the stage (it wasn't exactly a storage room, but employees said they used it like one), and there was a storage room located by the restrooms.
A robotics magazine featuring an interview with Reed Roberts, dated May 1990. Morbidly, this interview was only around a month before the incident.
A poster from around 1990. As you can tell, it's quite damaged. My source (the aforementioned security guard) said that this was hanged in the security office.
A poster for Jammy and Blueberry dolls. AWP Inc. bought out New Age Ent. in 1984 for some reason no-one really knows why. Regardless, I hope that I can find one, these dolls seem to be rare and expensive nowadays.
Here's a rare one. Occasionally, when the animatronics had scheduled maintenance, a smaller show was performed so that the restaurant wouldn't have to close for the day. Usually it would be only two on-stage at a time, Flippy and Doggy, Flippy and Swanda, you get the picture.
Now, if you wanna talk about rare, this is the rarest of them all (I'm saying rare too much). According to what my source remembers, there was some sort of project to advertise a new planned toy-line featuring Jammy and Blueberry (see the Jammy and Blueberry plushies entry). As such, two animatronics were created as part of this promotion.
If you ever had your birthday at Flippy's Diner (I know I did), then you'll definitely remember this guy. If not, don't worry, I'll explain. Golden Flippy was a birthday-exclusive animatronic, when you had your birthday party at Flippy's, Goldie would be the one to bring over a nice big birthday cake.