Thankfully, no humans were harmed by last week’s explosion in Aaron Fechter’s warehouse in Orlando, FL, but it did leave “robots scattered around burning rubble.”
Fechter invented both the Whac-a-Mole machine and the animatronic, coin-operated Rock-A-Fire robot musicians who delighted audiences in Chuck-E-Cheeses around the world. Lately, he had been experimenting with carbohydrillium, a cleaner-burning alternative to propane, which was apparently the culprit in yesterday’s explosion. His warehouse was described by one witness as a “Joker’s lair,” and a video tour posted to YouTube shows it full of computer models, animatronic creatures, and carbohydrillium gear.
The explosion rocked downtown Orlando around 12:30 yesterday afternoon, shaking nearby office buildings and sending workers running outside to see what had happened.
One wall of Fechter’s building collapsed in the blast. Bystanders who arrived to check for casualties found a bizarre scene: No humans were hurt in the explosion, but robotic limbs smoldered amid the wreckage.
“It was weird,” Tim Roth, an office worker who rushed into the building, tells the Orlando Sentinel, which described the interior as the “Joker’s Lair.”
A recent YouTube video gives a glimpse of Fechter’s work in the business, which he called Creative Enterprises. He shows off early computer models, animatronic creatures, and then his latest project: a new fuel called carbohydrillium.
The Guy Who Invented Whac-A-Mole Accidentally Blew Up a Florida Warehouse [Tim Elfrink/Miami New Times]
(via JWZ)