Billy Bob's Wonderland

Current logo featuring Billy Bob Brockali.

Billy Bob's Wonderland is an FEC restaurant and arcade operating in Barboursville, West Virginia. It is one of two remaining public exhibitions of The Rock-afire Explosion. The other being Smitty's Super Service Station.

As of June 2023 Billy Bob's Wonderland is under the control of Fun City Arcade. Rex Jr. has still been spotted on the premises. The exact details of their arrangement are unclear.

History

Billy Bob's Wonderland dates back to 1989, with its first location being in East Barboursville. A former Showbiz Pizza Place location, BBWL was rebranded and redecorated to avoid any corporate interference from Showbiz Pizza Time Inc. The rebranding allowed BBWL to avoid the upcoming and possibly imminent Concept Unification conversion. BBWL also maintained locations in Ashland, KY, and South Charleston, WV.

The current location, where Ashland and E. Barboursville relocated to, opened in 2003 and is much larger in size than the previous locations. Both shows from the old locations were brought to the current location, but only the Ashland, KY show was used on stage.

According to Rex Donahue Jr., the South Charleston location closed in the late 1990s.

Restoration Attempts

Current Billy Bob's front.

At some point, Aaron Fechter attempted to restore the show, but was involved in a dispute with the owner. 2014-2015 the show was (somewhat) restored by David Ferguson of DSF Robots and Goofy Gas Fillin' Station fame. Most of the broken movements were repaired, the TiVo show controller was replaced with David's signature BlueBox, and the cosmetics were also replaced. Though the show did get fixed, most of the parts and cosmetics were aftermarket and did not last very long (this was mainly caused by air pressure being too high, which caused the animatronics' masks to melt and some movements to break).

In January 2019, the show was in very poor condition. The characters’ masks were melting, Mitzi Mozzarella had a broken arm, Beach Bear wore a walkaround head, and Looney Bird didn’t function at all. The show underwent a mechanical and cosmetical restoration by Braylon Giles and Anthony Ybarra until they were fired in late 2019. Since their firing, the condition/quality of the RAE in the location began going downhill.

In late 2020, the center stage was completely shut down to give Rolfe DeWolfe, Billy Bob, and Looney Bird a larger amount of air pressure.

In late 2021, Braylon Giles came back to Billy Bob's to attempt, and eventually succeed, at fully restoring the show, both mechanically and cosmetically. The masks were again however, unofficial. Billy Bob and Looney Bird were reverted to the normal positions on stage, and Center Stage and Stage Left finally got grass added.

In February 2022, restoration was completed.

In December 2022, Braylon Giles was fired again due to a falling out with Rex. Other technicians have taken up repairs and maintenance with continued improvements being made.

In January 2023 Braylon Giles returned and attempted to fix Fatz's organ and Dook's mask and clean the organ, however the organ has since been cleaned by Rex using a cleaner known as Spic N Span. He then started to replace Mitzi's wig, he eventually succeeded later on.

As of July 2023 the restaurant is under the control of Fun City Arcade. Improvements are promised, the prize wall is full, and construction has started on the interior for new party rooms. (Already finished at the one next to cracker Barrel location.) The band remains in excellent condition with maintenance performed regularly.

In late 2023, Fechter and new owner Mark met to discuss merchandising plans, reopening the door to working with CEI.

Additional Information

Billy Bob’s Wonderland also has three spare Rock-afire shows in a trailer behind the restaurant, with those animatronics being used for spare parts. These include the East Barboursville, West Virginia Billy Bob's Wonderland show (The first BBWL location), the Ashland, Kentucky Billy Bob's Wonderland show (The second BBWL location), and a Parkersburg, West Virginia location (A former CEC 3-Stage that closed in 1998). Currently, West Barboursville's (the current BBWL location) show uses a combination of East Barboursville's and Ashland's shows, with Parkersburg being used for extra parts.

The restaurant also has an outdoor amusement area with mini-golf and (formerly) go-karts.

Billy Con 3.

Some merchandise sold by BBWL refers to the business as “Billy Bob’s Super Wonderland", an earlier name for the Barboursville location.

BBWL has hosted three “Billy Cons.”

Gallery

Billy Bob's Wonderland logo.

Mitzi's leaking valves

Exterior of Billy Bob's Wonderland original East Barboursville, WV (2000/02)

Exterior of Cracker Barrel Dr. Location (November 2022)

Original ShowBiz Pizza Place signage

Billy Bob's Adventure Golf & Go-Karts

Restored Dook by Braylon

Restored Fatz from Braylon

Rolfe and Earl's stage (November 2022)

Center stage (November 2022)

Billy Bob and Looney Bird's stage (November 2022)

Spare Beach Bear and Sun animatronics (November 2022)

Sun animatronic (November 2022)

Moon animatronic (November 2022)

Videos

Billybob's Wonderland Valves Condition

The Rockafire Explosion at Billy Bobs Wonderland

Billy Bob's Wonderland - Barboursville, WV - 09 05 16