The Miniature Billy Bob was a miniature animatronic prototype designed by Creative Engineering in 1985.
It was intended to be a computerized doll that would read, sing, or teach children new things. It never made it into mass production because it was too delicate and fragile. The DC motors would also "burn out" after just a few days of use. The idea for this product stemmed from the animated "Teddy Ruxpin" doll that was popular at the time. Many variations of "stages" were made for this product to be propped on. The first variation was a ceramic stand that had a wood-like design to it. one was a cylindrical stage with a custom Billy Bob logo designed to light up. Then there was the "Smitty's" stage, There was only one original "Smitty's" stage archetype made and was designed by Creative Engineering, Inc. It had moving curtains and was utilized for promotional photographs. There were also promotional pamphlets printed to show off the Miniature Billy Bob at a New York Toy Show. the ad folds out, and has a packet with drawings and information. One of these drawings shows a young boy listening to the Billy Bob telling a story.
How It Works[]
The Miniature Billy Bob runs off DC motors and small switches for the length of movement created. Logan Carreiro's Billy Bob is controlled via an Arduino board from Amazon, while, Smitty's Billy Bob had a custom show system made for it from DSF Robots, a company responsible for making hardware for controlling animatronics. This custom board will soon be available to the public once DSF releases it on their website. Each movement has a specific wire bank, typically with 3 pin holes for ground and power with the exception of the mouth movement having four pin holes for open and close. The animatronic has every movement the full sized pneumatic Billy Bob has in it, just without compressed air and pneumatic cylinders. As this is a miniature replica, Billy Bob has a small latex mask to copy the original. The miniature Billy Bob's Back-side has a velcro opening showing its body shell and two of the DC motors.
Production[]
As mentioned earlier, these animatronics were never mass produced but there were still a handful built but not sold, due to these motor issues. While no exact number is known, some claim to have seen "tons" of Billy Bobs in the Creative Engineering warehouse during tours with Aaron Fechter. Creative Engineering is still selling them on Ebay occasionally. As of 2024 there are roughly 10 people to have been confirmed to own one of these Billy Bobs.
Cosmetics[]
The cosmetic overalls on this animatronic are a thin fabric, but the fur is nearly identical to that of the full sized Billy Bob, but on a smaller scale.
The Latex Mask is custom painted by Aaron Fechter and Creative Engineering so no two Billy Bobs were exactly the same.
Logan Carreiro's Miniature Billy Bob.
The Arduino hardware used for controlling the Miniature Billy Bob's Movements.