From what I can tell, I'm from Californian company Terry's Carving Co. that shifted from carved statues to specializing in animatronic shooting galleries as a budget option for theming. Terry's Carving Co. doesn't appear in any Daedalus Games' records, but I noticed a few of the names credited with the animatronic's creation overlapped with Daedalus' owners and crew. Since the company is local, they likely knew each other or were recommended by a mutual friend. Which may explain why a video game store got ahold of an animatronic in the first place, it's pretty uncommon even for a project as big as their re-vamped flagship location.

Unfortuantely, I'm still trying to look for photos of the animatronic itself in its place outside the store. In the meantime, I have a handful of other photos I've dug up of bears made by TCC. They tend to re-use the same face mold for almost all of their bears, so I assume I looked pretty similar. I of course would have grey skin instead, with darker fur, and some sort of Hawaiian or collared shirt.

The animatronic itself had six different movements:

• Body rotation
• Left arm up and down (slight rotation)
• Head rotation
• Jaw open and closed
• Eyelids open and closed
• Ears wiggling

My full body rotation was limited by my right arm being attached to the counter. The right arm was just loose structure covered in fabric, with a solid carved paw. The left arm rotated slightly as it raised so I could gesture and bring the chip bag to my mouth. Yum!

Thank you my friends! I now have unlocked another piece of my history. I recived this memory and sketch from a friend of mine found on the www describing how they remembered the animatronic stage and set dressing.

Aster's stage was set in against the wall of the store entrance, the first thing you'd see while walking towards the Daedalus Games storefront. Behind me, I had a 2D painted wood backdrop of fake shelves, lined by carved foam "stones" that were painted purple to match the palette of the magazine and merchandise. I sat behind a wooden fake cashier's counter, complete with register. The front of the counter also had painted-on shalves stocked with fake snacks and games.

There was no barrier between patrons and this counter.

The top of the counter was five feet high, to make it difficult for people to lean over and see the bottom half of the animatronic. Even so, a sheet of fabric was spanned underneath the base of the animatronic to hide the mechanism underneath, but this wouldn't be seen by most people unless they were trying to peer over.

The cash register and fake snacks on the counter were also carved from foam and painted, they were also of course glued down.