Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Clown

billy baloney said:
Wow!, how cool is that?, they had quite the extended family of automatons!, makes you wonder what happened to all that stuff, and why you don't see more of it, I wonder if the stationary clowns were built the same way and didn't have motors and mechanisms or if they just had a mannequin type body?,

That's odd how they advertised in a Harold Gale catalog, I would have never thought that, since they were the competition.
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I think they would have used the same construction method for the stationary ones, absent the motor and mechanism. It does seem strange that you can't find any of the other automatons. I was surprised to see the two bears and the robot. I wonder if they were actually Custom Displays automatons.

I have yet to figure out the relationship between Custom Displays and Harold Gale. Maybe Harold Gale was only a distributor? Or maybe Harold Gale was the company that bought Custom Displays out? Personally, I think the Custom Displays figures look better than the Harold Gale ones!
 
Yeah, it makes sense to omit the motor and mechanism for the stationary models, 1/2" plywood, staples, and molded plastic torsos were inexpensive materials to begin with, a separate mannequin body would have cost more than the stuff they already had.

I would think that all the models in the picture are Custom Displays, who ever bought Malcolm out probably expanded the line, then Harold Gale bought them out?

The robot is pretty cool, I would like to find the Chicken, it reminds me of Family Guy.
 
I came across a picture of one of the Harold Gale Santas that someone took in 1976 with a Polaroid camera. It has the same head as the clown. I believe the Custom Displays clowns were just copied from Harold Gale. If I recall from the Custom Displays article, the company did not start up until 1983. His blog also states "Inventor of Improved Version of Mechanical Advertising Robots." I think the improvement was simply to add the ballast box; none of the Harold Gale robots seem to have one.

From what I can piece together, Harold Gale started his business in 1946 and then sold it to Charles "Bud" Chapman in 1970. The company eventually went out of business in 1988. Not sure who ended up with the Custom Displays spin-off (maybe Marshal Moody?). I believe it may have lasted until the early 1990s though.
 
Do you have a link to that photo (or can you attach it)? I'm curious to see what you're referring to.

I thought from your speaking with him, Mr Malcolm mentioned something about sculpting or creating the head. I wouldn't be surprised if it came from a Santa somehow - the fat cheeks and nose would make more sense there than on a clown.

I'm still on the lookout for more clowns, but haven't seen much. Mainly just those two that keep popping up on eBay (crappy condition one in Canada, and the $2500 'Patches' clown).
 
I can no longer find the exact pic, but it was just like the Santas in the below picture. The heads are identical to the clown.

santas.jpg

Mr. Malcolm said he had a mold created, but he never said how it came about. He did say that he used an old Christmas Santa display as a pattern. I think he literally copied everything. If you go a page or so back, the clowns did appear in the Harold Gale catalog. Unfortunately, I have been unable to verify the date of the catalog pics.
 
Yes, the heads and mechanisms are exactly the same, the only difference I seen was the Gale santa was shorter, the newspaper that they padded the arms with was from 1977, I think malcolm copied/modified these to build his own, he still would have had to get the tooling made to mass produce the heads for his needs.

santa.JPG
 
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That's pretty interesting. Is the entire head/neck shape the same too, or just the face?

Also - how hard are those to find? I've never looked, but would love to find another source for heads (I still want to get a metal mold made, once I ever find a good specimen)
 
The Santas are a lot more common than the clowns, there were several listed on EBay over the holidays, I bought a repop head from PWF and my Santa head was the same as his, it had the shorter neck, I know you want the longer neck version, so just tell whom ever you get to make the mold to make the neck longer.
 
In addition to being more common, the Santas also tend to be in better shape (especially the heads). They were most likely used for just a couple of months and then stored away out of the sun. The beard and hair likely helped with preventing UV exposure as well.
 
Finally found the time to build my DIY vacuum former. The forming area is 16" x 16". I don't know if the shop vac that I have has enough pulling power though. I may have to invest in a bigger one. It's the only thing keeping me from trying out the head buck that I made a few months back.

vacuum former.jpg
 
I decided to give it a try. My shop vac looks like it will probably do the job. Image below is of the first pull - a lot of webbing. I did a couple more, and they were worse! Finding the right parameters will take some practice.

WP_20170107_17_48_17_Pro.jpg WP_20170107_18_29_31_Pro.jpg
 
Cool! The prices are all over the place, it's sort of whatever you're willing to pay and how bad you want one. Looks like the suit is slightly ragged (and missing the hat), but if the head and shoes aren't broken it would be a good specimen.

PS - I got your PM, I'll reply shortly. If you're not taking it, I would make the drive to take it (billy knows the depths of my insanity!)
 
PeeWeeFan said:
Good find! Looks like it might even be a skinny-necked clown.
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Yeah, I'm guessing it is too since it has that facepaint style. I sent a PM to get more details, but my main concern would be the neck and/or head being busted (since his hat is missing, and his head is tilted pretty far forward).
 
Hey Guys, thought I'd try to resurrect this thread with my very recent acquisition,
This is my first actual clown, looks like a later production model, it has the sparkly nose and the long neck, and just a flat base, no box with wheels, the tag reads Tri-State industries ltd. Bronx, NY U.S.A., everything is intact and he runs smooth and quiet:

IMG_1123.JPG IMG_1125.JPG IMG_1124.JPG IMG_1126.JPG IMG_1127.JPG

Is anyone else making any progress on their clown projects?
 
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billy baloney said:
Is anyone else making any progress on their clown projects?
Click to expand...
Cool, welcome to the club! That looks similar to the vintage of two of my clowns. Hopefully you got a good deal and were able to take it home locally. I'm still on the lookout for another specimen of the early-style clowns. Haven't made much progress on any hobbies in the last year .. our house flooded and we've had other life crap come up. Hopefully 2018 is the year of the clown!
 
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