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"Hey kids, let's strike up the band!"Freddy Fazbear is a six-foot tall singing brown bear who is the frontman in his make-believe-band. Debuted in early 1985, this iteration of the character is the most beloved as it was part of his prime era. When you say Freddy Fazbear, this guy is what comes to the average joe's mind. Fans refer to him as Classic Freddy. The shift from a yellow bear to a brown one was a very intentional detail to differentiate the characters following the ████████████. For the rest of his color palette, his top hat and bow tie went from a dark fuchsia satin to black velvet and his eyes went from green to blue. His name, previously Fredbear, was given a full name with an alliteration twist. Fans speculate Faz takes inspiration from The Muppet's Fozzie Bear, another popular brown bear at the time. His personality was buffed from the original FredBear character, softening his previous curt and dated charisma and shaping him into a much more balanced character. He's well mannered, fun-loving, and friendly while keeping fragments his original snarky, high-handed and sometimes rash demeanor. He kept his booming and growly voice, which was an important part to maintain of his grizzly character. These changes were welcome as it eased marketability and leery parent's concerns about the influence the bear would have on their children. Speaking of which, the changes in his design translated into his animatronic form also left patrons pleased. While still incredibly uncanny, he was much less of an intimidating eyesore as his predecessor. He was also much more advanced featuring wrist, ear and waist movements as well as a free-roam mode which was piloted by an employee behind the scenes. This was an improvement upon the past spring-lock technology used to create the illusion of living thinking characters. At the time, the technology could rival that of Disney's for a quarter of the price! The brand heavily expanded and marketed upon this iteration from the initial 1980's designs and aesthetics, solidifying Freddy Fazbear as a staple character in the hearts of many. However in 1988, Freddy's struggled to stand for itself following the incident. Maintenance on Freddy's came to a hault, leaving the building and animatronic to slowly dilapidate. It wasn't until 1993 Freddy's would file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 1995, Freddy's began to see another rebrand emerge. |
