Mechanimation by Fuse SFX

Mechanimation is a "dual-control" animatronic technology for mascot costumes introduced in 1993 by French engineers Jean-René Auvray and Yannick Rambin, formerly of CEI Europe (the European branch of 's Creative Engineering). The technology was purchased by Fuse Special Effects in 1995 upon their founding, and Auvray and Rambin took up positions within Fuse SFX.

The dual-control system for Mechanimation allows the animatronic heads of the costumes to be controlled either by an R/C transmitter or using codes generated by and received from an offstage computer.

History
In 1982, when French restaurateur Zacharie Abel Bouhier licensed the brand to open locations in  and the, Aaron Fechter sent employee Nick Gevorgyan to  to open CEI Europe. Nick was the only American employee working at the unit, the other employees hailed from France,, , , and the. CEI Europe manufactured bands for those European ShowBiz locations and for other foreign locations.

While working at CEI Europe, engineers Jean-René Auvray and Yannick Rambin were prepping a Rock-afire band for shipping to, when fellow engineer Mahiro Ogiwara (later of ) informed them of a missing Billy Bob mascot suit that was destined for shipping along with the band to Cardiff. After locating it, Auvray and Rambin had the idea of "sophisticated, animatronic mascot costumes".

In 1990, after CEI Europe was closed, Auvray and Rambin formed Mechanimation S.A. in after developing the technology on the weekends for several years. In 1993, Mechanimation was introduced by Auvray and Rambin at in. The demonstration was a success and close to 150 Mechanimation suits, styled after various different licensed characters, were ordered by multiple companies including and.

In 1995, the recently-formed Fuse Special Effects purchased Mechanimation S.A. and it became the Paris studio of Fuse.