LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Zoltar the Fortune Teller has become very popular over the years.
They are not hard to miss at some businesses and even gaming machines with Zoltar’s voice and face.
To the surprise of many, Zoltar the Fortune Teller is made in Boulder City, Nevada.
FOX5 went to visit Characters Unlimited in Boulder City, where owner and founder Olaf Stanton explained the story behind Zoltar.
“In 2006 we stumbled on the Zoltar trade mark which they had didn’t trademark Zoltar since they made the movie in 1988 and so we got the trademark Zoltar so we made Zoltar,” Stanton said.
He explained to FOX5 how the team starts making the fortune teller character but creating the cast of the head and a separate team does the animation.
However, before Stanton made Zoltar characters, the Wisconsin native made and sold characters out of his car in the 1980s.
“Sometimes we would have to sleep in the van because we didn’t have a room or didn’t make a sale and we literally started with nothing,” Stanton said.
Stanton went from having nothing, to creating a production house in Boulder City filled with different characters.
He has a row of characters from Presidents, to cowboys, to witches.
However, the main attraction is Zoltar, with 4,000 of the fortune teller machines sold worldwide.
“Well I think people have always been fascinated by fortune teller machines, it’s like one of the oldest arcade games there is,” Stanton said.
The now world wide name is backed up with the help of Stanton’s children who help make every order a reality.
Their production house also has a new swag store for anyone to buy Zoltar merchandise from.
If you would like your own Zoltar fortune teller machine you can find more information on their website.
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