| “ | This is Andrew Blaze, signing off for the last time. I'll see some of you soon. Enjoy the rest of your lives. Andrew out. | ” |
―PioneersProductions' last message | ||
Randy Robert Stair † (September 17, 1992 - June 8, 2017 [aged 24]), better known online as PioneersProductions (also known as EGSProductions or Andrew Blaze), was an American YouTuber, animator, comedian, and vlogger known for creating sketch comedy videos, and the fan-animated spinoff web series Ember's Ghost Squad, inspired by Danny Phantom villain; Ember McLain.
Early life[]
Randy Stair was born on September 17, 1992 in Pennsylvania to parents Robert and Laurianne Stair along with his younger brother, Jeremy Stair. He was described as a very shy and introverted child, always preferring to be alone in school. Randy often liked to watch Nickelodeon shows, drawing the characters he saw on TV. He used to make short home films using a VHS recorder, much to the criticism of Jeremy. While he did find friends in high school, he never had a girlfriend or dated due to disinterest.
When Randy turned 18 years old, he applied for work at McDonald's, but quit after three hours on his first day. Randy's father got him a part-time job working at the Weis supermarket that he managed, employment which Randy resented but kept for income. He had a short period of full-time work at a hospital which he quit due to pressure, returning to the supermarket.
In 2011, Randy graduated from Dallas High School and attended his graduation ceremony. Meeting his parents' expectations, he would attend Luzerne County Community College for three years until 2014, majoring in mass communications. Although, Randy said college and job hunting weren't his main priorities.
Randy mentions wanting to drop out of high school early on and always struggling with grades during his schooling. During his YouTube career, he would experiment with different types of content to reach the same level of popularity as his online peers, this being something he would never achieve. Randy wanted to reach 100,000 subscribers, but instead found his channels consistently stuck between 8000 to 9000 subscribers for multiple years.
YouTube Career[]
(2007-2014)[]
Randy's first ever channel. Not much information is known about this channel, but what is known is that he was a big fan of the Dallas cowboys around this time, as well as making edits of popular media around this time, such as YouTube Poops.[1]
Randy originally made older YouTube channels back in 2007, but they were shut down due to multiple copyright strikes. Eventually he created the PioneersProductions channel on June 9, 2008 at 15 years old. He originally created let's plays and vlogs before eventually making sketch comedy videos. Many of his well known skits involve him and other characters getting involved in strange antics, such as Froggy, Whale, and Mr. Horse Head. The videos were created by and all of the characters were voiced by himself.
PioneersProductions2 was Randy's second channel where he uploaded bloopers, behind the scenes, and commentary videos from his main channel. He would also post occasional vlogs and older videos that were deleted.
PioneersAnthology was mostly the same as the original channel, except it uploaded let's plays and his older videos.
PioneersClassics, also known as Old PioneersProd Vids, is a relatively unknown channel from Randy that possibly archived his older videos from 2007 or even older.
Information about PioneersHorror is currently unknown.
(2015-2017)[]
After becoming obsessed with the character Ember, he would end his PioneersProductions channel to start a new one called Ember's Ghost Squad. Ember's Ghost Squad (EGS) is a spin off series based off of Danny Phantom which involves the EGS going on different adventures recruiting humans in their squad. The series was created entirely by himself except for collaborating with different voice actors such as Wubcake, REIRA (RabuKiru), Mallorie Suzanne, & Laura Faverty. All of the characters were recolors of Ember McLain, with the exception of Ember herself. Randy had taught himself how to animate. On June 8th 2017, he would upload the last episode on the Ember’s Ghost Squad YouTube Channel titled ‘The Westborough High Massacre’ which shows the characters named Andrew Blaze & Rachael Selenski (Rachael Shadows) aiming to destroy Westborough High School after enduring years of bullying, stress, and disgust for the world. The video is unfinished as the animators he was partnering didn't get the requirements done on the deadline and some quit due to the violent nature.
WorthlessToaster was a channel which uploaded high quality music from Ember McLain from Danny Phantom. Unlike Randy's other channels, this one has not been terminated from YouTube.
Andrew Blaze was a channel named after Randy's nickname. It uploaded instrumentals from the album, Make Your Move by the band, Send Request. This would be Randy's last channel, which was created on March 13, 2017. Unlike Randy's other channels, this one has not been terminated from YouTube.
Trivia[]
- Randy held hatred for his birth name, taking the pseudonym "Andrew Blaze". His name may/may not have been directly influenced from the lead singer of Send Request, Andrew Blank.
- The punk band Send Request provided Randy with permission to use several of their songs in his YouTube content.
- Randy's comedy skits were directly inspired by YouTuber Makemebad35, to the point he was accused of being a ripoff. However, Randy and Damien struck up a friendship and collaborated on several videos, leading to Randy seeing a rise in his sub count.
- The rubber toy Froggy was found in a shopping cart at the Weis Supermarket. Randy took the frog home to clean it and make it a character in his skits.
- He was featured in the Ray William Johnson video, "TOO FAT TO DIE!" under =3. Ray examines a video Randy uploaded of an accident in his driveway, and later praises his vlogs.
- Randy became friends with PlasmaMasterDon online, who was later revealed to be a sex offender.
- He claimed that YouTuber FRED favorited and commented on one of his videos.
- Randy disliked people older than 40, reflecting his own fears of living past his teens and 20's.
- His favorite horror films were Halloween and Friday the 13th.
- His favorite video game was Banjo-Kazooie.
- Randy originally planned to shoot the supermarket on May 7, 2019, the initials "EGS" converted into numbers. However, he became impatient and decided to commit the crime on the channel’s anniversary.
- Every Wednesday when his parents went bowling, Randy would use his time alone to either film a video or crossdress in his mother's clothing.
- He created an official Ember's Ghost Squad wiki.
- Randy named his two guns Rachel and Mackenzie, after the characters in Ember's Ghost Squad.
- The name, PioneersProductions came from the football team, the Pittsburgh Pioneers.
- His skits were inspired by early YouTube comedians, such as Smosh, Fred, Nigahiga, Cinemassacre, etc.
- The most viewed video on his channel was "Mr. Horse Head Meets Mr. Wooden Alligator."
- His most viewed video overall is his fan-edited music video for the song "Remember" by Ember McLain from Danny Phantom, reaching millions of views.
- Randy had over eleven Twitter accounts, with two of them being personal and nine being dedicated to his EGS characters who would consistently "reply" to each other.
- Randy created a short series called "You Know What Sucks?!" in which he complained about small inconveniences, directly inspired by the series, You Know What's Bullshit by James Rolfe.
- Randy worked part-time at the Weis supermarket for seven years before his attack.
External Links[]
- Interview with PioneersProductions
- A Killer's Dark Fantasy World | The Disturbing Case of Randy Stair (Andrew Blaze)
- YouTuber Turned Mass Murderer: The Insane Case of Randy Stair
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vas0yZVjRLk
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n6whWqOX6I
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0UHo5drDek
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQL7f9m6Pc
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl2fHQRawv8
- https://archive.org/details/EGSPioneersProductionsDigitalSet
- https://archive.org/details/RandyStair
- https://archive.org/details/pioneeers-productions-2-channel-randy-stair-2009-2013
- https://archive.org/details/AndrewBlazeyoutubeandmore
- https://archive.org/details/TheWestboroughHighMassacreegsGoodbye
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170613012752/http://the-egs.wikia.com/wiki/The_EGS_Wiki
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaton_Township_Weis_Markets_shooting
- https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/stair_autopsy.pdf
- https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/Stair_Please_Read.pdf
- https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/Early_Years_Information.pdf
- https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/stair_journal_1.0.pdf
- https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/stair_journal.pdf