Ok, so after a lot of very helpful discussions with some great folks at Vee productions, and some research, I have a lot of additional info to share!
This is an original California Oscar, and he's 20 years old.
The first 4 Oscars, for the initial stores opened in 1990 (South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa; Glendale Galleria, Glendale; Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto; and Stonestown Galleria, San Francisco) were the originals, and differ from the later, more common ones, that were produced later. The notable differences are the crate has a diagonal cross-plank, only 1 hand is protruding from the can, it's motion-sensor controlled, and there's no audio. These early ones were likely not created by Vee productions, but were used as their prototype for the large expansion of the stores. My guess is that whatever company produced the originals didn't have the ability to build 60 more in a short timeline, or that it would've been too expensive to do so. Once the prototype was given to Vee, they quickly built 60 Oscars and shipped them off to the customer. I'm including a great picture of lots of the later-generation Oscars sitting in the Vee warehouse! (kindly shared by the helpful folks at Vee Corp)
The large character cutouts of Big Bird, Bert & Ernie, and the others, are also from the store, and were part of the same display. I found some random pictures on the net of Oscar in different store settings (mostly the newer ones) and one picture you can see Bert & Ernie in the background, and what appears to be an early Oscar (single hand). Enjoy!