Here we will have a few videos showing the inside of a few toys and perhaps some of the basic repairs that one could do.
Lets look at the inside of a Roboquad…that crab looking robot toy from Wowwee.
Usually the crab moving legs get some problem in the end points where the motor and the gears are….gears can split and you can hear the motor whirring but it can’t turn the gear.
You pretty well have to take the whole thing apart for an hour to get to the end of each leg to get out the motor and gear which you can buy the whole replacement or just the gear or just the motor. (it is only a toy worth maybe $50 used so you may only repair yours if you have great sentimental value…or just buy another one that is said to be working fine)
The Robosapien V2 had some terrible problem with the wiring and you will find that used ones most likely have crispy wiring that either is stopping the unit to work at all…or maybe its actually starting to smell like burning rubber which mine did.
So..the ideal solution is to replace each and every wire in the Robosapien. Several people on the internet have great facebook channels and do tremendous repair jobs on these things for people for under $100.
But remember its not just the wiring…these toys are so heavy that after several years of use and abuse the gears at the hips crack.
The white toys get yellowed…and perhaps you could bring the white color back with special hair treatment and ultraviolet light but I don’t have personal experience doing it…just buy the bronze colore Robosapien V2 which looks much better than the white ones.
Now if you ship your unit out to be repaired…remember it is old and the plastic is brittle and breakable to start with….so…..its up to you if you want to even bother.
Fixing the furby toy.
The following 1997 sample video will soon be replaced with a new video explaining how to fix toys like the furby.
Everybody seems to love the Furby again…and it was just made fun of in the cartoon movie Mitchells and the Machine (where there is a 30 foot tall Furby that joins in the robot attack of the world).
There are 3 main generations of the Furby with the original 1998 one with the moving eyeballs and the 2004 with the moving eyeballs and then the newer style in 2012 with the digital eyes.
The moving eyeball type is the more realistic looking or more of an animatronic or robotic toy to work on.
Lets talk about the first generation with fewer sensors and less talking but similar pull off fur/skin.
The problems with the older ones can be varied.
Start at the beginning. If you turn it upside down and it doesn’t start moving or making a sound then check the batteries.
Most likely the batteries are very coroded so take them out and with some sandpaper try to scrape out any rust and acid build up and toss that out.
If it starts working then that is very good news….lips move eyes blink and it shakes and reacts to hand claps.
If the eyes are not moving…then with your fingers gently try to move the eye lids up and down and the beak open and closed because sometimes these parts just get stuck with dirt from sitting unused for years.
If these parts work then perfect…if not….then you may be in for surgery.
But…if there is no sound then the speaker is disconnected or broken or perhaps just needs to be tapped a little.
Now the worse case is that you still don’t have sound and you have to remove the skin and take it apart.
Its not that bad to take it apart and you will probably get it back together again properly….so film yourself taking it apart.
The first step is to cut the plastic 10 inch cable tie at the bottom of the furby and start to roll the fur/skin up towards the face.
The speaker is in the front belly but to get to it you almost have to pull two halves of the furby apart and to do that you almost have to have the skin right off.
You may see the speaker wire broken….some say you could put a small metal ball bearing on the speaker and that might make it start working again.
Or you could buy a speaker off ebay to replace it or find some similar size speaker in another old toy.
Now usually when you turn the Furby upside down it will wake up and start moving and talking.
But if it doesn’t that could mean that the tilt sensor…a tiny metal ball in a tiny cylinder is stuck or needs to be cleaned.
You could do that and maybe it will work great.
There could be a broken wire or part somewhere on the doll…or worse case scenario that it was dropped hard and it actually broke some part. You could take out the motor and give it the power and see if it still moves.
There is more we will talk about later.