Post by late2theparty on Oct 10, 2016 6:06:36 GMT -7
While bottom feeding can burn you, sometimes there's something so cheap that its worth taking a chance. I ran across an internet sale of a WoW Snoopy that did not look promising. As the listing said "No on-off switch, does not play, battery box door is broken.appearance is good but needs a cleaning." While my immediate reaction to the lack of a switch was that this guy had been salvaged for parts, at a price under $ 10 I figured it was worth a gamble. If nothing else I might find some useable servos. If totally stripped of parts, I would not be out a very much financially.
On receipt, I opened him up. The switch was in place, but the wheel had come loose and fallen into the box. The screw was sitting on the speaker magnet. The wheel was stripped but I did a temporary fix for testing. The broken battery door had one of the latches cracked off. Put the switch back in, put batteries in and tried that battered door. Tape in, turned on...and he played. No animatronics, but a little massage to the upper and lower snout and the mouth was working fine. The eyes (and ears?) still dead. As this one has eyes that operate on the same principle as WoW Mickey Mouse, massage would have no impact. Plus the same mechanisms work his ears. The construction of his head mechanisms are likely the most difficult to disassemble and repair of all the WoW cast. I removed his fur yesterday just to take a look at what I was getting into, but found a cutout in the plastic box that houses the servos and mechanisms that permitted getting at the rubber wheel on the eye servo with a rod to attempt to get it moving. This worked and he was then fully functional.
While there are a few details that still need to be tended - permanent repair of the on-off wheel and a new battery box door - he is working well and does not look too bad after cleanup.
On receipt, I opened him up. The switch was in place, but the wheel had come loose and fallen into the box. The screw was sitting on the speaker magnet. The wheel was stripped but I did a temporary fix for testing. The broken battery door had one of the latches cracked off. Put the switch back in, put batteries in and tried that battered door. Tape in, turned on...and he played. No animatronics, but a little massage to the upper and lower snout and the mouth was working fine. The eyes (and ears?) still dead. As this one has eyes that operate on the same principle as WoW Mickey Mouse, massage would have no impact. Plus the same mechanisms work his ears. The construction of his head mechanisms are likely the most difficult to disassemble and repair of all the WoW cast. I removed his fur yesterday just to take a look at what I was getting into, but found a cutout in the plastic box that houses the servos and mechanisms that permitted getting at the rubber wheel on the eye servo with a rod to attempt to get it moving. This worked and he was then fully functional.
While there are a few details that still need to be tended - permanent repair of the on-off wheel and a new battery box door - he is working well and does not look too bad after cleanup.