chatty Kathy and mouse.

[Sickie Ickie]

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/digbugsgirl/secretsanta002.jpg

[Sickie Ickie]

Okay, I'm gonna try to give a how-to without pics to follow along with, so bare with me folks. heh

First, the mouse. The mouse actually slides around the present in a circle, using his cheese as a sled.


To do this, I used a reindeer motor. I extended the arm on the motor with a popsickie...er...Popsicle stick, and attached a magnet to the end of it.

(I took the magnets out of some speakers from former toys I had.)

Mount the back of the motor to a piece if pink insulation foam to make the magnet touch the underside of the cardboard box, and glue/tape everything down, so the arm will move while keeping the motor secure.

I found the best way to do this stuff was to cut down one corner side of the box, so it opens up to work inside it.

The cord to the female is also plugged in to the reindeer motor inside the box. Then both cords comes out the corner point of the box.

Wrap the box.

[Sickie Ickie]

The mouse that rides around on the cheese was a beanie mouse, and to make it light enough, I slit the bottom and took out the bag of plastic pellets.

The cheese is just pink foam shaped, with swiss cheese divots made by using a soldering iron to melt circles in it. Add some yellow acrylic paint, and the shape is done.

A magnet is added to the bottom of the cheese in a round hole and glued in place.

The mouse is glued to the top of the cheese.

Start up the motor, move the cheese on top until you find the magnet and the cheese with mouse will sled.

[Sickie Ickie]

The female doll is what I believe is a Chatty Cathy type. No pull string, instead it had a tape recorder in back. I think the lips and eyes moved with a story or song. Found it in the thrift shop for $1.50.


Tried it out and the tape recorder didn't work, which is fine for what I was using it for.

The back opens with velcro. There you will see a plastic tape recorder. Since the body is actually formed flexible foam, it rips away pretty easily from the hard plastic recorder.

The neck is held to the body by a cable tie. cut that.

Now, you should be able to hold the recorder with doll head in your hands.

turn the "belly" up to you. Theres the front with speaker slots and screw holes with screws holding this thang together.

Using a #1 screwdriver (the small kind of philips head that looks like a tiny plus sign), take out the screws, and open the cover.

Snip the wires to the speaker and you can remove the top cover and set it aside. (You can take out the speaker completely to salvage the magnet if you'd like.)

Now you will see the belts, cams, and gears that make the eyes and mouth move. Fascinating stuff. (If the belts ever give out, just put on a thick rubber band.)

The open body has two covers. You took the belly off, now you have to take the back off. Look for the screws that hold the middle section to the back plate and undo those screws.

Now the back plate (tape recoder face) should come off.

[Sickie Ickie]

Now is time to lay surgeon! :D

Remove the screws to the inside of the tape recorder and throw it out.

See that circuit board? undo the screws.

See the motor that runs the cams via the belts (rubber bands)? We just need to keep the wires that come off that. So cut one end of the wires close to the circuit board.

now you can be destructive and cut all the other wires and throw out that circuit board. Wasn't that fun? LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

Now screw the lids back on.

You can be more clever than this and add electrical components to lower voltage, but...

run the two wires from the motor through the empty back plate, and I just used a cell phone adapter ( DC 3.7v output), cut off the cell phone end, and connected that to the two wires from the motor. (I soldered mine, then used liquid electrical tape.)

It's a no brainer connecting, because it doesn't matter which wire you connect to which. It still will make a DC motor run. ( If you try both ways, you may find one works better in than the other, but both will run so don't sweat it too much.)

Put the body back into the foam body and close the velcro flap.

You can choose how to run the cord. I chose to run it down the pant leg close to the floor.

[Sickie Ickie]

To make her stand is optional, of course. heh I found a wood salad bowl (?) at Curbies and decided to use it.

I cut off her legs. Her bottom leg is hard plastic, her upper leg is cloth with stuffing. All I needed was her lower legs.

I bought some threaded rod from the hardware store. (3/8" if I remember correctly.), and drilled a hole in the bottom of each foot.

Drilled two holes under her through the foam and into the plastic former battery holding compartment.

Drilled two holes into the salad plate.

Used a hacksaw to cut the rod to the proper length, and inserted each threaded rod piece through the wood salad plate.

I put a nut and washer on the end of the rod (under the lip of the plate), and a washer and nut all the way down the rod to the top of the wood plate. Then I tightened them up tight. So, I had a nut-washer, plate, washer-nut sandwich.

Slide the legs down the rods.

PUT ON HER PANTS! I can't stress that enough, otherwise, she'll wear a dress if you don't do pants now.

Place a nut and washer about a third down on each rod, insert the end of the rods through the holes of the body into the battery compartment, then slide a washer and nut over the top of each rod inside the compartment.

Now tighten those nuts towards each other, too. You can adjust how straight she stands by moving the nuts up or down before tightening.

[Sickie Ickie]

Clothing was found at a thrift store and scarves/hats were from stuffed animals also found at thrift stores.

Hope this wasn't too confusing to anyone!

Merry Christmas!

[Xmaslilly]

That's cute Sickie
great job
nice how to

[Thomas Steiner]

SI, That is some great how-to's. I love the doll. Thanks for posting.

[Carrie]

SI, I'm in awe..that would never have occurred to me. What a cool idea and use of a reindeer motor. Thanks for sharing this!

[Sickie Ickie]

Glad to have the kudos, folks. Thanks!