talking jessie repair 1

yala got this for christmas this year and it was a big hit, great for annoying little brothers and a doll, to boot. of course, plastic talking dolls are gonna break and it didn't take this one long to lose its talking. we took a look at opening it up at the time but the head was on there really well, and no pioneering parent had popped up in a blog to relay any experience (hopefully, someone looking for this info in the future will find these pics). it was only when the neck finally snapped that we decided to take a real look at it.

 

the neck is obviously the weak point, thin plastic with just about the cheapest wire possible connecting the speaker in the head with the electronics in the body. the head has ridges facing against the neck opening in the body to prevent the two from pulling apart - think drywall screws. before i knew about the ridges, i tried to force against the broken pieces with a screwdriver (really took a push at it, too) and couldn't get them to push out. snapping the neck is basically the only way to get the body and the head apart once they're together.

 

the real electronics problem, however, was the incredibly cheap neck wiring; it just pulled off the mating connector when i moved it for the first time. in this picture you can see the two red wires leading off the CB that are their replacement.

Done