Full Repair Tutorial of 80s Playmates Talking Cricket or Corky Electronic Doll
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- Опубликовано: 24 май 2022
- A year ago I put together a bunch of little short videos on how to inspect and restore a 1986 Talking African American Cricket Doll. My goal was to put these on RUclips one day to help out others restore their own! I found there’s very little out there to show repair on these 80s electronic toys when I first started. I had to do a lot of playing around with trial and error. I have found no matter if you find one of these at a thrift shop or if you buy a mint new one still in box. None of them fully function anymore. Why? Well their rubber belts that control everything have dried out and rotted over the past 35 years. So I show you how you can quickly replace the belts for the eyes, mouth, and cassette player.
I also wanted to show folks that you don’t have to spend a fortune on a new one of these. You can find ones that need TLC and as long as you’re willing to spend a little time and effort, you can restore them fully! You will see the results at the end of this tutorial.
Now this is just for belts! If you find a Cricket with heavy corrosion or a messed up cassette player, we’ll that’s a whole other ballgame that most likely isn’t worth the work!
So I hope you can learn a little from this. I’m not super video savvy so it’s not edited all fancy haha, but we get the job done!
Enjoy! 
Развлечения
Thanks so much for making this easy to follow video! I replaced all of the bands and my Corky doll is busy entertaining again.
You are so welcome and I love to hear Corky is back with all his movement to entertain once again. It’s a lot of fun bringing these old toys back to life. ❤️
I loved this so much 🥹🥹🥹🥹. She was my best friend growing up. And I still have mines but she was damaged so badly over the years by others. Watching this was truly amazing treat.
Love how cricket is casually telling the story of “little red riding hood” in the background 25:00
Thanks to this video, I have successfully got my Cricket and Corky working and my granddaughter was excited as I was when i first got her.
And Jills spa day hair tutorial I am currently working on Crickets hair. Helpful tip, wear gloves. Your hands wont get slimy or full of wrinkles. I also laid a towel down at my table and lap, so i could sit and really comb her hair while being comfortable. She wasn't bad, just under 2 hrs. Thanks again for your videos
Actually, you can not only put her body in the washing machine; but you can also remove the stuffing from her legs just by lifting the foam pad from her bottom. It's instant access to the legs without cutting her open! One of my Crickets, was sitting in a smokers house for over 30 years. She smelled so bad! I had no choice but to put her in the washer. I let her soak in hot water, oxyclean, and tide for an hour or so. Then I filled the back cavity with a pillow case and made sure it stayed stuffed, so I secured it by tying it shut. I put her inside a pull string net laundry bag because I have a front loader. But she came out super clean, no stains, and no more cigarette smell!!
O love restorations of Toys
I still remember the display in Sears and Roebuck, it captivated all the children. #80sKid
Oh wow! I’ve only seen pictures of the display. I often wonder how it worked since she has a tape cassette that you have to rewind or swap over.
@@cricketandcorkysclubhousef8686 I wonder that too now, because it had a sign to press the button and she would talk to you. It was fun, they never did that with Corky, unfortunately but it was fun #80sKid
The mechanics are so advanced for the 80s! I am impressed!
They really were back then. I can see why she was the must have toy for a year or two!
Yes, good call on using actual drive belts (bands). They are the correct replacement item here. The square cut helps keep them seated in pulley grooves, the lower elasticity will produce much more consistent tape speed (and maybe slightly more responsive animation). Also containing (typically) synthetic material helps prevent them from drying, rotting & breaking like natural rubber bands are prone to doing.
Thank you! Yeah it just made sense to use these drive belts since they are made for cassette players. I did try and O ring once just to see and it was too big for the plastic groves and too firm to work properly.
This was very informative and interesting to see you fix this cricket doll. You have some great tips to. Thank you
You’re welcome! It doesn’t solve all the issues, but these are definitely the most common.
Wide awake and curious. You could use something like bluetack to keep wandering screws from escaping. Loving this tutorial. 😊 I can’t edit videos either.
Haha thank you! I totally forgot I made these a year ago. It’s long but I wanted to share as much as I could in hopes that it helps others and maybe even saves more of these guys from the dumpster! I know there’s a few videos out there but none of them talk about anything but the two belts. I had to figure out the cassette belts on my own, as well as how to clean and restore the body and heads!
@@cricketandcorkysclubhousef8686 and it’s also in real time which I really appreciate. If I could see, I would be perfectly willing to follow you along as you dissected cricket. Considering my luck, I think Corky is just going to have stiff eyes for a while. I don’t believe I could hurt him, but I don’t know if I’m willing to tempt fate. Lol!
I heard these dolls were nightmare fuel.
I used to own a bearytales bear, if i still had it i would restore it if i had the Knowledge.
Ahh well he can be found around online for fairly cheap too. I need to figure out how to repair them myself as I have a broken one.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO!!!!! thank you so much for sharing 😁
Haha yay I hope it helped you out in some way. I hope we can restore as many of these great dolls as we can. 🙂
that song is adorable 🥹
She is adorable! You can catch the whole song on the original tape video. She has tons of other songs too. Thanks for watching. ❤️
I'm going to say this is the Latina cricket 🙂
You can boil rubber bands and they will go bk to their original shape
Any idea how to put her eye in if a toddler pushes it inside :( i had her since I was five
Hello there! Sounds like her eye came off the plastic track inside her head. If it is pushed into the face or if it’s turned wonky that’s most likely it.
The only way to fix it is to do brain surgery and open up the scalp. There’s a circle part of the scalp you have to remove that isn’t easy as it’s glued in. Once you get that off though you can kind of get back there and try and reattach the eye to the plastic bracket.
It’s not super duper easy but it can be done and you don’t have to worry with electrical stuff as there’s none inside the head itself!
@@1RichardHunt good eye! That is an outlet, but sadly goes to nowhere! It was put in for the purpose that Cricket could be linked with her Brother Corky with an item called the chatter box. You can find pictures of it in many advertisements. Sadly production shut down and it was never produced. I imagine they had plans for other accessories to plug into the dolls. Kind of like Teddy Ruxpin did.
@@1RichardHunt that would be amazing. I know there has to be some out there. It would have been great if all of these talking dolls had gotten a chance to continue on. So many stories and outfits we missed out on because Jill and her trying to bankrupt the company lol.
Just pulled out my Corky doll that I had when I was young to give to my almost 2 year old. It’s in pretty good shape. The cassette works fine and the eyes and mouth and music comes on initially but then there’s no sound even though the cassette is still working. I just bought new batteries which I’m going to try tomorrow before I attempt to replace the bands but I noticed the battery coil/spring in the slot with the top two C batteries is kind of bent and pushes the two batteries out so that they aren’t flush against each other anymore and it’s almost like they’re popping out of the well. Do you know what I mean? Anyway you mentioned putting cardboard in where the batteries are or something in the video. Would that solve this problem? Can you explain this ? Thank you!! Excellent video btw!
Never mind figured out a workaround and the mouth and eyes and music are working (for the most part) thanks for the video!! Great for fixes down the road.
AWESOME VIDEO!!!! where can I buy a spring? what size cassette bands to buy?
You helped me so much with restoring my first cricket doll❤️ I am now restoring #2 and I got her eyes,mouth and audio working, but the volume is not as loud as it should be. Any tips on how to correct the problem? The volume turns down perfectly and then turns up okay to medium sound but that is as high as it will go with the knob turn all the way up.
Yay I’m glad you’re restoring these awesome dolls! Did you get the volume sorted out? I usually just try to turn it up and down quickly and see if I can make it adjust. Many times it’s because dust and debris have gotten on the wheel gear and it interferes with the volume connection. It’s not easy to get to because you have to remove most of her inside parts, so I would try blowing in the wheel and turning it a lot. Hope it helps!
hey! recently thrifted a cricket for a stunning 2 bucks, which was AWESOME since ive wanted her for years. she was missing her battery door, but i was able to 3d print a new one pretty easily. everything on her works great except for one thing- her right eye doesnt move at all! i took a look inside her head thru her neck and it seems like its simply disconnected from the rest of the mechanism inside her head, nothing seems snapped or broken. im sure its the result of a fall or particularly hard bump in her past. the opening in the bottom of her neck is too small for me to fit any tools to snap it back together; so im thinking ill have to cut her head open to access the mech. have you ever done something like this? do you have any advice? im no stranger to major doll surgery as im a collector of several types of doll, but i know scalp repairs on vinyl heads like this are notoriously hard. thanks!!
Hi uncle my dad misses you 😅
Lol I miss him too. I miss you as well! ❤️
Hi! I just bought 15 or so Corky and Cricket dolls from an estate sale. With all of them, the tape recorder seems to work, but none of their eyes or mouths move, and there’s no sound. I know I can potentially fix the eye and mouth movements by replacing the two bands, but what about the sound? Was the second part of the video (after removing the plastic piece) how to fix the sound…?
Wow nice find! Glad you are going to restore them! If there is no sound it’s the cassette player belt. The one I mention is under the plastic case and isn’t as easy to change as the eyes and mouth.
Before digging in make sure you try fresh batteries and check the volume wheel by turning it all the way left and right. Sometimes the audio kicks in that way.
@@cricketandcorkysclubhousef8686 They also came with tons of clothes, over 60 cassettes, and other accessories. Definitely an interesting find. I’m going to do my best to fix them! I watched your video all the way through, and it’s definitely more time consuming to replace the cassette belt, but doesn’t seem impossibly hard. I’ll at least give it a try, after I try the volume wheel trick. I’ve already tried brand new batteries. Thanks for the video, and the help!
what did you do with them?
@@landofgrundo I still have most of them. They came with 60 or so tapes and tons of outfits, too, which I’m trying to sell on eBay, because the dolls themselves don’t bring as much money as they used to.
I WANT HER 😭😭😭
What if the doll eats tapes? Would changing the cassette belts fix it?
Hello, I recently watched your video. I'm trying to repair my Cricket Doll, she doesn't move her eyes and mouth, I already changed her bands. If I manually move the gears it does, or if I rewind the cassette. Could you please help me?
Might be that the belts are too tight maybe? Maybe find ones that are a bit larger/looser? Wish you the best of luck in repairs
Remind of Teddy Ruskin
What mm size bands do you use?
Not sure the exact sizes, but I get them from a variety pack on Amazon. Recorder Rubber Belts, Cassette Recorder Repair Maintenance Mix Cassette Rubber Square Belt 40-135MM (50PCS) a.co/d/5LP6YFq
What do you use to clean the Plastic Skin
I use a hand cleaning product called “goop” and then I wipe it with a magic eraser.
What do you do if the corky doll every now still works but there is no sound coming out from the cassette player
First try to slip a tiny big of cardboard on the bottom of the 9V battery slot. I use a piece of cereal box because it’s thin. If this is wedged in there it pushes the battery up to touch the connectors. Some of them have just become loose over time. If that doesn’t work then it’s most likely the cassette belt and that’s a pain to get to as you have to take the entire top layer of gears off once you open him up.
Motors dry out
I get a magnetic tray for the Screws
Thanks for the tip! I will have to look this up.
Hello, I am wondering if you can help. I have a cricket doll from when I was young and one of her eyes was poked by a friend of mine back in the 1980's, it no longer works. Do you know how I could repair the eye? Thank you :-)
Hello there! Sounds like her eye came off the plastic track inside her head. If it is pushed into the face or if it’s turned wonky that’s most likely it.
The only way to fix it is to do brain surgery and open up the scalp. There’s a circle part of the scalp you have to remove that isn’t easy as it’s glued in. Once you get that off though you can kind of get back there and try and reattach the eye to the plastic bracket.
It’s not super duper easy but it can be done and you don’t have to worry with electrical stuff as there’s none inside the head itself!
@@cricketandcorkysclubhousef8686 thank you very much for your help:-). Sounds tricky but I will see if I can donit without ruining her :-)
Hello, once again thank you for your help. Next question what glue should I use to reattach the back of her head? She is now working:-)
Whereabouts on the head do you do this please? And what tools to use? My doll has the same problem
Can't find a video of someone actually changing out the tape band 🤦♀️
Do you know how to fix an original baby alive?
Considering the pigment hue it works for many other ethnicities, might be the reason for the hair change. Looking at recent dolls they've gotten a lot better at approximating African American specific hair properties and styles.
Other than Glo-Worm it doesn't seem like anybody ever made it easy to remove the electronics and wash the doll. Whole genre of toy that just got filthier and filthier with time.😒
I've yet to find a single one of these kind of toys that's easy to repair, they all seem to be one-way constructed with glue just like an iPhone heh. Wow somebody suggested O-rings for a cassette deck, you never want that much tension in that kind of mechanism, lots of cassette based things still in use so they keep making the bands.
Certainly some bespoke gears and cams in such toys but I learned they do make kits for many of the more common toy gears, spring kits too. Have seen people modify kit parts to match originals which looks mostly painless.
I like your printable screw layout map idea, I do that placement bunching for game console screws. That would definitely help make repairs go more smoothly, could even put some pro-tips notes on the map too.🙂
What about a Nancy Nurse doll? With just a record.
Ummmm… Daniel this is my uncle
Mine works but when I turn the volume up it sounds horrible and her mouth isn’t moving with it. It’s static …. Would that be the band
Wow a little creepy and it really talks a lot!
😦🥺