The Art and Craft of Toy Design

Toy Dissection: Shiver the Polar Bear

Shiver the Polar Bear is from the Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus Movie. When you squeeze her left foot, belly, and back, she reacts by giggling, vibrating(or shivering), and her cheeks blush. Her tag info is: Copyright 2004 Matel Inc. El Segundo, CA. All new material consisting of Polyester Fibers and Plastic Coated wire stiffeners. Made in China.

In opening the front seams of Shiver, I found that there was only one switch in her left foot. Her packaging had instructed to squeeze her feet, so I was expecting something to be wrong with the right switch since it wasn't working. It turned out it was just because it didn't exist.

Opening Shiver's head revealed the two led incasings that cause her to blush when her stomach is squeezed. They were sewn into fabric pockets to hold them in place.

Shiver's torso contained the all of the circuitry inside plastic casing. Fabric covered this and it was actually very hard to remove which is understandable for safety reasons.

This is the plastic casing containing the major cicuitry. Underneath the speaker holes is the switch  that is triggered when squeezing Shiver's stomach. The red led lights are inside plastic spheres,  that are silver inside to great a larger round shaped light for the cheeks. The switch attached to the yellow wires was the one inside Shiver's foot.

This is the inside of the plastic casing. On the left is the front switch circuit board and below it is the speaker. On the right is the vibrating mechanism, below it is the main circuit board, and behind both of them is the back switch circuit board, and the on/off switch circuit board. The second photo is a close up of the front switch circuit board.

These are close ups of the front and back of the main circuit board.

These are close ups of the front and back of the back switch circuit board.

These are closeups of the front and back of the on/off switch circuit board.

Last but not least is a close up of the speaker and the pattern of Shiver layed out flat with the circuits still in their place.

 

Becky Stern-- Sweet Dreams Uniqua

Sweet Dreams Uniqua: Fisher Price, Mattel, Viacom International. Made in china.
When you push her cluched glow worm, she sings him a lullabye, and the worm "glows" and blinks.

 

The fabric was attached to the plastic enclosure with a zip-tie around the lip.

All circuitry removed.

Pattern mostly disassembled

The activation switch was sandwiched between the hard plastic "worm" and the battery enclosure, making it easy to press the push-button switch.

What is inside of the toy

Hi for this project I have chosen the following toy:

that when you press on the yellow circle on the tummy makes a frog sound and when is shaken makes noise..

Now the big question what makes this toy to make this sound. So, let see fist I cut the stitches on the back of the toy. Then took out the material that that made the toy soft.

By taking the soft material out I found a lone little bag in the body and another in the head. The bag in the body had the part that made the frog sounds while the other one ad a little rattle.

The following image show all the pieces from the sound part including the battery.

And on the end this is the pattern of the soft toy including the manufacture label.

inside the puppy!

look it's a Puppy....

Bend over puppy! I see your battery pack!

Look stuffing and a wire that leads to a switch on its foot

deflated puppy

the inside mechanics of it

the wire that leads to the photo sensor in its head

the photo sensor, just one between the eyes

hot glue and a ceramic capacitor

Let's see what's inside

A speaker!

a light sensor, a speaker and a switch!

green board the brain!

capacitors!

another board!

up close board in all its glory

the other side capacitors and transistor

flattened puppy leg

Bounce the Bouncing Bed Bug

What up?.....You can call me Bounce.
I am a bouncing bed bug.  Today I want to show
you what I look like on the inside.

My brain, my body, and my voice
are all located in this magical plastic
sphere and connected to my nose by a
umbilical cord like wire.

Inside my soft Polly&ester skin I am full

of synthetic stuffing

Inside my nose is button that triggers

my body to convulse uncontrollably

and voice to say things like "BOUNCE LIKES TO BOUNCE"

"BOUNCE LIKES TO BOUNCE" YEAAAAAAAAA!!!.

Inside my magical sphere of protection

you can see that I have a speaker,

a circuit board, and a motor.

and thats pretty much it.

Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to
put myself back together. Holla.

The Backyardigans - Sweet Dreams Pablo

Name: Sweet Dreams Pablo
Stakeholders: Fisher-Price / Mattel / Viacom International
Origin: The Backyardigans TV Show

This plush toy features a nightlight, held in the arms, that increases in brightness in digital steps. The vocab is triggered by pushing on the nightlight, or possibly through hugging, or accidentally sitting on the thing.

Conversation pieces:

• "Hi there! I'm Pablo. It's bedtime!"
• "Bzz bz bzz zzz. My firefly says goodnight!"
• "Say hi to my firefly like this: buzz buzz."
• "Glow. Glow. Glow, little firefly, shine bright ... goodnight."
• "This firefly makes a great night-light!"

Pablo relaxing, for now...

A sealed white box (batteries?) is easily accessed through the velcro in Pablo's back

Opening up the box. What do we have here?

Some circuits are hidden on the reverse side of the battery box. To remove the case, you have to cut a plastic tie connecting the fabric to a ring at the top of the box.

Pablo, feeling a bit depressed (sorry!)

Removing the beany pattern from his head

The back of the light-box (nightlight) can be seen on the left, with a tiny circuit to control the brightness

The small circle in the upper-right is the trigger/switch. When pushed, it lights up the nightlight and starts a random voice playback

This board controls the routing between the lights, the batteries, and the voicebox.

Sesame Street Double Fun Giggle Ball: Enrie and Bert (Beto y Enrique)

Dissection (Ana)

Side one: Bert

Side two: Enrie

Enrie and Bert before the dissection

Removing the stitches

The plastic ball with toy's electronics. The white cotton pouch has the wires inside.

Opening the plastic tie that holds the white cotton to remove the fabric parts from the electronic parts.

Removing Stuffing.

The fabric parts unfold and ready to open the ball with the electronics

The patterns

The switches (push buttons) are inside the fabric bag behind the mouth.

The switches

 

Disassembling the switches

Opening the batteries compartiment

Opening the plastic ball with all the electronic parts and the wires that are connected to the switches.

All the mechanisms of the toy

The speacker that Enrie and Bert use to be heard.

The back of the circuit board

The blury front of the circuit board

The Motor

All the toy  after the dissection

The label: Fischer Price/Mattel. Sesame trademark.
Made in China. Surface washable only.

 

Fischer Price/Mattel Bouncing Giggle Ball: Elmo & Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster

Elmo

Cookie Monster & Elmo

Velcro opening at the bottom of the toy

Made of polyester and made in China

Fischer Price/Mattel. Sesame trademark.

Removed the stitches and plastic tie to reveal plastic ball inside that contained the toy's electronics. The white cotton pouch contained the wires.

Stuffing removed.

The red and blue wires that connect to the push buttons on Elmo's & Cookie Monster's mouths.

Close up of the push buttons housed in white pouches with pink stitching.

Batteries needed for Elmo & Cookie Monster to wiggle and giggle.

Patterns

The inside of the plastic ball that contains all of the electronics.

The plastic piece on top that was removed to reveal the speaker (blue piece).

The other side of the circuit board.

Elmo & Cookie Monster at the end of the dissection.

Cotton the Evil Christian Propaganda Lamb

The sweet face which
once contained a rather
dreary monologue.

Peaceful and unaware of its fate.

It stopped praying.

Didn't know what hit it.

Shredded stuffing!! This
lamb was not made by the
hands of angels? They let
machines do it!?!
Astonishing!

A grimace.

Everything inside out. The pouch on top contains the
recording of the prayer, and the one that you can only
see a part of is full of tiny plastic balls.

A nice light came
through the window.
You can see how the
electronic components
are attached to the
neck so they stay in
place.

The body and limb seams.

Head stiching being undone.

It looks like a rabbit
flattened out.

Ears, face and body.

Side of head with an ear. like the side of a football
helmet.

the face still rounded.

and now flat.

Underside.

Tail.

The stomach and back pattern.

The left arm, top and bottom.

The foot and leg. The foot was just
long and straight piece sewn around
the circle that was the foot.

Mystery box.

the back.

Opened.

The button and chip.

The back, not very
interesting.

THE END!

Plush Darth Vader Dissection

Toy Name: Star Wars - Battle Buddies (Darth Vader)
Company: Hasbro
Category: Toy Dissections

For more detailed photos, notes, and descriptions, please go to my Flickr Session Photoset: Vader Plush gets dissected

Vader Plush Uncut:

First Dissection:

Emptying the Belly:

Voice Device in belly compartment:

Velcro Pocket in the back:

Voice device revealed:


Giant button to control the buttons inside the device.

Unscrewing voice device:

Components:


Circuit consists of 2 push buttons (on opposite sides), a big speaker (with white cover on top), and cables that feed power from the batteries to the chip that controls the voice and speaker.

Push Button #1 (front):


The way this works is that the circuit is incomplete (or open) on the board. When you press the button, you complete it by closing the connection.

Push Button #2 (front):


Alternate button to activate device.

Front of mainboard with push button #1:


Red cable=power. Black cables=ground. White cables=push button 2. Yellow cables=speakers. Current entering through power cable goes through both capacitors, then enters the chip (inside the black bubble). When buttons are pressed, the chip sends a signal to the speaker.< br />

Back of mainboard with push button #1:

Front of 2nd board with push button #2:


Alternate switch. Notice the white cables that connect this switch to the other board.< br />

Back of 2nd board with push button #2:


Again, notice the white cables.

Top view of mainboard, cables, connections, and speaker:

A closer look at those resistors:


Capacitors: 47 uF, 10v capacitors.