I'm always on the look out for quality used toys and baby stuff for my kids.
Its rare to find things in perfect condition but I've found that sometimes I can modify used stuff or repair it myself, and if it fails, I'm not out much money anyway.
Tonight I decided to repair two Fisher-Price used toys that I recently acquired.
The first was an Ocean Wonders Fisher-Price infant bouncy seat that I bought for $5. Date stamp on the back says it's from 2002, so it's no wonder I have never seen it previously. It has a water component to it on the arch piece and of course the problem was that it was nearly out of water (I guess so after 12 years!) and it didn't work properly without water inside to move the fish around.
My thought was that I could open it up and find a rubber plug to open so I could refill the water. No such luck. I opened it all up and it was sealed up (water) tight.
I figured if I could drill a hole, I could get water inside and worst case I'd wreck the toy, but for $5 I didn't really care. I drilled a small hole near the bottom of the plastic piece holding the water (note: if I were to do this again I'd drill the hole at the top of the case and not the bottom where the water will always be sitting..)
Then I held it under the kitchen tap with a slow water flow until the toy was full. Then I added silicone to cover the hole. (Make sure to dry the place you're putting the silicone, I didn't the first time and had to wipe it all off and try again).
I screwed it back together and put it back onto the bouncy seat. (It leaked water the first time I attempted this but after wiping off the water and re-siliconing it, it held the second time).
Voila $5 good as new bouncy seat with something for my little guy to look at. It lights up and blows bubbles which spin the little starfish. (Our other bouncy seats have nothing interesting to look at and are basically just really expensive chairs.)
I figured that had gone really well so I decided to do the same thing to our Ocean Wonders Crib toy as well. Every mom in the last few years knows this toy. (It's dated 2007 on the back but I've seen them everywhere.) Only problem is they too are always only half full of water whenever I've seen one for sale, so they still work but just look terrible.
I opened the case up and took off the back. Drilled a hole (in the top this time), ran water into it, and siliconed it back up.
Good as new. And my newborn son can enjoy this crib mobile for months to come. I also love that it has a remote so I can control it from outside of his room (assuming it fits onto his crib).
So there you have it. The tools I used were: a drill with a small bit, a screwdriver and a silicone gun.
Two repaired toys and it cost me only a couple of bucks and a few minutes of my evening. If I can do these repairs with two 2 year olds running around like mad people and a newborn, while making supper and baking cookies, then I'm pretty sure anyone can do this too.
Take that Handy Manny!
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