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Note: I bought a “used” version of the product which allowed me to get a better price. The only evidence of this toy being first opened by someone else is the box and packaging - the animatronic arrived clean, all parts and pieces including the necklace. The only worrying part is the fact the animatronic arrived loose in his box - which also tells me something about the durability of this toy, as it was able to bounce around for who knows how long during shipping! The package has small pegs that fit into the toy’s feet; either mine was never put back on, or it came loose during transit.
I have not noticed any damage to the animatronic, cosmetically or otherwise, so wooo!
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Yep. Heart lost instantly. I wasn’t expecting the puppet to be in the “try me” configuration, so when I picked him up out of the box the first thing that happened was adorable baby noises and gestures, and then a force-arm-raise. The volume is much louder than I was expecting, in a good way! (I just maybe should have waited until everyone in my household was awake before unboxing 🤣)
Flipped the switch from “try me” to “on” and he’s been doing a variety of movements and noises. If I leave him alone for a while (standing), he makes noises for a while, but will eventually go and remain silent until someone nudges him or touches his head. Sometimes just picking him up will trigger a response.
I bought this animatronic to use as an acting prop when in Mandalorian armor, for a costuming group I joined. The facial expressions and motion-activated “special moves” are fantastic for that purpose. I will need to make the puppet a little more realistic, both out of personal preference and for acting performance.
For those wondering about modding their own, or just in general:
The head and eyelids are hard plastic. The ears are a soft rubber/latex/something. It has a little bit of stretch to it which is great for helping prevent tears, and seems a durable enough thickness without being TOO thick and ruining the “ear membrane” effect.
I’m glad it means it is far easier to repaint the face and add more details / peach fuzz than I was expecting!
It also means the face isn’t gonna fall apart on me over the years right away, since those soft rubber coverings do degrade over time. Ears can be replaced down the road far easier than an entire head sculpt :D
The arms are like baby doll arms - just a little flexible hard-rubber give but otherwise hard.
The right arm of the puppet does not *automatically* move. It does however have a simple swivel action.
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Bonus: I put the robot down in sleeping mode and he stays quiet; but if I reach over and pet his head gently, he makes sleepy noises and it is ADORABLE. Also, useful, because i can have him in “quiet idle mode” and then cause an acting interaction with hise noise and gestures. Sometimes he’ll move his head in his sleep (when prompted) when he makes noises, without opening his eyes, and it adds a nice touch of realism and variety in the gestures that really brings this puppet to life.
All in all.... super happy with my purchase. Technology and art have come such a long way - I never expected to recieve such a quality animatronic piece for such an affordable price.
Final note; The robotics do make a little noise, but his sound effects honestly seem to drown all that out. I find it easy to ignore.
As others have noted, the Mythosaur skull necklace is not metal - some kind of slightly soft plastic, which makes it a lot safer for some of the younger kids. It also has an adjustable cord which is cool!
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DISASSEMBLY:
**DISCLAIMER: Do so at your own risk. You may break your toy, possibly beyond repair. Take photos of every step so you have a reference for re-assembling the figure when done. There's a lot of little parts to be aware of.
Also keep track of which screws go where, just in case.
The animatronic was WAY easier to take apart than I was worried, but it did take me time and patience to avoid breaking anything.
Four screws on the main body takes the back off. Be careful, because the interior is very delicate wiring and the plastic moving parts have a clear lubricant on them you don't want to muck up or get on your fingers.
The non-animated arm comes out easy; the other you need to carefully disconnect from it's little swinging piston (this is the arm that lifts when the force-move is activated), without snapping the delicate plastic parts. This is also where the lubricant is mostly situated.
There's plenty of space inside the body, which is perfect for modding purposes - I plan on replacing the voice box with a higher quality one and possibly upgrading its sound files.
The head does not come off quite so easily - this is the part I was most worried about breaking during removal. I chose to only undo the bottom two screws (instead of removing the entire top assembly) and gently cracked open the head casing, and removed the back.
I removed the ears, which slide right off. Each ones has a small plastic rod inside for animating it - be careful not to stress the joints or bend these.
To get the front face off, I had to wiggle it a bit and very carefully extract it from the neck opening, as I didn't remove the entire head assembly itself - be gentle, go slow, take your time, don't be afraid to back off and start over. Cracking the head can be fixed, but may be either more trouble than it's worth, and depending on how bad it is, might make re-assembly difficult if you've made a tiny shift somewhere, and the electronics don't fit snugly anymore.
The head has a small metal plate atop it; this is loosely seated, so be careful. If it falls out, use a pliers (or rubber gloves) and carefully tuck it back into place (to avoid oils from your skin getting on the metal; crucial for long-term care of your animatronic).
With the head-case and ears removed, I settled the ears back into place, then closed the head up and stuffed it with paper towels for additional support, just in case, as I'll be handling it a lot and applying some pressure for my sculpting.
If you're sculpting on the model, modifying it, etc - DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDES unless you really know what you are doing and have a need to. This means being careful not to accidentally get clay over the edges and gunk up the inside, carve too deep and open up a hole in the head casing, etc; the electronics perfectly fit in the interior of the head, and even a small disturbance could affect the fit later.
The eyes are also difficult to remove; they are three parts (well, many more than that, but I removed three pieces of their assembly); the painted eyes (clear plastic with eye decal on the interior, each one is its own piece), the eyelids (green plastic piece; this is one item, with a small bar between the eyelids), and the pin that goes through the holes of everything to secure it all as one unit.
The pin has one side with a small ridge on it to prevent it from being pulled all the way through the other way - it must be pulled out in the direction it wants to go. Fiddle with it, take your time, and be very, very careful applying pressure to pull the pin free.
I actually ended up scattering the eye pieces all over the floor, because I didn't realize the clear eyes and eyelids weren't glued together.
I set the eyes and eyelids aside, and re-inserted the pin back into place in its original orientation for safe-keeping.
Photos are your friend when it comes time to re-assemble everything. You can not take too many detail shots.
