Thread: Please Help!

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Hi! I purchased this item in 2000? from Gemmy Industries. My two year old found it during Halloween and it's become his favorite toy. While most kids his age are into Thomas, Dora, etc...mine takes after his dad and has become obsessed with monsters, etc. There is not a day that goes by that he does not talk about it or sing "Putting On the Ritz" which is programmed in the dancing skeleton. I bought a backup in November off of Ebay for security...and lo and behold..both of them still dance, but the speaker no longer plays the music. I sent them to Gemmy last month for repairs because their sales person said that I could try...did not tell me about their warranty, and now they will not fix them. I found one more on Ebay last month...and the same thing happened. This time the speaker just sounds fuzzy. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would really appreciate it. He is so broken hearted and tells even strangers that his "skull" is broken.

haha take the worst one apart (the one your ok with losing) and examine the electronics. It may be something as simple as a wire broken from too much flexion or even a broken solder. You have to remember that they are using the cheapest wire and supplies it will work with so that would be your first place to look. Then examine the speaker for any tears or holes, and examine around the magnet to see if anything is broken (highly unlikely). If all looks good take an voltage meter and test if any current is being sent to the speaker from the board. If theres no current, something must have blown on the board. If you take some picts of the mech we can probably help you better. This is just my generic things to test for a busted speaker list.

If you try what dudedrummer said and still make no progress you might go to Radio Shack and buy a replacement speaker and solder it to the wires to see if that works. It would also be easy to cut the wires from the speaker and solder in a female 1/8" audio jack in place of the speaker and then plug in a set of battery-powered speakers or headphones into the jack to see if you get sound.
Seems kind of strange both of them would have the same problem at the same time--Wierd!!

THanks s much!
Actually the third one is starting to go bad too! I'm nuts...I've spent $100 on these but it makes him so happy. Gemmy has not been very helpful, I am still waiting to hear what they will do. If I can get the broken ones back, I will definitely take a picture and post it. My original 10 year old dancing skeleton had corroded batteries. I cleaned the acid off with baking soda, then filed the connections...and voila, it cam back to life. But all of the sudden both of them lost their sound...I didn't know if it was a chip that went bad? I didn't see any loose wires. Thank you!

Update:
Back in February, I had returned 2 of the 3 broken Gemmy Puttin on the Ritz skeletons to Gemmy Industries for repairs. All 3 of them had the same manufacturer defect..the music stopped working!
For the past few months, I have been waiting patiently for their safe return. I was given one excuse after another why they have not been repaired. This week, believe it or not, they told me that they can not find them!!! I am so disappointed in their customer service. This is totally unacceptable. Does anyone have one to sell? whenever we go to the toy store, that is what he asks for. I think that everyone must think that we are nuts.

I would tell them to reimburse you for the cost of replacing them $100 or find them PDQ.

Too many people try to be nice to companies like these and they take advantage.

Originally Posted by Turbominx

For the past few months, I have been waiting patiently for their safe return. I was given one excuse after another why they have not been repaired. This week, believe it or not, they told me that they can not find them!!!

Gemmy probably took them and shipped them to some of the Amazon.com customers, telling them it is the life-size Leatherface or Ghastly Gentleman prop they ordered.

MAN, I wish I would have know about your problem then. I majored in electronics and instrumentation, and I still have a passion for repairing things like that. And to make a kid's face light up watching a "puttin' on the ritz trio", I would have even picked up the shipping. CRAP!!!! PM me if you ever get these things back, Turbo.

My bet is the 8 year old speaker, or if you're lucky just the wires attached to it.

Maybe it's time to retire the skels, so to speak...

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