I was about 7 or 8 and had been given a set of screwdrivers for xmas for some reason
What a silly, silly thing to do, shortly after that pretty much anything that was held together with screws and was within my reach quickly became an interesting (to my mind at least) collection of pieces that may once have formed a plug, a radio control car, dad's radio, a digital watch, who knows?
Most of the time it was miraculously reassembled again correctly afterwards. Sometimes it wasn't. This is kinda one of those times.

One day, bored, screwdrivers in hand, looking for new screws to loosen and new battery compartments to accidentally sever connections to, I happened upon a talking doll that belonged to my my older sister.
Respect for other people's property? pffft. The thought "Wonder how that works?" instantly burns its way into my mind and I proceed to unscrew said voicebox from dolls back with the single aim of sating this sudden thrist for knowledge. With the back off and the voicebox in my hand I suddenly realise its shape is uncannily similar to the panel on the underside of my talking police car...a talking police car made by the same company...talking doll...talking police car...pretty similar products...probably same basic design...same manufacturing process...they wouldn't, would they?

By jingo it's the same unit apart from the colour!

One quick swap and the doll is now immeasureably improved, spouting lines like "Calling all Z-cars, calling all z-cars", "He's got a gun! kapow! kapow!" and, rather bizarelly (for a doll), a police siren.

The Car, however, was most put out and would only say things like "You're pwiddy, am I pwiddy too?" and "take me out to play with you"

If you're a boy (or a girl, I s'pose) with a love of screwdrivers stop reading here because the sad ending now follows:

Even though it was obviously a massive improvement and my sister didn't even play with it anymore, I was made to put the right voicebox back in the doll :(

But my car was MY car to do with as I pleased so, with nothing else to entertain me now, I dismantled the voicebox further to see how it worked. It was actually a small plastic record with several tracks on, all spiralling in from the edge at once, rather than one long individual track - press the button and the spring-loaded 'needle' would end up on one of these tracks randomly.

Very interesting, I thought.

Less interesting, however, was paying proper attention to how it all fitted together BEFORE I'd opened it up further - with a *sproing* noise straight from the comics, several springs liberated themselves from the housing the moment it was fully opened, made their bid for freedom and the talking police car spoke no more after that :(

My sisters doll is still in the bottom drawer of the wardrobe and still speaks if you put batteries in it. My police car, along with many other similar toys slowly got thrown out over the years as my parents realised they were simply the empty shells of toys with none of the exciting and expensive parts still inside them...

One day I'll buy an identical doll and car off ebay and set to work on them.
( GigerPunk has, hopefully, slept since, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 18:56, 3 replies)

hahah
I did this too - except I swapped the little plastic record between a talking K9 and a talking Dalek. Oh how I laughed at hearing the Dalek exclaim a perky "Yes, Master!" and K9 squeal "EXTERMINATE!!!"
( Dixipoos Bye Bye Blackbird, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 19:28, closed)

That is even more class, kudos.
Quick bit of advice.
Whatever you do, don't go on to ebay and search for the words "Talking" and "Palitoy".
You'll not like what you see. Not quite as bad for me, the car's only 'worth' 30 quid now
( GigerPunk has, hopefully, slept since, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 19:32, closed)

Didn't some people once do this en masse?
Somehow aquiring a bunch of toys from shops, switching a load of electronic components, then returning them; so that GI Joe declared in a high-pitched voice that he wanted to go shopping, whilst barbie declared in a gruff tone her violent intentions.

Some links:

sniggle.net/barbie.php
news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19931230&id=P4AUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VgMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6753,8795711
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 20:53, closed)