It Was Cool At One Time - Big Mouth Billy Bass Refurbished

[@kaalamanHQ]

This channel is GOLDEN!, Really really underrated!, I hope KZbin will shed a light on these kind of videos.. LOVE IT!

[@RandiRain]

Wow, thank you!

[@saltyscorpion2151]

You were a fish out of water at the beginning of the teardown, but quickly got schooled. I always learn something from your videos.

[@adews7204]

Wow I watched some of your videos when you did that project with The 8-Bit Guy, and now you're working on my favorite hobby/toy! Quite the coincidence I must say. Great video!

[@RandiRain]

Thank you.

[@MagicNomadic]

What would be really cool is to have one with an app that you could play any sound or song you wanted.

[@performa9523]

Don't tempt the modders!

[@drumnotdrum9262]

I was fascinated with this thing as a little kid. Thought it was funny. I never did get to taking one apart...... thanks! Great stuff.

[@333jsin1974]

I inherited one from my dad, plugged it in and would only move it's tail and play half of the songs. Used a different power supply and everything functions now perfectly. Glad I didn't tear into it, I was close. Eventually I want to mod it with Bluetooth speaker so my fish can read my messages to me and stuff. 😄

[@drumnotdrum9262]

That is genius.

[@carlosmunoz360]

I'm watching a CSI autopsy of a talking mechanical fish.

[@Robothut]

The chemical reaction with vinyl and styrene / ABS is a problem with so many vintage toys. Toys with remote control cables like to melt into the plastic or the remotes and toys. Has nothing to do with heat or light its just a chemical reaction. Nice job on the repair. Thank you for sharing with us as I have always wanted to see what was inside the Billy Bass.

[@RandiRain]

Heat most definitely speeds it up. Maybe not a necessity, but does add to it.

[@jameswarrick778]

Awesome video as always Ms. Rain, we can tell this wasn't your favorite one to do. I was wondering, what would be your ideal restoration project? One you would really enjoy doing.

[@RandiRain]

I have already done my ideal ones, the OmniBot series. Especially the 2000. Only thing right now that I keep looking for, but can't find an old one that isn't expensive, and that's Tin Can Alley.

[@jameswarrick778]

@@RandiRain ah yeah, the Price always makes it difficult for sure.

[@gemmyhamstercollection966]

I currently have nine of these for some reason, you can see in my profile picture. Definitely a very straight forward repair once you've done it enough times; I usually just remove the motors and replace the gear on the shaft of it, as they're usually the ones that tend to break. I'd just like to say your repairs are amazing, I don't know how you only have 5.6K subscribers!

[@RandiRain]

There's some restaurant that you can bring them in for free dinners. That's nine free meals.

[@gemmyhamstercollection966]

@@RandiRain Haha, it actually looks nice there too. I think they've earned their place on my wall at least for now though 🐟.

[@magneticlatching1387]

I am impressed with your mechanical ability and remembering where all the connections and screws needed to be for reassembly! But how did you just happen to have the exact replacement gears? Thanks for the video, Steve S. (Electromechanical Product Development Engineer for 43 years)

[@RandiRain]

You can buy the gears on ebay... www.ebay.com/itm/373657410413

[@richardnelson2518]

My Billy bass's head didn't turn so I ordered the little 9 tooth gear and swapped it out with the stripped one on the motor. Now the head turns as it should. Unfortunately, during the repair one of the speaker wires became disconnected from the circuit board and I can't get any sound from it now, Frustrating!

[@darkhorse1628]

So so look in to more Gemmy items they have made so much stuff over the years it’s crazy how much and they have so many different fun items to collect I myself am a Gemmy collector and I enjoy repairing these kind of things to. I enjoyed the video thanks

[@HarryYT22]

I repaired one of these during lockdown last year, it was mainly the head I repaired. I bought some gears off eBay for 99p and when they arrived I gave it a shot but it took me several attempts to get the gear on correctly. Had to ask my dad for guidence in getting the gear off and putting it back on as my hands couldn't get grip properly since new gears that very hard to get on the motor. But after a finaly attempt we tried it and when the head popped up I was over the moon. I tried fixing some of my others on my own and I managed to get some of them to work great! I think the easiest part to repair is always the head as for the mouth and tail you have to take the skin off to access those motors I might try that part in future :)

[@RandiRain]

I like to use some plyers opened to the large section, put one side on the back of the motor and the other just enough on the gear, and squeeze it on.

[@DanielleWhite]

There used to be an art care in my area that used a bunch plus lobsters. It was named the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir.

[@RandiRain]

Ha!... okay.

[@performa9523]

Not too often that you can watch a video on "fish repair" these days. Great video!

[@janeharrell1264]

Great video! Getting my back to operating! such an easy fix! Thanks!

[@TheEPROM9]

He did only have 2 songs, they god old pretty quickly. We turned off the motion detection on ours so he would only activate on a button press.

[@RandomRetr0]

LOL!! I loved them at first, but quickly grew to hate them because they were EVERYWHERE! Now, you hardly run into them. Didn’t realize they were quite as complex as they are. Great job 🤘🏽

[@Northern5tar]

Don't go blaming that thing on Germany! If it were made in Germany, it would weigh a ton, but it would work for 10.000 years and could survive a nuclear explosion. Saw someone who put an Amazon Echo in one of these. Beautiful mod. With all the movements synced. "Alexa, what are you?" - "I am a mounted fish"

[@hydrolisk1792]

I'm glad you said it, beat me to it! LOL

[@alerey4363]

Playing Operation on a robot fish, that's something new and you got it singing in record time, great job!

[@RandiRain]

Thank you very much!

[@Hyperion65]

Gemmy is a old Co. They made lots of Holiday decorations dating way back. Still in business to this day.

[@juleksaas4144]

Old ones have 3 motors. New ones have only 2. One for mouth and second for gearbox that operate the tail and head

[@RandiRain]

Does the tail not stay on the whole time and just move when the head does?

[@juleksaas4144]

@@RandiRain The tail and head move the same as on the three engine model. The gearbox works so that when the engine turns to one side, it moves its tail and when it turns to the other, it moves its head. This is video of the second generation kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2Smm3uGjdKNmNk

[@hydrolisk1792]

The Kool Katfish is a two motor setup

[@scottmcdonnell7559]

The newer version just has two motors instead of three. One motor for the mouth. The tail and body bend are spring loaded and when the center motor is moved in one direction, it lifts the tail and when reversed, lifts the body. It's the only mechanical difference that I am aware of. It seems that someone pulled the foam out of your fish. It would have been wrapped around the mechanism so that the rubber body looks full while bending. The way that mechanism works in the newer model is using a half round cam with teeth along the edge. The motor rotates this cam in one direction and it engages the gear for lifting the tail and in the opposite direction, it engages the gear for lifting the body. There is a short gap between the movements, but the motor is driven fast enough that you wouldn't notice.

[@RandiRain]

I pulled the foam out. It was too much trouble.

[@scottmcdonnell7559]

@@RandiRain Ahhh. I thought it was more evidence that someone attempted to fix it before as you suspected.

[@saltypond390]

I’m always finding these at thrift stores, I love these fish!

[@hydrolisk1792]

What I did to my Bass and Kool Katfish with the eyes, is go to walmart in the crafts section and pick up a baggie of Stuffed Animal eyes. Perfect match and fit! However, you did a wonderful job with what you had. And yeah, these are a royal pain to work on!

[@bmontada]

Awesome repair!!! Another great video Randi :)

[@RandiRain]

Thanks...

[@lakewi44]

Awesome refurbishing video! Its funny how just one tiny little gear on the motor gets split and all movement stops. He got remade this year for 2021. There’s also one that is compatible with the Amazon Alexa.

[@RandiRain]

I haven't seen the remake, but that doesn't surprise me at all.

[@lakewi44]

@@RandiRain Yes. They are being sold at Walmart this year. It has a new song, and an older song that is returning which is take me to the river. The new song is hunting, fishing, and loving every day.

[@TheEPROM9]

Oh god I remeber these, my dad had one. The batterys leaked in the end & it was off to landfill for the poor guy.

[@RandiRain]

As many as these that were sold, it probably had company.

[@skibidifurby]

tried fixing mine, screws stripped and circuit died :(

[@robbieaussievic]

....Sunny Sunday morning, GF Corn Flakes, Randi Rain, Fish, Nobody told me there would be days like these !

[@bjv93]

"This is a pretty dumb design" welcome to the world of Gemmy Industries.

[@Dzonemp]

My question is how hot would it have to be to melt that plastic? 140 - 150 F or more?

[@RandiRain]

A lot more... ABS is used in 3D printing and it takes 220C. But the melting was a chemical reaction.

[@KeritechElectronics]

As seen on Look Mum No Computer! Very teardown-worthy for its mechanical complexity too. Not too much bass in that bass, but that might be modded by getting the audio out and hooking it into an amp with a speaker. We have one at our local hackerspace, we did a mod project for controlling the mechanisms and audio out with a RPi Zero, but it didn't really work and we're back there tinkering with it again. I discombobulated it to see what was wrong there because it released a magic smoke and two wires had fried insulation. I had to rip the fish's guts out too, haha. Cringy but fun, unlike any of thousands of repair jobs I've done before. Pity its mouth motor is shot, I'll need to look for a replacement or rewind it from scratch. Yours seems to be the older version, far more complex and less packed inside. There's so much space. Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!

[@charlieblack4516]

Fantastic job. Love your channel, learned about you from the 8 Bit Guy.

[@RandiRain]

Awesome, thank you!

[@ericitchyd2311]

In the high class world of toy robot repair this is like being asked to clean the bathroom.

[@Pascogamz]

One time I was trying to repair one, and found a dead fly, I will never buy a singing fish from a garage sale again

[@isaackeller90]

@@Pascogamz mmmm protein

[@strudders4444]

I never understand how you can remember where all the parts and screws go back. I’d end up with bits left over when I reassembled :D

[@RandiRain]

Lots and lots of pictures. When you think you've taken enough... Take more.

[@strudders4444]

@@RandiRain Yeah, that's how I usually do it. And I put my screws in little compartments on my work surface mat. I think you are so experienced with these things that you just get a feel for it. Kudos Randi !

[@bradhig]

My late grandpa had one.

[@ericitchyd2311]

Would love to see you hack new audio or Bluetooth or something on it. Many of the badly broken robots could have cool mods.

[@Ranger_Kevin]

Even though personally I like them, I imagine being an employee in a shop where this thing is hanging on the wall and running on the motion sensor all day you probably get very frustrated with the thing. As a kid I was wondered how they worked inside, I always thought they had servos in them. Do you know how the controll cirquit works on it? They did not have Arduinos and Raspberry Pies back in the day, so it must be some pretty interesting electronics to sync the movements to the sound chip.

[@RandiRain]

I didn't even look at the electronics, but there are plenty of programmable chips out there.

[@donnyhud]

new subscriber here!! randi ..i love what you do!! i have the same hobbie!! and your personality is great!!!!! i found you lastnight here on this channel for the tomy atomic pinball machine, i just picked one up for 5$ and fixed it thanks to you!! i love old 70s-80s toys and electronics and taking them apart!! once again you are incredible!! may i ask what state your in? im in pennsylvaina

[@RandiRain]

Thanks for subbing! Glad I could help. It's no secret. I am in Texas. Fort Worth to be exact.

[@donnyhud]

@@RandiRain awsome! I'm right now watching the " daring driver restored" video! Your a genius! Wow! Seriously! Love your channel!!!!

[@vtbn53]

Great work as usual.

[@RandiRain]

I appreciate that

[@blakesheward1225]

Good job on fixing him

[@RandiRain]

Thank you.

[@blakesheward1225]

@@RandiRain hi there this is blake Sheward from lindsay Ontario Canada

[@blakesheward1225]

I do collect one of these

[@이가람-v8q]

Thanks! I tried to take it apart and lost the screws. What size should I buy if I want to buy a new screw?

[@이가람-v8q]

I cant buy a new billy bass on ebay only becaus of screw. Cuz I live in South korea… Crazy shipping charge 😭😭

[@RandiRain]

I have no idea what size screws it takes. Go to the hardware store.

[@이가람-v8q]

Ok i will. Thank you!

[@ProximoNovio]

Goooooooddam you put a lot of work into it

[@RandiRain]

Wait until you see the singing deer.

[@makerofthingsunique]

Have you ever repaired an original furby ?

[@RandiRain]

No, I haven't.

[@CandGoods]

Big Mouth Billy Bass: A significantly more complex construction than anyone could have possibly imagined, all for something soooo stupid.

[@rivards1]

It's funny to compare the clockwork elegance of Tomy stuff to this sort of "throw in a different motor for every movement" brute force engineering.

[@RandiRain]

It's definitely not a TOMY.

[@CletusHunnicutt]

Gemmy manufactured a lot of the battery operated holiday automatons of the 80s and 90s. Their witches are cool.

[@RandiRain]

Today they make those inflatable yard decorations for the holidays.

[@Cmn854]

Great video! I’ll take Billy bass’s advice and try not to worry.....and be more happy! Now I feel like eating a filet o fish!

[@stevendunn264]

Can't help but wonder how Tomy would have designed it???

[@RandiRain]

It would only have one motor, that's for sure.

[@jujoextrem3803]

Ya tienes mi like

[@RandiRain]

Thank you.

[@TheEPROM9]

There is not much in there, guess I did not miss much by not taking him apart as a kid. Funny thing is the back of that looks familiur so maybe I did.

[@RandiRain]

Yeah, it's no TOMY.

[@hotkeymuc]

So... many... parts! I would have expected some sort of flimsy flexture!

[@001lightyear]

these are really fun ! gemmy actually produces all these mechanical holliday decorations (well most of them) carolling angels, talking holiday plush santas and much much more, if you happen to come across "BUCK the singing deer head" grab him ! he is a blast!! (you can't miss him he is an almost life size deer trophy head that sing on the road again and many more classics followed by really cheesy jokes only a deer head could support telling hahahh)

[@RandiRain]

I've seen the deer. A friend just contacted me asking if I could fix his.

[@001lightyear]

@@RandiRain woooooow sooo lucky!

[@baltinhas2]

Awesome 🎖🤣🤣

[@VA3WFT]

I've seen videos of smart speakers hooked up to these. :)

[@RandiRain]

I couldn't handle that.

[@hydrolisk1792]

Notice all the jump cuts? All the cursing and swearing cut out of the video LOL!

[@augelar1586]

You are so pretty and clever thankyou 👍

[@RandiRain]

Thank you! 😊

[@cvbabc]

I heard the guy who invented this blew all the profits trying to find the Singing Fish of the Amazon....

[@vtbn53]

Just for your information, there is no Queen of England, and hasn't been since Elizabeth I...

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Almost as annoying as a Furby. :P

[@RandiRain]

After the first view... Yes.

[@georgemartinez1720]

Oh ya gears split in this too

[@georgemartinez1720]

Rand this linkage in there Break and the same in Santa's And glue won't hold plastic brittle

[@gumballbreath3705]

The first time I saw one of them I laughed so hard I almost pissed my pants

[@34.FB.34]

Joli poisson !

[@georgemartinez1720]

It different

[@georgemartinez1720]

Going to need recasting or 3D

[@fatmanbravo6]

Irving Tx... I guess not all plastic crap comes from china! XD

[@georgemartinez1720]

Be nice outside your door of your Shop

[@georgemartinez1720]

Goggle it

[@georgemartinez1720]

Picture s lots of pictures

[@georgemartinez1720]

You lay to.go to that company and give it back to.them. Make it like tomy

[@georgemartinez1720]

This paint it

[@georgemartinez1720]

You done worse

[@georgemartinez1720]

Your cayvgoi h love this