Leave Your Chatty Mute--A Word to the Wise

This Review is not meant to demean any product that may claim to restore Chatty's voice. A doll made in the 1960s will be brittle and very tender when taken apart. In attempting to replace her string and belt purchased for her on eBay, I essentually ruined my 46 year-old-doll and never did accomplish what the kit intended to do. This was not a bad product, for I had never been able to use the parts I bought, but it was a matter of knowing what kind of Chatty you have to begin with. How do you know until you take her apart?

The process of repairing her voice begins with first taking off her head to gain access to the torso. This process is doomed if you do not realize that there is a very thin piece of old, brittle plastic separating a head that is supported soundly and a head that potentially may never be the same, turning wise, or in sturdiness. If you can remove this head with a mild heat blow dryer applied to the plastic around the neck without tearing the flange plastic, you are in better shape than I. When it was clear that this forcing the head off the neck was tearing the flange, I debated if I should continue...was it really worth all this effort and emotion over finally hearing her voice after all these years? I decided to forge ahead, with patience, just like the kit says.

It did not perform the way it was supposed to no matter how easy I pulled, squeezed or twisted. The flange lost its strength from what I believe was too much heat. How much heat was I supposed to apply? Well, it says just enough until the heat has penetrated the plastic to make it more pliable. That is hard to gauge if you have never done a successful beheading of a Chatty Cathy.

Well, now that most of the flange was off, it was time to separate the seams from the torso. Fortunately my doll's left arm was already off from a recent fall to the floor and I felt I had an advantage because in order to crack this torso, you have to first gain access to sealed seams. A small crack or a long one in jagged portions along the line will do the trick but oh, so very slowly do you want to do this. WD-40 is recommended to allow the plastic to be more pliable and I do agree this product was perhaps the only reason I felt I could do something positive at this point. The oil spray set on the seams for a few moments before I  worked a tip of a razor blade back and forth to finally open the seams. NEVER, never, NEVER use a flat screw driver or a crochet hook to pry open these seams. The plastic is brittle and will give before you get the seam to split in its proper course. Work the razor in small sections and with final pushes and proddings, you can crack the seam. A limb missing helps in the opening of the seams and I cannot imagine what it is like to open up a Chatty without this advantage.

It took well over 2 hours to complete the surgery. And it was a botch-job. My seams were uneven, and tiny, minute speck pieces of Chatty's beautiful flesh-colored plastic were scattered about in disarray on my white papered work station. Have plenty of light. It is very hard to see the seams and your work.

Well, the patient was disassembled at this point and now, for the piece d'ressistance, get to the voice box. The kit calls it a bearing frame. That is never defined in the kit so you guess that this black round box that holds the string and silver jobbie that makes the sound is what the kit is talking about. HERE IS WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS: if you have a kit that tells you there are five pegs holding this bearing frame in place, and you do not see any pegs or anything that is close to being a peg, then you are stuck with trying to force this voice box out of the doll. Enough has broken to remember that any forcing at all and poof, this doll could be in pieces.

A mechanically inclined professional mechanic looked into this voice box situation and gave up for fear of causing permanent damage to this wonderful old doll of the baby boomer era. I tried to find a way to take apart this box but it just did not fit the instructions. So I was never able to use the parts I bought from the seller. Two sets were mailed, none were used. I have three Chattys who do not talk today. I will leave them mute. I cannot repair an old doll and expect her to be the same. When the risk to repair her exceeds the benefits, it is time to allow her to be what time has caused: a mute.

So, Chatty is glued back together with chunks of pink plastic missing from her side seams. No matter if you save the chunks, they are really unusable. Finding the exact piece to go into her and filling in the correct loss of material is a miracle. That miracle should have been saved for buying the right repairs for the model Cathy I had. She is waiting for her head tomorrow. The glue needs to set on the two parts of the flange that hold her head. A small portion remained on the neck, the rest are loose and being held with a good repair glue. I am crossing my fingers that Chatty will be a Cathy and not a Joan of Ark with her head to remain off her body forever.

Long live the mute Chatty Cathy!