Disney Banshee Toy Modding

Fortified Ookami · October 27, 2019

Hi all! My wife and I are currently vacationing at Walt Disney World, Orlando for our honeymoon, and the other day we each adopted one of those animatronic banshee toys from the Pandora section of the Animal Kingdom (based on the Ikran from James Cameron's Avatar - see attached)! I thought it might be fun to base my next PC build off of my banshee colors, with a little bit of an Avatar theme splashed in. Then I could perch my banshee on my tower or monitor or something. I'm not really a massive Avatar fan, but the banshee toys look cool enough so I figure it would at least be a fun project with a neat enough result.

But what I'm wondering is, would there be any way to mod the controller bit (or the wiring, as it is attached by cable) that makes the banshee's mouth, head, and wings move, in order to be able to manipulate it through a function of the PC without having to reach for the controller piece?

If so, how hard do you think it would be? I don't know much at all about this kinda stuff and I probably wouldn't be comfortable trying to DIY it unless I had a pretty thorough step-by-step guide. I just thought it would be cool! Lol.

Thanks in advance!

Edited October 27, 2019 by Fortified Ookami
Typo

TheOcularMan · October 29, 2019

On 10/26/2019 at 9:43 PM, Fortified Ookami said:

<snip>

But what I'm wondering is, would there be any way to mod the controller bit (or the wiring, as it is attached by cable) that makes the banshee's mouth, head, and wings move, in order to be able to manipulate it through a function of the PC without having to reach for the controller piece?

If so, how hard do you think it would be? I don't know much at all about this kinda stuff and I probably wouldn't be comfortable trying to DIY it unless I had a pretty thorough step-by-step guide. I just thought it would be cool! Lol.

Thanks in advance!

Well originally I was going to tell you to connect it to an 'Arduino' type board. However upon further investigation, I think the motion is controlled by 'wire', like a Muppet. So... I'm at a loss for a simple solution.

To confirm, dose it take batteries?

Fortified Ookami · November 8, 2019

On 10/29/2019 at 1:12 AM, TheOcularMan said:

Well originally I was going to tell you to connect it to an 'Arduino' type board. However upon further investigation, I think the motion is controlled by 'wire', like a Muppet. So... I'm at a loss for a simple solution.

To confirm, dose it take batteries?

Oops, sorry have been busy with getting back to work and forgot to check back.

I believe it does take batteries but I will confirm when I get home.

EDIT: Actually, come to think of it, I see what you mean. There is an on/off switch on the toy, and now that I actually put my brain to use I'm remembering that the switch only turns the sound on and off. The toy is operated mechanically, which complicates things.

Oh well. Thanks for the reply! Lol.