Greetings owners of the Big Loo Robot. Atour web site of BigLooRobot, we are constantly looking for ways to improve theBig Loo collector hobby and increase the enjoyment of this famous 1963 Marx ToyCompany Robot. Our R&D team has recently developed a way to restoreBig Loo\'s voice to better than new condition. And did we mention that itis a quick & easy 60 second fix?
PROBLEMS WITH THE ORIGINAL VOICE
Due to the fact that he is now over 50 yearsold, most surviving Robots have stopped talking due to broken hand crank knobsor punctured speaker cones. And those few Robots that do still talk often havea very weak voice. Heck, even when theRobots were brand new in 1963, the voices was never that loud. Thenthere\'s the problem of cranking the internal record atjust the right speed totry and understand what he is saying!
Lastly, most owners have never heard him speakall 10 phrases because of the random nature of how Marx designed their voiceplayback mechanism. The instructions say to rotate the crank backwards, 1/10thto 1 turn to select another track. But in reality, all that does is lift theneedle up, which is on a spring and when it drops back down, it might land on adifferent track and it might not. You may have to try that 100 times or more toplay all 10 phrases. Whew!
HOW WE MADE IT
We took a circuit board with a voice ROM chip onit and made a crystal clear recording. To achieve that goal, we disassembled aRobot head and removed the record platter. We then cleaned all the tracksand reconditioned the playback needle. After reassembling the playbackmechanism but with the head still apart, we setup a high quality microphonedirectly in front of the speaker cone and rotated the crank whilerecording. And just like the kids in 1963, we had to crank over and overagain to get just the right speed and a good spoken phrase. We know ittakes hundreds of attempts to change tracks and get all 10 phrases becausethat\'s what we had to do. The end result was a high quality digitallymastered recording. The audio difference between listening to the intactRobot \"before\" and the digitally mastered recording \"after\"was significant. In terms of volume, the increase was 10 fold and amazing!
USING THE TALKS AGAIN MODULE
To use our \"Big Loo Talks Again\" module, you simply place the small 2\" X 2.5\" plastic box under the Big Loo\'s rolling base platform. Use double sided tape (not provided) in case you ever want to remove it. It stays completely out of view. A small ten inch long tethered wire allows you to place the 1.5\" wide Start/Stop button anywhere you want. This is what you will press to activate the voice playback. As an option and If you so choose to get reallyreally creative with hiding the button, you canactually pop off the small plastic button cover with a small screwdriver and reveal the super tiny micro switch. Because it is only 1/2\" wide, there are a multitude of places you could hide it. We included a picture of how small it is in the photo gallery.
We like the switch at the rear of therolling platform as it\'s easy to get to and very unobtrusive. However, aeazygreat hidden location is under the yellow Rocket Launcher. Just thread thetethered button through the Rocket Launchers side mounting holes (you would have to cutand splice the wire back together with some tape). Or you can just placethe button underneath and directly next to the \"Big Loo Talks Again\"module for everything to be completely out of view.
If you prefer not tosimulate the sound coming from the Robot itself and want to just place it on thewall next to your Robot display, that would certainly be an option. The choiceis yours. We have included numerous placement ideas in the photo gallery.
QUALITY OF THE PLAYBACK
This playback module is small but boy, is itloud! When mounted under the rolling platform, the sound will bounce offthe surface your Robot is standing on. Carpet helps to reduce the volume and itwill still be loud enough to fill a room. Tile or wood surfaces make thevoice extremely loud and can be heard from 20 feet or more. Instead of straining to hear Big Loo talk,you will be using various techniques to make him less loud. There are no volume controls on the module itself.
We have placed a short pause between each phrasebefore he speaks the next one. Those will play through twice just in caseyour guests are so amused by your newly talking Robot, that they want to hearthem all again. At the end of the phrases, we have recorded the 1963 TV commercial.Which is a lot of fun because the announcer rings the Robot\'s bell, toots his whistle and goes through all of Big Loo\'s features. This is the same commercial you can play on YouTube.It you choose not to play the commercial, just tap the button to shut itoff and then tap again to start the spoken phrases anew. It\'s all just plain good old fun!
The total length of digitally mastered recordingis 2 minutes playing 10 original phrases, then one repeat of the 10phrases and finally, the hilarious audio from the 1963 commercial.
At the end of the recording, the module willautomatically stop playing. Although the \"Big Loo Talks Again\"module does an excellent job of playing Big Loo\'s phrases, they still originatedfrom the crudely made 1963 Marx Toy Company playback record. However, they are much better sounding than any Big Loo you will ever come across. Whenthe commercial plays, it sounds just about as perfect as it did when watchingit on TV.
If you have ever heard spoken phrases from yourRobot, you will agree that this is an excellent improvement in clarity and agigantic difference in volume. However, if this is your very first time hearingBig Loo speak, you may be somewhat disappointed at how primitive the voice sounds. But this was the MarxToy Company\'s playback solution in 1963. We include simple operating instructions and the complete list of the spoken phrases and in the order that they are played.
POWER LIFE ANDDURABILITY
The Big Loo Talks Again\" module is poweredby 3 AAA batteries (not included). There is an On/Off switch on the module thatcan conserve power in the situation where your Robot will be sitting for months without use. You should get 300 to 500 plays on a set of batteries but obviouslyif left switched on for extended periods of time, it will eventually drain thebatteries. The recording itself cannot be erased even ifthe batteries are removed. You really can\'t hurt this thing and other thanoccasional batteries, it should last you a very, very long time.
