Handy Mommy fixing Flicker

GiJu bought Callie the Handy Manny tools at a yard sale. It's really a cool set of toy tools that sing and dance in their box and includes a bilingual talking flashlight named Flicker.

Flicker became one of Callies most beloved nighttime toys. She is afraid of the dark and Flicker allows her to have a light in her bed that also talks to her. The best part for me is that he auto shuts off after 30 minutes so it doesn't go through batteries too fast.

Well this weekend Flickers light burnt out. Callie called me crying Flicker was broken and was ballistic. He still talked but no light. I attempted to change the batteries but to no avail. The lightbulb was soldered to the wires and not easily replaced. But I figured I could do this how hard could it be? I did check if I could buy a new one first but it's not sold anymore and a used one is worth $50! So I ordered a new bulb, LED to upgrade from Amazon and waited for it to come in the mail.

Well today I fought this thing for nearly 2 hours trying to fix it. I soldered the new LED bulb in at least 10 different times. While the solder was still hot the bulb would light, for about 30 seconds then it would just go out when it cooled and then wouldn't turn on again. I tried this over and over but to no avail. It was terrible as Callie would cheer, hooray he's fixed and then oh no he's broken again, waaaa.

Luckily PaPa Ed came to the rescue on FaceTime with the answer to use a non LED bulb from a regular flashlight and to test it with a simple wire and battery not soldered. It's the engineer brain I swear because I had it fixed in 10 minutes. Meanwhile I was frustrated all morning banging my head on the table trying to figure it out. Thanks PaPa Ed for the help and problem solving!

Callie and D were both happy to have Flicker and he is in bed tonight with Callie. Crisis averted... Phew it's exhausting trying to be the mom who can fix anything. Where is Handy Manny when I need him?!