Little Mermaid Pet, is there any saving it?

So I went to the flea market today and found This little mermaid pet (I don't think it's technically a giga pet??) and I was really excited to start it up when I got home. I sort of went into a spiral of depression after I opened it up. It seems the old batteries were left in and leaked. My boyfriend looked at it and says that the damage around the battery prongs (don't know correct terms?) didn't look too bad but the real problem is with this thing!?:



I thought it might be like an internal battery but there are holes on the other side of the plastic like it might be a speaker. My boyfriend told me that if it's a battery we might be able to replace it and then *maybe* it will work, but here is the damage around where the batteries were:

https://25.media.tumblr.com/79153473ed5de945e5fbeaa19fc4f344/tumblr_ml81zd3RzU1rlaxa9o2_1280.jpg

https://25.media.tumblr.com/fcc8fe204d78adc483884c643d32a141/tumblr_ml81zd3RzU1rlaxa9o3_1280.jpg

https://24.media.tumblr.com/def038e55506ee732e6a8fbfc1148c08/tumblr_ml81zd3RzU1rlaxa9o4_1280.jpg

I know the pictures don't show it too well but it just looks kind of like... rusty a little bit?

I'm not sure if the metal on the back of the battery compartment is important (probably...) but you can really see that the battery acid just got to it



I haven't done anything yet except take it apart and sort of put it back together (not really)

I've tested the batteries on another tama so I know that's not the problem and I tried putting them in every which way

I know that it's probably dead for good but I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything I could since I'm actually really upset over this.

I haven't been able to buy anything new for my collection in a really long time and finding this at an affordable price made me really happy until I saw that it was damaged.

Please ANY suggestions will do! It's not like it can get any worse... ;/

And here's what the front of it looks like just in case you were wondering?

Looks like water damage to me. That first picture is the speaker not the battery. More than likely something else on the board was severely damaged by water. Sorry That's a Thinkway Mermaid and from what I understand they are a lot of fun.

Try to scrape of the rust, discoloration. Sometimes that will fix a digital pet. The more you rub off, the better.

Good luck!

SailorRosette said:

Try to scrape of the rust, discoloration. Sometimes that will fix a digital pet. The more you rub off, the better.

Good luck!

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What do you suggest I scrap it with?

EDIT: Thanks for the tips you gave me in the chat, I guess I did all I could (including break a sound wire.. woops)

Maybe one day I'll find a cheap one on ebay that's missing some buttons or has a ruined front and I'll be able to use mine for parts :/

Sorry you couldn't fix it. I tried looking for other pets and found these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tiger-Electronics-Giga-Pets-Little-Mermaid-1997-Very-Nice-with-New-Batteries-/121092530291?pt=Electronic_Battery_Windup_Toys_US&hash=item1c31ad6073

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-NEW-MGA-VIRTUAL-REALITY-CYBER-PET-CORAL-MERMAID-DIGITAL-POCKET-GAME-/121001960346?pt=Electronic_Battery_Windup_Toys_US&hash=item1c2c47639a

I saw a thinkway not long ago, but I dunno what happened to it. =X

Take a Q-tip, dip it in white vinegar and rub at the corroded parts. Dry it and then see if that did anything.

Midorime said:

Sorry you couldn't fix it. I tried looking for other pets and found these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tiger-Electronics-Giga-Pets-Little-Mermaid-1997-Very-Nice-with-New-Batteries-/121092530291?pt=Electronic_Battery_Windup_Toys_US&hash=item1c31ad6073

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-NEW-MGA-VIRTUAL-REALITY-CYBER-PET-CORAL-MERMAID-DIGITAL-POCKET-GAME-/121001960346?pt=Electronic_Battery_Windup_Toys_US&hash=item1c2c47639a

I saw a thinkway not long ago, but I dunno what happened to it. =X

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Thanks for the links, I actually did see a few of the little mermaid thinkway pets on ebay but the reason this upset me so much was because I just can't afford to add to my collection and haven't been able to in a while so when I found this for only $2 it made me really happy but now I'm just really disappointed :/

MintyDreams7 said:

Take a Q-tip, dip it in white vinegar and rub at the corroded parts. Dry it and then see if that did anything.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! I might try that in the future but for now I don't want to do anything else with it that might get my hopes up :/

Hm... it doesn't look half as bad as some pets I've messed with. If it was just battery leakage, I don't see why scraping it wouldn't work. Dunno though.

Midorime said:

Hm... it doesn't look half as bad as some pets I've messed with. If it was just battery leakage, I don't see why scraping it wouldn't work. Dunno though.

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Yea but after I had help looking at it a little closer we kind of came to the conclusion that it looked like it might have shorted :/

I found a lot that has a mermaid pet and a few other goodies: https://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-Giga-nano-tamagotchi-virtual-pet-lot-nano-puppy-tamagotchi-angel-ect-/251258808428?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D6966441677815652508%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D4%26sd%3D281089826031%26

Did you get all the rust on all metals? It can take a while to rub the stuff of that shouldn't. All white, yellowish, rusty colored likely doesn't belong.

Midorime said:

I found a lot that has a mermaid pet and a few other goodies: https://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-Giga-nano-tamagotchi-virtual-pet-lot-nano-puppy-tamagotchi-angel-ect-/251258808428?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D6966441677815652508%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D4%26sd%3D281089826031%26

Click to expand...

Thank you fo sending me these links Midorime but as I said before I can't afford anything new and wont be able to for quite some time :/

SailorRosette said:

Did you get all the rust on all metals? It can take a while to rub the stuff of that shouldn't. All white, yellowish, rusty colored likely doesn't belong.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure, my boyfriend did most of the work and I trust that he knows what he's doing since he builds computers and such. I'll probably have another look at it sometime, but not today

Ahh. He likely did, but a second pair of eyes never hurts.

Hope it can be fixed. They are suppose to be fun.

It's too bad you live on the other side of the country otherwise I'd try to help ya get it working. :<