Since I had a serious amount of fun pulling apart a Megajoy 2 previously, it seemed like a good idea to dismantle something else and the next item that came to hand was an AiAi Banana Catch LCD game; granted, thousands of children around the globe put some effort into opening one of these up when they were bundled with McDonalds Happy Meals (in some cases by throwing them at fixtures, fittings, members of staff and indeed other patrons of said fast food outlet) but they didn’t take pictures, did they?
AiAi Banana Catch - rear of case
Here’s the back of the case (with a second unit above it partially visible) and, along with the power switch and a tiny hole for the sound from the speaker (below the right arm of the golden arch) there are four screws holding everything together and a fifth that keeps the battery compartment cover in place.
AiAi Banana Catch - front of case removed
Once those screws and then the front of the case have been removed, there isn’t actually that much to see! There’s the display itself, a single circuit board that drives everything (the rear of which is visible in the next picture), two pads for the left and right buttons and two wires running to the battery compartment at the bottom left.
The power switch is just a shaped piece of plastic which, when pushed into the “on” position, merely presses a piece of metal against a contact to complete the circuit. A simple mechanism yes, but robust enough that the unit can be abused by an eight year old stuffed full of chicken nuggets and chips and still work.
AiAi Banana Catch - front of case and innards removed
Finally, here’s the rear of the case again but this time with the works lifted forward to show their underside; the two yellow wires that were previously concealed by the board are there to connect it to the speaker.
