Singing Frogs
An interactive group of Singing Frogs that are activated using a themed piano, we restored these characters for Gulliver's Kingdom, Derbyshire, UK.
Pre-Restoration
Pre-restoration these characters were struggling, due to this attraction being outside it will always be a constant battle to keep them operating, the weather had taken its toll on these characters, all speakers where damaged or blown and only one of the frogs mouths would open to sing the note pressed.
The paint of many of the props were in an awful state as well as the controller being damaged, only activating a few of the sound cues.
Mechanical Restoration
Mechanical restoration was difficult, due to the show being outside the pneumatic and electrical systems were in a rough state, our engineers persevered however and were able to fix the equipment - every movement of the characters work again and all air hosing was replaced as the originals were dryrotten and leaking everywhere.
The area was also cleaned up and had electronics hidden to ensure the longevity of the attraction, as well as improve presentation.
See the image of how one of the modules looked pre-restoration.
Controller System
Due to the original controller being worn and using a lot of proprietary modules we do not have any access to parts of schematics for, our best solution was to develop a new control system for these characters.
The controller is self contained in a box, and constructed neatly for easy maintenance, it is Arduino based and perfectly emulates the original controller as well as adding an attraction noise where one of the frogs calls out to passersby to come and play with the keyboard. Our controller does not use proprietary modules and will be easy to maintain by any electrician or mechanic.
Repainting
Luckily for us, the frogs themselves still looked nice visually, the same could not be said for the fiberglass rocks, mushrooms and umbrella though with many chipping layers as well as bare fiberglass being visible, so we put in our best to make the props look nice again, as well as giving them a proper finishing coat to help protect the paint from the weather for many more years.
Finished Product
