How to rewire it up

Sometimes there is just a broken wire in the box due to the vibrations made by the oscillator and or the batteries being removed and replaced activity. A blown circuit is rare unless someone tried to fix it and wired it wrong. It only takes a millisecond to blow a component if wired wrong. Same holds if a circuit gets wet ! Best advice is to remove the power source i.e. the batteries; and dry everything before turning it on !

The circuit itself is a small card. There are a few discrete components that are wired to the card. Check the connections. If you don't know exactly where the broken wire goes, don't guess ! It could be the end of Elmo as you knew him ! Get advice ! It could be the difference of a quick soldering and having to replace the entire unit. Don't be afraid of opening it up while just checking. Just put the screws back the way they came out.

Do it all with the batteries removed, please !

If the Device does nothing, it maybe the on/off switch. The batteries are obviously the first thing you checked, right?

If it talks; but, doesn't wiggle, its the oscillator connection.

If it wiggles but doesn't talk, it may just be the speaker wire.

If it talked but didn't wiggle and someone worked on it and now it does nothing, the person blew a component on the board. Most likely a capacitor. They don't take change in polarity very well ! The whole board is as cheap as the sum of its parts and labor.

Good Luck !