Gabby Gabby Toy Story 4: The Missing Voice Box Doll & Collector’s DIY Solution

Gabby Gabby emerges as a standout new character in Toy Story 4, featuring distinctive personality traits and a signature sweet, vintage-inspired appearance. Throughout the film’s storyline, she joins iconic toys like Woody and Buzz Lightyear on adventures, highlighting themes of friendship and unity within the toy community.

Despite her pivotal role, Disney has yet to release an official ‌Gabby Gabby doll with authentic voice box functionality‌ that accurately replicates her movie counterpart. Currently, the most screen-accurate ‌1:1 scale Gabby Gabby collectible‌ is a Brazilian-manufactured replica (see Figure 1). Regrettably, this premium collectible lacks her signature ‌pull-string voice mechanism‌.

In a creative nod to the film’s plot, I engineered an authentic solution: ‌Transplanting a voice box‌ salvaged from an official ‌Disney Woody doll‌ into the Gabby Gabby replica. This DIY modification finally delivers the authentic movie-accurate experience collectors desire.

First, because Gabby Gabby’s body is completely sealed, I will open a round hole on her belly to serve as the speaker hole opening. This hole will also be relied upon to insert the internal voice box, install the pull-string mechanism, and thread the string. Additionally, a round hole for the pull string must be created on the back of her neck.

Drill a circular hole on the belly using a dedicated drill bit.

Drill a hole at the back of the neck for threading the pull ring rope.

The internal sound box used for the Gabby doll in Toy Story 4 emits the original sound of the doll. The sound-producing part is located on the belly, which can be pressed to produce sound. The rope-pulling structure is inside the neck position, and it can produce sound by pulling the rope. Finally, since the doll produced in Brazil does not have buttons on the back, 2 buttons consistent with the movie were added, so as to restore the character in the movie more faithfully.