A brand new looking system

If you have a kid into video games, this picture is a familiar one.

It's a ds lite. We have 3 of these. For Christmas, my kiddos asked for an upgrade so Santa was extremely kind enough to deliver their wishes. My intention was to re-sell the old systems to pay for the new systems.

However, somehow, in the last 6 months each ds lite has ended up like this.

That's what happens when a 2 year old gets a hold of them (this picture doesn't depict the worst, there was one that had the top half completely broken off).

Now that my 2 year old is a 3 year old, he is a little wiser (yeah 6 months does wonders during that age). He has mastered the art of handling this ds lite and wants one of his own, but playing on this hand me down is a little difficult, since the hinge has broken off so what does that mean?

We bought him a brand new one.

yeah right. He's 3.

We're not buying him a system (he's only getting this one because we already have it on hand). My hubby found instructions online to replace the exterior housing of the system since the system still works perfectly. The entire ds lite would have to be taken apart, but he figured it was worth a shot since the cover cost was only $10.

What's the verdict? A brand new looking ds lite with no broken hinge!

Isn't it pretty? This was a test run and it worked. So now, one surgery down, 2 more to go. A.'s favorite color is green so we ordered him a green case to replace another broken ds lite.

If I remember, I'll take pictures of the process which may seem very intimidating, but wasn't so bad. If all goes well, I'll finally be able to sell the other systems that I have and no longer need. Since we always have a screen protector, the system will look completely new without a single scratch..perfect for selling!