A lot of us have leftover controllers from our Hip Gear screen ventures, and they are actually fairly nice controllers. Why not use them? Well... They're kinda ugly and they have a giant hinge post sticking up in the middle. Nobody wants to use that in multi-player, you'd get laughed at. And you can't trade it in at a game store obviously.
Here's how to make it somewhat better. And it's a nice way to get experience with bondo and painting.
(BTW, the only Hip Gear controllers worth doing this to are the GC and Xbox. The PS2 controller SUCKS. Trust me, I've owned all three.)
You will need:
Hip Gear for GameCube
screwdriver, dremel, superglue, assorted sandpaper, hot glue gun (or epoxy), bondo marine putty.
Some sort of Nintendo character with a head you can salvage.
Krylon Fusion spray paint. It's made especially for plastics.
Whatever else I forgot to list but mention later.
Build it:
First unscrew the screen from the controller for whatever use you have in mind. Theres a screw underneath a sticker near the bottom, be sure to get that. Next, unscrew the controller shell. Once again there is a screw underneath a sticker on the back, don't miss it. Keep all the screws/parts in a zip-loc bag to keep them from getting lost.
While you're at it use Goo-Gone to get rid of the sticker goo on the back.
Now on the end of the controller plug you will also see a power port and a video plug. We don't need nor want those there anymore. So use a utility knife to cut them off as close to the big plastic thing as you can. Then drop a few drops of superglue on the wires to keep them from coming out. Now if you are prolly thinking "What about the exposed wires?! The superglue won't work well as an insulator." well it's okay, because only one wire actually connects with the controller. Fix that by looking on the controller board, you'll find the controller plug wires parallel to the screen wires, and a single wire linking the grounds together. Desolder that wire. Now all those exposed wires lead to nothing, thus it's safe! While you're at it desolder all the screen wires too. You don't want them flopping around inside the controller.
Dremel time. Cut off the pyramid looking hinge thing from the top controller piece.
Now find a piece of scrap plastic. If you aren't gonna use the screen case, cut off a piece from the back of that. It needs to fit in the inside of that gaping hole we made earlier. Rough cut it with the dremel, then sand it to fit.
Check to make sure it fits in the controller fine, then superglue it in place.
Once the glue has dried wipe off the case with rubbing alcohol to insure the bondo will stick. Cut off a hunk of bondo, knead it with your (clean) hands until the entire thing is of uniform color. It hardens pretty fast, so don't dawdle here. Stick it onto the gap in the middle and mash it until it spreads out. Don't use too little or just enough, use plenty. When you sand you'll see why.
I didn't care for the textured looking plastic paint stuff they put on the inside of the grip, so I used 320 grit smooth sandpaper and got rid of it! It's up to you if you like it or not.
Now that the bondo has been hardening for several hours we can sand. Use a coarse grit at first (I used 60), then when you start to get near the platic use a medium grit (like 120). For getting the corners wrap the paper around a plastic ruler, then just slide back and forth. When it's pretty nearly flat use a fine grit (320). I might have used an even smaller than that but I don't remember.
(this is the part where I lost my camera and wasn't able to take any more progress pics.
Now to paint. Normally you would first use a primer and sand the bondo area, since for some reason when you sand the bondo ends up at a slightly lower level than the plastic, adn the pain dosn't apply well to it on the first coat either. But since we're using special paint made just for plastic and we're just gonna stick a head on the bondo area it will look fine.
Don't paint the back of the controller, it looks fine black and has rubber handgrips you can't paint.
Once again wipe the case with rubbing alcohol on a rag. Then stick the case in a box and paint it. Recoat if needed.
Now for the fun part! Cutting off mario's head! Before it was put on my controler it was an action figure my brother had found at a thrift store. Probably a Burger king toy. He let me have it since it was for a good cause. Anyways, use the dremel with cutting wheel attachment, cut the head off at the neck, then cut off the back of the head. Make a slight hole in the head so that the hot glue has more area to hold onto. Hold a long piece of rough sandpaper on a table and sand the head back and forth on it to give it a flat surface good enough for glueing.
Now that the paint is dry, warm up the hot glue gun, stick some on the back or mario's head and stick it on the case. Instead of hot glue you might be able use epoxy depending on your mario head. I used hot glue because the epoxy wouldn't stick to the plastic mario's head was made of.
Assemble everything back together and go play GameCube. You'll be a very proud mario fanboy, playing mario with a mario controller, wearing your mario t-shirt and underwear, and eating 80's mario cereal.
Does it look better though? Before:
After:
Yeah...
I might do this for my Xbox controller too, I already have a cool head found. Call me headhunter
.