How can I change the color of an old Game Boy Advance?

December 3, 2004 5:50 PM

GirlyGameBoyFilter: How difficult would it be to paint an old-style Game Boy Advance-- pink? My 4 year old stepdaughter has been coveting her older siblings' Game Boys, but we weren't sure she'd actually be able to play it, or not break it, so we didn't think buying her a new one was very smart. However, my son (her stepbrother) got a new SP from his uncle for his birthday, meaning that his old-style GBA would be sitting around unplayed. He agreed to give up the old one. I'd like to give it to the 4 year old, but spiff it up to make it something uniquely hers, and feel less like a hand-me-down. The pinker, sparklier, more Hello Kittyfied I can make it, the better. I've tried googling, but what I found wasn't helpful. How does one do this?
posted by Shoeburyness to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

You could try lots of nail polish. If you can take off the outside somehow, you could avoid mucking up the buttons.
Craftster.org is a great board for this kind of question - someone might have already done it and posted about it, but if not, they'll surely have ideas if you ask them.
posted by librarina at 5:54 PM on December 3, 2004

What librarina said... when I was younger I used to paint my phones with nailpolish. It works very nice. And of course you can buy sparkly nailpolish, and nailpolish with little harts and stars and so on.
Maybe you can find some sticker-gems that fit the buttons?
posted by degnarra at 5:57 PM on December 3, 2004

*hearts
posted by degnarra at 5:59 PM on December 3, 2004

Maybe you can find some sticker-gems that fit the buttons?

Oh that is awesome. When you're done, will you make one for me too?
posted by librarina at 6:14 PM on December 3, 2004

If I were going to paint a gameboy pink, I would get pink spray paint, tape up all the critical parts (the screen, buttons, etc) and spray-paint it. You'll have to be pretty careful about bleeding around the edges of the tape, and will probably have to touch it up somehow...

Nailpolish is probably easier and neater.
posted by muddgirl at 6:19 PM on December 3, 2004

You can also buy vinyl decals and covers relatively cheaply online.

decalgirl and gbamod are two good places to start. You can do a custom texted cover for about $6 at gbamod and I think both sites offer the ability to create your own skin if you send in an image. A lot more chances for variety than painting it yourself.
posted by hindmost at 6:25 PM on December 3, 2004

My girl (who has girlified a number of objects over the years), asks me to post and recommends looking here for inspiration, and in addition recommends spraypaint over nail polish because "nail polish will chip off and will be really uneven. And messy."

Good luck!
posted by j.edwards at 6:26 PM on December 3, 2004

Casemodders use vinyl dye to color plastic items. I've only used black so I can't comment on the availability/quality of pink dye.
posted by TimeFactor at 6:54 PM on December 3, 2004

There's a new paint out, name of Krylon that is meant for painting plastics and appears to be plastic-based. It works very well.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:47 PM on December 3, 2004

fff is somewhat confused. Krylon is a brand name that does a variety of aerosol paints and dyed, among them being some vinyl die which, as TimeFactor mentioned, works great on plastics. What you're going to want to do is roughly this:
1. Disassemble the GBA
2. Give the case a light scuffing with a fine grain sandpaper
3. Paint it with pink vinyl die
4. Customize buttons and things as desired]
5. Reassemble
posted by kavasa at 8:06 PM on December 3, 2004 [1 favorite]

You could also get a pink replacement case. This one is made for use with the Afterburner backlight, but you get the drift.
posted by box at 9:00 PM on December 3, 2004

I believe you want to do something like this. Have fun.
posted by plinth at 2:46 AM on December 4, 2004

Hmmm. [wanders down to workshop...]

Right you are: it's Krylon "Fusion" for plastic.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:17 AM on December 4, 2004

When the GBA first came out, a guy dyed his white GBA with just standard Rit fabric dye. So, if the game boy is white, give it a shot.
posted by zsazsa at 8:54 AM on December 4, 2004