My mattel ghost trap is ........ DEFECTIVE!

Got my trap in the mail today and when I hit the pedal to open it … nothing. The doors don’t open.. the pke meter don’t light up.. it just makes the power up sound… and it resets the sound everytime I step on the pedal! I’m soooo ■■■■■■!

I had the same problem at first too, make sure the batteries are pushed in all the way, that was the problem with mine.

yeah it seems the battery placement and he cable conector’s are Very sensitive… check them out and be sure the cable is aligned properly and the batteries are fresh and well placed.

Ok I will try that… ill let u know if that works

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I cannot find the post- but another user posted something that seems like this could be the sound-system check cycle.

If I find the post, i’ll link it here.

With thanks to jackdoud-

O M G! Thanks so much guys! That worked! My trap is working just fine!

This is the reason I didnt pick one up.

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this thing is super sensitive to batteries. If they are half dead or mixed brands, it will do odd things.

good tips here guys.. thanks a lot. I usually try not to mix batteries but you know.. it happens sometimes when you are in a pinch or in a rush. Glad I will know to really avoid doing this with this prop.

My pack only turns on in prop mode and the pedal doesn’t wrk at all! The light are on on the pedal but I get nothing…

Well I was able to fix it. Opened up the pedal and the dpdt pushbutton inside wasn’t connected to the pedal pushdown mechanism. Probably came loose during shipping. Working fine now!

I had two traps arrive today! One worked great- the other did not. The" power up "sound comes on twice-then the doors open by themselves- then nothing.

I called Matty and they said it has been reported and I should get an email in a few days.

Is that all? Does it then start to cycle through the individual light and sounds? Because the start up sounding twice sounds like part of the “test” sequence detailed in another thread.

Is that all? Yes. That’s all… It doesn’t function properly. Power up sound repeats, 2 seconds later the doors open that’s it. Pedal doesn’t respond, and it only will do that much in movie mode. Not worried, like I said I have two, the other works fine, and set-up was easy.

Well I just got mine. I waited so long for this and the thing is just plain defective. Right out the box I put in new batteries plugged the cables turned it on. The power on sound came on along with the lights. I press the pedal nothing happens. I press it about 3 times. The 3rd time the damn thing makes this horrible grinding noise that would not stop! The doors didn’t even open . I try to shut off the damn thing and it wouldn’t shut off. I press the on/off switch several times then it finally shut up. I then took the cable off and reattached it. Powered on again, pressed the pedal and this time the door opened with the grinding sound gone but then kept repeating this the sound effects in a loop like its glitched. The door wouldn’t even close back . I had to keep pressing on and off and play with the pedal to get it back down. Now I cant get it to open back up at all. All it does its make crazy sounds and turns off when it feels like it. What a disappointment. I’m going to upload a video of what it does in a moment. Going to call Matty and see what they can do.

No, by “is that all?” I meant did it slowly cycle through the individual light and sound stages (because if it did, then it could be the Trap acting as if the button inside the pedal was stuck in the active position), I was provoked to ask “is that all?” as it was possible that you might’ve switched it off before it proceeded further through the cycle…

Good to hear you have another, but sorry to see another account being put onto the growing list.

Long time viewer, first time poster also…the gears for my doors grind like a ■■■■ when they open. Come on Matty >(

It’s annoying, but in a tear-down it was discovered that the gears are spring loaded, so there’s nothing being damaged in the actual mechanism itself. I imagine they designed it that way to save money and make it easier; no need for precisely-timed servos.

so many topics dont know where to post this, and if this has already been brought up i apologize but

like many others my Matty trap came in defective,

powered up but doors would never open, first thing i did was start taking it apart, tested it out while it was apart and the motors would still not open doors or just light up and sounds, next thought was to check make sure the motors were hooked up correctly all looked good there,

wasent till i was about to give up i took a look at the pin connector to the trap cartrige, this is when i noticed what a crappy part it was, its a highly cheaply molded pin connector,

the first thing i notice was one of the pins was bent, bent it back plug the connecter in and still no doors, then i started looking at the female side of it, the plastic is so week that when the pins were going in, it was not lining up and pushing the plastic down so it was never making a good connection,i took a hobby knife and trimmed up the pin holes, pushed it back in, door finally opened,

grinding noise, but with the doors opeing i was happy so far,

so if ur having a glitch with ur trap that’s not a grinding noise take a look down at ur pin connector

Of the two traps I ordered, one is doing the EXACT same thing you described here. I’ve begun troubleshooting the problem, and one thing I noticed is the trap boots up normally when turned on with the cable unplugged from it. When I plug it back in, the doors immediately fling open and it lights up red as if the pedal was stepped on, but it doesn’t respond to the pedal at all. So as it’s lit up red and the doors are open, if I unplug and replug the cable, it then proceeds to finish up the sequence with the white “suck” light and sounds, the doors slam shut, and everything else works as usual.

Basically, the pedal and/or cable seems to be causing the malfunction. I’m going to swap pieces between this and my correctly-functioning trap and see if it helps remedy this problem. If not, I’m going to open up the pedal and see if there’s a loose wire or something. If all else fails, I’ll have to call Matty’s horrible and outsourced customer service…joy.

This has been EXTREMELY frustrating. Every damn trap should work correctly right out of the box - no glitches, no tinkering, no fidgeting with the batteries until it finally works.