Exposing FAKE Restoration Videos!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Something isn't right about these....
I don't mean to hate, just thought it would be interesting to look at!
Let me know your thoughts!
Original video: • Restoration Old Ｎｉｎｔen...
#TheRetroFuture #GameBoy #Restoration
Imagine living in a country that is SO economically prosperous that the citizens throw perfectly good gameboys in the trash. These guys must be living the good life
Damnit, Im American and I dont see random electronics on the streets!
@@qwertykeyboard5901 lmao
Well, in a lot of places that could just be trash and e-waste from other countries.
@@qwertykeyboard5901 you'd actually be surprised how many people lose electonics. In the last year I found a couple tablets old Iphone and a nice watch
Americans absolutely do that all the time. Welcome to waste culture. One of the absolute MOST American things to do, second only to mass shootings and legalized bribery, waste culture. Americans fix almost nothing. They'll throw away 1000 dollar iPhones because the screen is scratched. It's considered perfectly normal to buy a new phone or car every few years. So much so that you're looked down on, actively mocked, if you don't have the latest and greatest.
Well this specific video doesn't appear to be in the US, that's no surprise, since this video that he's showing is a fraud to begin with.
The "I stumbled upon this thing completely randomly!" theme they do strongly reminds me of the setup for those horrible, fake, "animal rescue" videos that plague TH-cam, where people will shove a puppy's head through some bike spokes and then "just stumble upon it" and "rescue" it. Then the next week the same two people are "rescuing" the exact same dog from a hole in the ground three feet away from where the bike was.
The way they attempt faking a genuine find just isn't natural at all. I can't quite put my finger on what, but something about it is just so unnatural.
Exactly
I don't think that comparing animal abuse and shitty content is fair-
Welcome to the rice field boys.
@@Perrovoladorquevuela i can see where you're coming from, but i've seen and used this a lot. I think it's just giving an example using the *WAY* worse version of the "more mundane" wrong act (or whatever). Like saying: "it's the same type of lying as those trying to get away with murder"
Probably the fact that the natural response for coming across a dog with his head stuck in wheel spokes is the quickly get it out instead of taking out your phone to film yourself doing it is what makes it feel unnatural
dang that's my gba that I lost during my asia vacation last year. glad they found it.
nice seeing you here :)
Now try getting it back (jk lol. I dont think thats funny :(. I suck at sarcasm)
im so happy for you
Lmao
lol
I don't know chief. After I cleaned my laptop in the sink, it actually unlocked additional RAM. These guys seem legit to me.
That explains why the big tech companies always tell you not to expose your electronics to water. They want us to give them more money for RAM instead of getting more of it for free 😒
You're hilarious😅
It's the ram that downloaded itself
Fact
Exactly! If you dry the board completely, it works. I myself washed a PCI card last month.
When I pointed out my skepticism of this guys site involving suspect rust (mud/sand mixture) and a magic brush he used to eliminate the rust the response from other "viewers" was shocking. One idiot even called me a troll, while another said I should not say such things but praise the so called restorer for the time and effort he put into the video. I totally agree with your comments and those of others here. Why not create a new channel devoted to exposing these fake restorers, even name and shame them. Sign me up as your first subscriber.
Okay troll
Love the power of bots
I'd follow that channel
exactly what a troll would say
What a silly troll smh.
The objects that these channels "stumble across" are obviously planted. And the rust they show is fake as well. It's always bright orange and evenly covering all sides of the object, like it was painted on -- probably made with a solution of salt water and iron filings, which quickly rusts when exposed to air. And they always completely reassemble the item before showing it working, to hide how they've swapped the internal components from a working unit.
The lazy ones just switch to a completely different unit to show the finished "restoration", and have been caught showing different serial numbers on the item they "found" versus the one they "restored". Or they film it in reverse order -- demonstrate the working unit first, then trash it with dirt and rust and plant it on the side of the road.
I have seen such trickery used in videos varying from tool restaurant all the way to bushcraft. Maybe that mean one's niche has gone mainstream?
Your last sentence in this comment is very hilarious. Imagine destroying a brand new device just to throw it to the trashcan and titled it as the "restoration"
So so many doing it, I had all the channels suggested a few months ago, at least the idiots make it obvious from the thumbnail most times
@@sihamhamda47 Yes, they certainly do it. They earn more money making that video than what they paid for the device.
To be honest I wouldn't mind a little bit of staging but this one is clearly over the top. There is no way in hell this GBA is turning on after what it allegedly had gone through without at least cleaning the inside and letting it dry for 1-2 days. But the worst for me is that old piece of foam. Why would you allegedly use that again if you could use something else in stead or in this case buy new parts anywhere. Which I wouldn't mind as well if it was made clear the old parts were beyond repair instead of hitting screws with a blowtorch which obviously not will powder coat them black. This reminds me on an PC restoration video I've been watching for 25 minutes and in the end the Core 2 Duo machine booted as an Core i5.
I literally feeled robbed 25 minutes of my life that I wasted watching that .....
For me only trashing an working unit would be a more aweful thing to do for an video than that cheating and wasting the time of others.
Incredible how some spray paint on the „rusty“ plastic not only makes it translucent but also magically makes a battery cover appear out of nowhere. This surely is alchemy!
Rusty plastic 😂
mf is the CEO of recycling, have some respect
Right? His shoddy spray job with a flashy red becomes a dull dark red, perfect coverage. What a champ
You saw right through that too, eh?
(I'll show myself out now lol)
Many restoration videos are obviously fake
With iron powder and a simple mixture, you can create rust on anything, so the rust may be real, just not naturally occurring because plastic obviously doesn’t rust.
He picked up a rusty one at the thrift store. It's nothing clever or complicated.
@@princeofcupspoc9073 so that means he is restoring it but him finding it isn’t real?
It's a lot more sinister and tragic when these same criminal organizations stage animal 'rescues'.
The rescue puppy goes from a beagle to a Labrador lol.
Did the fake animal rescue organization also made this fake restoration video? Or are they different organization
@@theBen_HA may not be the same group but the videos originate from the Far East like this one.
@@99Vood99 bruh what you're comparing people making fake restoration videos to people drowning dogs in old car oil and how does making a fake restoration video involve you in a "criminal organization"
@@theBen_HA It's so called internet mafia
I’ve been watching Odd Tinkering for my restoration fix, and he usually states where he got the thing (junk/garage sale, fan sent it in, etc) what the problem seems to be (laser not reading, burnt screen, what have you) and goes step by step in how he fixes it-correct tools, isopropyl alcohol for the motherboards, soap and water for the cases, what parts had to be replaced. Even explained how he removes yellowing, which I had never even heard of before.
It inspired me to fix my ps4 controller that was having stick drift. There’s something so inspiring and fulfilling about watching someone who knows what they’re doing take something broken and making it work again. “Found in the wild” videos are just weird. Unless you’re a vlogger wearing a GoPro 24/7, there’s no reason to film the marshes unless it’s a fake setup for a fake fix
Odd Tinkering is one of my favorite authentic restoration channels. OT proceeds to each step with caution and care. Guys like him inspire me to do my own restorations... if only I weren't such a klutz.
@@hooviridis8388 I’m a MASSIVE klutz, trust me. My hands have a baseline tremor (genetic, I believe) so I’m no surgeon. I started with my old DS, and with all of the stuff OT does in the back of my head, it actually worked! I figure, if you’re looking to try it out, practicing on functional junk is the right place to start. That way you’ll know if you screwed up!
If you can build Lego (or even better-Meccano) you can, in theory, refurbish electronics.
Like that army reserve ad:
If you have money, you can build Lego;
If you can build Lego, you can build Meccano;
If you can build Meccano, you can build a WHOLE COMPUTER FROM SCRATCH
@@hooviridis8388 odd tinkering got me into restoration as well, plus the vids are relaxing 😂
I'm glad the general consensus here is that Odd Tinkering is legit because I really do enjoy their videos as well. And I hadn't noticed anything suspicious about them myself, but seeing the fraud stuff get exposed makes a person worry.
@@stopasking968 at WORST the lies would only be about where OT gets his junk from to restore. The techniques are all legit, especially after digging around online for the tools. This video just doesn’t hold a candle to the quality or informative-ness, let alone the Totally Legit setup. I think I just caught luck on which restoration channel I stumbled across first…
Thank you for making this! I've had these videos plague my home page for years, and it always drives me crazy. I've needed someone to share in my frustration with them. 😂
did you see that one with the motorbike and side car? Like really, you found a rusted out motorbike and side car covered in grass but the tyres still had air in them.
And they always have the titles that are like “Restoring nintendo xbox playstation gameboy handheld gaming console xbox 360”
there is an easy solution for your plague........ stop watching these videos :)
I like how he throws away the screen lens and buys a new one yet awfully cleans up the screen and puts the degraded foam back on instead of buying a new (backlight) one
I frequently order broken systems and repair/mod them and flip them. I've actually snagged a few from sendico since you turned me onto it. But I never thought to go directly wading into the rice paddy itself to find a Gameboy. Brilliant.
Imagine how much money you could save that way!
I have found a woman on the side of the road in Thailand, I have restored her and now she owns me, worst mistake in my life.
@@chongtak yikes......
Noted, use ebay.
Hopefully I can hire this guy to restore my will to live.
You would be so happy to see the end product though.
😂
Lmao that was a good one
Only thing is, be prepared to get covered in dirty and rust, before he can do the “restoration”.
If you pause at 6:45 you can see the sun go through the plastic shells and CLEARLY these are fully red plastic ones as the sun light wouldn't shine through the red-painted-purple shell like it does on that frame.
Not to mention the perfect sheen on this supposedly painted shell. Nuts how bad these get
@@NovaMaster375 The shinyness from the red shell screamed 3rd party shell. It completely reminded me of that DS M where they put the innards of an original DS into a DS Lite.
I noticed that as well! I’m glad that l’m not the only one who noticed that, paint shouldn’t be that translucent at all, especially on thick plastic like that!
Nah that's definitely a painted shell at the end. At 11:10 the finish makes it obvious. It's so thick and uneven. That same shot also shows off the aftermarket A and H buttons though, with telltale off center lettering and in a different don't than the originals.
Exactly, I am just checking whether someone else noticed this;)
I saw a video on one of those channels and fixing a computer. It looked like they opened the tower, took out the motherboard, and then dumped mud on it. To add to that, when he lifts up the board and shows the underside it was PRISTINE. Looked brand new. So I point that out in the comments. The video was removed and re-uploaded an hour later with the only change being that they removed the part where they showed the underside of the muddy board. Unbelievable.
reminds me of a similar one that i watched. this guys opens up a HDD, then decides to clean it with water and brush cus' there was some mud on it then puts all back together. and somehow it perfectly runs windows 7. bro.
Yeah, it never made any sense how a rusty ass Gameboy covered in mud and degradation would magically work after soap and water and a new case xD
It's probably been in mud or water for years no way it would work without a board replacement, the restoration will cost the same s a new one
He must have used some kind of solvent
@@alexramirez4693 nah you could tell he used s different board it didn't look like the original one with the rust
I think this one is heavily misunderstood u can look it up on youtube, there are videos where people fully drown a gaming pc and it still works after its dry, electronic devices only get destroyed by water if the power is on. When theres no electricity going everything is fine, you just have to ensure that its dry when turning it on again....
It didn't, they record it working first, then trash it and make a restoration video - in the end the working device has been recorded prior to the restoration.😂
Submerging a screen like that would cause irreparable damage.
Also, small thing, but it was found without a battery cover and we didn’t see him paint the presumably aftermarket one he installed at the end.
Yeah was getting hints that this was a bit staged when I saw the battery cover. It wasnt until I read some comments that this whole channel is staged on "finding old stuff to restore". After looking at that bike restoration having it covern with "rust" all over is a bit silly
he should have disassembled it first.
Absolutely. the screen would be absolutely shagged
Yeah, I don't recall there ever being a battery cover at the beginning. Where did it come from?
If it were a really simple reflective LCD glass connected by a rubber strip, that would probably survive being submerged for years, but I only ever saw 1 (ONE) complex backlit screen work after being completely submerged, and that was a gigaset cordless phone that fell in a swamp, but I also gave it multiple months to dry, then disassembled the backlight assembly, submerged it, the LCD glass and the keypad contacts in IPA and scrubbed all the dirt off with a toothbrush before even attempting to use it. It actually still works well enough and sits on my desk at this very moment.
You can tell some of these are fake from the thumbnail by the visible smear marks and lines from scrubbing dirt over the top of them. It's so ridiculous.
And it’s always strange dirt that is orange or green
@@zero9112 are you sure it’s green “dirt”…? 🥶
And also the title says like "Restoring gameboy 3ds" when on the thumbnail is actually a nintendo DS lite
@@ImNamo_ That’s the best part. They expect us to believe they restored it when they don’t even know what they’re working on… It’d be like me saying “restoring 50’s caddy” when the thumbnail is actually an 82’ GMC van….. Yeah if they can’t even get that right, I’m sure they haven’t the faintest clue what’s on the inside. Probably why they submerge them in water and scrape them clean with knives and soap…..
@@Kathrynerius Yep, I see one of these videos about the "restauration" of a 30 year old PC but you can see that the "30 yo PC" is in reality a 2012 3rd gen I-core machine.
9:50 crazy how a bit of oil and fire completely changed the thread and length of those screws!
Odd Tinkering is an awesome and legit restoration video maker to watch. His video of repairing this crusty old NDS Lite was so satisfying to watch!
Agree! My favorite restoration channel
Odd Tinkering is the Primitive Technology of restoration videos, he is a fucking chad
Pure and satisfying ASMR my friend.
no plastic can’t rust
He’s one of the only restoration channels I actually watch, because even if it is fake, he’s doing it in a way that I can actually believe.
The cool part of this restoration magic is the transformation of opaque dark blue plastic shells into semi transparent red ones after two coats of red paint.
I've literally seen cars not only look nice and new but actually change models and year.
"Translucent" is the word you're looking for
@@Whom1337
The Boys reference 😱
Years ago (early 2000's), I used to run run laptop motherboards through a dishwasher that had suffered spills by customers. It was a long-shot before replacing the motherboard or entire laptop. But it worked quite well. I would even leave it for the "heated dry" to ensure all moisture was baked out of all components. For many laptops that suffered various liquids/juices that spilled deep into the motherboard and had soaked up under the chips - the dishwasher would actually get all that out!
And as long as there is no corrosion on the PCB or components themselves, water typically has absolutely no affect on electrical components if they are not energized.
But yeah.. a lot of those "found and restored" videos look waaay too fake.
The very reason I scrolled down to the comments. You can submerge just about any electronics in water as long as they're completely dry before you run power through them. I once got a cracking deal on a tube amp (Laney) because the guy left it outside overnight and assumed the rain had fucked it. I've still got it today.
@@anneominous7172 Providing you use clean distilled and de-ionised water you can power up electronics in water. There are some computer systems that are submerged in tanks of water to keep them ultra cool. Water is a good electrical insulator so long as it has no dissolved impurities.
This works well for keyboards, though I would absolutely enforce 24 hours of dry time even after the heated dry in the dishwasher. This will not end well with very hard water or abrasive dishwasher soaps! I actually have an in-line water filter for my tap and dishwasher because the water is so bad here.
I've cleaned motherboars with scrubbing bubbles plus distilled water and it worked fine.
I’m assuming you skip the detergent. That stuff is extremely caustic.
Your commentary is actually really funny, the way you point out all theobvious mistakes they make, makes watching these hella fun. Also, thank you for explaining all the little things.
I'm always so skeptical of restoration videos that purposely omit them buying or installing aftermarket parts or donor parts from another machine. Like, we all know that not everything will work after a soak in whatever chemical bath they put it in. Just be honest about it. It's what I really appreciate about watching channels like the 8-bit guy, odd tinkering, and cars and cameras who show us the whole process with commentary about the issues that arise with each piece they restore.
Odd tinkering is awesome, that guy introduced me to the whole world of restoration videos. It's extra funny if they break something during reassembly every now and then, makes it more authentic.
theres also long island retro gaming whos done some repairs to retro consoles and has had to donor parts from other consoles and literally says its donor and all that
Love odd tinkering
It’s Naptha. NHA is clear on the label.
What do you mean, anything can be fixed by bathing it in a bucket of Cool Blue Gatorade from the Chronostream! Sends it right back to the day it was made.
Partially related but the "cinematography" , or how the scene is shot, is somehow related to those awful fake animal rescue videos where they would just walk around for a bit at the start, and they soon "stumbled upon" an animal in danger (that the people filming put that exact animal in danger), so they come and save the animal and start taking care of them
This whole new trend of faking to repair things that were damaged is set up coincidentally to the same as the fake animal rescues, but what do you think?
Some of those fake animal “rescue” videos actually kill the “before” animal. You can tell because the “after” is not the same one. I wish someone could identify those people, beat the living shit out of them, film the rescue personnel saving them, and then show a completely different person (face blurred to protect the actor) come up and thank them.
This is the world we've created.
A world where most people feel that they are a failure in life if they can't bring about some form or element of fame. It's sad, but it's getting worse. 🤔
@@nomad90125 they’re probably doing it more for the money than the fame. If they’re exposed, they lose the fame, but they keep the money.
These are people trying to feed TH-cam content farms as quickly as possible. And either they or the people directing them monitor what kinds of details the almighty algorithm prefers for recommending videos far and wide, which they try to replicate. Seems like this “stumbling across something spontaneously” conceit has been identified as a big plus for successful uploads.
Oh boy... Don't even get me started on those "animal rescue" vids! Those people are absolute scum.
As someone who builds PCs with parts from the scrap yard i can say that rust, dirt and water are no problem for electronic parts. As long as you clean everything and let it dry there is a good chance that everything works fine 👍🏻
I think you missed the point here. Those videos are fake from the very start. They throw away one piece of Tech and at the end they swap it out to something brand new. Nobody really cares about the water thing. It's like those fake adds for laundry detergent. They never actually wash the clothes. They throw it away and swap them out. Same concept here
@@requiemagent3014 i think you don't understand what i wrote, there are fake videos yes but not all of them are and i can say that in 90% of the time everything works fine, electronics are not so sensible as you think. Many people believe that. My Cellar was under water for 2 days and my PC was there too and after cleaning and some days to let it dry, everything worked fine. I get your point but not everything is fake.
@@requiemagent3014 sorry for my bad english
@@lordsheldor You aren't the sharpest tool in the shed are you. Yest distilled water is perfectly fine for electronics when you make sure the water has evaporated completely. But nobody does that. Just use isopropyl alcohol like everyone else. It's a lot more effective way to clean motherboards etc...
But again not the point. From the original Gameboy this person found on the street is barely anything left at the end product. Around 75% are swapped out to aftermarket parts from china. How is this a restoration?
@@requiemagent3014 You're not so bright yourself I don't think. All the dude was saying is that dunking unpowered electronics in regular water/mud doesn't kill them as long as everything is completely dry when powering up again. And he's right.
THANK YOU for exposing these liars. I HATE people who try to deceive others, especially for profit.
Ordered a box of broken gameboys from Japan, and one was actually full of dirt like muddy grassy dirt. It was odd. I'm used to finding bugs and yuck,but grassy dirt not so much.
not long ago i got a snes controller with dirt caked into it
Must be a bug in the code
You better hope Japanese Dracula isnt around, he really could use some extra direct from his homeland.
I ordered a lot of broken PS2 on ebay and found one had a bag of expired weed in the expansion slot. Another one had a throwing knife in it. And the strangest thing I found inside was a huge dead hornet.
I bought a "broken" N64 off ebay a while back that just had a comical amount of straw and dirt in it, fixing it was literally just giving it a good clean and getting the straw out of the cartridge slot
6:48 the shell was clearly swapped out. The old one was dark purple, the new one is a very bright candy-apple red and the sun is shining through it. Paint doesn't magically turn opaque things translucent.
I noticed the same. However, the shell at the end does indeed look spray painted, maybe they just put the replacement in the sun for show.
@@kyx5631 that shell looks pretty normal for cheap shitty Chinese shells
@@kyx5631 Yeah, that makes it even weirder
Did you watch the video? He's spray painting it right here. 5:50
@Martin Tubewatch So it was spray painted and then still swapped out?
Especially as a repairman myself these videos have always irritated the hell out of me, especially the ones where they just wander around aimlessly and then just "stumble" across something like an oem gameboy and are able to magically repair it even if it looks like its been to literal hell and back
1:07
All shamelessness aside,
That was a pretty sick transition
HERE IS HOW they actually do this in 5 simple steps, take note.
1-Grab your camera and a working gameboy, tear it down, paint it red (no need to record this painting or the tear down) brush it as if you are finishing a restoration and reasamble it.
2-Make some more shots testing it as if is something you just fixed.
3-Grab a non working gameboy and let it sit in a swamp for a couple of days and then take it back home.
4-Tear it down and make some shots cleaning and painting it (record this painting).
5-Edit the video in the following order 3, 4, 1 and 2.
Then go and apparently confuse the hell of millions of people xdd
Facts
Damn
Quite an intriguing find. How you are able to weed out what is and isn't viable for a restoration! Cool to see your reaction and feedback of these.
It’s surprisingly easy
When the object they are "repairing" looks really dirty and purposely broken or they keep finding high priced items in the same spot like it's a gold mine.
Even before this video I could tell when these videos were fake.
There are so many of these fake restorations, and they're always the same. Randomly somehow find a tech item that is dirty but works, with an LCD that has clearly been wet, yet somehow works without defects (anyone that repairs any tech item knows how the tiniest amount of IPA can find find itself under an LCD). I remember a psp one that had a faulty screen in that wasn't even a psp LCD, but in the next scene when it was working, it was.
They're so fake if you know what you're looking at.
@@ShiningTaiga yeah, it's called ✨nitpicking✨
Cleaning electronic boards in water and soap actually works very well. I do that on nasty motherboards and they work fine, because there was no current in the board when I put it in the water. You just have to be absolutely sure the board has no water left hidden under its components.
Heck, I've put stuff in the dishwasher before (without detergent obviously) A good spray with some de-greaser suitable for electronics and a round in the dishwasher cleans boards up very nicely. Did it when I was fixing up old arcade monitor chassis.
watching him react like water is the worst thing for a piece of tech with no current going through it kind of frustrated me. as if that alone would brick a device
Yeah, I cleaned a few motherboards with water. Just make sure it's completely dry before turning it on. lol
I have cleaned motherboards in nice hot water, as long as they're dried well (i usually use a hairdryer and compressed air), water is a great way to clean them up.
Many of these restoration videos are certainly fake though!
"You'll HAVE to take my word for it."
Me, having found your channel completely randomly and having no idea what the difference is but is completely sucked into this video: "I would trust you with my life."
The giveaway for my inexperienced eye was: Why paint the inside of the case, and to a degree he got every nook and cranny.
Also he found it with no battery cover, and those things dont survive regular use...
He has one in the end, so that just means the shell was a kit.
Nah it’s the same shell,I can tell by the shit paint job they did
I'd do that, it would annoy me knowing that the inside isn't coloured, plus it makes for a satisfying video.
@@onemoreweirdo207 I'd be more worried about any peeling inside the device shorting something out.
@@xinx-fn8973 I thought he might've swapped for aftermarket case as well until I saw that crappy amateur paint @11:11
I think he got a new red case and hit it with paint or clear on the front to make it look more authentic (to look like it was painted) but the close-ups of the tiny stand-offs are even red inside and there's no way to hit those with a rattle can, or the little holes would be plugged up.
I'm here to tell you (believe it or not) back in my teen years I lost an original Gameboy around the property we lived on. Lost it during a nasty storm. It was rained on for days and later fire ants incorporated it into part of their mound. Found it the next year when we were getting ready to move, I cleaned out the ants just to see if it would work. Powered on at my surprise and worked except for a dark line going horizontally across the screen. But yeah most of the restorations are fake because I never see most replace the screen.
Those gameboys were durable..
@@nillman unlike tech today, just breaks for no reason whatsoever.
@@The_Backlog_Files it breaks so you'll have to buy another one.
My sister had an iPod she lost somewhere and winter came and went and then we found it in the back yard when the snow was melting. Brought it inside still half frozen in a block of dirty ice and it worked for several years after
@@HugeESmalls yup old technology was built to last.
I knew there was something fishy when I watched this by myself a few months ago. And like you mentioned, every video somehow just finding the item on the ground and stuff, ready to be picked up, idk it's just weird. Glad to see you tackling this
Someone needs to learn the definition of "rust".
Prolly never saw rust in his life😂😂🤣
I'm always skeptical of things that happen to be recorded prior. Something that isn't really related to restorations, but still annoys me is people recording "kind" acts like giving money or food to homeless people for views. A true kind act shouldn't be used for monetary gains! You don't see me creating a damn documentary when I drop some money for someone.
Oh and don't even get me started on fake animal rescues!
@@null643 Is it even people being gullible. Or just assuming it's real because it doesnt even occur to them to think someone would film fake acts of kindness as they've never encountered someone that morally bankrupt
I personally could never relate to someone who would feel the need to record good deeds. Nor share about them on social media. Those moments are so special, wherein, as I was told by an elder I helped once, you are “reminded not in… the wholesomeness of humanity… as that doesn’t exist… but that there are indeed humans with good hearts still.”
_You don't see me creating a damn documentary when I drop some money for someone_
You don't? Then how can you afford to drop money for other people? I have around 843.218 videos on my channel. All documentaries ~25 secs long about me giving someone else some money. Granted after monetization the ads are longer than the actual vids but...how am I suppose to become rich and famous without exploiting other people?
Anyway... *give a like and hit that subscribe button* if you wanna see me giving a starving kid some of my weekend leftovers! 🤟😇
Well, how about mrbeast then?
Usally you are right. Tho some people like Mr Beast (tho a minority of people) who use the monetary gain earned by doing a nice thing to then further do nice things (like the food bank he runs which have proper fridges and such to give people in need all kinds of food, likely paid by the money he makes on his channels)
Elliott has been getting progressively more sassy as I've been watching the channel
You mean less humble, and that's not a good thing.
The amount of restoration of guns I see just for them to be airsoft or pellet guns is annoying
And the few times I've seen real guns being "restored", they've almost always either ruined the gun restoring it or even made it unsafe to fire.
@@Dover78 thats were the fix part comes into play replacing some firearm parts with new ones like firing pin or plates
@teebles give some examples plsssss
@@Miguel_Moran_2005 gun bad then gun good. america
@@Miguel_Moran_2005
channel "Backyard Ballistics" is not fake maybe? he shoots afterwards
I'm sorry I had to pause and take a break because your delivery on the "rusty plastic GameBoy" bit killed me
I've seen a few of these questionable restorations before (not from this particular channel) and while some of them are absolutely fake, switching out devices after a quick clean or something, some of them I have charitably assumed have started with a device with a tiny problem, and then just covered it in that classic red dust you see in all the thumbnails. I won't be naming any names, but anyone who watches The Retro Future has probably seen them in their recommendations. There's like two or three channels that do it, and they all claim it was "found in a field", or "left outside for years". They really ham up how bad the starting product is to make it seem more impressive when it works. For example, they take a Playstation with a fuzzy composite video signal, paint it with the red muck, make a video where they clean it up, replace a capacitor or three, and presto, perfectly working Playstation that they just found in a ditch somewhere! A million views!
The first couple of restorations I saw I believed, because why would anybody just _lie_ like that on the internet? Shocking! Then I realised it was the same red dust on every console and handheld they repaired. Either they're going to the same field every day and digging up more and more gaming fossils, or it's totally faked.
I came here to say the exact same thing I'm sure people have seen the Red dust channel 🤣
I absolutely haven't been recommended any restoration videos like that. I follow this channel but it doesn't cross over like that for me. I had no idea people were making fake restoration videos. I watched LTT restore a Game Gear though. But nothing fake.
My favorite was the guy walking across a frozen lake and found one buried IN THE ICE, and was somehow covered in mud… “Oh I just happened to find this here” my ass, lol. It Yeah it magically worked after a bath, lmao.
This theme of finding something by the roadside is very common. I've seen the same videos except instead of as restoration videos, they're animal rescue videos!
You know for a fact that they bury the poor puppy or kitten in a pile of garbage for them to "discover" and "rescue".
Yeah those videos really are awful. At least this doesn't involve (sometimes appalling) animal cruelty
EXACTLY!! Those phony “animal rescue” video creators should be drawn and quartered!! TH-cam HAS to do a better job deleting those channels. It’s absolutely disgusting to hurt innocent animals for VIEWS!! I truly hope I run into one of those guys some day.
6:45 By the light filtering through the shells plastic I can say with 99.999999% certainty that it's NOT the same shell that was previously painted lmao
OMG! They couldn't even get the same color cases! 🤣
I was just looking at that... painting a purple case with red spray paint should render the case fairly opaque, that was either a red case with no paint or some kind of clear coat.
New to the channel never watched anything before on here.. but I just replayed that "transition" about 12 times and my sides hurt, your words were perfect lol
I love how spray painting the shell red turned the shell into a translucent red shell. Anyone know the name of that spray paint or perhaps where I can pick up a can or 2? Are there other color spray paints that turn plastic translucent?
I just like the electronics submerged in dirty ass mud and water, and somehow a little bit of scrubbing gets all of that out from inbetween the layers of ribbon cables and the layers of the screen...... hahaha
@@SSXVegeta A neat trick for sure.
*Stupid mobile keyboard.
It's the same brand paint that Mr. Q from Die another day used to make the car invisible. Just thin it and apply 10 coats and the car becomes invisible.
@@Wingedmechanic now that would be awesome.
i rewatched that part three times before i scrolled down to find you'd already posted about it, but your dead right, that original case was too dark and opaque to let light through
I love how he clean everything perfectly with a little bit of dirty water and soap.
The funny part is, that with enough time, patience, skill, and luck, this Gameboy (in the false condition it was at the beginning) could easily be fixed up and work well. The biggest issue here is obviously the screen, as that had basically no chance of working/not having water stuck in it, yet the motherboards in older electronics can be surprisingly durable sometimes, so I believe that could have worked at least. Believe it or not, but I found a Sega Genesis model 2 locally (Chicago area) a few years back, fully submerged in muddy water and filled with mud, rust, bugs, and mold. Never seen a console so dirty in my life. I had to have it. It took a few DAYS to fully clean it, and despite it LITERALLY falling apart (caps and heatsinks solder was breaking/loose and parts fell off a lot), it somehow worked. It got to a point where I nearly gave up, soldered stuff together, and was gonna toss it if it didn't show any signs of life. Not a SINGLE aftermarket OR replaced part, it worked flawlessly!
TLDR: These fake resto channels suck and imo can fix these things without 'cheating' like they do, as I have succeeded with worse.
Even if they could the effort probably isn't worth it for them. They obviously aren't doing it out of passion, which means it's for the money, which means they're probably better off doing what they did because it required less effort. A few aftermarket parts aren't that much of a cost investment when it could take days to repair the thing for real.
I've never done restorations, but I even know that water + metal is not a good idea. In the lab, we would use isopropyl alcohol or ethanol to clean instruments. This helps avoid oxidation (rusting) of the metals. Also I'm not sure how plastic would rust... Considering it is an oil based polymer, it would degrade into microplastics or become discoloured/deformed. Oil based plastics are incapable of rusting.
One thing you missed with the aftermarket buttons is also how they magically turned from light gray to dark gray.
Those L and R buttons at the end looked so different so I definitely take your word for it. I think I saw these same fellas find an original Xbox(miraculously) and do the same thing to that.
For someone who’s spent so much time in restoration I’m a little confused at why you think rinsing a board with no current going through it in soap and water will break it? As long as you dry it out properly you can always power a board back on from being wet, you just have to make doubly sure there’s 0 moisture left when you do so. The videos obviously omit a lot of details but idk if “fake” is the correct term.
I was about to say the same thing. There's no way he's experienced with restoring electronics. Another red flag was that he refused to provide any evidence of those parts being aftermarket. We're supposed to, "just trust him".
I once restored an old tower PC that had been sitting out for a long time. When I got it inside I started smelling honey! Looking inside I found a bee's nest! After removing it and washing everything it worked!
@@JohnDoe-sp3dc The buttons are definitely different. The 'A' and 'B' are in different positions before and after. 2:20 vs 11:11 Not that replacing broken parts is a deal breaker for me.
Yeah, don’t know anything about restoration, but I don’t see anything wrong with the original video (aside from the screws part). Some parts were used again like apparently the motherboard and the shell, but some parts were bought like beyond saving parts and the back cover. Or is getting new parts aside from the original a no-no in restoration or something?
@@primetime645 I don't think so, but from what I've seen it is a good practice to tell the audience when you are replacing a part.
the stuff gets really horrible when you realize that there are youtubers out there that do the same with live animals... especially dogs, that they mistreat and then "rescue".
6:45 you can see how the game boy shell is translucent and very much thin red plastic, not opaque blue plastic painted red. He 100% painted the original shell and then proceeded to hang up an aftermarket red shell to show the paint being “dry”
No idea why he used the painted case at the end if he went through all that effort to get an aftermarket red case.
One thing you didn't mention is how he hung up the opaque violet shell and spraypainted it red, which should make it really opaque, and when he goes to retrieve them, the light shines through the plastic in a way that it could only do through red plastic, as it's illuminated red from within. They even swapped out the case.
9:28 A Motherboard can handle water for a while as long its not powered up. In the factory, each board will be washed with water and alcohol. But if its powered up, the oxidation will go on very fast. Coffe also affects the thin ribbon cables
I mean sure.. it can "handle" water. But if you dont then clean it with mineral oil or isopropyl.....? lol "Liquid damage" is never really what causes catastrophic damage.. that only jacks up things like... the LCD panel immediately. After that when it dries, the minerals left behind cause corrosion and rust to the solder and components. Also, simply rinsing or soaking it after doesnt really do the trick, especially in boards that have heat shields. I'd call this video complete BS, because you cannot just soak a board in water, let it dry and it somehow work again. Certainly not the LCD panel. I've had macbooks come in with ruined screens just because the customer sprayed it with windex. So it doesnt even have to be submerged to ruin them. The board though.. corrosion will set it the second its dried, with or without power injected.
@@mmz12 shure, long time in the moisture and humidity will kill the board. But just a dip in Water for the movie may not harm it
@@mmz12 Mh, i had also my bad experiences with cleaned flatscreens, whenever water was soaked between the layers.
@@mmz12 What about Laboratory grade ultrapure water?
@@chriswiggins1985 I.. Guess that could work? For maybe specifically PCB cleaning. I just don't know why anything else would be used, when the generally accepted cleaner known to have no issue is iso. lol Its safe, cleans well and dries almost instantly. Its the whole reinventing the wheel thing or "if it aint broke, don't fix it" situation.
Regardless, that LCD will absolutely not survive that. Not even using prescribed cleaners. Just a few drops (or a splash in any liquid) will cause a weird multidimensional appearance. You see this with DIY iPad repairs and devices that have the glass fused to the display. Typically, heat is used to soften adhesive, but another great way is a dropper of high % iso. You just drip that along the edge and slice right through the adhesive. Sometimes, people get a little too excited and it soaks into the display, getting in between the numerous layers of the deflector, diffusors, backlight, etc. Best case, you have a trippy, headache of a display. Worse case it will completely fail, as it would with submersion if its not at the very least water resistant.
SO glad you made this, The guy that does toy cars has models that came out 2 years ago but somehow have 30 years wear, its easy to tell he F'd them up! I dont understand why they have to lie because the work is usually interesting.
Don’t you think he also swapped the case for an aftermarket one? Granted, in the closeups, the paint job looks appalling, but when he picks up the “painted” case pieces, they let some light shine through. I’m not sure an opaque, dark purple case with red paint on it would look like that.
Exactly what I was thinking when I saw the light shine through!
The best fake restoration was the car that had been submerged in a canal for over 40 years.
After emptying the ash tray, adjusting the drivers seat and replacing the furry dice it fired up and ran perfect.
You shouldn't even be firing up a car in that circunstance. There won't be any oil inside it or it will run with water in it and ruin the engine.
@@kevincampos3797 "Whoooosh"
@@beltanewalk8797 This exchange just cracked me right up 😂🤣😂🤣
@@vihaanreyansh6244 You can't beat a good laugh 😂
He even painted to the bottom of the screw holes. That's dedication...
2:20 to be fair though, water by it self will not ruin electronical parts as long as he let the water evaporate before putting the batteries in. It would take many days to dry out that Gameboy thoroughly though.
Not really the salts in water can cause rusting
I am thankful for people like you that do restorations in detail and explaining what they are doing. More than once I needed to restore some things, so having someone that shows you the right way to do is a blessing, on the other hand because of fake restorators there is the risk you just ruin your object
as long as the board was properly dried off, and there's no power going through the device, there's nothing wrong with using water to clean a pcb. you just need to dry it asap after removing it from the water. and make sure there's no remaining moisture anywhere before inserting batteries.
Yep water is fine. An alcohol bath in 99% solution will dry it out quickly
another thing to watch for is corrosion
@@stardoge6624 as long as you dry it properly immediately after washing it, there's really no chance of corrosion from washing a pcb.
True
Yeah but that screen is an entirely different beast, the LCD layers don't like being submerged
I remember when I left my water bottle in my room for a while and after a week. The plastic bottle just rusted up on me. Just like my plastic coat hangers and plastic fly swatter
It's the same as the fake primitive technology videos that copy the "Primitive Technology" channel. And the fake metal detector videos where they find ancient jewellery in the ground, perfectly preserved.
I lost it when he put oil in a cup with screws lit it on fire and the screws came out black and new. 🤣
The worst part is that the continuity makes just enough sense that the average viewer won't notice the logical parkour they're subconsciously employing to continue believing the lie
It’s TH-cam. Who gives a fuck. Videos are made for entertainment. Don’t like it don’t watch it.
@@DWFWrestle Still doesn't mean you can scam or lie freely
@@Tech-187 it’s not scamming 😂. What do you think tv shows and movies do bud? All videos are made for entertainment purposes. Doesn’t matter if they’re fake or real.
@@DWFWrestle Lemme guess, you scam people too.
@@ExtremeWreck If you don’t know shit about content creation then don’t open your mouth it’s that simple y’all are making yourself look more stupid then you already do.,
I remember watching a video of someone walking through a forest and then they stopped randomly and knelt down. They started digging by hand and pulled up a 20oz gold nugget! What luck!
Wait you can't do that? So you actually have to work a 9-5 while the rest of us can detect gold with our minds...yikes that sucks.
I remember seeing a troll video about washing your motherboard, and this dude scrubbed it all over lmao
it isn't really surprising that these are faked. it's just taking advantage of the natural human urge for a narrative.
a lot of people don't just want to see a job being done, let's be honest. except for a niche few, the idea of restoring an electronic is more of a chore than it is a fascination. the narrative is what gives content like this a broader appeal.
Nobody cares about the narrative, we just like to see dirty, broken things become clean, working things
Also, plastic shell turned transparent after getting a respray, so it's definitely not the same one. I was really pissed off when I saw the original video, can't believe that so many people fell for it.
Also why doesn’t the power light work at the end?
Not to mention the plastic cover on the batteries that the one they picked up was missing.
I thought that, but then I saw the finish of the final shell and I became conflicted, even for an aftermarket knockoff mould it's pretty ropey, kind of like what you'd expect if someone had shot it with rattlecan paint in their back garden.
at 6:12 you see him painting the inside of the shell.
Doesn't appear any translucent. And some details from the shell are warped by the paintjob.
I’ve literally been cleaning up an old gba shell (it was grubby) and as soon as the new membrane and buttons came out of the mouthwash, I immediately knew they were not the original ones magically cleaned up 😂 loved this vid.
Plus with completely clean mouthwash afterward. Guess the liquid just evaporated the grime
@@256ElNino They arent centered on OEM A and B buttons
Does mouthwash work for cleaning electronic stuff and can it be used for it’s intended purpose once one has finished cleaning said electronics? Two birds, just sayin’.
If water can used, only when it turns off. However, isopropyl alcohol is best option.
Lol I've seen those only in thumbnails. And always, they have the exact same type of "damage" on the surface, covered in rust/mud (preferably in the middle of the countryside for added effect), and it makes me think of cheap halloween costumes for some reason.
I'm not an expert by any means, but damn they really make it super easy to identify lol
Vindication! Was down a "TH-cam Rabbit Hole" and these same vids swallowed up my time. Started noticing the convenient locations and modestly staged deterioration on the products. Thanks Elliot! I'm not alone!
To be fair, I do personally know a lot of PC collectors who swear by washing old PCBs with water and dish soap. They just dry it out for a couple of days afterwards - at the very least.
I've always been afraid to do that, so I use alcohol. Frankly, rubbing alcohol doesn't give the board this "brand new" look, but I mostly clean boards for hygienic purposes, not cosmetic. And alcohol is also not the best way to clean plastics - it did give me bad reactions/deformations in the past (particularly with rubber coating), so I mostly use water and melamine foam for shells/cases.
Oh, and I'd definitely not put the screen anywhere near water - there's a small chance some drops will get under the polarising film but won't ever be able to evaporate. But technically it should be hermetic, so you could wash it and leave it to dry
You can wash pcbs and motherboards without issue.
The flux they use to build circuit boards use a water based flux in a lot of case's so won't harm them. Best thing to do if you do use water to is wash with ethanol a couple of times as it mixes with water and evaporators quickly and dries the board. I prefer to use ethanol first and no water as it also disolves any other flux residue if I had made some repairs. When I worked at a refurbishing place the keyboards we put in a dishwasher on a low cycle and no heat dry we left the. In the workshop to dry . There many other things we did depending on the equipment, it was fun just figuring out ways to do things. I specialized in laptops it was a nightmare as they all seem to have different ways to clamp them together, after a while you get the gist of most.
6:45 Notice how translucent is the case! I don't think the blue original would be like that, especially after being painted over!
I didn’t even know fake restoration videos existed, thanks for informing me
There are fake animal rescue videos too, some people will do anything for views
@@jsteadman9262 I know
Elliot, I just want to comment on how truly well you made this video. You gave the benefit of the doubt to the original creator in so many places where a lot of other people wouldn’t have just to be SUPER fair, but you were also confident and assertive about the aspects you KNEW were aftermarket from your experience in the area.
This would’ve been a really easy opportunity for a few low blows for a cheap laugh but you kept this super professional yet very entertaining still. Great work as always, hope you’re doing well.
I've been getting some of these dubious restoration videos in my feed as of late and something I noticed, even in the thumb nail the uniformity of things like rust on the exterior is obvious. I think one of the most egregious ones was a tape deck. Aluminum and plastic don't produce bright orange flaky rust that the unit was coated in. Thank you for calling them out for being fake.
I started randomly getting Horse-hoof restoration videos that won't stop coming to my feed even after remove them. Is it because I'm a (human) nail technician???💅🏾 I'm clearly not licensed to work on horses.....and now I'm concerned that THOSE HORSES' HOOVES ARE PROBABLY JUST FINE! Can't even trust the internet anymore 😔🤦🏾♀️
@@juicyparsons You never really can. Not unless you have something like a forum with many talented people who have experience in the field backing up what the source is saying. That's the only way you can be really sure about technical information on the Internet. Never trust a single source, always verify with a minimum of 3 sources, and try to find the original source by tracking the reference chains.
I do PC repairs for a living. Any time someone brings me a system they claim to have found in the trash and they want me to inspect it, the first thing I tell them is it was probably thrown away for a reason. Most people don't just toss out things that cost hundreds of dollars. The chances of someone in the third world country throwing away a working Gameboy Advance, is zero.
btw - if you put water (or any corrosive chemicals on electronics) on electronics they will corrode within days.
Not true Most industrial Chemical cleaners for PCBs are water based. if you wash a board with DI.water there is nothing in it to corrode anything.
The damage from water is what else is in it other than Hydrogen and oxygen. That's why Salt water is especially bad!
The worst is Something like Coke or Pepsi That will eat track in a few hours once it gets under the solder resist layer.
If you have a board that is water damaged by fresh water the main damage is done by parts of the circuit still being powered by batteries or back up batteries or power being applied whilst still wet.
With water ingress the board needs to be thoroughly dried ASaP but usually you'd wash the board off with IPA to flush out the water then dry using warm air.
BTW I spent 15 years testing board contamination in a Lab using Ionic SIR and CAF methods, accelerated the ageing process using climatic chambers. To grown dendrites tin whiskers and salts. I might know a bit more than you on this one!
As for Tossing out PCs not saying you're wrong just my experience is totally different
I actually genuinely can't remember the last time I actually paid for a Pc or a Mac.
And although my hardware isn't the latest 7th and 8th gen i7s with 16gb and 32gb of ram because they've been built from thrown away parts isn't to shabby for nothing other than a hour or two of my time and a rummage through a box of spares that where also free.
More often than not in my experience Pcs are thrown away due to Age primarily and often have nothing wrong other than being slow. Those with faults are usually PSU, HDD or Ram failure or the thing is blue screening because a card isn't correctly seated. CPU and Board failures are relatively rare.
IMO 99% of people have no idea about what's inside their PC so when It goes wrong a lot of people will just toss it and get a new one.Especially if it 2 years old or older. when I go to my local tip to throw things away there are always loads of modern Gamer type PCs in the skip you are now no longer allowed to ask to buy them as you once could.( I say Buy they let you take half a dozen for £10)
But apparently now there are safety laws that prevent them allowing discarded electrical goods to be anything but crushed.
It's quite sickening to See complete PCs with CPUs and coolers, Graphics cards, SSDs and PSUs still in place, through the see through gamers case sides Most of these PC have likely had little to no diagnosis done on them and I'd bet that on average for every 3 you took from the bin you could make 2 working systems ( assuming compatible hardware of course) but instead they get rolled with a giant spiked metal drums crushed and sent to a metal recycler.
Almost all of the "restoration" videos, especially the ones without any voice over narration going on are fake. You can tell they used a rusting agent on the metal, because there is nothing but surface rust. And tons doing what this person did, and just swapping out parts hoping that nobody will notice or care.
honestly, thank you for doing this vid. im a fan of restoration vids and i watched a couple of the ones you mentioned in the beginning and immediately thought "so these guys are just wandering around and finding these things without really combing through much and finding them quite often???" major sus.
It is soooo satisfying seeing someone call this video out. I've seen it before and it is just asinine. I couldn't believe how many views it had and how many people thought it was real.
He found a GameBoy Advance with no battery lid, cleaned the housing, painted both front and back half of the shell red, and a color-matching aftermarket battery cover (No GameBoy imprint) appeared. After the reassembly it seems, the Power LED no longer works.
As an actual EE, I always thought: "why in seventh hell would someone even TRY to repair something like this?
... you see, copper traces are 35 micrometers thick, you know how thin is that? And don't even try to think that 20 micrometers of solder stop will protect this 35 micrometers of copper...
If you had this thick rust on battery contacts, the PCB traces would be gone completely, and chips that were soldered ON those traces would fall off, and have no legs.
... I mean, it's actually outrageous.
@Malice A lot of stuff will work, and most of it should at least be tried to be repaired.
I'm talking about this planted-levels-of-disgust nonsense. If ANYTHING had this much actual rust, it would be beyond any sensible level of repair.
I've actually brought several boards back after being submerged in water. As long as rust hasn't penetrated deep into the contacts, traces, leads, etc. The damage to the chips and electronic components only really happens when power is run through wet circuitry. Even if this restoration were completely real, trying to power on a board you intend to save without taking it out and drying it in an oven or dry box is a fools gamble.
Yeah the risk is high powering on an obviously water-damaged item
I love laughing at these terrible "restorations." I've seen this video before. It was a great laugh. But also frustrating watching the scam, especially when he pulls the screen cable and water comes out. Those triggers are too light grey. They have the ever so slight translucent look to them.
I've restored and or modded a few of these GBAs before. I 100% agree with you. That restoration was absolute rubbish BS.
I love how you became a detective there when it comes to the membranes and buttons. 😄
A big tell on this one is the screen sticker and how it perfectly unpeeled from the shell and there was no signs of deterioration, the glue still held on, it left no residue... All those things would happen with a sticker in those conditions.
I remember watching these and was fooled for a second. Tbh I rather have these "fake" vids than the fake animal rescue, but still sneaky.
My favorite part is when the guy keeps washing the chips with dirty water and it magically it works. Forget hours upon hours of actual work using a soft brush and soding iron.
These videos trigger me aswell! Especially when they get more views then other genuine youtubers that actually do it right lol.
They probably have bots that give them millions of views. After all they are scammers. I always say when watching these videos, they'll probably sell the restored device for 15 chickens.
I collect antique slot machines (pre 1950s) and other coin operated antiques. As someone who knows what makes a good restoration, I can’t tell you how many “antique restoration” videos I’ve seen that completely destroy the antique nature of the thing being restored. Like stripping the original paint or sanding off the patina from aged metal/wood. THESE ARE ATTRIBUTES THAT GIVE IT VALUE AS AN ANTIQUE!! If you take aged metal and buff it shiny, yeah it looks pretty and new but it’s NOT original anymore!
So it should be preserved? Curious because pretty much all antique restoration channels I follow strip stuff away. What channels would you recommend that keeps the age?
If you take metal and shine it, it's still original, it's just a shiny. Now if they're replacing it with completely different metal, then it's not original anymore. What you're talking about is Preservation vs. Restoration. I think you're mixing the two up. So I don't really know if you do what you say you do.
Uh I get what you mean but what if these people don't care about keeping these things as valuable antiques and just want to restore them? I mean it's their items, they can do what they want with them? Not to mention that a lot of people strip the paint to get rid of lead. Also yeah, just like the person above said: there is a difference between preservation vs restoration...
While there's a difference between preservation and restoration, taking something that's in perfectly fine working condition and "restoring" it by blinging it out by making it all pretty and shiny completely ruins the *historical value* they hold. If you're going to do work on an antique, keep its historical nature in tact, especially if the machine works as is. Additionally, the faded or chipped paint, aged reel strips, and patina on the metal are good indicators that the machine itself is original. In the eyes of a collector, an original aged piece is better than a blinged out one.
Of course, something that would warrant a full restoration is something that is rusted beyond repair and needs serious treatment if it's to ever be enjoyed again.
All of those acutally do "Antique Restorations". You're getting restoration confused with preservation, and unfortunately one isn't as exciting for most people.
I've seen those videos. I noticed that metal things seem to be evenly rusted. And the rust just seamlessly comes up. Real rust would have some spots that would come off clean and others that are just not going away with basic brush and rust remover.
So a common misconception about electronics is water ruins them, but thats just not true. When electronics stop working because of water, its because they have an electrical charge and the iron in water allows for the board to jump circuits that it shouldn't jump. If there is no electrical flow, harm can not be done. Its not an uncommon practice in the PC community to actually clean motherboards in water as it works the best. With that Gameboy having no batteries, placing it in water will have no negative effect on the electronics within. Things to keep in mind however, you have to let the board completely dry, or you risk shorting it out, and it is possible to ruin electronics with water if done incorrectly and allowed to rust, or theres massive mineral buildup.