Once tried, even grown-ups just can’t let go of that hilariously funny Chewbacca mask. Also, the speaking toy literally cries out to be hacked. Weary of the whining Wookie, [John Park] set out to bring variety into Chewie’s mode of expression, expanding the mask’s memory and vocabulary to unprecedented levels.

For his hack, [John] keeps the original jaw limit switches and speaker of the mask in place, but replaces the sound generating electronics with an Adafruit Audio FX Mini Sound Board. This sweet piece from [Ada’s] bag of tricks plays back samples from an onboard 16 MB flash memory and can be triggered by one of 8 trigger pins or through its UART interface. [John] also added a rotary selector switch for switching between different sounds, a LiPo battery pack and charger, as well as a little Class-D amp. With everything installed in the mask, Chewbacca is ready for another laugh. Enjoy the video, where [John Park] walks you through the hack, or jump right to 13:45 to see the Happy Chewbacca Mask in action.