There were many different variations on the Google Cardboard VR viewer concept. The Utopia 360 tried to fill out a long list of features but could not ultimately deliver. On the opposite end of the spectrum was View-Master VR. Functionally this headset is just a basic viewer, but well-implemented in sturdy plastic instead of cardboard. (Mattel has some expertise with making sturdy plastic toys, to put it mildly.) Like the rest of the Google Cardboard ecosystem, this product has been retired but its support page is still online for the moment.

This was my favorite headset for basic Google Cardboard experiences. Its phone holder mechanism worked well, and the screen-tapping mechanism was reliable. But its time has passed so it is teardown time.

There is no head strap with this headset: this was intended only for short handheld experiences just like the original View-Master was. Such intentions also meant there were no provisions for a USB power cable nor for headphone wires. No matter, I had cut my own slots for power and sound.

Removing four screws freed the phone holding mechanism.

A few more screws and it comes completely apart. I didn't notice anything that made me say "A-ha, that's why this holder worked so well!" The reasons must be more subtle or in details that I lack the knowledge to recognize.

A few more easily accessed screws freed the front panel.

Going further was a challenge. I removed all the fasteners I could access but nothing budged. I decided three important screws were hiding under plastic caps. Prying at them didn't accomplish anything, they were either a precise friction fit or glued in place.

Taking the destructive route, I pulled out the drill. It turned out they weren't just thin caps -- they were long plugs that go all the way down to the screw. The tricky part is stopping the drill before it destroyed the Philips head because I need that to loosen the screw.

That process got a little messy, but it accomplished the objective.

After I cleaned up the mess, I could get a good look at the screen tapping mechanism. It translated the trademark up-down View-Master lever arm motion into a front-back screen tap. I was surprised there's no pivot point for the fake lever arm motion. That path was purely dictated by a curved slot molded into orange plastic. This is a clever bit of mechanical design.

Electrically, there's a wire connecting the black squishy screen-tapping nub and a small piece of black plastic in the middle of the lever. Both of these black plastic pieces had a small amount of electrical conductivity: my multimeter measured several thousand Ohms of resistance across a distance of 2-3 millimeters. Apparently, this is enough to conduct user finger to trigger capacitive touch screen. The rest of the plastic are electrical insulators or at least show up as open circuit in the multimeter.

Looking at this design, I wonder why the long black L-shaped arm isn't made of the same marginally conductive plastic. Surely that would be cheaper than adding the parts and cost of that wire? Perhaps it is not conductive enough to trigger capacitive touch, or perhaps that material lacks mechanical strength required.

Removing the final few screws allowed the red main plastic body to separate from black soft plastic of the rear section. Plastic lenses were held between these two parts.

I'm sad I didn't really learn anything from the phone holder as I have project ideas that would benefit from an effective phone holding mechanism. Seeing another implementation of capacitive touch is also informative, but I don't know if I can turn any of it into applicable skill. Still, I had fun seeing how this sturdy viewer was put together and (aside from those three caps I drilled out) relatively easy to take apart.

Despite being the largest and sturdiest of my four disassembled phone VR headsets, this Mattel unit actually had the smallest and thinnest lenses of them all. I'm not quite sure what that means yet.