Glad to hear that it worked!
Broken post, eh? A worst-case scenario, but sounds like you overcame it.
Hope your son has a great birthday when he gets it.
I had mine for less than a day when the handle broke back in the 80s. My Dad put a wooden handle on it, cut from a broomstick. I bought another one to keep mint in box, and repainted the customized one black for my fledgling cosplay back in the day.
I revisited it in 2011 and made some upgrades for my youngest son. It was always one of his favorite props to tote at events. I'd occasionally tweak it, like when I wound up with a spare CAL-R 25 resistor with its solder lugs cut off, so I put it on his Kenner trap in 2013.
Eventually the rubber stomp pedal cracked from age and use, and the doors wouldn't open anymore. So last year I bought a 'beater' off eBay which had some broken doors and the broken yellow hose seen above, but was perfect for my needs. I even replaced the entire hydraulic piston assembly.
[Note the 3-D printed wheels in this shot. The blue Kenner wheels never would keep paint on them, so I re-created them in Tinkercad and had them printed in black at my local library.]
Zak was very happy to have a 'fully functional' trap again. We didn't even bother painting the new blue stomp pedal black to match the rest of the trap. (I suspected the coats of paint might have been a contributing factor to it splitting.)
I've wound up with so many leftover pieces from buying beaters for repairs, I chucklingly picture a scenario where I one day realize I have enough parts to make a cherry vintage one again.
By the way, since you do have to damage the stickers to separate the body of the trap, there are folks who sell reproduction labels on eBay for relatively inexpensive. I've never bought any, since I went the custom paint job route, but thought I'd mention it as an option.
Alex