As it turns out, my laziness was actually fate intervening on Solar Duck’s behalf. While at Sears looking for patio furniture, I saw a shelf full of solar creatures. No ducks, but the cats and butterflies and frogs were definitely made in the same style as our defective little guy, so I picked one up, and saw that it had a big square tag attached to it. A big square tag with instructions on it. Which, naturally, ours was missing when we bought it. Yeah, it seems there’s a plastic thing inside him with a switch on it, which needs to be switched to – get this – ON, before it will glow. I popped Solar Duck open and fixed the switch that morning as soon as we got home, and sure enough, that night, we had a blue glowing duck in the front garden.
He works really well, too, staying blue almost all night. It’s a good little solar cell he has in his butt.