Toy for collecting and dispersing toy vehicles

Abstract

Disclosed is a toy, comprising of rotating means for collecting and dispersing an item and power means coupled to said rotating means, said power means powering said rotating means at a first speed in a first direction to collect said toy, and powering said rotating means at a second speed in a second direction to disperse said toy, said first speed different from said second speed, and said first direction different from said second direction.

Description

FIELD [0001] The present disclosure relates generally to methods, systems and apparatus for features of an inter-related toy item. BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY [0002] Toys which interact with other toys are popular items. For example, toys may be provided which are configured to couple to other toys, transform other toys, gather or collect toys, etc. [0003] One example toy vehicle that has the function of sweeping up smaller toy vehicles is the Galoob MICRO MUNCHER. This sweeper vehicle has a handle that controls a single rotating foam cylinder to either collect, or disperse, smaller toy vehicles depending on the direction of engagement. In this sweeper vehicle, the foam cylinder is rotated by an electric, battery powered motor, to drive the cylinder at approximately the same speed in both directions. The approximate scale of the smaller toy vehicles that are made for use with this sweeper vehicle are on the order of approximately 1:120. [0004] The inventors herein have recognized several...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] One approach to address at least some of the above issues provides a toy, comprising rotating means for collecting and dispersing an item; and power means coupled to said rotating means, said power means powering said rotating means at a first speed in a first direction to collect said toy, and powering said rotating means at a second speed in a second direction to disperse said toy, said first speed different from said second speed, and said first direction different from said second direction. As such, the inventors have recognized that power means, such as electric motors, may have different torque outputs at different speeds, and thus by using a different speed for collecting than for dispersing, it may be possible to extend operation to different scale vehicles.

[0007] Another approach provides a toy vehicle, comprising: a cylinder configured to rotate about its circular axis, said cylinder configured so that when said toy is placed in a first position, said circular axis of said cylinder is substantially parallel to a surface on which the toy vehicle can travel, said cylinder having a plurality of cylindrical extensions extending from said cylinder. As such, the inventors have also recognized that for vehicles larger than approximately 1:120 scale, for example, a wheel comprising more than one extensions may provide improved collection and dispersion results, as well as improved durability.

Problems solved by technology

For example, it may be difficult to collect and / or disperse larger vehicles with the above design, since weight and volume do not scale equally.

As another example, the foam cylinder tends to degrade quickly due to the single cylinder structure combined with low durability of foam when contacting (collecting or dispersing) jagged, hard metal and / or plastic vehicles.

Moreover, the above toy sweeper vehicle does not interface to or operate with a track set, thereby limiting the amount of play available.

The inventors herein have also recognized that when using the above sweeper vehicle for collecting larger vehicles, the cylinder rotational speed that may work for collecting vehicles may be too slow to effectively disperse vehicles.

Alternatively, the speed that is fast enough to effectively disperse vehicles may overload the motor when trying to collect vehicles.

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