Toy vehicle and trackway
AssigneeToybox Corporation
InventorsHajime Matsumoto, Toshihisa Suga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An amusement device having a toy wheeled vehicle and a trackway on which the vehicle moves. In the preferred embodiment, the wheeled vehicle has freely mounted wheels for rotation, and an upwardly extending rod which engages a lift mechanism flange. The lift mechanism raises the vehicle to a height at which gravitational force then imparts movement to the vehicle around a continuous trackway. The vehicle remains positioned on the trackway due to a trackway rail positioned between the freely mounted wheels of the vehicle. The trackway includes four different track sections which impart different movements to the vehicle as the vehicle moves along the trackway. In one track section, for example, the trackway imparts a loop-to-loop movement to the vehicle.
Claims13
An amusement device, comprising:
- a support;
- first and second pulleys rotatably mounted on said support at spaced apart positions and lying substantially in a first plane, the axes of the pulleys lying substantially in a second plane which is perpendicular to the first plane, the first pulley being positioned above the second pulley;
- a belt stretched between said first and second pulleys to provide a first substantially straight belt segment and a second substantially straight belt segment;
- means mounted on said support for moving said belt;
- a continuous trackway mounted on said support, said trackway having a first substantially straight portion spaced apart from the first belt segment, said first straight portion lying substantially in a plane which is parallel to said first plane and also lying substantially in a plane which is parallel to said second plane, having a second substantially straight portion spaced apart from the second belt segment, said second straight portion lying substantially in a plane which intersects said first plane at an acute angle and also lying substantially in a plane parallel to said second plane, having a third portion connecting the upper ends of the first and second portions and arching over said first pulley, and having a fourth portion connecting the lower ends of said first and second portions;
- a vehicle provided with means for attaching said vehicle to said trackway for coasting movement therealong;
- and
- at least one flange projecting from said belt to engage said vehicle when said vehicle is positioned on the first portion of said trackway, said vehicle being lifted by said at least one flange when said vehicle is positioned on said first portion of said trackway and being released for coasting movement after said vehicle arches over said first pulley.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.