US20080125010A1

US20080125010A1 - Crawling toy

Info

Publication number: US20080125010A1
Application number: US11/604,464
Authority: US
Inventors: Yao-Ling Chen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-11-28
Filing date: 2006-11-28
Publication date: 2008-05-29

Abstract

A crawling toy includes a shell body showing a special design and defining a receiving space, in which a pivot shaft is transversely mounted; and two side wheels rotatably mounted to two ends of the pivot shaft. Each of the side wheels has a plurality of angularly equally spaced adherent sections providing predetermined adhesion force and elasticity. The adherent sections separately located at two ends of the side wheels are arranged in a staggered manner. When the crawling toy is positioned on an upper end of an inclined or a vertical surface, an overall weight of the crawling toy forms a driving force, which cooperates with the two side wheels rotating at the two ends of the pivot shaft to cause the adherent sections to alternately adhere to and separate from the surface, bringing the toy to move like a crawler.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a crawling toy, and more particularly to an interesting and heuristic crawling toy that provides a lot of fun through simple structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Most of the currently available movable toys, such as toy vehicles, generally include wheels or a track in contact with ground. Some of the movable toys have simpler structure and do not include a power source. In this case, the toys are either driven by an external force, such as a player's push, or by the toy's weight to move forward or backward on a horizontal or an inclined plane via the wheels or the track. While such powerless movable toys are very common, they are less interesting and have no attraction for most children now.
There are also power-driven movable toys. Such movable toys are internally provided with a power source to drive the wheels or the track, and utilize a friction force between the wheels or the track and the ground to provide the reaction force needed for the toys to move. The power-driven movable toys have a relatively complicate structure to enable a moving manner quite like general vehicles and machines, and accordingly require high manufacturing cost. Nevertheless, such power-driven movable toys are also very common without creating so much fun to children now. Therefore, the conventional movable toys lack practical and effective advantages to increase their share in the market.
Moreover, both of the powerless and the power-driven movable toys are only suitable for moving forward or backward on a horizontal plane or a mild slope. These conventional movable toys are subject to crash against or collision with ground at high speed due to uncontrollable moving speed when they are moving on a vertical plane or a steep slope, resulting in damage or shortened usable life of the toys.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a crawling toy to eliminate the drawbacks existed in the conventional movable toys.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide an interesting and heuristic crawling toy to effectively train a child's ability of observation and thinking.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a crawling toy that crawls slowly to avoid undue collision or impact, so that the toy is more durable and safer for use.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a crawling toy that has simple structure to enable reduced manufacturing cost and increased market share.
To achieve the above and other objects, the crawling toy according to the present invention includes a shell body having an outer surface showing a special design and defining at a bottom portion a receiving space, in which a pivot shaft is transversely mounted; and a plurality of side wheels rotatably mounted to two ends of the pivot shaft. Each of the side wheels has a plurality of angularly equally spaced adherent sections providing predetermined adhesion force and elasticity. The adherent sections separately located at two ends of the side wheels are arranged in a staggered manner. When the crawling toy is positioned on an upper end of an inclined or a vertical surface, an overall weight of the crawling toy forms a driving force, which cooperates with the two side wheels rotating at the two ends of the pivot shaft to cause the adherent sections to alternately adhere to and separate from the surface, bringing the toy to move like a crawler.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a crawling toy according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an assembled phantom view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows the manner in which two side wheels of the crawling toy of FIG. 2 rotate;

FIG. 4 shows the crawling toy of FIG. 2 crawling on a surface;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a crawling toy according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an assembled phantom view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 shows the manner in which two side wheels of the crawling toy of FIG. 6 rotate; and

FIG. 8 shows the crawling toy of FIG. 6 crawling on a surface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 1 that is an exploded perspective view of a crawling toy according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and to FIG. 2 that is an assembled phantom view of FIG. 1. As can be clearly seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, the crawling toy of the first embodiment mainly includes a shell body 1 and two side wheels 2.
An outer surface of the shell body 1 may be differently designed according to actual need to show, for example, a beetle, a turtle, etc., so as to attract consumers. The shell body 1 defines at a bottom portion thereof a receiving space 11. The receiving space 11 is provided at two opposite lateral sides with a shaft hole 12 each, so that a pivot shaft 13 may be transversely mounted in the receiving space 11 with two ends received in the two shaft holes 12. A hollow shaft cover 14 is mounted around the pivot shaft 13 with two outer ends formed into two through holes 141. A radially outward expanded stop plate 142 is formed at each end of the shaft cover 14 around the through hole 141.
Each of the side wheels 2 is provided at an inner center with an axially inward extended insert 22 for inserting into the through hole 141 of the shaft cover 14, such that the stop plate 142 may be pressed against and close an area at the inner side of the side wheel 2 around the insert 22. The insert 22 is formed at a center with a hole 221, through which an end of the pivot shaft 13 may be extended to engage with the shaft hole 12. The side wheel 2 includes three angularly equally spaced and radially outward extended supports 21. An adherent section 23 is connected to an outer end of each support 21. The adherent section 23 may be made of a synthetic or artificial rubber to provide predetermined adhesion force and elasticity. It is noted the adherent sections 23 at two ends of the pivot shaft 13 are arranged in a staggered manner.
FIGS. 3 and 4 show how the side wheels 2 of the crawling toy according to the first embodiment of the present invention rotate for the toy to crawl on a surface 3.
When the crawling toy is positioned on a predetermined inclined or vertical surface 3, the inherent elasticity and adhesion force of the synthetic rubber material causes the adherent sections 23 to adhere to the surface 3. Since the adherent sections 23 separately located at two ends of the pivot shaft 13 are arranged in the staggered manner, there are always three adherent sections 23 in contact with the surface 3 to support the shell body 1 and accordingly the crawling toy on the surface 3. On the other hand, an overall weight of the shell body 1 and the side wheels 2 produces a downward push, which causes the three adherent sections 23 in contact with and adhering to the surface 3 to gradually separate from the surface 3 due to elastic fatigue. As a result, the other three adherent sections 23 originally located at an upper side of the side wheels 2 are caused to gradually move downward while the side wheels 2 rotate, and to finally sequentially contact with and adhere to the surface 3. As having been mentioned above, since the adherent sections 23 at two ends of the pivot shaft 13 are staggered, there are always three points (that is, three adherent sections 23) on the two side wheels 2 in contact with the surface 3 as shown in FIG. 3, so that the whole crawling toy is stably supported on the surface 3. In this manner, the adherent sections 23 on the two side wheels 2 keep contacting with the surface 3 in circular and cyclic motion until the crawling toy reaches at a lower end of the inclined or the vertical surface 3 to contact with a horizontal surface. Therefore, the whole crawling toy of the present invention moves like a crawler.
FIGS. 5 through 8 show a crawling toy according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is generally structurally similar to the first embodiment, except for two side wheels 20 that have only two angularly equally spaced supports 21 each. Again, each of the two supports 21 has an adherent section 23 connected to an outer end thereof. The adherent sections 23 separately located on the two side wheels 20 are arranged in the staggered manner, too. When the crawling toy is positioned on the inclined or the vertical surface 3, it will crawl in a manner similar to that in the first embodiment. Since there are only two supports 21 on each side wheel 20, a front part of the shell body 1 would swing leftward and rightward at a relatively large curve when the toy is crawling, creating interesting changes and more fun in playing the toy.

Claims

1. A crawling toy, comprising:

a shell body having an outer surface showing a special design, and defining at a bottom portion a receiving space, in which a pivot shaft is transversely mounted;

a plurality of side wheels being rotatably mounted to two ends of said pivot shaft, and having a plurality of angularly equally spaced adherent sections each; said adherent sections providing predetermined adhesion force and elasticity; and said adherent sections separately located at two ends of said pivot shaft are arranged in a staggered manner.

2. The crawling toy as claimed in claim 1, wherein said pivot shaft is enclosed in a hollow shaft cover, and said shaft cover having two ends formed into two through holes, into which two inserts separately axially inward extended from inner centers of said two side wheels are inserted.

3. The crawling toy as claimed in claim 2, wherein said shaft cover includes two stop plates separately radially outward extended from the two through holes, so that said two stop plates are pressed against and close areas at inner sides of said two side wheels around said two inserts.

4. The crawling toy as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said side wheels includes a plurality of angularly equally spaced and radially outward extended supports, and said adherent sections being separately connected to outer ends of said supports.