Self-powered miniature toy vehicle with treads and with unusual four-wheel-drive climbing capability

摘要

This toy operates on continuous-belt treads that cooperate with other "climbing toy" features to provide extremely exaggerated ability to negotiate steep and/or rough surfaces. The car selectably operates: (1) as a conventional electrically powered toy, at at least one speed, on a flat surface; (2) as an electrically powered "climbing toy" with particularly advantageous weight distribution, at at least one reduced speed with greater torque, on a steep and/or irregular surface; or (3) as an unpowered free-rolling toy vehicle. Major weight components, particularly the battery and motor, are in a symmetrical, compact, balanced and relatively low arrangement-at about the same height as the tread drivers. Together with a speed-reduction mechanism they fill the toy's housing. The speed-reduction mechanism preferably has front-and-rear duplicate gear trains: at each end, two worms that are both powered from the motor shaft but through different speed-reduction gears, and an axle-driving worm gear shiftable between the worms.