Andy Clouse:
My design included an existing one channel, inexpensive airplane that was
equipped with a paratrooper launcher. The mechanism consisted of a lever
with a small hook that had a rubber band attached to it that was pre-loaded
by pulling back on the lever and locking it in place with a rotating arm.
When the free flight electric plane is launched, the operator turns to stick
on the transmitter one way or another, turning the locking arm and releasing
the launching lever that will fling a paratrooper with a hook on it into the
air while the plane is in flight.
Bridget Hamblin:
My shmock-up is of a refrigerator climber. The toy would operate on a simple
wind-up mechanism that moves the arms and legs in an alternating fashion as
it unwinds. The arm and leg on the same side of the body move up at the same
time, while the limbs on the other side of the body are being pushed down,
which actually pushes the climber further up the fridge. The arms and legs
rotate on the end of a crank-rocker, were the link cranking is actually the
winding mechanism. Magnets are placed where the climber's hands and feet should
be, holding him in place and aiding in his ascent.
Perky Dave:
The toy is operated by two servos (though getting it down to one should not
be difficult). Electromagnets are attached to the hands and feet. The
magnets on the right hand and left foot operate in tandem and vice versa.
Torsional springs are located at the elbow and knee joints to straighten
the arms when they are reaching up and bend the legs when they are stepping
up. This is to provide a more life-like motion. When the right arm has
pulled down and the left leg pushed up, the other two magnets turn on, the
first two turn off and the servos move the right arm and left leg up while
the left arm pulls down and right leg pushes, and the process repeats.
Dave Post:
My shmock-up is of the plane that ejects parachute guys. Inside the TP tubes
is a mechanism that pulls back a spring attached to a plunger. The plunger
faces the back end of the plane. When the white stick in front is hit (such
as a crash landing), it causes a little cam to release the spring, which causes
the plunger to shoot the guy out the back of the plane.
Doug Guthrie:
The smock-up is demonstrative of the paratrooper launcher cannon. The first piece,
the firing tube, consisting of a rubber-band powered piston inside the PVC tube.
This is the single shot model where a paratrooper is loaded into the cannon and
the user pulls back on the piston and releases to fire. The second piece is a
concept for a rapid fire version of the cannon. The piston for the cannon is
represented by the white metal rod and it is driven by the silver cam to energize
the rubber bands and the piston. The piston would release and fire once it eclipses
the lobe of the cam. The neat thing about the cam is that it could be connected
to a crank to create a rapid firing action. If a long lead or pitch worm gear
was placed on the crank handle, it could slide a magazine full of paratroopers over
a loading gate in the cannon to full automate the loading and firing.
Eric Faith:
The climbing caterpillar is designed to climb up a vertical or walk along a
flat metal surface. The caterpillar body moves somewhat like a real caterpillar
by scrunching up and flattening out. When the caterpillar scrunches up a front
magnet is turned on to fix the front to the metal surface so the back drags
forward along the surface. When the caterpillar flattens back out the front
magnet is turned off and a rear magnet is turned on so the back pushes the front
forward. This mechanics work with a simple four bar mechanism consisting of a
wheel and a linkage attached to the front. A motor powers the wheel to constantly
move push or pull the front back and forth. The magnets are turned on and off
by contacts on the linkage wheel.
Erica Hoffman:
This design is the fridge climber. The left arm and left leg are connected
to each other and the same with the right and left leg. The left arm connected
to the right leg by a link which allows for only one motor to move this toy.
The link is connected to a 4 bar mechanism which is a crank rocker. The motor
will rock the link back and forth which will allow the arms and legs to move
and the climber will move around the fridge.
Frodo Schulkers:
The player builds a house ('creator') out of the given materials. The house
is solid but can crumble easily. It can be complex or relatively simple. The
more pieces, the harder/longer it is to build the house (like putting
together a puzzle). The player inserts a tube (in the hole in the side of
the house) which is connected on one end to a pump, and holds a ball in on
the other. When the player is ready to destroy the house he/she pushes on
the pump, forcing air through the tube and the ball shoots out exploding the
house into a bunch of pieces. The process can be repeated.
Gina Isgro:
My schmockup is the Mountain Man Shoot and Climb. My design consisted of a
string attached to a grappling hook on one end and a thin piece of metal that
winds up as the string is extended. To begin you pull the string out of the
"backpack" compressing the metal into a small diameter. Next close the backpack
down on the string holding it in the extended position. Using the rubber band
attached to the grappling hook shoot the hook up onto a surrounding object,
pop the backpack top off and the spring releases pulling the string back
into the casing and shooting the mountain man up to the grappling hook.
Jason Kauffman:
The objective of this toy is for it to autonomously climb from the placement
point in a fridge to the top of it, in a relatively slow yet entertaining manner.
The mechanism powering the frog could be a single motor. This single motor would
rotate two shafts through the aid of a gear train, probably using worm gears.
On the top shaft both arms would be mounted, and on the bottom shaft both legs
would be mounted. In both hands and both feet would be elector magnets. They
would turn on, by a switch that would be triggered when the opposite arm/leg
rotated past 90o in the xz plane. Magnets would be on across diagonals for
stability, meaning that if the left arm and right leg would be magnetized at
the same time and so would the right arm and the left leg likewise. The portion
of the arm parallel to the body would be made of a flexible material such that
while it is magnetically attached to the surface it could bend around the rigid
(perpendicular) part of the arm as the shaft rotates to bring the other arm to
the fridge surface; this motion will pull the frog up the fridge. The legs
rotate to provide a better-rounded appearance of function and to provide
stability to the climbing action.
Joe Swinko:
For the Gorilla Arms, a mechanism was developed that would operate the arms using
one motor. The goal I was hoping to achieve was to make the arms travel over one
another like the feet of a walking toy. The result I ended up with were arms that
opened up left to right, rather than front to back. During the building process,
I had to modify the design because the arms were not moving the same displacements.
I used a crank rocker type of four bar linkage to get the rocking motion of the
arms that was desired.
John FRie:
My design was a paper airplane constructed out of the front page of the yellow pages.
The center of the plane has an oval section cut out of it, corresponding to the shape
of the base of the mini indian figure. A spring is attached to the plane by putting
holes in the part of the plane that is perpendicular to the wings. The spring is fed
through these holes and is supported by the plane. The indian is then loaded on top
of the spring. The spring is pressed down by the base of the indian and the spring
is held compressed by the wings. Upon impact, the wings pop down and the spring expands,
thus launching the indian from the plane.
Karlee Cleanhands:
This product of fine craftsmanship is the “Tripping Drummer” toy. The concept behind
the design is that a drum-lined platform (the paperplate w/the papertowel rolls on it)
would spin on an axis. The axis would include a horizontal gear. A removable drummer
would be fitted over the axis, and held in place by a support beam. Inside the drummer’s
body would be two vertical gears positioned opposite each other. These gears would mesh
with the horizontal gear on the axis to act as a bevel gear; thus enabling the arms of
the drummer (the bobby pins) to move in opposite up & down motions. Essentially, as
the axis is turned, the drums spin about, allowing the drummer’s arms to beat up and
down on them.
Kenny Stuckey:
The main idea behind my smock-up was the concept of the climbing refrigerator guy who
would have magnets on all of the extremities (legs and arms). All of the joints on the
man would consist of two degree of freedom joints which would allow the man to climb
vertically. There would be one electric motor which would act as catalyst to change the
polarity in the magnets to allow one hand to move over the other. So, in other words
turn the magnets on and off at different times. The motor would also be connected to
gears which would drive the arms and legs to move in the vertical direction. The frame
would have to be lightweight to be able to allow the man to move efficiently. In addition,
the motor would run on sequence to allow for different components (magnets) to work
together to allow the man to climb.
Kevin Russell:
This stunning work of art is an aquarium accessory.
As it can be seen this is simply a submarine. The
cool part is that it swims around and dumps food for
fish. The sub is connected to an airator through the
bottom, where the straw is. The air is then directed
out the back of the sub giving it propulsion. The
device here is what feeds the fish and would be inside
the sub. Every 12 hours the cylindar will turn 360
degrees dumping a little bit of food into the tube
below it. This is the same tube that the air is
blowing through already. Since the air is blowing
through already there is no water in the tube and when
the food drops in the air blows it out the back for
the fish.
Matt Trippel:
My schmock-up for the refrigerator guy concept involved combining a simple mechanism
for motion with a timing device to activate electromagnets that are located in each
of the hands of the schmock-up. Each hand/arm is mechanically driven to create the
climbing motion. A cam-like device is used to lift the right arm up. After the arm
is forced upward by a rotating cam, the electromagnet in the hand is activated to
advance the toy up the refrigerator. The arm is fastened to the body of the figure
with a spring, so after the arm moves up and is electromagnetically held into place,
the body is pulled upward by the spring force created by the relative motion between
the arm and body. As the cam continues to rotate after pushing the right arm into
place, it contacts a lever while still rotating in the same direction to raise the
left in a direction opposite the direction of rotation of the cam. Again the body
is pulled up the refrigerator by the spring force generated between the relative
movement of the arm and the body of the figure. The electromagnets are activated
by having a conductive material that bridges the poles of each hand electromagnet,
with a break in the "bridge" whenever the hand must release and advance upward on
the refrigerator.
Clunk:
My toy was the Paratrooper Launcher. I screwed a spring into a piece of cardboard
on the top and bottom. I attached one end to a base and the other end became my
launcher. I put holes in the top piece of cardboard and ran string through them.
I then surrounded the launching device with poster board to serve as the launch tube.
The string was used to compress the spring. When the user lets go of the string the
soldier is launched out the tube and the parachute opens gliding the soldier safely
to earth, occasionally. Sometimes the chute doesn’t completely deploy and the soldier
plummets to his demise.
Todd Hyman:
I did a schmock-up of a drummer toy. In my design, the drummer, who has different
drumsticks and drumming tools that can be attached, sits in the middle of his drum set.
Drums and symbols are set all around him at different heights, angles, and distances from
him. As he is spun by a motor, the child playing with the toy can raise and lower the
drummer, and change his angle so he hits different combinations of drums and symbols.
Stephen Bilen:
My schmock-up is of an aircraft that explodes when the
nose is hit. The exploding aircraft is activated when
the plunger on the nose is hit and in turn releases
the two rubber bands allowing the wings to depart the
aircraft. The wings are held on by the tension of the
rubber bands and the loops at the front of the wings.
A bar is also included in the back of the wings to
offer additional wing stability. The toy design could
be modified to incorporate an ejecting pilot, one was
not added because the structure of the aircraft was
too flimsy.
Matt Kook-avecki:
This shmock-up is of the toy that you can drive and it climbs any metal surface,
like a refrigerator. It could be remote control or windup of some sort that you
drive along the floor, countertop, stove, etc., when you get to the refrigerator
the magnets on the belt stick to the refrigerator and it starts to climb. This shmock-up
was constructed using dowl rods for axles, four ball bearings, a dowl rod for a spacer/tensioner
between axles, 1.5” rubber belt material cut and sewn together with magnet strips
cut and glued to the belt.
Eric Mocko:
Oh man this thing is awesome. The Shoot and Climb is basically a modification of a
Sky Commanders action figure, a cartoon TV show from 1987. It already had the
climbing action (though not motorized). So I took apart a mechanical pencil,
broke the tip off, and created a rubber band powered cannon. I taped the hook from
the original toy onto the mortar of the pencil cannon, and it allows the hook to
be shot the entire length of the string (about 3 feet). The string can then be
wound back up with the spool on the backpack and climb the string.
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