Patent ID: 8152589
Filing Date: 2012-04-10
Classification: A63H

Abstract:
1. In a toy vehicle play set including a master toy vehicle including a radio frequency (RF) receiver configured to receive control signals from an RF remote control unit for remote control of the operation of the master toy vehicle, the master toy vehicle further including a wireless transmitter configured to broadcast at least a tracking signal, and a slave toy vehicle including at least one directional receiver configured to detect at least the tracking signal and a self-directing control circuit coupled to the at least one directional receiver and configured to control the movement of the slave toy vehicle in response to at least the tracking signal detected by the receiver so as to chase the master toy vehicle, an improvement comprising: a stationary base unit having a wireless signal transmitter and a programmed game controller configured to autonomously generate command signals broadcast through the wireless signal transmitter; and at least one of the master and slave toy vehicles having a wireless signal receiver and on-board control circuit configured to receive and process command signals from the base unit transmitter and to operate the at least one vehicle under the autonomous control of the base unit in response to the command signals; and wherein the slave toy vehicle has the wireless signal receiver and wherein the master toy vehicle has a second wireless signal receiver and an on-board control circuit configured to receive and process command signals from the base unit transmitter as well as control signals from the remote control unit and to operate the master toy vehicle in response to the command signals and the control signals.