Toy miniature vehicle racing game

A toy vehicle race game is disclosed which includes a relatively flat slotless track having at least two track portions, each of which defines separate paths of travel having inner and outer lanes. The track portions include unobstructed cross-over areas which are located adjacent to each other and define a cross-over being at least four lanes wide through which toy vehicles may pass from one track portion to another. The toy vehicles used in the game include a pair of controllable toy vehicles which can be selectively and independently controlled to cause them to switch lanes within a track portion and to cross from one track portion to another at the cross-over. A drone vehicle is also provided which is restrained for movement in one of the lanes of one track portion, thereby to provide an obstacle to vehicles crossing from one track portion into another. Accordingly, the players must control their controllable vehicles to switch from one track portion to another without colliding with the restrained drone car.

The present invention relates to toy vehicle race games and more in 
particular to a slotless toy vehicle race game in which controllable toy 
vehicles can switch from one track portion to another portion. 
In recent years the advent of commercially feasible slotless racing has 
occurred in which toy vehicles separately controlled by two or more 
players can be caused to switch lanes from one lane to another in order to 
pull out and pass an opponent's vehicle. The first commercially successful 
slotless race game which provided reliable operation of controllable 
vehicles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799 to Robert G. Lahr. In 
that game the toy vehicles are steered from one lane to another, between 
inner and outer side walls, with the use of a control system that is 
responsive to current polarity reversal. The ability of the toy vehicles 
to pull out and pass one another creates a very realistic race game and 
closely simulates the actions of a true automotive race. To further 
enhance the realism of the race, and to provide an increased degree of 
difficulty in winning the race, the toy vehicle game disclosed in U.S. 
Pat. No. 4,078,799 includes a drone or obstacle vehicle which moves along 
the track at a relatively constant speed. The drone vehicle typically will 
move in the outer lane of the track, as a result of centrifugal force, and 
provide an obstacle which must be passed by the controllable toy vehicles. 
Heretofore slotless toy vehicle race games consisted of a single track in 
the general shape of an oval or some other circuitous shape using two or 
more parallel lanes throughout the game. Thus the toy vehicles were 
constrained, in effect, to move along a defined path between the sidewalls 
of the track, although they could switch from one lane to another within 
the track. 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy vehicle game 
wherein the track is provided in two separate track portions defining 
separate paths of travel and the toy vehicles can move from one track 
portion to another or stay in a given track path if desired. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle game 
including two separate paths of travel, in which controllable toy vehicles 
can be caused to move from one path to another, but in which an obstacle 
is provided which must be avoided during cross-over. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle game 
of the character described which is relatively simple in construction and 
durable in operation. 
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved 
toy vehicle game. 
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle 
game which is relatively simple and economical to manufacture. 
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention a toy vehicle race 
game is provided having at least two tracks or track portions defining 
separate paths of travel and including a common side. Each of the track 
portions has spaced inner and outer sidewalls defining at least inner and 
outer lanes therebetween, except that along at least a portion of the 
common side there is no outer wall thereon, so that a cross-over portion 
is defined through which toy vehicles may pass from one path of travel to 
another. The toy vehicles used in the game include at least one 
controllable toy vehicle and one drone vehicle. The controllable vehicle 
or vehicles can be operated by the players to switch lanes within a track 
portion or path of travel and to cross from one track portion to another 
at the common track side. The drone vehicle, on the other hand, is 
constrained for movement in one of the track portions along one of the 
lanes thereof so as to provide an obstacle to passage of the controllable 
toy vehicles from one path of travel to another. Thus in order to move 
between track portions the controllable toy vehicles must be steered in 
such a way as to avoid collision with the drone vehicle.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, and initially to FIG. 1 thereof, a 
toy vehicle game 10, constructed in accordance with the present invention, 
includes an endless plastic track 12 having a pair of track portions 13, 
15, each of which defines a separate path of travel for toy vehicles used 
in the game. Each track portion has a pair of laterally spaced upstanding 
sidewalls 14,16 and a road bed or tread surface 18 extending therebetween. 
Road bed 18 has a width sufficient to define at least two vehicle lanes 
20, 22 thereon along which a plurality of vehicles can be operated. 
Sidewalls 14,16 in each track portion extend substantially entirely around 
the track portions except where the track portions pass adjacent each 
other in a cross-over section 19. At this point, no outer walls 16 are 
provided, so that toy vehicles on the track can pass from one track 
portion, or path of travel, to the other. 
In the illustrative embodiment of the invention the toy vehicle game 
includes operator controlled vehicles 24,26 which are of substantially 
identical construction, and in particular are of the type of controllable 
toy vehicles disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799. In addition, a drone 
car 28 is provided in one of the track portions. The drone car is adapted 
to move along its path of travel at a relatively constant speed, and may 
be battery operated as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,798 or it may 
accept current from the track, so that its speed varies somewhat with the 
speed of the controllable vehicles, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 
4,141,552. It is understood, however, that the term "relatively constant 
speed" as used herein is intended to encompass either battery operated toy 
vehicles as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,798 or current supplied toy 
vehicles as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,552. 
Toy vehicles 24,26 are separately controlled by the players through a 
control system 30 which enables the players to vary current supplied to 
the electrical motors in the vehicles, thereby to vary the vehicle speed. 
The controllers also enable the players to change the polarity of current 
supplied to the respective vehicle motors whereby the vehicles can be 
switched by the players from one lane to the other. As mentioned, the 
controllable vehicles may be identical to the controllable vehicles 
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799 or they may be controllable type 
vehicles for use in slotless race games of other constructions as are 
presently commercially available. 
Essentially, one of the controllable toy vehicles is illustrated 
schematically in FIG. 3. The vehicle includes a removable body and a pair 
of front wheels 36 rotatably mounted on the frame in a shock absorbing 
front end system 38. If desired, the wheels can be canted in one direction 
or the other, in order to aid in guiding the toy vehicle into biased 
engagement with the outer sidewalls of the track. The rear wheels 40 of 
the toy vehicle are rotatably mounted for independent rotation on a shaft 
42 rotatably mounted in frame 32. 
Power for driving the controllable toy vehicles is supplied from a DC 
electric motor 48 mounted in the controllable toy vehicle on the frame 32. 
The electric motor is of conventional DC construction and includes a 
rotary output shaft 50 connected to the rotor of the motor in the usual 
manner. A spur gear or output drive element 52 is secured to shaft 50 for 
rotation thereby. This output member is drivingly engaged with the 
transmission system 56 that is responsive to the direction of rotation of 
the output drive element (i.e. the direction of rotation of the output 
shaft 50 of motor 48, due to the polarity of current supplied to the 
motor) to selectively drive the drive wheels 40. 
The transmission system 56 includes a crown gear 58 and a pair of swing or 
spur gears 70,72 rotatably mounted on the support shaft for the crown 
gear, so that, depending upon the direction of rotation of the crown gear, 
one or the other of the spur gears will be engaged with one or the other 
of the gears 46 of the rear wheels 40. Thus, one or the other of the rear 
wheels of the vehicle will be driven depending on the polarity of current 
supplied to the motor. This selective drive of the rear wheels of the toy 
vehicle will urge the toy vehicle into one lane or the other on the track, 
into biased engagement with the adjacent sidewall of the track, as 
described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799. 
Although this type of biasing arrangement for causing the toy vehicle to 
switch lanes is presently preferred, as mentioned above it is contemplated 
that other types of steering arrangements for causing the toy vehicles to 
switch lanes can be provided. 
In order to supply current to the toy vehicles, the track surface 18 in 
each track portion is provided with a plurality of electrical contact 
strips in each of the lanes 20,22 extending parallel to the sidewalls of 
the track. In this connection it is noted that in the embodiment of the 
invention shown in FIG. 1 the track 10 is shown to have a generally figure 
eight configuration with each track portion 13,15 having a generally oval 
configuration. However, it is contemplated that the track sections may 
have other configurations, including irregular configurations as desired. 
One such alternative embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein the track 
portion 13 is located within track portion 15. This arrangement occupies 
less total area than the figure eight form but is used in the same way as 
the embodiment of FIG. 1. Thus corresponding reference numerals have been 
used to identify the elements in FIG. 5. In any case, each track portion 
will have its own pairs of current supply strip sets, extending parallel 
to the sidewalls of that track portion. 
In the illustrative embodiments of the invention, each lane in each track 
portion is respectively provided with three contact strips A, B, and C. 
The strips are formed of an electrically conductive metallic material and 
are embedded in the track so that they are substantially flush with the 
surface of the track and present no obstacle to movement of the vehicles 
from one lane to the other. Current is supplied to these strips in the 
manner described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799 and is collected by current 
collectors mounted on the frame on the controllable toy vehicles, in 
predetermined locations as described in that patent. The track itself may 
be constructed in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 
4,106,695. And, the adjacent track sections in the cross-over 19 may be 
secured together in any convenient manner, so that track portions 13,15 do 
not separate when in use. This can be done, for example, by bolts or clips 
connected between the track sections on the lower surface thereof in the 
area of the cross-over 19. 
The contact strips in each lane in each track portion are paired with each 
other. That is, all of the A strips in every lane in both track portions 
are electrically connected to each other, as are all of the B strips and 
all of the C strips. The C strips are connected to electrical ground and 
the A and B strips are provided to separately supply current and control 
polarity of the current to the respective vehicles, so that two vehicles 
can operate in the same lane and still be separately controlled. For this 
reason, the current collectors on the vehicles are arranged to associate 
the respective vehicles with only one of the pairs of contact strips. For 
example, vehicle 24 will obtain current from strips B while vehicle 26 
will obtain current from strips A. 
The control system for the controllable toy vehicles is described in detail 
in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799 and illustrated schematically in FIG. 4. The 
control system essentially includes respective controllers A and B by 
which the players can control the vehicles 24,26 respectively. The control 
system further includes a plug 128 by which the system can be connected to 
an electrical AC power source, and a transformer 130. Power is supplied 
from the transformer 130 through a half-wave rectifier 132 including two 
diodes connected as shown to separately supply current to the controllers 
A, B. Each controller is provided as a hand held unit and includes a 
variable resistor 134 operated as a trigger on the unit, as well as a 
single pole, double throw switch 136. Current from controller B is 
supplied through its variable resistor 134 to the contact strips B and 
current from the controller A is supplied through its variable resistor to 
the contact strips A. The variable resistors may be of any convenient 
construction to permit the operators to vary the current supplied to their 
respective contact strips, and thus their respective vehicles in order to 
vary the speed of the vehicles. 
The polarity of the current supplied to the toy vehicles is separately and 
independently controlled by the switches 136 so that the polarity of the 
current supplied to the motors of the respective vehicles, as controlled 
by the respective controllers, will vary in accordance with the position 
in which the switches are placed. By this arrangement, each player using 
his controller can control the speed of his vehicle along track 12 and he 
can also variably position his vehicle along the track simply by changing 
the polarity of current supplied to the vehicle. As described above and in 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799 this will determine which lane the vehicle will be 
driven to. 
Although a specific type of control system has been described herein, it is 
contemplated that other types of control systems such as are presently 
commercially available, including the control system used in the Total 
Control Racing Game sold by Ideal Toy Corporation can also be used in the 
present invention. 
By this arrangement, it will be appreciated that the controllable toy 
vehicles 24,26 can be controlled to pull out and pass one another in 
either track portion by causing the vehicles to change position from one 
lane to the other. In accordance with the present invention, however, an 
improved race game is provided in that the two separate track portions 
13,15 and the paths of travel they define are located adjacent each other 
with a cross-over section therebetween, to enable the toy vehicles to 
change position from one path of travel to another, as well as change 
lanes within a track portion. Thus for example, if the player operating 
controllable toy vehicle 26 wishes to cause the toy vehicle to move into 
the track portion 13 from the track portion 15, he would operate his 
controller to cause the toy vehicle to be biased to the left, so that once 
it is free of the outer wall 14 of track portion 15, it would move into 
track portion 13. On the other hand, if the player wanted to keep the toy 
vehicle within track portion 15, he would operate his controller as the 
toy vehicle approaches the cross-over point 19 to bias the vehicle to the 
right towards the inner wall 16 of the track thus preventing the toy 
vehicle from moving into track portion 13. Of course the controllable toy 
vehicle 24 would be operated in a similar manner. By this arrangement, the 
toy vehicles can be caused to selectively operate in either track portion, 
and to move from one path of travel to the other as desired. 
In order to provide a race game in which the toy vehicles are required to 
move from one track portion or path of travel to the other, one of the 
track portions, for example the track portion 13, may be provided with a 
conventional lap counter 150. The lap counter can be of any convenient 
construction in order to enable it to discriminate between the toy 
vehicles 24,26 and provide an indication of the number of times a 
particular toy vehicle has passed the counter station. With this 
arrangement, a toy vehicle game can be provided in which to win the game 
the toy vehicles will be required to accumulate a given number of laps. 
To render the play of the game more difficult, and thereby improve the play 
value of the game, a drone vehicle 28 is provided. In the usual slotless 
race game, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,799, the drone vehicle 
simply provides an obstacle along the track which must be passed by the 
players during the play of the game. This drone vehicle forces the players 
to operate their controllable vehicles to pass the drone, which usually 
occupies the outer lane due to the effects of centrifugal force. The drone 
thus eliminates the effects of manufacturing differences between the toy 
vehicles on the controllable toy vehicles' speed. The drone vehicle used 
in accordance with the present invention serves the same function but, in 
addition, serves as an obstacle to movement of the toy vehicles through 
the cross-over 19. 
In accordance with the present invention, the drone vehicle is constrained 
to move along the inner wall 16 of the track portion 13. This is done by 
the provision of a clip 152 formed on a resilient plastic material. The 
clip includes a first end portion 154 having legs 156 that can 
frictionally engage the sides of the drone vehicle to hold the clip 
connected thereto. An additional section 158 of the clip extends laterally 
of the toy vehicle and includes a leg 160 which overhangs the inner 
sidewall 16 of the track in a sliding relation, thereby to hold the drone 
vehicle in the inner lane of the track. Preferably the drone vehicle is 
arranged so that it moves in a direction opposite to the direction of the 
controllable vehicles, although that is not a requirement of the game. 
With this arrangement, during the play of the game, when a toy vehicle in 
track portion 15 must cross into the track portion 13, in order to pass 
the lap counter 130, the cross-over of the vehicle must be timed by the 
player in order to avoid collision with the drone vehicle 28 on the inner 
lane of track portion 13. Such a collision would knock the car out of the 
game, or at least slow it down, permitting the player's competitor to gain 
additional laps while the collision is repaired. Thus, for example, a 
player controlling the controllable vehicle 26, when approaching the 
cross-over 19, must gauge the location of the drone vehicle 28, to 
determine whether he will collide with the drone vehicle if he permits his 
toy vehicle to enter the track portion 13. If the player feels that he 
will collide with the drone vehicle, he must then operate his controller 
to try and keep the controllable vehicle in track portion 15, as by 
steering the vehicle towards the inner wall 16 of that track section. This 
is possible but difficult to do and requires skill, because the effects of 
centrifugal force of the toy vehicle coming out of the curve will tend to 
move the toy vehicle into track portion 13 through cross-over 19. Thus the 
player must not only control steering of the vehicle but speed as well to 
overcome the centrifugal force effects. The toy vehicle will then remain 
in track portion 15 and hopefully in the next pass through the track, can 
enter track portion 13 without danger of collision with the drone vehicle. 
If the player decides that he can attempt a cross-over into the track 
portion 13, he will typically steer the toy vehicle to the left, so that 
it will pass over the cross-over into track portion 13. Steering the 
controllable vehicle to the left, in the illustration at FIG. 1 will 
however typically cause the toy vehicle to move into the inner lane of 
track portion 13, the very lane in which the drone car is located. Thus, 
the player must attempt to steer the vehicle out at the inner lane into 
the outer lane to avoid a head-on collision with the drone car. With a 
sufficient degree of skill, the player could however steer the vehicle to 
the left as it approaches the cross-over from the track portion 15, and 
then cause biasing of the vehicle to the right as it enters track portion 
13 and passes over the current supply strips of lane 22 to steer the 
vehicle immediately to the right and engage the outer wall of track 
portion 13 to hold the vehicle in the outer lane and avoid totally any 
possibility of colliding with the drone vehicle 28. 
Accordingly, it is seen by the arrangement of the present invention a toy 
vehicle game is provided which has substantial play value and requires the 
players to exercise elements of judgment, skill and dexterity in 
controlling the toy vehicles to pass from one track section to another in 
order to accumulate the necessary laps required to win the game while 
avoiding collisions with the drone vehicles. 
Although an illustrative embodiment of the invention has been described 
herein with reference to the accompanying drawings it is to be understood 
that the invention is not limited to that precise embodiment, and that 
various other changes and modifications may be effected therein by one 
skilled in the art without departing from the scope of spirit of this 
invention.