Patent ID: 7172488

Claim:
A toy vehicle having a front end and a rear end and first and second lateral sides comprising: a housing including a vehicle body having a generally arcuate shaped lateral side profile; a plurality of road wheels supporting the housing for movement across a support surface and including at least one rear road wheel rotatably mounted proximate the rear end so as to at least partially support the rear end and at least one front road wheel rotatably mounted proximate the front end so as to at least partially support the front end; at least a first motor drivingly coupled with at least one of the front and rear road wheels; and a lift mechanism including a lift arm having first and second ends and a generally arcuate shaped lateral side profile, the second end of the lift arm being free and the first end of the lift arm being pivotally mounted with respect to the housing so as to permit the lift arm to move between a retracted position generally against the housing so as to enable the toy vehicle to be supported on the support surface by the plurality of road wheels and an extended position generally away from the housing so as to contact the support surface and raise the plurality of road wheels from the surface, the toy vehicle having a lateral side profile collectively defined by the arcuate side profiles of the vehicle body and the lift arm in the extended position sufficiently rounded to permit the vehicle to roll end over end over end, wherein the lift mechanism further comprises: a lift arm actuating motor; a lift arm drive screw operably coupled with the actuating motor; and a lift arm drive nut in threaded engagement with the lift arm drive screw and operably coupled with the lift arm.