Patent ID: 7458371

Claim:
A toy dart launcher comprising: a housing; a magazine subassembly having a central axis and supported by the housing for rotation about the central axis, the magazine subassembly including a magazine having a plurality of bores generally circularly arranged around the central axis, each bore configured to receive a soft toy dart, the magazine further including an opening at an inner end of each bore; a motor supported by the housing; a magazine rotator subassembly supported by the housing so as to be operably coupled with the magazine subassembly and configured to cyclically operate to rotate the magazine about the central axis in a cyclic manner a uniform angular amount each cycle; a dart launcher subassembly supported by the housing operably coupled with the magazine, the dart launcher subassembly including an air cylinder and a piston within the air cylinder, the air cylinder having a passageway therefrom in alignment with the opening at the inner end of each bore, when the bore is in position juxtaposed to the passageway, such that air pressurized in the air cylinder by the piston passes through the passageway and through the opening and into the juxtaposed bore, the dart launcher subassembly lacking valving to maintain air pressurized in the dart launcher subassembly for delayed release; a drive train operably coupling the motor with the piston to cyclically reciprocate the piston in the air cylinder and with the magazine rotator subassembly to cyclically rotate the magazine the uniform angular amount in coordination with the reciprocation of the piston such that the magazine is rotated the uniform angular amount with one reciprocation of the piston in the cylinder, such that during each complete rotation of the magazine about the central axis, the opening at the inner end of each bore is positioned once juxtaposed to the air cylinder passageway and in fluid communication with the air cylinder at least as the piston is moved by the drive train to pressurize air in the air cylinder; an elevation mechanism supported by the housing and operably coupled with the motor to raise and lower the launcher with respect to a surface supporting the launcher, the elevation mechanism including an elevation device and drive train operably coupling the elevation device with the motor; and means operably coupling the motor with the magazine rotator subassembly and the dart launcher subassembly to rotate the magazine and reciprocate the piston only with rotation of the motor in a first direction and to operate the elevation mechanism only with rotation of the motor in a second direction opposite the first direction.