Battery Powered Kids: Galloping Gearbox
December 09, 2011, By Andy Hinds 0 comments
I may be handy in a lot of ways, but the miniature is not, generally speaking, my milieu of choice. Houses, cars, furniture—you know, full-sized things—are what I'm used to working with. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I approached my first Battery Powered Kids project. I had some vague ideas of battery-powered toys I could create for my kids this holiday season, but it had been a long time since I worked with tiny electric motors and drivetrains.
So to get into the swing of it, I chose a pre-packaged kit, the charmingly named "Mechanical Racehorse--Galloping Type," part of the Robocraft educational toys series by Tamiya, a company that's known mostly for its radio control vehicles. I purchased my kit at a local hobby shop, but you can order directly from Tamiya or through any number of online retailers.
The kit contains everything you need except for a razor knife and side-cutters to separate the plastic parts from their packaging. It's a very stylized version of a racehorse with a jockey atop it, made mostly of transparent colored plastic that allows you to see the motor, gearbox, and all the other working parts.
I had a familiar twinge of apprehension as I started sorting out the pieces and perusing the diagrams. I was reminded of the times as a kid when I had been burned by cheap model airplanes with bad instructions and ill-fitting parts. There was always an engine that didn't quite seat properly on the wing, and a handful of extra bits. It didn't matter much, since my friends and I usually staged air battles with our models that ended up in actual fiery crashes, but still, it vexed me.
