This was a university project where we were given this brief: Maclaren are known for their high quality buggies, they now plan to diversify and enter the child toy industry. They have plans to produce a mobile toy such as a scooter or a bike for children ages 3-4.

Maclaren being a high quality brand wanted the toy to fit in with their style, they wanted a safe, fun, high quality toy with an innovative storage solution.

This was a group project my group decided on a concept that was new and innovative, a whole new way of playing. The concept was based on a childhood experience of playing on office chairs, it requires the child to propel the toy by running in a sitting position. The two front wheels are fixed to the frame and the rear wheel is on a pivot allowing it to move in a similar way to buggy wheels. The brakes are handles that can be pulled to stop the front wheels if one is pulled it can steer the toy in the direction pulled. It also had a storage feature where the back wheel and frame would fold under the rest of the toy so it could be stacked and stored.

Development

The design was tweaked and developed part by part. The braking system was designed, the headrest was modified, the folding mechanism was refined, the foot pegs were developed and the wheel cover was created.

Algor Testing

Some Testing was carried out on the frame to simulate extreme use, normal use and if accidents should happen such as a wheel getting stuck. The FEA images below shows the results of it under normal use, which was 24 times safe.

Final Boards

Some boards were then put together to show the product in situation and to sell the design, these were rendered in Flamingo and included images of it folded up and in the normal use position.