Educational toy with path creating tiles for a vehicle

Abstract

An educational toy for a child. The toy includes a rectangular frame surrounding a rectangular center area. Tiles are positioned in the center area to fill this area except for one vacant space equal in size to a tile. A pair of grooves are formed in the top surface of each tile with each groove extending from one side edge of a tile to another side edge of a tile with all grooves intersecting the side edges of its tile at the midpoint of each side edge. Some tiles have only straight grooves which intersect while other tiles have only arcuate curves which do not intersect. Turnaround grooves are formed in the rectangular frame. Each turnaround groove opens at its opposite ends into the center area of the frame. The ends of the turnaround grooves are spaced from each other and positioned relative to the sides of the rectangular center area so that the grooves of the tiles can be aligned with the turnaround grooves to form a continuous vehicle path from the tiles onto the rectangular frame and then back onto the tiles. A vehicle is provided to move across the tiles and frame. The vehicle has a pair of guides which extend into the grooves to direct the vehicle along a selected path. A drive axle with a pair of drive wheels is located between the guides. A differential effect to enable the vehicle to transverse curves in the grooves is provided by the drive wheel construction and raised portions on the tiles and frame.