I went to a dollar store first but couldn't find anything purely mechanical for this assignment. So, I went to my local Target, and in the baby toys section, I found these wound-up key dinosaurs (I love dinosaurs) and bought a bag of six tiny ones.
You can see one of them from all angles below:
Before taking it apart, I think the wind-up key moves multiple different sized gears inside the dinosaur in the opposite direction to create tension so when released they unwind and move the two metal arms that stick out. The other parts are then attached in different ways to those arms to give variety in terms of movement.
After the photoshoot and initial analysis, I had to take a screwdriver to the poor dino and take it apart. The screws were so tiny I spent a good 30 minutes just finding the right screwdriver. This is what it looked like all opened up (I accidentally ended up disassembling the motor, too, and I realized I didn't necessarily have to):
After disassembling the dino, I found that a mechanical motor-like device caused the main movement. The more extended metal arm attached to the small gear would move a bigger central gear that would wind up a flat metal coil, which, when released, would unwind and rotate the metal arm on the other side, which in turn moves the plastic components and legs that are screwed to the arm.
🦖🦖🦖
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