Boomerang Throwing Arm

The client is a world brand name in toys for children. The design brief was to develop an 'arm' that could throw a boomerang.

Initial research determined that it would be unreliable to try and mimic a traditional boomerang but a three bladed boomerang would be more stable in flight and more likely to return. The trimerang concept was developed using a bench test rig so that it required a very simple flick action to throw and was reliable in how often it returned. 

A risk assessment established that it would be likely that children would want to use the throwing arm to propel coins and other objects and the throwing arm was made safe by adapting the mechanism so that it could only propel the correct 'trimerang' device. The mechanism was then adapted to be incorporated into the arm of an existing 'Action' character and a small batch of prototypes was made for use in a TV commercial.