Project 1, Concept 1
This toy is designed to help children with hand eye coordination, and also to save money and have fun while doing it! The outer shell of the cow will be made of some kind of stiff, hard to break plastic covered in a nice soft fake cow fur. In its normal position, the cows mouth will be open. The child puts his/her coins in the mouth of the cow, and then cranks the tail. This sets some gears into motion, and the mouth will close, and the cow will swallow the money. After "swallowing" the money, the mouth return to its open position, the cow will let out a nice mooing noise. To get the money out of the bank, a plug will be pulled out of the cows stomach/udder area and the coins will fall out. Some future design decisions are in the works: a coin sorting version which will have different stomachs for different coins, some sort of puzzle or code to open the bank so that siblings or other people couldn't steal money, and lastly some different types of animals- cats, horses, zebras.
The banks largest problem will be getting dirty- just like any other toy with fur on the outside, it will get dirty. The plastic shell will be hard and durable. The bank is safe- the smallest thing associated with the toy would be a coin. Cost should not be that high. Each one needs a plastic shell, one gear box-spring type construction for the mouth, a squeaker to be placed in the mouth and a removable plug in the bottom of the plastic shell.