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The disclosure and prior art relates to tower collapsing games and more particularly pertains to a new tower collapsing game for allowing players to selectively break portions of a tower while attempting to retain the tower in an erect condition.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a plurality of base plates. Each of the base plates has a top side comprising a plurality of male engagement members and a bottom side comprising a plurality of female engagement members. Each of plurality of mounting bricks has a top end, a bottom end and a peripheral surface extending between the top and bottom ends. The top ends of each of the mounting bricks comprise a plurality of male engagement members and each of the bottom ends comprises a female engagement member. Each of the male engagement members of the mounting bricks is frictionally and releasably engageable with the female engagement members of the base plates and other ones of the mounting bricks. The female engagement member of the mounting bricks is frictionally and releasably engageable with the male engagement members of the base plates and other ones of the mounting bricks. The mounting bricks are coupled together to define a plurality of pillars. A striking implement is used for striking the pillars to break the pillars where attached ones of the mounting bricks are joined.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A plurality of mounting bricks 28 is provided. Each of the mounting bricks 28 has a top end 30, a bottom end 32 and a peripheral surface 34 extending between the top 30 and bottom 32 ends. The top ends 30 of each of the mounting bricks 28 comprise a plurality of male engagement members 16 and each of the bottom ends 32 comprises a female engagement member 26 or a plurality of female engagement members 26. Each of the male engagement members 16 of the mounting bricks 28 is frictionally and releasably engageable with the female engagement members 26 of the base plates 12 and other ones of the mounting bricks 28. The female engagement member 26 of the mounting bricks 28 is frictionally and releasably engageable with the male engagement members 16 of the base plates 12 and other ones of the mounting bricks 28. The male 16 and female 26 engagement members may have any conventional, frictional securing means such that they mate with each other. Brick systems utilizing similar structures for frictionally coupling together toy bricks are ubiquitous in the toy arts and are found in multiple references such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,282 and are sold under the tradenames Lego and Duplo. In the present embodiment, each of the mounting bricks 28 has a length and width each being less than 2.5 inches. More particularly, the mounting bricks 28 may each have a height greater than its width. The mounting bricks 28 shown have a generally rectangular cross-section taken perpendicular to a line extending through the top 30 and bottom 32 ends. However the mounting bricks may have any geometric cross-section including cylindrical, hexagonal, pentagonal, triangular and the like.
During game play, a plurality of pillars 36 are created with the mounting bricks 28 by coupling together two or more of the mounting bricks 28 such that at least a first set of pillars 38, a second set of pillars 40 and a third set of pillars 42 is defined. Each pillar 36 may contain far greater than two mounting bricks 28 and as can be seen in
During the setting up of the game 10, the first set of pillars 38 are mounted to the male engagement members 16 on the first base plate 18. As can be seen in
A striking implement 46 is provided which is used for striking the pillars 36 of the tower 60. The striking implement 46 may resemble a hammer though other shapes including miniature bats, rods, swords or the like may be utilized. The striking element 46 may be comprised of any conventional material, however it may be beneficial to construct the striking element 46 out of a material that is no harder than the material used to form the mounting bricks 28 to inhibit damage to the mounting bricks 28. Thus, the striking implement 46 may be comprised of a plastic material. Alternatively, the striking implement 46 may be comprised of a material having greater compression than the material of the mounting bricks 28 and therefore may be comprised of an elastomeric material, for example, which is resiliently compressible.
For the game, the players build the tower 60 as described above. Each level will include at least three pillars 36 though more pillars 38, such as least four and more preferably six or as many as eight pillars 38 may be used. The pillars 38 may themselves be constructed using as many mounting bricks 28 as desired though it should be understood that the greater the number of mounting bricks 28 used, the easier it will be to break the pillars 36 during the game. Once the tower 60 has been constructed, each of the players of the game 10 will begin to take turns hitting one of the pillars 36 with the striking implement 46. The object is to strike and break a pillar 36; that is cause the pillar 36 to come apart where two mounting bricks 28 are joined together, without causing the overall collapse of the tower 60. The player will continue to strike one or more of the pillars 36 until a pillar 36 breaks. If the tower 60 does not topple after the pillar 36 is broken, the next player attempts to break a pillar 36 and so on. At some point, when the tower 60 is structurally weakened enough, one player will break a pillar 36 which in turn will cause one or more of the base plates 12 to fall from a remaining portion of the tower 60 or cause the entire tower 60 to fall over due to its center of gravity moving outside of the first base plate 18. Using two base plates 12 in a coplanar relationship will make the tower 60 more unstable and thus add challenge to the game play. When the tower completely 60 or partially collapses, that player who caused the tower 60 to essentially fall down the game is over and the last person to successfully knock out one or more bricks 28 while retaining the rest of the tower intact wins the game.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3899169 | Rhodes | Aug 1975 | A |
4834687 | Elam | May 1989 | A |
5611544 | Grebler | Mar 1997 | A |
6029974 | Povitz | Feb 2000 | A |
6964593 | Stevens | Nov 2005 | B1 |