The invention relates to an entertainment device for adults and children and specifically, a toy air gun. In particular, a toy air gun is disclosed that is collapsible, easy to ship, assemble, use and manufacture.
Toy guns are common with children and provide excitement of playing out the hunting and the hunted or shooting targets. Traditional toy gun resembles a real gun and projects a fake bullet at relatively high speed. This type of toy gun is very dangerous to play with as the projectile can severely injure a child, in particular, his/her eyes. Furthermore, bullets are often lost after shooting from the gun and require constant replenishment or reloading.
In view of the increase in gun violence in today's society, traditional toy guns have been considered politically incorrect and parents minimize their children's exposure to toy guns. Due to the decrease in popularity of toy guns with a projectile, toy water guns have increased their popularity in recent years.
Prior art toy water gun uses water and projects a squirt or stream of water. Toy water gun is slightly less dangerous to play with and does not cause severe injury, but does cause a mess if used indoors. Similar to a traditional toy gun that projects a fake bullet, the water ammunition is lost after shooting and requires constant refill. Furthermore, water toy gun is very messy and essentially played outdoors only.
Another type of safe toy gun is one that shoots a ball or wave of air. A toy air gun is advantageous over traditional and water toy guns because it is safe to play with, does not cause severe injury, no need to refill ammunition during play and it is not messy to use.
Prior art toy air guns generally use a resilient diaphragm that is drawn and cocked rearward and released (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,157,703, 2,846,996 and 2,614,551) or is struck with a hammer (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,567) to provide a puff of air at relatively high velocity to be felt many feet away. Disadvantageously, all prior art air toy guns have bulky constructions due to the many intricate parts that make up the toy guns and are expensive to manufacture and ship due to their sizes.
Therefore, there is a need for a toy air gun that is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use, ship and assemble.
The present invention provides a toy air gun having a collapsible feature to facilitate shipping and assembly and is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use.
The toy air gun of the present invention comprises at least two corresponding tapered tubular sections and at least one supporting plate. The tapered tubular sections are correspondingly sized concentrically such that in the extended cooperative, co-axial position, the tubular sections form a tapered tubular body having a total axial length of the combined axial lengths of the tubular sections. Mounted transversely across the larger opening end of the tubular body is a non-resilient, non-porous diaphragm. A pull knob and a back support securely sandwich the diaphragm near the center of the diaphragm. A resilient string is mounted across the smaller opening end of the tubular body, with a section of the string looping through an opening adjacent the back support. The supporting plate has at least two latching elements that correspond to at least one slit on the circumferential surface of each of the outer tubular sections to maintain the tubular sections in the extended position. In one embodiment, the supporting plate has an integral handle to facilitate handling of the toy air gun and/or a sight to facilitate aiming of the toy air gun.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention has been chosen for purposes of illustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings forming a part of the specification wherein:
With reference to the drawings, wherein the same reference number indicates the same element throughout, there is shown in
As shown in
As shown in details in
Smaller outer tubular section 20 has at one end a rim 26 extending radially inward to form a muzzle opening 28 of the toy air gun 10. At the opposite end of the smaller outer tubular section is an L-shape flange 30 extending radially outward, forming a groove 32. The interconnecting tubular section 22 has two L-shape flanges 34 and 36, the first extending radially outward at the larger diameter end and the latter extending radially inward at the smaller diameter end, forming grooves 38 and 40, respectively. The larger tubular section 24 has an L-shape flange 42 extending radially inward at the smaller diameter end, forming a groove 44. At the larger diameter end of the larger tubular section 24 is a radially extending rim 46.
In the extended position, the groove 32 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 34, the groove 38 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 30, and the groove 40 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 42. Each of these three groove-flange interlock is held together by friction.
To facilitate the assembly of the three tubular sections 20, 22 and 24 into the extended operational position, at least one axially linear protrusion 48 may provided on the circumferential surface of smaller tubular section 20 and at least one corresponding channel 50 along the L-shape flange 34 of the interconnecting tubular section 22 to guide in the proper alignment of the three tubular sections 20, 22 and 24. A similar combination of protrusion 48 and channel 50 may be provided on the circumferential surface of the interconnecting tubular section 22 and the L-shape flange 42 of the larger tubular section 24 (not shown).
As shown in
As shown in
A pull knob 56 and a back support 58 securely sandwich the diaphragm 16 near the center of the diaphragm 16. The back support 58 has an opening 60 wherein the resilient string 18 is looped through. The two ends of the resilient string 18 are securely mounted diametrically across from each other on the rim 26 of smaller tubular section 20.
As shown in
As shown in
Optionally, a sight 68 may be provided on the supporting plate 14 opposite the supporting plate with a handle 64 (as shown in
The features of the invention illustrated and described herein is the preferred embodiment. Therefore, it is understood that the appended claims are intended to cover the variations disclosed and unforeseeable embodiments with insubstantial differences that are within the spirit of the claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2614551 | Shelton | Oct 1952 | A |
2628450 | Shelton | Feb 1953 | A |
2828579 | Schwerberl et al. | Apr 1958 | A |
2846996 | Drynan | Aug 1958 | A |
2855714 | Thomas | Oct 1958 | A |
2879759 | Webb | Mar 1959 | A |
3117567 | Allen, Jr. | Jan 1964 | A |
3342171 | Ryan et al. | Sep 1967 | A |
4157703 | Brown et al. | Jun 1979 | A |
5337726 | Wood | Aug 1994 | A |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20040226548 A1 | Nov 2004 | US |