Patent Application
20180117488
The disclosed technology relates generally to building toys and more specifically to light weight toys made of expanded plastic foam such as polyethylene or polyurethane.
Children's blocks have forever been a source of creative play. Frank Lloyd Wright famously credits his childhood blocks as a significant outlet for his creative mind from a very early age. While playing with blocks is often an immersive experience, few sets of blocks allow for the construction of structures that are full size play sets. The risk of such a structure falling on a child has typically prevented this scale of immersive play set.
The 34 sheets of figures show various parts of the construction toy as well as various constructed configurations thereof.
The disclosed technology relates to a construction toy for children and their parents that allow hollow extrusions of expanded plastic foam of a custom profile to improve non-coaxial stackability and to be cut with a toy saw, to a length desired to allow them to construct playsets of their own design or of others designs in which they can hide and play.
The hollow substantially oval extrusions can be accurately described as having a cross section profile with a straight horizontal line on top and bottom and the sides between these as being a radius of a circle. This design provides the opportunity to crisscross stack the extrusions like the logs of a log cabin for easy construction.
The foam extrusions for building a playset of a child's own design are made of expanded plastic such as polyethylene. This extrusion can have holes through the noodle so that fasteners can be used to temporarily attach the extrusions to each other to aid construction.
To help a child or parent correctly measure an extrusion to follow instructions or their own design plans, the extrusion can have holes for fasteners through the flat sides of the extrusion at a known distance between the through holes. In this way, the number of the holes counted, times the distance between the centerpoints of the holes, such as two inches provides the measured length of the extrusion between centerpoints of the through holes.
While tied string or adhesive tape can be used to fasten the extrusions to each other, a simple mechanical fastener that is injection molded in plastic will provide a more convenient way to temporarily or removably attach the extrusions to each other for easy construction of playsets or other structures.
For safety reasons, the molded plastic fasteners need to pass the toy industry's standard test geometries of the Small Part Test to prevent swallowing of the part by children and the Bulbous Part Test so the fastener cannot become lodged inside a child's mouth. Toy industry studies have established that a diameter greater than 1.7″ achieves a level of safety acceptable in toy design to pass both of the above tests and is the minimum diameter of the central disk in the design of the fastener for that reason. The fastener then only needs to be long enough to have an detail at either end away from the central disk to pass through a hole in the extrusion with an interference fit so it can hold those two extrusions together unless they are deliberately pulled apart.
Many other fastener designs are anticipated that allow a child to attach extrusions to each other in specific orientations such as parallel to each other or at right angles to each other. Some of these fasteners are designed to work together.
A toy saw that allows a child to cut the extrusions easily, without creating an opportunity for a child to accidentally cut themselves is also anticipated. The saw will not have saw teeth as traditional saws do, but rather a non-sharp straight edge that simply bursts the thousands of soft plastic bubbles in the extrusion when it is drawn across the extrusion with downward pressure. This method of cutting the extrusion results in no mess that is associated with sawdust and it also makes cutting a finger very difficult to do accidentally.
The saw is anticipated to have a flat or planar plastic sheet held in tension between the structural handle of the saw which is in the shape of an inverted, extended “U” similar to traditional hack saw designs. The portion of the saw used for cutting can be made of plastic or metal, and be planar or predominantly linear in shape such as a string or wire.
The toy is designed to provide children not only an easy to use construction toy but also an educational toy that helps them plan in three dimensions and visualize their design in their mind or on their computer device prior to making it.
Expanded polyethylene noodles provide a lightweight, soft, structural material that can allow children to safely build play structures of their own imaginations that reach over their heads without concern of injury. The blown polyethylene foam blocks interlock with simple connector designs that allow a child to assemble log cabins, forts, castles, boats and other imaginative structures quickly and easily with no tools other than possibly a saw. A miter and saw, or a string, allows noodles or planks to be cut to size with no measuring and little if any mess and little risk of injury to the child. Finally this is a cylindrical block playset that is great for inside or outside play that allows children to create wonderful spaces to enclose themselves. While the playset is designed for the real world, a computer based playset for the computer world is certainly anticipated as well. In this way, children can plan their designs on the computer, make them in the real world and play with them in either environment.
The construction toy of embodiments of the disclosed technology is made from blown or expanded polyethylene foam logs which are flat on two sides. A “log” for purposes of this disclosure is defined as an elongated and typically hollow cylinder with flattened exterior sides; the flattened sides being opposite one another. As the logs are made from polyethylene (like a “pool noodle” known in the art). They can be cut with a saw that a child can use. The expanded polyethylene extrusion is also malleable such that they can be bent from a straight shape to an acute angle shape and held there by connection with other logs, sheets or fasteners. Upon disconnection, a bent long will generally return to its original straight shape. Portals or through holes which pass through the flat exterior sides and/or rounded exterior sides (depending on embodiment) allow fixed, pivoted, and/or removable connection between two logs. “Fixed” connection is defined as one which is expected to or does cause breakage to one of the parts described when removed. “Removable” is defined as able to connect and disconnect repeatedly (>6 times) without causing breakage to a connector piece or parts being connected. “Pivoted” is defined as a linkage that allows a at least one degree of freedom of movement similar to a hinge between fastened logs or parts.
As the otherwise cylindrical logs have flattop and bottom exterior sides, they are stackable to allow the pieces to fit and sit in a stable manner one on top of the other even without the aid of further connectors. This stacking can be the same stacking configuration as one would associate with crisscrossed logs in log cabin construction. This occurs while having rounded exterior sides for a pleasing aesthetic look. Items can be constructed in small sizes (holdable in one's hand) or large sizes (fit one's body there-in).
Now turning to the figures, the figures will be referred to by page number and title printed there on. The “castle playhouse” beginning page 1 shows a variety of vertically oriented logs attached side by side with connectors (the connectors will be described later). Over the archway, smaller logs are cut to size, as shown, and connected into each other while series of top pieces are further attached.
On page 2, one can see the connector to allow logs to rotate orientation or direction. These are right angle connectors which are rigid and fixed in their shape, having one portal facing at a 90 degree angle to another, the portals used to pass male connectors (e.g. screw) there-through as well as through a portal on a log. In the lowest drawing on this page, two logs attached at 90 degree angles to one another are shown. That is, the flat side of one log is at a 90 degree angle to the flat side of another log and a right angle connector piece attaches to a portal of each log with a male connector passing through each log and each right angle (female) connector.
The logs, when attached in parallel, use a straight (female) collector, as shown on page 3, “connectors for the castle playhouse.” Here, the portals of the straight connector or aligned in the same two-dimensional plane and one attaches one, two, or more straight connectors to adjacent logs to hold them in place together.
An example of a fastener is shown on page 4—this is a male connector. Here, a central round plate bisects each of the opposite ends. The ends point in opposite directions, outward from the central plate, each end designed to pass through a portal of a log or logs and/or a portal of a female connector. There are pluralities of portals along each log where connectors can be placed allowing the axis of the logs to be angled relative to each other not just limited to right angle connections.
Page 5, labeled “hand saw in use” shows a saw having a narrow and planar plate with a straight side. In this case, a rounded back side with wider handle is used. One can use the straight side of the planar saw to move back and forth to cut a log. The straight side need not be particularly sharp, and as such, is safe for children since it is sharp enough to cut polyethylene but not sharp enough to cut through butter. In other embodiments, a sharper saw or toothed saw could be used. Note also the toy miter used to help hold the log being cut. The miter has a flat bottom for resting on the ground and a curved concave opposite side having a circumference equal to or slightly larger than a log. The log rests there in and a top piece can be placed over the log and attached on either side to the miter. The top piece can have a portal passing there-through aligns and ensures the saw “blade” is at a right angle to the elongated length of the log. The saw blade cuts the foam in a way that is much more similar to a knife than a saw as it removes little if any material and in that way prevents a saw-dust like mess from accumulating, which would need to be cleaned up. This product allows parents and children to build their own designs or suggested designs by cutting logs to the desired length, providing a design freedom in ‘child full sized scale’ construction that is unique and can enclose the for hide and seek or other games.
Using the devices of the disclosed technology, one can build a log cabin (pages 7-9) by stacking logs at right angles and connecting using a male connector alone. One cuts pieces to size to fit as shown in the drawings.
Moving on now to the pirate ship beginning page 12, one can see angled logs which are attached together with connectors at the bow of the ship causing them to bend. A combination of right angle connectors, flat connectors, and double-ended male connectors are used as shown on page 13. Flat connectors inserted between two longs extending horizontally support the cannons. The flat connector “sticks out” form the logs and is attached underneath the cannon, cut to length with a saw in embodiments of the disclosed technology, by a fastener through one of the portals of the flat connector.
Now skipping to page 21, two logs can be attached together end to end to make a longer log using a cylindrical connector. Such a connector is made of expanded polyethylene or a harder plastic and has an outer circumference like that of the inner circumference of two logs which it attaches. The logs are attached together at their hollow ends such that their sides align and form a continuous side (“continuous” being defined as within 5 mm for purposes of this disclosure). The cylindrical connector supports the attachment by being placed in a part of the inner area of each connected log.
Other connectors are shown the subsequent pages including one with a flat stand inner connector with extending region which fits into the central area of a log (page 22), a right angle inner connector (page 23), and spike (page 25) having an elongated length stem. Optionally, a simple string is used to connect a plurality of logs.
In an alternative embodiment, any other shape made from expanded plastic is used as the building blocks or logs. Furthermore, these building blocks can interlock directly without the use of connectors, in a range of ways. These ways include, but are not limited to; tongue and groove type interlocks as shown in the Figures on pages 31-34.
Planer or flat panel building blocks are the shape illustrated in
In short, one can use the tools and embodiments described to connect tubes in multiple ways. The tubes have flat sides with portals and hollow inner areas. The portals and inner areas can be used to connect various straight, right-angled, and other connectors while the tubes/logs/extrusions themselves can be cut to any desired size. As such, one can create a next to limitless amount of varied creations.
Although the portals need not be at regular intervals, by putting them at regular intervals in the log, a child can easily measure out the length of the log they desire to cut by counting the spaces as being 2″ apart for example, so they can construct accurately measured playsets without the need for measuring tapes and rulers.
While the disclosed technology has been taught with specific reference to the above embodiments, a person having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the disclosed technology. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope. Combinations of any of the methods, systems, and devices described herein above are also contemplated and within the scope of the disclosed technology.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62251039 | Nov 2015 | US | |
| 62251039 | Nov 2015 | US |
