Foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6325372
  • Patent Number
    6,325,372
  • Date Filed
    Tuesday, March 14, 2000
    24 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, December 4, 2001
    23 years ago
Abstract
A foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field is made integral of a soft material and has a hollow interior. The foot shell is fixed around a ball kicking block of a foot of the toy football player, having a concave surface formed in a front side and provided with a plurality of vertical rough stripes. Then the concave surface with the stripes may have a similar good function in stopping and stabilizing a football just in the way a true football player uses an inner curved side of a foot in stopping and stabilizing the ball.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




This invention relates to a foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field, particularly to one effectively stopping a football, stabilizing and controlling it easily.




A conventional toy football player for a toy football field is generally made of a hard plastic, shaped similar to a true human form, having a ball kicking block formed in the foot portion, whereby the toy player may kick the ball to roll towards the opposite team field or to kick the ball into the opposite goal. So the ball kicking block not only has offensive function to kick the ball, but also defending function to stop and stabilizing the ball. Nevertheless, the ball kicking block may produce counter function to permit the ball rebound away when the ball rolls to hit the ball kicking block because of the hard material the ball and the ball kicking block are both made of. So a known conventional foot shell


10


of a toy football player shown in

FIG. 1

has been disclosed, made of a soft material and having a hollow interior, a flat ball receiving surface


101


formed in a front side, a plurality of rough stripes


102


formed in the ball receiving surface


101


, an insert hole


103


formed in an upper side, and a hollow interior


104


formed to communicate with the insert hole


103


. Then the foot shell


10


is fixed around a ball kicking block


201


of a toy football player


20


, with the insert hole


103


constricting an upper portion of the ball kicking block


201


not falling off the block


201


, as shown in FIG.


2


. Then the foot shell


10


produces a buffering effect owing to its softness, reducing rebounding force of the ball when the ball rolls and collide with it, and in addition, the rough stripes


102


may produce friction against the ball to reduce the speed of the ball and let it gradually cease to move. Next, the ball is adjusted in its position by the toy player and then kicked out to enhance its defense and offence effect as well.




But the known conventional foot shell


10


has been found to still have rebounding phenomenon against the ball


30


when it rolls toward the foot shell


10


in spite of some buffering and speed reducing effect the foot shell


10


has, as shown in FIG.


3


. After research, it is found that the reason of ball rebound is caused by the rough stripes


102


, limited in its friction against the ball in colliding only owing to point touch of the both. So it cannot surely stabilize the ball although it reduces the speed of the ball. As the fact that a human foot has its inner side shaped concave, the receiving surface


101


does not kick the ball just in the way a human foot kicks it, impossible to obtain the same effect in kicking the ball.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




This invention has been devised to offer a foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field, which has a concave surface in a front side of the foot shell, similar to the shape of a human foot so as to stop and stabilize the ball, upgrading defense and offence force.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS




This invention will be better understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, wherein:





FIG. 1

is a perspective view of a known conventional foot shell of a football player for a toy football field;





FIG. 2

is a front view of the known conventional foot shell in the practical using condition;





FIG. 3

is an upper view of the known conventional foot shell of a football player in receiving and rebounding a ball;





FIG. 4

is a perspective view of a foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field in the present invention;





FIG. 5

is a front view of the foot shell of toy football player for a toy football field in the practical using condition; and,





FIG. 6

is an upper view of the foot shell in receiving a ball in the present invention.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT




A preferred embodiment of a foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field in the present invention, as shown in

FIG. 4

, is made integral of a soft material, having a hollow interior, a concave receiving surface


11


formed in a front side generally about a vertical axis from adjacent an upper side to adjacent a lower side of the foot shell, a plurality of vertical rough stripes


12


formed in the concave receiving surface


11


. The foot shell


1


further has a rather small hole formed in an upper side to communicate with the hollow interior


14


. After the foot shell


1


is fixed around a ball kicking block


21


of the toy football player


2


as shown in

FIG. 5

, the small hole


13


constricts an upper portion of the ball kicking block


21


, with the ball kicking block


21


fitting in the hollow interior


14


and preventing the foot shell


1


from falling off the ball kicking block


21


.




Next, as shown in

FIG. 6

, after the foot shell


1


is fixed around the ball kicking block


21


, and when the ball rolls to the foot shell


1


, the concave surface


11


receiving the ball


3


may easily stop and stabilize it, which may smoothly stop and stabilize, ready for kicking, having the similar function that a true player receives and stops the ball with its curved inner side of the foot.



Claims
  • 1. A foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field comprising:a hollow interior with a receiving hole formed in an upper side of said hollow interior, said receiving hole receives the toy football player to connect said foot shell to said toy football player, said foot shell being formed from a soft, shock absorbing material; wherein said foot shell comprises a concave surface formed in a front side of said foot shell generally about a vertical axis from adjacent said upper side to adjacent a lower side of said foot shell so as to easily stop and control a football to enhance a receiving effect and to stabilize the football.
  • 2. The foot shell of a toy football player for a toy football field as claimed in claim 1, wherein:said concave surface comprises a plurality of textured friction strips.
US Referenced Citations (3)
Number Name Date Kind
3995859 Goldfarb Dec 1976
4046378 Furr Sep 1977
4290606 Maxwell Sep 1981
Foreign Referenced Citations (5)
Number Date Country
3046466 Jul 1982 DE
701847 Jan 1954 GB
508780 Jan 1955 IT
532808 Sep 1955 IT
535734 Nov 1955 IT