Patent Application
20180200636
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cl STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
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The disclosure and prior art relates to action figure support devices and more particularly pertains to a new action figure support device for allowing a person playing with a building block system to be able to stand a toy figurine upright in manner that retains and removably couples the toy figurine to the building block system.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a mounting block having a top side, a bottom side and a perimeter surface. The top side is planar and has a rectangular shape and the bottom side comprises a female interconnection member configured to releasably and frictionally engage a male interconnection member from a building block system. A coupler releasably engages a foot of a toy figurine. The coupler is attached to the top side of the mounting block.
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 coupler 32 is provided that is configured to releasably engage a foot 34 of a toy figurine. The term toy figurine may comprise any type of toy figure including action figures, dolls and the like. The term “foot” used herein may generally be interchanged with the term “shoe” so that the coupler 32 may either receive the foot 34 or a shoe 36, containing a foot of or integral with the toy figurine. The coupler 32 is attached to the top side 14 of mounting block 12. The mounting block 12 may then in turn be mounted to a conventional toy block 22 of a block system, wherein the coupler 32 allows the toy figurine to be positioned and held in an upright manner on the block system.
Generally, the coupler 32 may comprise a receiver 38 for extending the foot 34, or shoe 36, into. The receiver 38 comprises a panel 40 that has a first end 42 and a second end 44 each attached to the top side 14 such that the panel 40 forms an opening between the first 42 and second 44 ends which may be arc shaped. The portion of the panel 40 between the first 42 and second 44 ends is spaced from the top side 14. The panel 40 has a front edge 46 and a rear edge 48. The front edge 46 has a shorter length than the rear edge 46 such that the panel 40 forms a semi-frustom shape. As can be seen in
Alternatively, or in combination with the receiver 38, the coupler 32 may comprise a peg 50 extendable into the foot 34 or the shoe 36 positioned on the foot 34. Toy action figures often include wells extending into their feet and the assembly 10 may be structured with the peg 50 to take advantage of such toys. As can be seen in
In use, the mounting block 12 may be used with a conventional block system in a conventional manner. However, the coupler 32 is utilized with a toy figurine to retain the toy figurine in an upright position on the mounting block 12. This is useful since the male interconnection members 20 found on the toy blocks 22 typically make the standing of such toy figurines on block systems very difficult as they present an uneven and slippery surface. The coupler 32 overcomes this deficiency to enhance the playability experience of the block system and provides for means to interject toys into a block system which would otherwise be difficult and therefore less versatile and enjoyable.
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.
