Patent Application
20070015437
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the fields of interactive toys, toys for assembly, and toy vehicles. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a toy vehicle overlaid with a removable material, suitable for removing the layer of removable material from the toy vehicle by using a toy material remover.
2. Discussion
Toy vehicles have long been known in the art. For centuries children have been playing with toy vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Some of these toy vehicles include a car, a motorcycle, a pick up truck, a 18-wheeler, a fire truck, a train, an ambulance, a bus, a locomotive, and a boat, among others.
It is a well documented fact that children at play often imitate adults at work, especially their parents. A child plays with a doll pretending to feed it, dress it, undress it, laying it to sleep, reprehending it for bad behavior, and such, just like an adult parent does to their children. In a similar manner, a child plays with a toy vehicle pretending to drive it around, park it, load it with cargo, unload it, and drive it around again, just like an adult parent does with their own car.
With advances in the toy industry, one of the recent trends are interactive toys that allow a child to customize the toy by attaching accessories to the toy. In recent years, some toy manufactures have built miniature toy automobiles with a high degree of versatility to allow for attachment of a variety of accessories to the toy automobiles, hence allowing a child to modify the appearance and configuration of the toy automobile, such as those discussed by Marc F. de Blanitza in “Toy Automobile with Attachments,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,542 and by Gary M. Saffer in “Toy Vehicle Having Changeable Appearance,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,563.
However, the prior art does not allow a user to modify the toy vehicle appearance by removing a layer of removal material from the body of the toy in order to reveal an alternate surface of the body of the toy.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a great need for a toy vehicle overlaid with a removable material, suitable for removing the layer of removable material from the toy vehicle by using a toy material remover.
The following references are presented for further background information:
The present invention provides a toy vehicle kit, suitable for removing a layer of removable material overlaid over the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle with a toy material remover, the toy vehicle kit comprising: a toy vehicle covered with a layer of removable material and a toy material remover for removing the removable material layer from the body of the toy vehicle by rubbing the toy material remover against the toy vehicle until an alternate surface of the body of the toy vehicle is revealed. The alternate surface revealed by the toy material remover includes the material used to make the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle, a permanent layer of paint overlaid on the vehicle-shape body, and a layer of polishable paint overlaid on the vehicle-shape body. The removable material overlaid over the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle includes dehydrated water-based paint, grime, and removable paint, while the toy material remover includes a chemical polisher agent, a cloth, water, alcohol, wax, a manual buffer device, and a motorized buffer device. The toy vehicle kit further comprises several detachably attachable parts, so that a user may customize the toy vehicle to his/her preference by attaching some of the detachably attachable parts to the body of the toy vehicle after the user has finished removing the removable material and revealing the alternate surface.
In a further embodiment, the present invention utilizes dehydrated water-based paint available in a plurality of colors as the removable material layer overlaid on the vehicle-shaped body. For this embodiment, the toy material remover comprises either water and a manual buffer device or water and a motorized buffer device, wherein the manual and the motorized buffer devices comprise a permeable buffer wheel that the user submerges in water, until the permeable buffer wheel is soaked with the water. Then the user removes the dehydrated water-based paint from the toy vehicle by rubbing the wet permeable buffer wheel of the buffer against the vehicle-shaped body of the toy until the layer of dehydrated water-based paint is dissolved, and the alternate surface becomes visible. In this embodiment, the user either manually rubs the wet permeable buffer wheel of the manual buffer against the vehicle-shaped body of the toy, or the user removes the dehydrated water-based paint by utilizing a motorized buffer device, which gyrates the wet permeable buffer wheel using electric power while the user glides the gyrating wet permeable buffer wheel against the vehicle-shaped body of the toy.
In another embodiment, the present invention further comprises a cloth to be moisten with water by a user and to be used by the user to remove dehydrated water-based paint from any hard to reach areas on the vehicle-shaped body that can not be reached by the manual buffer device or by the motorized buffer device.
Another embodiment of the present invention uses a container filled with water as the toy material remover, whereby a user submerges the toy vehicle in a container filled with water and soaks the vehicle-shaped body overlaid with dehydrated water-based paint until the layer of dehydrated water-based paint is dissolved, and the alternate surface becomes visible.
In a further embodiment, when the removable material comprises dehydrated water-based paint, the present invention further comprises containers of water-based paint in a plurality of colors, whereby a user can repaint the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle with the water-based paint and wait until the water-based paint dehydrates, in order to allow the user to once again be able to use the toy material remover to make the alternate surface of the toy vehicle visible. Generally in this embodiment, the alternate surface of the toy vehicle is either a permanent layer of paint or the material used to make the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle, wherein the material used to make the vehicle-shape body is a non-porous, fadeless, permanent material.
In yet another embodiment, the removable material layer overlaid on the toy vehicle comprises grime and the alternate surface revealed by the toy material remover comprises polishable paint. In this embodiment, the toy material remover includes a chemical polisher agent, a cloth, and wax, thereby allowing a user to make the polishable paint smooth and shiny by removing the grime from the polishable paint by applying either a cloth with a chemical polisher agent or a cloth with wax to the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle.
In a still further embodiment, the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle includes several shapes such as: a car; a motorcycle; a bicycle; a wheel; a sports utility vehicle (SUV); a pick up truck; a mini van; a truck; a 18-wheeler; fire truck; an ambulance; a bus; an all terrain vehicle; a locomotive; a boat; a ship; a yacht; a sail boat; a water scooter; a jet ski; a helicopter; an airplane; a space shuttle; a spacecraft; a snow mobile; and a toy robot.
Furthermore, the detachably attachable parts for attaching with the vehicle-shaped body of the toy vehicle include a custom wheel, a hood scoop, a convertible roof, a surfboard, skis, a snowboard, a spare tire, a spoiler, a license plate, exhaust tips, a custom sail, and customizable decals.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the toy vehicle comprises a toy car made out of a non-porous, fadeless, permanent material and overlaid with a layer of dehydrated water-based paint. In addition, this embodiment of the invention comprises a motorized buffer device that includes a movable axis and a detachably attachable permeable buffer wheel submergible in water, wherein the detachably attachable permeable buffer wheel is attached to the movable axis, and the movable axis gyrates when the motorized buffer device is turned on. In turn, the permeable buffer wheel gyrates together with the movable axis when the axis is gyrating. This embodiment allows a user to submerge the motorized buffer device in water and soak the permeable buffer wheel with the water, and then the embodiment allows the user to remove the dehydrated water-based paint from the toy car by gliding the gyrating wet permeable buffer wheel against the car-shape body until the layer of dehydrated water-based paint is dissolved, and the non-porous, fadeless, permanent material of the car-shape body becomes visible.
Another embodiment of the present invention comprises a toy kit, wherein a toy is overlaid with a layer of removable material and the toy kit comprises a toy material remover for removing the removable material layer from the body of the toy by rubbing the toy material remover against the toy until an alternate surface of the body of the toy is revealed. In this embodiment of the invention, the toy includes an action figure, a doll, a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a wheel, a sports utility vehicle (SUV), a pick up truck, a mini van, a truck, a 18-wheeler, a fire truck, an ambulance, a bus, an all terrain vehicle, a locomotive, a boat, a ship, a yacht, a sail boat, a water scooter, a jet ski, a helicopter, an airplane, a space shuttle, a spacecraft, a snow mobile, and a toy robot.
Finally, as can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present invention also comprises a method for forming the toy vehicle kit described herein, wherein the method comprises an act of forming a toy vehicle overlaid with a removable material, and the method further comprises an act of forming a toy material remover, suitable for removing the layer of removable material from the toy vehicle by using the toy material remover. In addition, the method for forming the toy vehicle kit further comprises an act of rubbing the toy material remover against the vehicle-shaped body until a surface of the toy vehicle reveals an alternate surface.
The features of the above embodiments may be combined in many ways to produce a great variety of specific embodiments, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
The objects, features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from the following detailed descriptions of the invention in conjunction with reference to the following appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
a illustrates a user filling a container with water;
b illustrates a user properly submerging a permeable buffer wheel in water;
c illustrates an alternate way of a user properly submerging a permeable buffer wheel in water;
a illustrates a toy vehicle with detachably attachable custom wheels, hood scoop, and spoiler;
b illustrates detachably attachable exhaust tips;
c illustrates detachably attachable customizable decals; and
The present invention relates to the fields of interactive toys, toys for assembly, and toy vehicles. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a toy vehicle overlaid with a removable material, suitable for removing the layer of removable material from the toy vehicle by using a toy material remover. The following description, taken in conjunction with the referenced drawings, is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and to incorporate it in the context of particular applications. Various modifications, as well as a variety of uses in different applications will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to a wide range of embodiments. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments presented, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. Furthermore it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, the figures included herein are illustrated diagrammatically and without any specific scale, as they are provided as qualitative illustrations of the concept of the present invention.
In order to provide a working frame of reference, first a glossary of some of the terms used in the description and claims is given as a central resource for the reader. The glossary is intended to provide the reader with a general understanding of various terms as they are used in this disclosure, and is not intended to limit the scope of these terms. Rather, the scope of the terms is intended to be construed with reference to this disclosure as a whole and with respect to the claims below. Next, a brief introduction is provided in the form of a narrative description of the present invention to give a conceptual understanding prior to developing the specific details. Finally, a detailed description of the elements is provided in order to enable the reader to make and use the various embodiments of the invention without involving extensive experimentation.
(1) Glossary
Before describing the specific details of the present invention, it is useful to provide a centralized location for various terms used herein and in the claims. A definition has been included for these various terms. However, the definition provided should not be considered limiting to the extent that the terms are known in the art. These definitions are provided to assist in teaching a general understanding of the present invention.
Alternate surface—The term “alternate surface,” as used herein, is used to denote a surface constituting an alternative exterior boundary of an object or body hidden underneath an initially seen surface of the object or body. Some non-limiting examples of an alternate surface are: a permanent layer of paint overlaid on the body of a toy, a layer of polishable paint overlaid on the body of a toy; and a material used to make the body of a toy.
Interactive toy—The term “interactive toy,” as used herein, is used to denote a toy with a user-modifiable surface. Some non-limiting examples of how a user can modify the appearance of an interactive toy include: a user removes a layer of removable material from the body of the toy revealing an alternate surface of the body of the toy; a user overlays removable material over the body of the toy; and a user customizes the toy to the personalized preferences of the user by attaching detachably attachable parts to the body of the toy.
Polish—The term “polish,” when used as a verb with respect to this invention generally indicates an action performed by the user on the toy to smooth, soften, refine, or free the toy from an unwanted material and impurities, wherein the unwanted material corresponds to grime and other removable materials overlaid on the body of the toy.
Removable material—The term “removable material,” as used herein, is used to denote any matter overlaid on the body of a toy that can be removed from the body of the toy by a user. Some non-limiting examples of removable material are: dehydrated water-based paint, grime, and removable paint.
Toy material remover—The term “toy material remover,” as used herein, denotes any device used by a user to remove layers of removable material from the body of the toy. Some non-limiting examples of toy material remover devices include: a cloth, water, alcohol, wax, a manual buffer device, and a motorized buffer device, wherein a buffer device permits a user to remove the removable material layer from the toy by gliding the buffer device against the body of the toy until the layer of removable material is removed and an alternate surface becomes visible.
User—The term “user,” as used herein, denotes a person utilizing the toy kit by overlaying removable material over the toy, removing the removable material layer with a toy material remover, and attaching detachably attachable parts to the toy in order to customize the toy.
Vehicle—The term “vehicle,” as used herein, denotes an agent of transmission, a carrier, a means of carrying or transporting something, or a piece of mechanized equipment. Some non-limiting examples of a vehicle are: a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a wheel, a sports utility vehicle (SUV), a pick up truck, a mini van, a truck, a 18-wheeler, fire truck, an ambulance, a bus, an all terrain vehicle, a locomotive, a boat, a ship, a yacht, a sail boat, a water scooter, a jet ski, a helicopter, an airplane, a space shuttle, a spacecraft, a snow mobile, and a toy robot.
(2) Overview
In the following detailed description, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without being limited to these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
In addition, it is to be understood that the labels left, right, front, back, top, bottom, forward, reverse, clockwise and counter clockwise have been used in this disclosure for convenience purposes only and are not intended to imply any particular fixed direction. Instead, they are used to reflect relative locations and/or directions between various portions of an object.
The present invention, in one embodiment, provides a toy vehicle kit, suitable for removing a layer of removable material overlaid over the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle with a toy material remover. The toy vehicle kit comprises a toy vehicle covered with a layer of removable material and a toy material remover for removing the removable material layer from the body of the toy vehicle by rubbing the toy material remover against the toy vehicle until an alternate surface of the body of the toy vehicle is revealed. Once a user makes the alternate surface of the body of the toy vehicle visible by using the toy material remover, this preferred embodiment allows the user to attach a plurality of detachably attachable parts to the vehicle-shaped body in order to customize the toy vehicle.
In addition to allowing a user to remove the removable material from the toy vehicle and to customize the toy vehicle, another embodiment of the toy vehicle kit also includes containers of water-based paint in a plurality of colors, wherein the water-based paint corresponds to the removable material to be overlaid over the body of the toy vehicle. This embodiment of the invention allows a user to repaint the toy vehicle with the provided water-based paint. In this embodiment, the user waits after repainting the toy vehicle until the water-based paint dehydrates, and then the user can once again use the toy material remover to remove the removable material (dried paint) and reveal the alternate surface of the toy vehicle. This embodiment of the invention allows the user to change the appearance of the toy vehicle back and forth from the alternate surface with customized attachments to the toy vehicle overlaid with the plurality of water-based paint colors.
The alternate surface, revealed by the toy material remover in an embodiment of the invention, includes the material used to make the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle, a permanent layer of paint overlaid on the vehicle-shape body, and a layer of polishable paint overlaid on the vehicle-shape body.
In a further embodiment, the invention includes at least one of the following removable materials: dehydrated water-based paint, grime, and removable paint. In addition, the invention also includes at least one of the following non-limiting examples of toy material removers: a chemical polisher agent, a cloth, water, alcohol, wax, a manual buffer device, and a motorized buffer device.
In another embodiment, some non limiting examples of detachably attachable parts include a custom wheel, a hood scoop, a convertible roof, a surfboard, skis, a snowboard, a spare tire, a spoiler, a license plate, exhaust tips, a custom sail, and customizable decals.
An image depicting the overall functionality of an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Although the motorized buffer device 104 is discussed in greater detail below, other well-known material removers can also be used, depending on the requirements of a particular embodiment.
(3) Example Embodiments of the Present Invention
The present invention has two principal aspects. The first is a toy kit, suitable for removing a layer of removable material overlaid over the body of the toy with a toy material remover until a surface of the toy vehicle reveals an alternate surface.
The second aspect is a method for forming the toy vehicle kit described herein, typically in the form of series of acts for: forming a vehicle-shape body substantially covered with a layer of removable material; forming a toy material remover functional for rubbing the toy material remover against the vehicle-shaped body until a surface of the toy vehicle reveals an alternate surface; forming detachably attachable parts for attaching with the vehicle-shaped body in order to customize the toy vehicle; and forming containers of water-based paint in a plurality of colors for repainting the toy vehicle
(4) Description of Specific Elements
The general aspects of a toy material remover were described above in relation to
An image depicting an embodiment of a toy material remover is illustrated in
Once the user installs the batteries 202, the user attaches the top 204a and bottom 204b portions of the motorized buffer device by screwing together the top and bottom portions with the Phillips screwdriver 208 and the available screws 206. Then the embodiment of the invention allows the user to turn on the motorized buffer device by pressing the power button 212.
In addition,
In another embodiment illustrated in
In yet a further embodiment illustrated in
Another embodiment of the invention comprises a manual buffer device as the toy material remover, wherein the manual buffer device comprises a wand and detachably attachable custom tips for detailing. Some non-limiting examples of the detachably attachable custom tips used with a manual buffer device are: a brush, a paint brush, an air brush, a permeable buffer wheel submergible in water, a non-permeable buffer wheel, a sander, a pencil, a marker, and a pen. In this embodiment, a user attaches a permeable buffer wheel to the tip of the manual buffer device by connecting the permeable buffer wheel with the wand. Then, the user grabs the manual buffer device by gripping the wand and submerges the permeable buffer wheel in water, soaks the permeable buffer wheel with the water, and removes the dehydrated water-based paint from a toy vehicle by manually rubbing the wet permeable buffer wheel against the vehicle-shaped body until the layer of dehydrated water-based paint is dissolved, and the alternate surface of the toy vehicle becomes visible.
In this embodiment, a user 408 first soaks the permeable buffer wheel 406 with water and then the user turns on the motorized buffer device by pressing the power button 410 of the buffer device. Once the permeable buffer wheel starts gyrating 412, the user removes the dehydrated water-based paint from the toy car by gliding the gyrating wet permeable buffer wheel against the car-shape body 402 while constantly holding the power button 410 down. In this embodiment it is important that the user 408 regularly rinses the permeable buffer wheel 406 with water in order to keep the permeable buffer wheel moist with water while using the motorized buffer device 400 to remove dehydrated water-based paint. If the water-based paint builds up on the permeable buffer wheel it will reduce the ability of the motorized buffer device to remove the dehydrated water-based paint. Furthermore, the user does not need to press down hard the motorized buffer device against the toy car 402, since the unnecessary extra force applied by the user shortens the life of the permeable buffer wheel and potentially ruins the alternate surface of the toy car.
Therefore in this embodiment, the user gently glides the wet permeable buffer wheel against the body of the toy car until the layer of dehydrated water-based paint is dissolved and an alternate surface of the car-shape body becomes visible. For this embodiment the alternate surface of the car toy comprises a non-porous, fadeless, permanent material used to build the car-shape body. Some other non-limiting examples of alternate surfaces for the body of the toy car are: a permanent layer of paint overlaid on the car-shape body, a layer of polishable paint overlaid on the car-shape body, and a material used to make the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle.
Another further embodiment of the invention comprises grime as the removable material layer overlaid on the toy vehicle and comprises polishable paint as the alternate surface revealed by the toy material remover. In this embodiment, the user utilizes a toy material remover, non-limiting examples of which include a chemical polisher agent, a cloth, and wax. In this embodiment, the user makes the polishable paint smooth and shiny by removing the grime from the polishable paint by applying the toy material remover to the vehicle-shape body of the toy vehicle.
In situations when the buffer devices, either manual or motorized, cannot reach certain areas on the vehicle-shaped body 500 and cannot remove the dehydrated water-base paint, an embodiment of the invention provides the user with a detailing cloth 502 to be moistened with water, as illustrated in
Another embodiment of the present invention comprises detachably attachable parts for attaching with the vehicle-shaped body 600 of the toy vehicle, in order to customize the toy vehicle to the preferences of the user, as illustrated in
Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. For example, other removable materials can be used to be overlaid on the toy; other types of material removers can be used to remove the layers of removable material from the surface of the toy; other types of alternate surfaces can be revealed by the toy material remover; and other types of toys such as action figures and dolls can be overlaid with a removable material suitable for removing the layer of removable material with a toy material remover. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
Furthermore, the present invention does not require that all the advantageous features need to be incorporated into every embodiment of the invention.
The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with this specification and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference. All the features disclosed in this specification, (including any accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
Furthermore, any element in a claim that does not explicitly state “means for” performing a specified function, or “step for” performing a specific function, is not to be interpreted as a “means” or “step” clause as specified in 35 U.S.C. Section 112, Paragraph 6. In particular, the use of “step of” in the claims herein is not intended to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. Section 112, Paragraph 6.
