Patent Application
20110111672
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transformable toy, and more particularly to a transformable toy that can carry out displaying visual information, in addition to form change, when the toy is transformed from one form to another form.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various transformable toys that can be transformed from one form to another form have been proposed (for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. 62-72689). The toy disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. 62-72689 is so constructed that, when the toy in one form or a running toy hits an obstacle, the toy is automatically transformed into another form or a robot toy without any touching by a user.
Unlike most transformable toys that are each transformed from a running toy to a robot toy by operating constituent members thereof one by one, the above described transformable toy gives a surprise that the form thereof is automatically changed when the toy hits an obstacle and also gives amusement in that the form thereof is instantaneously changed from the running toy to the robot toy. However, after the form of the toy has been changed, the toy is no different from normal transformable toys. That is, there has been a problem in that it lacks a game element.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above described problem. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel transformable toy that not only can be transformed but also has a game element, wherein the transformable toy is transformed without any direct touching by the user and displays visual information which is invisible before the form is changed, to thereby enable a game to be played by utilizing the visual information.
In order to solve the above described problem, according to the present invention, there is provided a transformable toy reversibly transformed between a first form and a second form. The transformable toy includes: a toy main body which changes a form to form the first form and the second form; a restricting mechanism which restricts the form change of the toy main body from the first form to the second form; and a transformation activating body for detecting physical stimulation from outside and releasing the restriction by the restricting mechanism; wherein the toy main body includes a display body having visual information thereon, and the display body is disposed at such a position that the visual information of the display body is invisible to a user in the first form while the visual information of the display body is visible to the user in the second form.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transformation activating body is supported to slide back and forth by the toy main body in the first form; the toy main body includes a body portion for supporting the transformation activating body and a base body for supporting the body portion to be turnable in a vertical direction, and when the body portion is turned downward, the toy main body forms the first form of the transformable toy; when the transformation activating body slides backward, the restriction by the restricting mechanism is released, the body portion turns upward relative to the base body and becomes in an upright state with respect to the base body, so that the toy main body forms the second form of the transformable toy; and when the body portion turns upward, the display body is positioned in a front surface of the toy main body which can be seen by looking down upon it.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the display body is formed to have a drum shape and has a plurality of pieces of visual information provided on a circumferential surface of the display body along a circumferential direction; and the display body is disposed in the toy main body so that, in the first form, the display body is rotatable in a front-back direction while the circumferential surface of the display body is in contact with a supporting surface, on which the transformable toy is placed, and so that, in the second form, one of the plurality of pieces of the visual information on the circumferential surface of the display body is visible.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the base body includes an engaging portion that is disengeably engaged with the display body to prevent rotation of the display body in the second form, so that when the engaging portion of the base body is engaged with the display body, the one piece of visual information is made visible.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the circumferential surface of the display body is divided into a plurality of areas in the circumferential direction, each of the areas having a respective one of the plurality pieces of visual information; and the display body includes a polygonal engaging plate that has a number of sides corresponding to the number of the plurality of areas and that is provided on a side surface of the display body, so that the engaging portion of the base body is engaged with one of the sides of the engaging plate to prevent rotation of the display body and specify the one piece of visual information to be made visible.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the restricting mechanism includes an engaging projection formed on the base body, a latch releasing member on which a hook engageable with the engaging projection of the base body is formed and which is coupled with the transformation activating body, and a spring for biasing the latch releasing member to engage the hook of the latch releasing member with the engaging projection of the base body; and when the transformation activating body slides backward, the hook of the latch releasing member is disengaged from the engaging projection of the base body so as to release the restriction by the restricting mechanism.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transformable toy is a running toy in the first form and is a robot toy in the second form.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transformable toy is a running toy in the first form and is a robot toy in the second form; the transformation activating body and the toy main body form a hood and a body of the running toy, respectively, in the first form; the latch releasing member and the transformation activating body are coupled with each other and biased by another spring so that the transformation activating body turns upward relative to the latch releasing member; the body portion includes a head portion formed thereon, the head portion having a latching member engageable with the transformation activating body; in the first form, the latching member is engaged with the transformation activating body, the head portion being positioned in the transformation activating body; and when the transformation activating body is disengaged from the latching member of the head portion, the transformation activating body turns upward due to it being biased by the other spring, so that the head portion is exposed to constitute a head of the robot toy in the second form.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the toy main body includes a cover member that constitutes a cab in the first form and a pair of side covers having rear wheels, each of the side covers being supported to be turnable in a lateral direction at a front end thereof by the cover member and being detachably fixed to the base body at a rear end thereof; and in the robot toy of the second form, the base body forms leg portions of the robot toy, and the pair of side covers constitute arm portions of the robot toy with the rear ends thereof being detached from the base body.
According to the present invention, when the transformable toy receives physical stimulation from outside and changes the form thereof from a first form to a second form, the display body provided in the toy main body appears so that visual information can be provided to a user, and a game can be played by utilizing the visual information. Therefore, a new concept transformable toy having a game element which cannot be obtained by the conventional transformable toys that merely change their form can be provided.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the transformable toy can be realized in which, when the transformation activating body is caused to slide backward by the physical stimulation, the restriction by the restricting mechanism is released, and the body portion turns upward relative to the base body and becomes in an upright state, thereby changing the form to the second form and bringing the display body into the state where the display body can be seen by looking down upon it.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the display body is formed to have a drum shape and is rotated while in contact with a supporting surface in the first form, whereas one piece of visual information corresponding to the position at which the display body is stopped is seen in the second form, so that various pieces of information that cannot be obtained by the fixed information displayed on a plate or the like can be seen.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the display body is so constructed that it cannot be rotated when the form of the transformable toy is changed to the second form. Therefore, the transformable toy equipped with a game element in which win/loss can be judged based on the visual information of the display body of one transformable toy and that of another transformable toy of an opponent can be realized.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, when the transformable toy is in the form of a running toy, the display body rotates while in contact with a supporting surface on which the transformable toy runs. When the transformable toy is caused to run directly towards the opponent's transformable toy, hit it and is transformed into the form of a robot toy, the rotation of the display body is stopped and one piece of the visual information can be specified. Therefore, a battle game between the transformable toys or robot toys can be enjoyed.
As shown in
A latch releasing member 5, which constitutes the restricting mechanism B, is coupled with the transformation activating body 1. The latch releasing member 5 is pivotally coupled with the transformation activating body 1 by a shaft 7, which is inserted through a shaft hole 10 formed in a rear portion of the transformation activating body 1 and a shaft hole 6 formed in a front portion of the latch releasing member 5. The transformation activating body 1 is biased by a spring 8 so as to turn around the shaft 7 upward relative to the latch releasing member 5.
The latch releasing member 5 is received in an opening 29 formed in a front portion of a cover member 15 described below so as to slide back and forth. The latch releasing member 5 has an oblong hole 9 formed therein along a front-back direction. An engaging shaft 17 of the cover member 15 is engaged with the oblong hole 9 and the engaging shaft 17 is biased by a spring 13 so as to be pressed against the rear end of the oblong hole 9 (see
The latch releasing member 5 has a hook 11 formed on a rear portion thereof. The hook 11 of the latch releasing member 5 is also always biased by the above described spring 13 so as to be disengageably engaged with an engaging projection 46 that is formed on a later-described base body 3 and that constitutes the restricting mechanism B.
The transformation activating body (hereinafter, also referred to as a hood portion) 1 is provided thereon with a hook 12, which is engageable with a hook 31 of a latching member 30 fixed in the interior of a later-described head portion 23 (see
The toy main body 2 is mainly composed of: the cover member 15, which is formed to imitate a cab of a vehicle; a pair of side covers 18, to which rear wheels 19 are attached; a body portion 24, which is integrally formed with the head portion 23 of a robot toy; and the base body 3. The cover member 15 is provided with a pair of shaft bodies 16 which are projected downward from a front portion thereof. A pair of arms 25 are respectively attached to the pair of shaft bodies 16 so as to turnably support the side covers 18. The distal ends of the shaft bodies 16 are fitted in respective fitting portions 27 formed in opposite sides of the body portion 24 and are fixed to the body portion 24 by screws (not shown) from below. Each of the arms 25 is turnably attached to the shaft 16 while the arm 25 is biased by a spring 28 so as to turn outward about the shaft 16.
The engaging shaft 17 is formed at the inner side of the cover member 15 so as to project downward (see
Each of the side covers 18 has a fitting recess 20 formed at the distal end thereof to turnably fit around a spherical fitting portion 26 formed at the distal end of the arm 25. Each of the side covers 18 has an engaging portion 21 formed on an inner wall surface of a rear portion thereof so as to disengageably engage with a hook 47 that is formed at a rear end of the base body 3 to project outward. When the transformable toy A is in the first form, the engaging portions 21 of the side covers 18 are engaged with the respective hooks 47 of the base body 3, so that each of the side covers 18 cannot be separated from the base body 3. On the other hand, at the time of the transformable toy A being transformed from the first form to the second form, when the cover member 15 and the body portion 24 of the toy main body 2 turn upward, the engaging portions 21 of the side covers 18 are disengaged from the hooks 47 to permit the arms 25 to turn laterally outward about the shaft bodies 16 due to being biased by the springs 28. Consequently, the side covers 18 attached to the distal ends of the arms 25 are also turned outward and separated from the base body 3, thereby constituting arm portions of the robot toy which is the second form.
A latching member 30 having the hook 31 formed thereon is disposed in the head portion 23 and fixed therein by a screw 32, so that the latching member 30 and the body portion 24 are integrated with each other. The hook 31 is configured to be disengageably engaged with the hook 12 provided in the transformation activating body 1 (see
A drum-shaped display body 40 is received in the body portion 24 and rotatably retained by a shaft 41 (see
An engaging plate 42 having an approximately-polygonal shape, i.e., an approximately triangular shape in the illustrated embodiment, which has a number of sides corresponding to the number of the plurality of areas having the respective pieces of visual information b, is formed on one side surface of the display body 40 so as to protrude therefrom. When the body portion 24 turns upward integrally with the display body 40 to an upright state upon upward turning of the cover member 15 and the body portion 24 of the toy main body 2, the engaging plate 42 is engaged with an engaging projection 48, which is formed on an upper surface of the base body 3 to project therefrom, thereby the display body 40 is prevented from rotating and one of the areas a1 to a3 is specified, so that the visual information b (one of the pieces of visual information b1 to b3) displayed in the specified area can be seen from the front (see
The base body 3 is formed of first and second base body parts 3a and 3b, which are formed to imitate left and right leg portions of the robot toy in the second form and are united with each other by fixing them by a screw 35. The hook 11 formed on the latch releasing member 5 and the supporting plate 36 formed on the cover member 15 are inserted in the base body 3 from above. A supporting shaft 39, which is inserted through shaft holes 38 formed in the base body 3, is inserted through the shaft hole 37 formed at the distal end of the supporting plate 36, so that the cover member 15 and the body portion 24 can be turned upward about the supporting shaft 39 due to it being biased by a spring 45. The engaging projection 46 that constitutes the restricting mechanism B is formed on the inner wall surface of the base body 3. When the hook 11 of the latch releasing member 5 is engaged with the engaging projection 46, the upward turning of the cover member 15 and the body portion 24 of the toy main body 2 is inhibited.
The engaging projection 48 is formed at the upper end of the first base body part 3a so as to project upward therefrom. The engaging projecting 48 is disengageably engaged with the peripheral surface of the engaging plate 42 of the display body 40 in the second form in order to prevent turning of the display body 40.
The hooks 47 are formed at the rear ends of the first and second base body parts 3a and 3b to extend toward outside. In the form of the running toy which is the first form, the hooks 47 are engaged with the respective engaging portions 21 of the side covers 18, so that the side surfaces of the base body 3 are covered by the side covers 18, respectively, and the rear wheels 19 of the running toy work.
The cover member 15 is configured so that, when the hook 11 formed on the latch releasing member 5 is engaged with the engaging projection 46 formed on the inner wall surface of the base body 3, the upward turning of the cover member 15 against the biasing force of the spring 45 is prevented, so that the cover member 15 constitutes the cab in the form of the running toy; whereas, when the hood portion 1 moves backward relative to the base body 3, the engagement of the hook 11 of the latch releasing member 5 and the engaging projection 46 of the base body 3 is released and the cover member 15 is turned upward about the supporting shaft 39 due to it being biased by the spring 45, resulting in that the cover member 15 turns until a rear surface 15a thereof abuts a supporting surface that the transformable toy A is placed on and becomes in the upright state, as shown in
When the body portion 24 turns upward integrally with the cover member 15, the display body 40 provided at the body portion 24 also turns upward together with the body portion 24. After the turning, the engaging plate 42 provided on the side surface of the display body 40 is located at the position where the engaging plate 42 is engaged with the engaging projection 48 of the base body 3. At this time, as shown in
Incidentally, the strength of the spring 45 may be increased so that the cover member 15 and the body portion 24 are moved beyond the upright state and the whole transformable toy A goes into a 360-degree roll or backflips.
Now, the manner of use of the transformable toy A will be explained.
In the form of the running toy which is the first form, as shown in
When the transformable toys A and A′, which have been caused to run directly toward each other, hit each other, the forward movement of each of the transformable toys A and A′ is prevented, so that the toy main body 2 is moved forward by the inertia relative to the hood portion 1 and thus the hood portion 1 is relatively moved backward. When the hood portion 1 is moved backward, the hook 11 of the latch releasing member 5, which constitutes the restricting mechanism B and is coupled with the hood portion 1, is disengaged from the engaging projection 46 of the base body 3, whereby the cover member 15 biased by the spring 45 turns upward together with the body portion 24 about the supporting shaft 39 relative to the base body 3; and the hook 31 of the latching member 30 provided on the head portion 23 is disengaged from the hook 12 of the hood portion 1, whereby the hood portion 1 biased by the spring 8 turns upward about the shaft 7 relative to the latch releasing member 5. As a result, the head portion 23 is exposed so as to be seen from the front. At this point, the display body 40 provided at the body portion 24 also becomes in the state where one piece of the visual information b (b1, b2 or b3) is positioned on the front surface to be seen by looking down upon it.
The distal end of each of the side covers 18 is pivotally supported by the shaft 16 of the cover member 15 via the arm 25, and each engaging portion 21 formed on the rear inner wall surface of the side cover 18 is engaged with the hook 47 that is formed at the rear end of the base body 3 so as to project outward therefrom. When the side covers 18 also turn upward integrally with the cover member 15, the engaging portions 21 of the side covers are each moved to such a position that the engaging portions 21 are disengaged from the respective hooks 47 of the base body 3. Therefore, the arms 25 biased by the springs 28 rotate outward about the respective shaft bodies 16 of the cover member 15 and the side covers 18 coupled with the arms 25 also rotate laterally outward so as to constitute the arm portions of the robot toy which is the second form, resulting in that the transformable toy A is transformed into the robot toy which is the second form in the upright state with both the arms open to the outside.
At this point, one side of the engaging plate 42 of the display body 40 is engaged with the distal end of the engaging projection 48 of the base body 3 to thereby prevent rotation of the display body 40, and the state in which one piece of the visual information b (b1, b2 or b3) can be seen from the front is achieved.
When the two transformable toys A and A′ are put in a match against each other and are each transformed into the robot toy which is the second form, the visual information b of the display bodies 40 of both of the toys made visible can be checked and compared. Therefore, a win/loss judgment (for example, if the visible visual information of one of the transformable toys is green and that of the other transformable toy is a color other than green, the one transformable toy displaying the green is determined to be the winner; and, if the colors thereof are the same, the match ends in a draw) can be made. Accordingly, the transformable toy having a game element which is not only capable of changing the form thereof but also capable of utilizing the visual information which appears for making a win/loss judgment can be realized.
In the transformable toy described above, the hitting, which is dynamic, is used as a physical stimulation for releasing the restriction by the restricting mechanism. However, the physical stimulation for releasing the restriction is not necessarily limited to such a dynamic one, and instead, for example, the restriction may be released by a known technique of sensing static stimulation such as infrared rays or magnetic force by a sensor and driving a solenoid.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-281289 | Nov 2009 | JP | national |
