Patent Application
20080242457
A throwing and catching ball and game, and in particular, a perforated hollow ball containing a water-filled balloon and a balloon bursting mechanism that may be inadvertently triggered by catching participants to cause the balloon to burst.
Numerous throwing and catching toys exist which contain water-filled balloons that may burst to soak victim participants. One such toy in the marketplace is manufactured by Galoob Toys Inc and sold under the trademark “Splash Out”. This toy is apparently the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,991,847 and 4,890,838 to Rudell et al.
The “Splash Out” is a hollow plastic ball which contains a replaceable water-filled balloon and a timer-activated balloon bursting mechanism. The bursting mechanism causes a prick to be extended into the balloon to burst the balloon and cause victim participants nearby to be splashed as the timer setting expires, which time is difficult for participants to predict. Participants play “catch” with the ball, knowing that the balloon will burst at some point in time, which is completely out of each participant's control. The object of the game is to avoid being a nearby participant at the moment that the balloon bursts.
Another such toy is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,456 to Liu et al. This toy is a hollow plastic housing having an integral inwardly-projecting prick. The housing contains a replaceable balloon, filled with water to cause the balloon to partially fill the interior of the housing without abutting the prick. Presumably, the user must precisely estimate the amount of water to fill into the balloon to avoid having it expand so large that it will abut the prick as it is inserted into the housing, which would cause it to immediately burst. The toy is then either thrown at or to a victim participant such that the continuing momentum of the balloon as the toy hits or is caught by a victim participant causes the balloon to abut the prick, thereby bursting the balloon and causing it to splash its water over the victim participant. Participants have essentially no control to avoid having the balloon burst as the toy is being caught or as it hits them.
Among the objects of the present disclosure is a throwing and catching toy containing a burstable water-filled balloon which allows catching participants some degree of control over the bursting of the balloon according to the manner in which they catch it.
Among the advantages of the present disclosure is that participants may increase skill with practice and decrease risk with dexterity and agility to catch the toy without bursting the balloon, and need not rely solely on chance to avoid being soaked by the bursting balloon. Also among the advantages of the present disclosure are both a simple means for replacing spent balloons and a simple and reliable means for filling new balloons with water.
Further objects and advantages will be apparent upon a review of the following description and drawings, which are intended to exemplify, but not limit the invention.
Disclosed herein is a perforated hollow ball having a water-filled balloon inside and a balloon bursting mechanism that causes a prick to burst the balloon when the mechanism activated, such as when a burst activator of the mechanism is inadvertently pressed during catching by a participant. Depending on the ability of catching participants to avoid pressing the activator of the bursting mechanism, with either skill or luck, bursting may be avoided. The catching participants therefore have control to avoid being victim participants and getting soaked by water from the bursting balloon.
Participants may increase skill with catching practice and decrease risk with dexterity and agility to catch the toy without pressing the burst activator, and need not rely solely on chance to avoid being soaked by the bursting balloon.
When the burst activator is accidentally pressed during catching, water from the bursting balloon spills through the perforations of the ball's housing to soak the catching participant, thereby making that participant a victim. The perforations are disposed in an evenly dispersed array about the ball and have various sizes and shapes, which feature is found to optimize the spray distribution from the toy during bursting, thereby maximizing the soaking of victim participants.
Replacement and refilling of spent balloons is made simple and reliable by novel and convenient means which do not require disassembly of the toy or any dedicated adapters or additional components. The new balloon is filled after insertion into the toy, and the toy is adapted to minimize the risk of overfilling and inadvertent bursting during filling.
A more complete understanding will be realized upon review of the following description and appended drawings which provides disclosure of only one of the almost infinite number of possible arrangements and permutations of the present invention, and which is in no way intended to limit the scope of the invention.
Features and advantages of the claimed subject matter will be apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments consistent therewith, which description should be considered with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Although the drawings and following description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.
A preferred embodiment of the water-release throwing and catching toy is shown as ball 100 in
First housing half 102 is adapted to removably receive a balloon support/fill fitting 110 through orifice 112 of the housing. Second housing half 104 includes a burst mechanism 114, including a prick 116 and actuator button 118 which are rigidly affixed together and translatable along a longitudinal axis 120 of the housing 106. Springs 122 bias prick 116 and actuator button 118 outwardly from the hollow interior chamber 124 of housing 106, so that the spherical outer surface 126 of actuator button 118 is normally co-spherical with housing 106 and so that the tip 128 of prick 116 is normally retracted into sub-housing 130 of burst mechanism 114, and is thereby not exposed within the interior chamber 124.
Spherical outer surface 126 of activator button 118 may be of a contrasting color to the surrounding portion of second housing half 104 to make it easier for participants to instantly differentiate and avoid the actuator button in embodiments of the ball that are intended for the less skillful. Alternatively, the button and surrounding portion of the housing may be of a similar color, making it more difficult to differentiate in embodiments of the ball that are intended for the more skillful.
Referring to
Balloon support/fill fitting 110 is removed from housing 106 by the bayonet-type “twist and pull” action represented by arrows 138 of
Fluid inlet 150 comprises a resilient annular seal 160 to sealingly engage the face of a water supply fitting by pressing housing 106 there-against. Seal 160 may be made of rubber, foam rubber, or some similarly resilient material and may be glued to fitting 110. Fluid outlet 154, post 142, and retention flange 148 collectively form a nipple. Check valve 162 is disposed within conduit 158 and allows fluid, preferably water, to flow there-through only from inlet 150 to outlet 152, but prevents the backflow of water from the outlet to the inlet.
With balloon 140 properly stretch-fitted over post 142 and the balloon's interior in fluid communication with outlet 152, the deflated balloon and the inner end 146 of fitting 110 are inserted through orifice 112 and the fitting is affixed to housing 106 with a reversal of the “twist and pull” removal action. In a bayonet-type “push and twist” action, hooks 164 are longitudinally inserted through tangential key slots 166 and the fitting is rotated clockwise for several angular degrees to lock the fitting into the housing so that the spherical outer surface 168 of outer end 152 is co-spherical with housing 106. Balloon 140 now resides, in a deflated state, within hollow interior chamber 124.
To fill balloon 140 with water, housing 106 is simply pressed up against a water supply fitting, such as spigot 200 of
It is found through experimentation that filling may be optimized for certain balloons according to the length of post 142 and the position of the post's inner end 146 within chamber 124. As some balloons are prone to expand during filling from their base to their tip, tube 142 is most suitable for filling the widest variety of balloons when its length is such that inner end 146 lies at approximately the center of interior chamber 124.
In play, water-filled ball 100 is thrown back and forth amongst participants in various versions of the game of “catch”, as shown in
In addition to the ornamental advantages of the design and disposition of holes 108, because the holes are disposed in an evenly dispersed array about the ball, as seen in the figures, and because the holes have various sizes and shapes, it is found that the spray distribution from the toy during bursting is optimized, thereby maximizing the soaking of victim participants.
In variations of the games playable with ball 100, victim participants who are soaked during catching may receive demerit points or be disqualified. In a first game, combatant participants may throw the ball back and forth “at” each other in the hopes that the balloon will burst and the competing participant will be disqualified. In a second game, teammate combatants may carefully throw the ball back and forth “to” each other in the hopes that the balloon will not burst, with merit points collected for each such successful exchange.
With practice, throwing participants may learn to throw the ball with more or less spinning motion to catching participants to make it harder or easier, respectively, for the catching participants to focus on the actuator button 118 during catching and to avoid touching it and getting soaked. For instance, if the two participants were on the same team, as in the second game described above, and competing against other team pairs, and the object of the game was to see which team could throw the ball back and forth the highest number of times without bursting the balloon, throwing participants would benefit from causing less spinning motion as the ball is thrown to make it easier for the catching teammates to see and avoid the actuator button during catching. While if the object of another game, such as the first game described above, was to eliminate competing participants by throwing the ball at them and trying to soak them, throwing participants would benefit from causing more spinning motion as they throw the ball to make it harder for their catching competitor to see and avoid the actuator button during catching.
Since the bursting of balloon 140 is entirely under the control of the participants, the participants may develop skill with practice, and players of equivalent skill levels may compete against each other knowing that their success will not be purely a matter of chance.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the applicable arts that the foregoing teaches merely one of an infinite number of possible embodiments of the invention, and that the disclosure thereof is not meant to and should not limit the rights to which the inventor is entitled in any way, which rights should only be limited by the following claims.
