CA2814318C - A toy building set - Google Patents

A toy building set Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CA2814318C
CA2814318C CA2814318A CA2814318A CA2814318C CA 2814318 C CA2814318 C CA 2814318C CA 2814318 A CA2814318 A CA 2814318A CA 2814318 A CA2814318 A CA 2814318A CA 2814318 C CA2814318 C CA 2814318C
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
ball
type
socket
connection rod
cross
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Active
Application number
CA2814318A
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
CA2814318A1 (en
Inventor
Christoph Rottjer
Cerim Manovi
Christoffer Raundahl
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Lego AS
Original Assignee
Lego AS
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lego AS filed Critical Lego AS
Publication of CA2814318A1 publication Critical patent/CA2814318A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA2814318C publication Critical patent/CA2814318C/en
Active legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63HTOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H33/00Other toys
    • A63H33/04Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts
    • A63H33/06Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts to be assembled without the use of additional elements
    • A63H33/062Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts to be assembled without the use of additional elements with clip or snap mechanisms
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63HTOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H33/00Other toys
    • A63H33/04Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts
    • A63H33/06Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts to be assembled without the use of additional elements
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63HTOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H33/00Other toys
    • A63H33/04Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts
    • A63H33/06Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts to be assembled without the use of additional elements
    • A63H33/08Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts to be assembled without the use of additional elements provided with complementary holes, grooves, or protuberances, e.g. dovetails
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63HTOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H9/00Special methods or compositions for the manufacture of dolls, toy animals, toy figures, or parts thereof

Landscapes

  • Toys (AREA)

Abstract

A toy building set comprising a group of building elements, each having at least one ball 1, 2 arranged on the building element, and where the ball 1, 2 is connected to other parts of the building element via a connection rod 3, 4, and where the toy building set further comprises at least one element having a socket formed by two jaws 5, being arranged and adapted for receiving said ball 1, 2 in order to form a ball and socket joint, and where the cross section of the connection rod 3, from where it is connected to the ball 1 and at least a distance away from the ball 1, is smaller than the cross section of the ball 1, so that it gives a certain degree of freedom for the socket to rotate around the ball 1. The connection rods 3, 4 also comprise connections rods 4 having a relatively large cross section, so that the connection rods 4 with a relatively large cross section reduces the degree of freedom for the socket to rotate around the ball 2.

Description

A toy building set The present invention relates to a toy building set comprising a group of building elements, each having at least one ball arranged on the building element, and where the ball is connected to other parts of the building ele-ment via a connection rod, and where the toy building set further comprises at least one element having a socket arranged and adapted for receiving said ball in order to form a ball and socket joint, and where the cross section of the connection rod, from where it is connected to the ball and at least a dis-tance away from the ball, is smaller than the cross section of the ball, so that it gives a certain degree of freedom for the socket to rotate around the ball.
Thereby it is possible for e.g. a child to build constructions, such as toy fig-ures having articulated body parts.
Description of related art An example of such a toy building set is known from EP patent application no. 856341 disclosing a number of separate building elements that can be connected via ball and socket joints to form an articulated toy figure.
The problem in relation to this kind of toy building sets is that it does not pro-vide many different ways of connecting the separate elements to each other.
In relation to toy building sets it is therefore a constant challenge to provide such building sets that gives the possibility to build many different construc-tions or figures by using the same basic elements.
This is achieved to a certain degree with the toy building set according to US
patent no.5,769,681, disclosing many different kinds of elements having cou-
2 piing balls and complementary sockets that can be connected to each other in many different ways to form articulated figures or constructions.
Summary of the invention The main object of the present invention is to provide a toy building set giving the user more different ways of building articulated figures having different patterns of possible movements.
This is obtained by the present invention in that the group of building elements comprises a first and a second type of connecting rods, and in that the first type of connection rod, at least close to the ball, has a cross section being relatively larger than the corresponding cross section of the second type of connection rod, so that the relatively lar-ger cross section of the first type of connection rod reduces the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the first type of connection rod, than the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the second type of connection rod.
Thereby the same socket can be mounted on two different both balls being connected to a building element by connection rods with different cross sec-tions, and the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around one of the balls will be more limited than the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around the other ball. Thereby it is possible, with a rela-tively limited number of different building elements, to build many different figures or constructions and at the same time providing more different pat-terns of possible movement or articulation of the figure or construction.
In a preferred embodiment the connection rod has an axis of symmetry, and the axis of symmetry extends through the ball carried by the connection rod.
3 In this relation the axis of symmetry can preferably extend through the centre of the ball.
The group of building elements may comprise at least one building element having both a first and a second type of connections rods each carrying a ball. In this way the same building element can provide more different pat-terns of movement or articulation.
A very simple element can in this relation be provided, if at least two of the balls are interconnected by a common connection rod, and especially if the common connection rod has one end forming the first type of connection rod having its relatively larger cross section near one of the balls, and another end forming the second type of connection rod having its smaller cross sec-tion near another ball.
In this relation it is further possible that at least one other ball has only one connecting rod of the second type extending from it.
In a further preferred embodiment the socket is formed by two resilient jaws, each having a concave coupling surface facing the other jaw, and having a spacing that ensures that the coupling surfaces on the two jaws lies against opposite sides of the ball, when the socket is mounted on the ball.
In this relation it is advantageous if the concave coupling faces on the jaws extend between two side faces, and in that the distance between the two side faces, and the cross section of the first type of connection rods are selected so that the jaws mounted on a ball carried by two of the first type of connec-tion rods having a common axis of symmetry, can only rotate around the common axis of symmetry of the two connections rods of the first type.

3a In some embodiments, there is provided a toy building set comprising a group of building elements, each having at least one ball arranged on the building element, and where the ball is connected to other parts of the building element via a connection rod, and where the toy building set further comprises at least one element having a socket arranged and adapted for receiving said ball in order to form a ball and socket joint, and where the cross section of the connection rod, from where it is connected to the ball and at least a distance away from the ball, is smaller than the cross section of the ball, so that it gives a certain degree of freedom for the socket to rotate around the ball, wherein, the group of building elements comprises a first and a second type of connecting rods, and wherein the first type of connection rod, at least close to the ball, has a cross section being relatively larger than the corresponding cross section of the second type of connection rod, so that the relatively larger cross section of the first type of connection rod reduces the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the first type of connection rod, than the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the second type of connection rod.
4 Brief description of the drawings In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail with refer-ence to embodiments shown by the enclosed figures. It should be empha-sized that the embodiments shown are used for example purposes only and should not be used to limit the scope of the invention.
Figure 1 shows a simple construction built by using one of each of the build-ing elements shown on figures 2, 3 and 4.
Figure 2 is a side front of a first building element according to the invention.
Figure 3 is a side view of a second building element according to the inven-tion.
Figure 4 is a side view of a third building element according to the invention.
Detailed description of the embodiments In fig. 2, 3 and 4 are shown different embodiments of building elements ac-cording to the present invention. From the description below it will be evident to the skilled person that many different embodiments than the ones shown on fig. 1, 2 and 3 are possible to suggest in order to provide many different possibilities for building a toy construction, such as a toy figure or the like.
In the figures 2 to 4, the building element has different numbers of balls 1, being connected to each other via two different types of connecting rods 3, 4 where the first type of connecting rods 4 has a cross section being larger than the cross section of the second type of connecting rods 3.
The embodiments according to figures 3 and 4 has identical sockets each
5 formed by two jaws 5 having a concave surface 6 designed for providing a snap fit on any of the balls 1, 2, so that the socket 5 can slide on any of the balls 1, 2 without being released from the ball 1, 2. In figure 3 the jaws are shown in a front view, and in figure 4 the jaws are shown in a side view.
In this way the ball 1, 2 being connected to a socket will form an articulated ball and socket joint, so that the building elements provide the possibility to build a number or different articulated constructions or figures by using a varying numbers of building elements according to the invention.
As mentioned above it will be possible for the skilled person to suggest other embodiments having more or less balls 1, 2 arranged in many different posi-tions with respect to each other, and be fixed together in their relative posi-tions by means of the two different connection rods 3, 4. The two embodi-ments shown in figure 3 and 4 shows that the connecting rods 3, 4 are ar-ranged along the same axis of symmetry S shown by the dotted line, and in figure 2 the connecting rods 3, 4 are arranged along more symmetry lines arranged in common plan, and where only one is shown in the figure. It will be apparent that the skilled person can come up with other arrangements of symmetry lines arranged in 2 or 3 dimensions without departing from the idea of the present invention.
In this relation the building element according to figure 2 is designed to be used as a corpus element for building a bone structure for a toy figure, and the building elements according to figure 3 and 4 could be used to be con-nected to the building element according to figure 2 in order to form a bone structure for limb parts of the toy figure.
6 In figure 4 is now shown a simple construction built by using the building elements according to figure 2, 3, and 4. The building element according to figure 3 is mounted on the building element according to fig. 2 by snapping the jaws 5 on a ball 1 being carried by a connection rod 3 having a relatively small cross section, and the building element according to figure 4 is mounted on a ball 2 being carried by two connection rods 4 having a rela-tively larger cross section.
Hereby the jaws 5 and thereby the building element according to fig. 4 can, due to the relatively small cross section of the connecting rod 3, rotate around the ball 1 in all directions, and with a high degree of freedom.
On the other hand the relatively large cross section of the connection rods 4 carrying the ball 2 on which the jaws 5 according to the building element shown in figure 4, substantially only allows this building element to rotate around the symmetry axis S when sliding on the ball 2.
In this way the building elements according to the present invention provides more different options for building a large number of different constructions or figures.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS:
1. A toy building set comprising a group of building elements, each hav-ing at least one ball arranged on the building element, and where the ball is connected to other parts of the building element via a connec-tion rod, and where the toy building set further comprises at least one element having a socket arranged and adapted for receiving said ball in order to form a ball and socket joint, and where the cross section of the connection rod, from where it is connected to the ball and at least a distance away from the ball, is smaller than the cross section of the ball, so that it gives a certain degree of freedom for the socket to ro-tate around the ball, wherein, the group of building elements comprises a first and a second type of connecting rods, and wherein the first type of connection rod, at least close to the ball, has a cross section being relatively larger than the corresponding cross sec-tion of the second type of connection rod, so that the relatively larger cross section of the first type of connection rod reduces the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the first type of connection rod, than the degree of freedom on which the socket can rotate around a ball carried by the second type of connec-tion rod.
2. A toy building set according to claim 1, wherein the connection rod has an axis of symmetry, and in that the axis of symmetry extends through the ball carried by the connection rod.
3. A toy building set according to claim 2, wherein the axis of symmetry extends through the centre of the ball.
4. A toy building set according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the group of building elements comprises at least one building element having both a first and a second type of connections rods each carrying a ball.
5. A toy building set according to claim 4, wherein at least two of the balls are interconnected by a common connection rod.
6. A toy building set according to claim 5, wherein the common connection rod has one end forming the first type of connection rod having its relatively larger cross section near one of the balls, and another end forming the second type of connection rod having its smaller cross section near another ball.
7. A toy building set according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein at least one of the balls has precisely two connecting rods of the first type extending from it.
8. A toy building set according to any one of claims 4 to 7, wherein at least one other ball has only one connecting rod of the second type extending from it.
9. A toy building set according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the socket is formed by two resilient jaws, each having a concave coupling surface facing the other jaw, and having a spacing that ensures that the coupling surfaces on the two jaws lies against opposite sides of the ball, when the socket is mounted on the ball.
10. A toy building set according to claim 3, wherein at least one of the balls has precisely two connecting rods of the first type extending from it, wherein the socket is formed by two resilient jaws, each having a concave coupling surface facing the other jaw, and having a spacing that ensures that the coupling surfaces on the two jaws lies against opposite sides of the ball, when the socket is mounted on the ball, and the concave coupling faces on the jaws extend between two side faces, and the distance between the two side faces, and the cross section of the first type of connection rods are selected so that the jaws mounted on a ball carried by two of the first type of connec-tion rods having a common axis of symmetry, can only rotate around the common axis of symmetry of the two connections rods of the first type.
CA2814318A 2010-10-22 2011-10-20 A toy building set Active CA2814318C (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DKPA201000962 2010-10-22
DKPA201000962 2010-10-22
PCT/EP2011/068332 WO2012052509A1 (en) 2010-10-22 2011-10-20 A toy building set

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2814318A1 CA2814318A1 (en) 2012-04-26
CA2814318C true CA2814318C (en) 2018-07-03

Family

ID=44021784

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA2814318A Active CA2814318C (en) 2010-10-22 2011-10-20 A toy building set

Country Status (13)

Country Link
US (1) US20130210314A1 (en)
EP (1) EP2629867B1 (en)
JP (1) JP5955328B2 (en)
KR (1) KR101969178B1 (en)
CN (1) CN103260715B (en)
BR (1) BR112013009523B1 (en)
CA (1) CA2814318C (en)
DK (1) DK2629867T3 (en)
ES (1) ES2528619T3 (en)
HK (1) HK1183266A1 (en)
MX (1) MX2013004452A (en)
PL (1) PL2629867T3 (en)
WO (1) WO2012052509A1 (en)

Families Citing this family (24)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2629868B1 (en) 2010-10-22 2014-09-03 Lego A/S A toy building set
WO2012052475A1 (en) * 2010-10-22 2012-04-26 Lego A/S A toy building set
US9067147B1 (en) 2013-02-28 2015-06-30 Hasbro, Inc. Toy figure combiners
US8904967B2 (en) 2013-03-13 2014-12-09 The Kong Company Llc Pet toy treat dispenser
USD700755S1 (en) * 2013-03-13 2014-03-04 The Kong Company, Llc Pet toy treat dispenser
US9961880B2 (en) 2013-10-14 2018-05-08 The Kong Company, Llc. Pet toy with treat holding receptacles
USD722730S1 (en) 2013-10-30 2015-02-17 The Kong Company, Llc Pet toy
ITAN20130234A1 (en) 2013-12-05 2014-03-06 Riplast S R L SYSTEM OF MOUNTING ELEMENTS FOR TOY CONSTRUCTION.
US8991131B1 (en) * 2014-01-29 2015-03-31 Baojing Lu Construction system for building curved structures
US20150314212A1 (en) * 2014-04-30 2015-11-05 Hasbro, Inc. Toy building element
TWI517886B (en) * 2014-11-03 2016-01-21 Genius Toy Taiwan Co Ltd Clamped buckle groups and combinations thereof
GB2589521B (en) * 2015-08-14 2021-12-29 StickyBones LLC Animation puppet
CN106625615B (en) * 2017-03-02 2024-02-27 上海未来伙伴机器人有限公司 Skeleton spare and robot
USD834105S1 (en) 2017-06-01 2018-11-20 Mattel-Mega Holdings (Us), Llc Construction set element
GB2565322B (en) 2017-08-10 2021-12-01 Atelier Volant Llc Coupling for linkages
US11246293B2 (en) 2019-03-14 2022-02-15 Starmark Pet Products, Inc. Treat dispenser with multi-position recess
JP7245518B2 (en) * 2019-08-28 2023-03-24 ヨシリツ株式会社 Assembly block universal joint
CA3168000A1 (en) * 2020-02-20 2021-08-26 Stuart MACQUARRIE Construction system with linkable elements and method therefor
US11541323B2 (en) * 2020-03-17 2023-01-03 Wildflower Learning Tools, Llc. Learning-based system comprising stackable building blocks
USD965691S1 (en) * 2021-09-02 2022-10-04 Zhiyan Chen Spinning toy
USD963755S1 (en) * 2021-11-30 2022-09-13 Bin Liu Spinning top toy
USD965692S1 (en) * 2021-12-15 2022-10-04 Jun He Spinner toy
USD967280S1 (en) * 2021-12-24 2022-10-18 Saili Chen Spinning toy
USD965070S1 (en) * 2021-12-29 2022-09-27 Shenzhen Longguang Zhichuang Technology Co., Ltd. Transformable fidget spinner

Family Cites Families (14)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US1359030A (en) * 1919-06-14 1920-11-16 Cabana Charles Ball-and-socket joint for dolls, &c.
BE890561R (en) * 1981-06-02 1982-01-18 Sebreghts Hugo C M TOY BUILDING ELEMENT AND ACCESSORIES
DE8701264U1 (en) * 1987-01-27 1987-07-23 Linhart, Jirka, 5223 Nuembrecht, De
ES2098172B1 (en) * 1992-08-05 1997-10-16 Ferre Jose Manuel Rodriguez "IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED IN THE ARTICULATED STRUCTURES FOR DOLLS"
AU708568B2 (en) * 1995-12-11 1999-08-05 Zoob Corporation Construction system
US5769681A (en) * 1996-01-25 1998-06-23 Greenwood, Sr.; Donald Lee Open-ended toy construction system
US5913706A (en) 1997-01-03 1999-06-22 Connector Set Limited Partnership Articulated sectional toy figure
ES2176051B1 (en) * 1999-06-18 2004-03-01 Interlander Patermann S L MODULAR TOY CONSTRUCTION.
US6692332B2 (en) * 2002-02-25 2004-02-17 Stikfas Pte. Ltd. Toy figure having plurality of body parts joined by ball and socket joints
US6685533B1 (en) * 2002-07-24 2004-02-03 In Bong Lee Reproducible doll
ITMI20040822A1 (en) * 2004-04-27 2004-07-27 Vincentelli Claudio SYSTEM OF MODULAR BLOCKS WITH MAGNETIC CONNECTION FRAME
CN2759543Y (en) * 2004-12-13 2006-02-22 蔡东青 Multifunctional toy tower
US20100041300A1 (en) * 2006-01-03 2010-02-18 Bevirt Joeben Modular multi-piece figures from rearrangeable elements and kits allowing construction of same
CN101720247A (en) * 2007-02-09 2010-06-02 鹰飞能玩具公司 Construction system

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
MX2013004452A (en) 2013-06-28
BR112013009523A2 (en) 2016-07-26
CN103260715A (en) 2013-08-21
PL2629867T3 (en) 2015-04-30
JP5955328B2 (en) 2016-07-20
EP2629867A1 (en) 2013-08-28
HK1183266A1 (en) 2013-12-20
EP2629867B1 (en) 2014-11-26
CN103260715B (en) 2015-11-25
CA2814318A1 (en) 2012-04-26
KR101969178B1 (en) 2019-04-15
JP2013540532A (en) 2013-11-07
WO2012052509A1 (en) 2012-04-26
US20130210314A1 (en) 2013-08-15
ES2528619T3 (en) 2015-02-11
DK2629867T3 (en) 2015-02-23
BR112013009523B1 (en) 2020-12-01
KR20130129952A (en) 2013-11-29

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
CA2814318C (en) A toy building set
DK2629861T3 (en) a toy
US8087970B2 (en) Toy construction system having a rotatable connector/spinner device
JP2009523571A5 (en)
CA2814316C (en) A toy building set
WO2005089683A3 (en) Tensegrity joints for prosthetic, orthotic, and robotic devices
WO2008070863A3 (en) Intervertebral implant
US6817921B2 (en) Action figure
EP3015150A1 (en) Snap-fit connector and toy assembly having the same
KR200472220Y1 (en) Joint structure of a toy
TW200619528A (en) A mechanical joint structure
WO2008006351A3 (en) Framework with at least one node element and at least two bar elements connected thereby and construction kit for production thereof
WO2012098354A3 (en) Joint assembly for a doll
RU2003124136A (en) ONE-PIN KINEMATIC PAIR

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
EEER Examination request

Effective date: 20160915