DE8717843U1 - Toy kit comprising at least one basic component and a plurality of components - Google Patents

Description

- &igr; -Bettina Matthaei-Zapletal, Lerchenberg 69, 2000 Hamburg 67

Toy kit comprising at least one basic component and a plurality of components

The invention relates to a toy construction kit comprising at least one base component and a number of components, wherein the base component is designed as a magnetic plate and the components are magnetically effective plate- shaped colored structures made of plastic with essentially parallel upper and lower surfaces, the contours of which are curved and which can be detachably attached to the base component.

The main purpose of the invention is to promote children’s creativity through variability of play options and results.

The development of toy construction kits has led from conventional stable construction kits, in which individual, primarily rod- and flat-plate-shaped as well as profiled elements, which are provided with holes at regular intervals and can be assembled by screwing into a wide variety of, primarily technical, play equipment, e.g. (cranes, vehicles, machines, etc.), and stone construction kits of various types to interlocking brick kits. In these, individual building elements can be connected to one another in a clamping form fit so that they can be easily removed and exchanged. These latter kits allow a considerably higher variability in the creation of ever new play possibilities compared to the former, which is crucial for stimulating and promoting creativity in children due to the pedagogical knowledge gained in recent decades. The development of interlocking brick kits has led to a constant stream of new basic elements, including base plates with which parts of certain areas of life such as houses can be assembled with

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f gardens, streets, landscapes, etc. can be built. However, due to the fixed positions of the connecting elements on the individual building elements in relation to one another, these kits are generally limited to predetermined geometric shapes in terms of their variability, even though the variety of these shapes is very high. However, the "technical" appearance always remains insurmountable due to the angularity, especially the right angles, of the building elements.

A toy construction kit of the type described above is known (DE-OS 7.6 17 142), which, however, essentially only provides for a two-dimensional design of the playing area as far as the plate-shaped building elements are concerned, in that the plates are designed as path, flower bed, lake and floor elements. The main idea of this well-known toy construction kit is based on a scheme or a kind of grid. Pre-formed, essentially geometrically defined building elements are used, with the help of which a repeated creation of certain building shapes and arrangements is possible. For building in the third dimension, i.e. in height, and in particular for constructing buildings or vehicles, building blocks of the conventional type are also provided. These elements essentially correspond to the well-known plug-in building block system, i.e. they represent plug-in components that are technically and structurally fixed in terms of shape and arrangement, which hinder and restrict the free development of play and imagination as well as the handling, especially of small children.

In contrast, the invention is based on the task of improving a toy construction kit of the known structure in such a way that, using simple technical means, the building elements can be used to achieve any three-dimensional layering, independent of predetermined geometric shapes and specifications, in such a way that increased variability in terms of playing options and thus the basis for ever new game results is achieved while at the same time avoiding clearly predetermined geometric figures.

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This object is achieved according to the invention in that the components are injection-molded parts with embedded permanent magnets and rounded or chamfered contour edges that can be stacked on top of one another by mutually placing adjacent parallel upper and lower surfaces, and can be joined together to form play areas or parts thereof by detachably connecting them to one another, and are made of a material with a skin-friendly, grip-friendly surface.

This gives you a toy kit whose building elements are easy for a child to handle and can be put together to form any shape by layering or stacking them on top of each other, whereby new game results and shapes can always be created. The magnetic plate forming the base part creates a basis for putting the building elements together to create a wide variety of play landscapes such as hills, mountains, islands, meadows, etc. This stacking or layering of the plates or pieces forming the building elements, with their main surfaces essentially parallel to each other, is particularly suitable for smaller children and does not require any technical skills, such as those required for playing with the well-known interlocking blocks, for example. Rather, slightly overhanging structures can be created without the immediate risk of collapse due to unstable arrangement, which is often particularly appealing to children. In landscapes constructed in this way, the character of which is determined by the child playing, whereby the building elements can of course be made in different, particularly suitable colors, preferably natural colors (yellow, brown, green, etc.), but also in any other colors, e.g. suitable for psychological, educational or fashion reasons, the child can play with the plastic figures that are common today and available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (e.g. Smurfs, Disney characters, dwarves, animals, etc.) in a way that stimulates creativity.

Play in a variety of ways. Changes to the terrain can be made easily at any time. The decisive factor is that no "technical" landscape structures need to be formed, but that the child can let his or her imagination run wild, with the plate-shaped design of the building elements being particularly stimulating due to their practical, simple basic structure in conjunction with the curved contours. The magnetic attachment of the game pieces also makes it easy to play undisturbed and thus keep children occupied during (longer) car or train journeys.

The use of magnetically effective game elements is known in itself, as there are, on the one hand, magnetic boards on which magnetized numbers or letters can be attached to form words or for basic mathematical exercises, and on the other hand, magnetized connecting elements for coupling trains or cars; however, the invention takes a completely new approach, in that magnetized building elements of very specific shapes that particularly stimulate the imagination and creativity can be used on a base plate by arranging them in layers to create imaginative biotopes. Magnetism as a holding force therefore only plays a partial role in the invention; What is also crucial, and above all, is the easy variability in connection with the "non-technical" forms, in order to enable the constructed landscapes to be changed at any time and at the same time to achieve new imaginative forms, although of course the stability should be sufficient to allow the child to play with given figures in the self-designed living spaces for these figures without the constructed terrain being destroyed too easily. The base part and/or the building elements are therefore intended as colored injection-molded parts with embedded permanent magnets.

Although the curved design of the contours of the components alone provides a practically

free play with the toy kit according to the invention is guaranteed and the plate-shaped components, even if the child steps on them, neither suffer direct damage by breaking off any corners or edges, nor cause injuries due to sharp contours, it is particularly useful to make the contour edges rounded or beveled, so that ultimately the greatest possible safety against injuries is created that can be imagined with a set of compact components. For these reasons, the parts are also made of a material with a skin-friendly, grip-friendly surface, whereby it goes without saying that the material should be free of any harmful (e.g. toxic) components. All of these features also contribute to fulfilling the basic idea of the invention, to create a toy that stimulates creativity, which is suitable even for smaller children, in its ... (continued on page 7 of the original documents).

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It is easy and friendly to use and the possibilities for variation are practically unlimited.

In order to keep the packaging costs as low as possible, it can be advantageous if the basic component, according to a further development of the invention, is designed as a case that holds the remaining components when folded up and forms a flat plate when unfolded, whereby it is expedient if the plate or foldable plate parts cover/cover easily accessible containers for holding components and/or additional components to be described when the case is unfolded. Such a construction kit can be opened immediately by the child and used for playing without unnecessary packaging elements and play parts that are not wanted at the time of playing lying around, while on the other hand, after the game has finished, the child is encouraged and made to pack up again, so that another educational goal, namely tidying up/keeping things in order, can be achieved at the same time. In addition, this increases the value as a travel toy, as mentioned above.

In order to increase or expand the play variability, in a preferred development of the invention, some of the components can be provided with means for detachably mounting additional components, which may be non-magnetic. Such additional components can be a supplement to the plate-shaped components and can, for example, have the shape of rings that can be plugged onto a lower magnetic component with a pin, or they can also have the shape of branches, twigs, leaves, etc. These additional components can also have a magnetic effect if necessary in order to achieve even greater stability, and they can also be designed _to be elastically or plastically deformable.

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and, if necessary, to enable a wide variety of shapes. They can have plastic-coated support frames, e.g. made of wire, and can therefore be easily bent in any desired way. Depending on the size, you can build trees of different heights, for example, but also extraterrestrial landscapes with craters and volcanoes. The height of such objects can be varied as desired. The means for removable storage can be simple openings in which, for example, plastic branches, twigs or leaves can be inserted. With the help of such additional components, which of course can also have any other desired design and replica of well-known objects such as flags, signposts, bridges, fences, etc., put together the most diverse types of landscapes, i.e. familiar ones from home, tropical-foreign or fantastic-unknown landscapes, in order to realize the imaginative ideas of the child while playing. It is even possible to use magnetically adhering flat bowls that stick to the base plate and are filled with water In these small boats, which the child can float in, you can also use flat-shelled egg-shaped pieces that stick to the base plate to build a canal system. me&eegr;te that can be plugged into or into each other and filled with water. Small bridges, boats, jetties, etc. can then be supplied as additional elements. For road and path systems, on the other hand, magnetized curves and straight lines can be placed in front of which can be freely combined with one another. In addition to the branch, twig or leaf-shaped additional components mentioned above, additional elements in the form of swings, hammocks, fruits (e.g. coconuts) are also conceivable for the trees. a so-called play tree is to be provided, which is built into a landscape made of plate-shaped building elements

can be "planted" using magnetic force and offers a wide variety of living and hiding places for the figures.

The overall advantages of the invention are that a toy kit with the greatest variety and play possibilities is obtained, which stimulates the creativity and imagination of cattle from a very young age, whereby, thanks to the simple and easily removable fastening options ^, variations of a landscape once constructed can be achieved and any extension is possible with additional sets. With a view to stimulating the imagination and creativity of the child, however, care should be taken to ensure that the building elements and/or additional components usually have curved contours that deviate from the usual geometric shapes such as circles, ellipses, triangles or polygons or the like, although the latter do not necessarily have to be excluded, of course.

This means that the child playing is not unnecessarily constrained by technical standards and constraints at an early stage, but can freely build a play area according to their own imagination, which can be changed quickly and at will in order to realize new ideas.

Possible designs and further advantages are evident from the following description of the embodiments shown in the schematic drawing. It shows

Fig. 1 a front view of a (toy) suitcase

when closed,

Fig. 2 the case of Fig. 1 in opened state,

Fig. 3 the case in the opened state (as Fig. 2), but in perspective view and

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omitting the handles,

Fig. 4 Top views of a number of components with different contours, 05

Fig. 5 is a view of a number of components stacked on top of each other,

Fig. 6 in exploded view and view of a component with several additional components,

Fig. 7 is a view of various forms of branch- or leaf-shaped additional components,

Fig. 8 a view of a component with a tree-shaped additional component sewn on and

Fig. 9 is a view of a partial section of a

elements with a flag as an additional component.

A case 10 shown in Fig. 1 in the closed state, which can be opened as can be seen from Figs. 2 and 3, serves to accommodate a toy construction kit proposed according to the invention and for this purpose has a base part 1 designed here as a two-part magnetic plate, pivotally mounted on the case parts forming containers 11. When the case is closed, these plate parts 2m disappear into the interior of the case. The base part can of course also be provided in one part or more than two parts. When the case is opened, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2, the two parts of the base part 1 can be folded down so that the containers 11 are thereby closed and further parts of the toy construction kit, which are yet to be described, can be stored in them without the risk of them falling out.

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The toy kit according to the invention then comprises a large number of plate- or plate-shaped building elements 2, which are designed with essentially parallel upper and lower surfaces 24 and 25 (see Fig. 50) and curved contours 23. The design diversity of these contours 23 is arbitrary. Since the toy kit according to the invention serves to stimulate the imagination and creativity of the children who use it, the contours of the plate-shaped building elements 2 should, if possible, deviate from strictly geometric shapes, especially since the child playing with them should be able to create some fantastic, bizarre structures by stacking them on top of each other. However, this does not rule out the possibility of geometric shapes being included in the kit.

In order to enable stacking, as shown in Fig. 5, for example, the components 2 are injection-molded parts into which permanent magnets 21 of any size and shape appropriate to the contours 23 and thickness dimensions of the components are embedded. Like the contours of the components 2, the permanent magnets 21 can also be chosen arbitrarily, as long as the game idea of the kit can be implemented in as wide a range of variations as possible. Instead of the permanent magnets 21, any other magnetically effective plates can be embedded in the injection-molded parts, as long as sufficient magnetic adhesion 0 can be achieved with respect to the base part 1, in order to hold, among other things, a higher stack of plates as in Fig. 5 firmly enough on the magnetic plate 1.

Since the toy kit is especially intended for children 5 in the toddler stage and is intended to stimulate and develop their imagination, but not to meet

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to higher technical skills and, above all, to exclude any risk of injury, the building elements are colored injection molded parts made of non-toxic, easy-to-grip and pleasant-to-the-touch plastic material with broken edges, which, as can be seen in Fig. 5, are rounded or can also be provided with corresponding bevels or the like. On the one hand, it is therefore crucial here to enable a colorful, imaginative combination of a large number of building elements 2, which on the other hand do not have sharp edges that could easily cause injuries. The sufficient magnetic holding force makes it possible, as also indicated in Fig. 5, to even put together overhanging structures that do not constantly slip or otherwise collapse while the child is playing with a "landscape" of his or her own design. By means of structural elements such as the ring-shaped element marked 2a in Fig. 4, which can be available in different sizes, it is possible to build small volcano- or crater-shaped structures, while the other parts are suitable for building up mountains, hills or similar.

To increase the variability of the play areas that can be built with the building elements shown in Fig. 4 and 5, one or more of the building elements, as shown in Fig. 6, 8 and 9 for building elements 2b, c and d, can be designed with simple receiving openings 22 into which additional components 3, which are provided with corresponding bearing pins 31, can be easily and detachably inserted. These additional components 3 can in turn be a wide variety of injection-molded parts, for example leaves, branches, palm fronds (see Fig. 7), trees (see Fig. 8), flags (see Fig. 9) or other conceivable and easily manufactured elements. Such additional components, as shown in Fig. 6, can also be made of plastic.

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indicated, several parts 3a-c of the same shape that can be put together, with which the playing child can, for example, build a thick trunk, into which an additional component 3d with several receptacles 22 shown in the lower left part of Fig. 7 can then be inserted in order to attach several branches or leaves to it and thus build, for example, a palm tree or some other fantastic bush. These additional components 3 can optionally consist of injection-molded parts that have a wire core so that they are plastically deformable. In this way, the playing child can, for example, build a forest or a bush of variable shape in which figures can be hidden.

From the various embodiments and forms shown in the drawings, it is easy to see that the design diversity of the components

2 and additional components 3 there are practically no limits and that such limits also do not exist for the use and assembly of such parts into the most diverse imaginative structures by the playing child.

In such fantastic, self-assembled terrains or landscapes, the playing child can accommodate small dolls or other fantasy figures and play imaginative games with them. The suitcase-like design, as shown in Fig. 1 to

3, the toy kit of this

can be used well as a travel toy, although the basic idea is that the base part 1 can be a separate part that the child can play with in the house independently of a suitcase. The building elements 2 and additional components 3 can then be delivered separately in suitable packaging. It is also of course possible to supply additional building kits for such a kit, as is the case

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already known from a wide variety of toys, especially plastic toys.

All in all, you get a toy kit that differs from conventional ones on the one hand through its variable variety of arbitrary contours of its components/additional components, then through the uncomplicated possibility of arbitrarily assembling the various components while at the same time firmly holding them together and above all through the possibilities of stimulating creativity and imagination by playing with components that can be stably assembled largely independently of predetermined shapes, in that the child playing with the elements of the inventive kit can follow his own imagination in assembling any structure he has just developed in his child's imagination, without being restricted in his creativity by predetermined fixed shapes and fastening (coupling) means.

Claims (4)

- 15 - P e—ifr-fi £ji a i &rgr; i" u c &eegr; e 1. toy construction kit, comprising at least one base component and a plurality of components, the base component being designed as a magnetic plate and the components being magnetically effective plate-shaped colored structures made of plastic with essentially parallel upper and lower surfaces, the contours of which are curved and which can be releasably attached to the base component, characterized in that the components (2) are injection molded parts that can be stacked on top of one another by mutually abutting adjacent, parallel upper and lower surfaces (24, 25), can be releasably connected to one another to form play landscapes or parts thereof, with embedded permanent magnets (21) and rounded or beveled contour edges (23) and are made of a material with a skin-friendly, grip-friendly surface. 2. Toy construction kit according to claim 1, characterized in that some of the components (2) are provided with means (22) for the detachable storage of optionally non-magnetic additional components (3). 3. Toy kit according to claim 2, characterized in that the additional components (3) are elastically or plastically deformable. 4. Toy construction kit according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the base part (1) is designed as a case (10) which, in the folded state, accommodates the other components (2) and the additional components (3) and, in the unfolded state, forms a flat plate. - 16 - - 16 - Toy construction kit according to claim 4, characterized in that the plate (1) in the unfolded state of the case (10) covers easily accessible containers (11) for accommodating building elements (2) and additional components (3).