EP0047102A1

EP0047102A1 - A constructional toy component

Info

Publication number: EP0047102A1
Application number: EP81303781A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Cornelius O'mahony
Original assignee: MAHONY CORNELIUS O
Current assignee: MAHONY CORNELIUS O
Priority date: 1980-09-02
Filing date: 1981-08-19
Publication date: 1982-03-10
Also published as: GB2082925A; IE801841L

Abstract

A structural toy component for use as building bricks, machine parts, limbs of animals etc., is provided. Such components have at least one contact face which releasably mates with another contact face of another component. Generally, a positive engagement is required. Unfortunately, children often find these difficult to handle. In order to achieve a more efficient mating between two contact surfaces (2,3), a plurality of filaments protrude outwardly from each contact face (2,3) to engage filaments on another contact face (2,3) the filaments have complimentary inter engaging portions for example of hook-like construction (4) and of loop-like construction (5). Separable fastening materials such as those sold under the Trade Mark VELCRO may be used on each contact face.

Description

The present invention relates to a constructional toy component having at least one contact face releasably mating with the contact face of another component.
It is known to provide toys and sporting apparatus which use separable fastening materials of the type which comprise two members, each provided with some form of inter-engagable elements. These devices or fastening elements are often sold under Trade Marks VELCRO and CRIC-CRAC. The construction of such fastening elements sold under the Trade Mark VELCRO is described in detail in U.S. Patent Nos. 2,717,437 and 3,009,325. Further, various uses for such materials have been described and claimed in many patent specifications. For example, the materials have been used in a golf swing training device such as described in U.S. Patent Specification No. 3,401,941 and in a target game such as, for example, U.S. Patent Specification Nos. 3,032,345 and 3,857,566. Indeed, another target game which is essentially a form of bloodless bullfighting is described and claimed in U.S. Patent Specification No. 3,370,853. These have all essentially been new uses of these materials which were originally proposed for fastening clothing parts together.
Constructional toys are being used more and more extensively and have become more and more popular with children and parents for many reasons. Generally speaking, they are often instructive improving the manual and visual dexterity of children while at the same time providing them with continuous amusement. Unfortunately, one of the problems with most constructional toys is that they require a certain amount of manual dexterity from the children and very often cannot be used by very young children. Indeed, many of the constructions of toys proposed are difficult to use so that they can only be used by older children with relatively good co-ordination. For example, one of the most popular of childrens constructional toys is that sold under the Trade Mark LEGO which essentially consists of interlocking members which require some dexterity, strength and skill to put together. In an effort to overcome this and to provide something more interesting than the conventional plain building block which has essentially no interlock between individual blocks many other proposals have been made. None of these have been entirely satisfactory since the tighter the grip of the components the harder it is for the child to use them.
In this specification the term "constructional toy component" or "component" refers to, for example, building blocks of regular and irregular shapes such as cubes, spheres, tetraherons, prisms, pyramids, polyhedrons, cylinders and composite figures such as are generally used, but also, among others, the parts of model people and animals, for example, the arms, legs, features such as lips, eyes, ears, hair, tails etc., clothing for them or components such as hats and guns and boots and additionally other constructional toy parts including wheels, axles, struts, container bodies and the like, in other words, any component that can be used to manufacture any object.
The term "contact face" as herein used refers to a face of any of the said components which will be abutted against the face of another component to join the two together.
The present invention has as its object among others of providing an improved constructional toy component and in particular to providing an improved constructional toy for use with such components.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved in that a plurality of filaments protrude outwardly from each contact face to engage filaments on another contact face, the filaments having complimentary inter-engaging portions. The advantage of such a constructional toy component is that the strength of contact and hence the pulling force required to separate the two parts is largely dependent on the pressure exerted in the joining the parts together. Since the pressure exerted generally varies with the age of the user the structural toy component can be used by a wide variety of age groups and indeed, for example, can be used by disabled children.
In one embodiment of the invention the inter-engaging portions are of hook-like construction. This construction is a particularly suitable construction in that when the embodiment is moulded all in one piece the hook can be relatively easily formed and further the hooks can be used to join the components or mount them on any fabric of loop-construction such, for example, as a looped pile carpet.
In another embodiment of the invention the inter-engaging portions are formed from a thickened portion on the extremity of each filament. The particular advantage of this construction in addition to being of itself a particularly efficient construction is that on separating of the parts there tends to be a rather audible noise. Thus, for example, when the filaments are made from a fabric sold under the Trade Mark CRIC-CRAC which is of this general construction the noise is particularly audible, hence the Trade Mark. Audible noises are particularly pleasing to children and children generally tend to make and like to make noise when playing.
A still further embodiment of the invention provides that one inter-engaging portion is a male inter-engaging portion of hook-like construction and a complimentary inter-engaging portion is a female inter-engaging portion of loop-like construction. Generally speaking the advantage of having separable male inter-engaging and female inter-engaging portions on the filaments is that one can provide a variety of uses and one can also ensure that certain parts cannot be connected together. There are many applications where it is desirable to ensure that one part cannot be connected to another part. At the same time any component having a contact surface with a male inter-engaging portion of hook-like construction can still be mounted and secured on any looped fabric. The combination of hook-like construction and loop-like construction is particularly suitable and advantageous.
The invention further provides that one inter-engaging portion is a male inter-engaging portion formed from a thickened portion on the extremity of the filament and a complimentary inter-engaging portion is a female inter-engaging portion of loop-like construction. The advantage of this particular construction is that it allows for versatility between the components and further allows the male inter-engaging portion to attach to any fabric of loop construction and at the same time when the male inter-engaging portion is separated from a female inter-engaging portion there is a relatively high audible noise. As remarked above this is particularly desired by children.
In accordance with the invention it is particularly suitable that all the filaments on a contact face have either male or female inter-engaging portions. The advantage of this is that if a child attempts to join two contact faces all of which contain female inter-engaging portions it will be generally impossible to join them together. However, when the child attempts to join two faces having male inter-engaging portions it may or may not be possible to join them together. The advantage of this is that a child of necessity must learn to identify the various contact faces and thus ensure that the correct faces are joined together.
In a further embodiment of the invention the filaments on a contact face are so arranged as to form separate alternate areas of filaments all having male or female engaging portions. There are certain advantages in that if two contact faces are aligned correctly so that all the filaments in contact will inter-engage then the components will be tightly secured together. If, however, the overlap between filaments that will inter-engage is slight then the parts are less tightly connected together. Again this increases the childs discrimination.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention the filaments having male inter-engaging portions are of a different colour to the filaments having female inter-engaging portions. The advantage of different colours will be readily apparent in that it allows children to understand and recognise colours, introduces them to colour coding and indeed, introduces them to many major concepts in science and technology, such as, for example, the whole question of North/South relationships, such as used in magnetism and electricity and they will quickly appreciate it that like parts repel and unlike parts attract. Further, when the colour coding is used with some of the embodiments described above, the child will quickly realise why parts have been incorrectly orientated.
The invention further envisages the provision of male and female inter-engaging portions randomly arranged on each contact face. The advantage of this is that the parts will always join together and it is not necesary to provide any alignment between two components.
It has been found that ideally the contact faces may have mounted thereon a separable fastening material. The advantage of this is that in addition to being soft and easy for the children to handle it has a further advantage of ease of construction. Particularly suitable materials which are on the commercial market include those sold under the Trade Marks VELCRO, CRIC-CRAC and MAGIC TAPE among others.
It has been found that when the component is of a plastic material that the filaments may be integrally moulded therewith. This avoids the disadvantage of having to apply some form of fastening material to the components after manufacture.
The invention further provides embodiments in which each contact face is indented for reception of the filaments, the depth of said indentations being less than the length of a filament. The advantage of this is that it increases the stability of the parts contacted together in that the portions that are not indented will, of necessity, mate thus further increasing the rigidity of the mating components.
The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some preferred embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a building block according to the invention,
Fig. 2 is a plan view of one contact face of the block of Fig. 1,
Fig. 3 is the plan view of the contact face of another block according to the invention, adapted for releasably engaging the contact face illustrated in Fig. 2,
Fig. 4 is a plan view of a contact face of a further building block,
Fig. 5 is a plan view of a contact face of a still further building block, adapted for releasably engaging the contact face of the building block of Fig. 4,
Figs. 6(a) to (e) inclusive are plan views of still further contact faces of building blocks, similar to the blocks of Figs. 1 to 5,
Figs. 7(a) to (d) are side diagrammatic enlarged views of two mating contact faces, and
Figs. 8(a) to (e) are exploded side views of constructional toys according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings and initially to Figs. 1 to 3 thereof, there is provided a constructional toy, in this case a building block in the form of a cube, indicated generally by the reference numeral 1,having at least one and in this case two contact faces 2 and 3. A plurality of filaments are mounted on each contact face 2 and 3. Each filament has complimentary inter-engaging portions, in this case those on the contact face 2 have male inter-engaging portions 4 of hook-like construction and those on the contact face 3 have female inter-engaging portions 5 of loop-like construction. For clarity the filaments are not separately identified. In the particular embodiment the filaments are each formed from a strip of Velcro tape secured to the cube 1. Of necessity the filaments are shown diagrammatically in the drawings.
Referring now to Fig. 3 there is shown another building cube, indicated generally by the reference numeral 6, parts similar to those described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 are identified by the same reference numerals. To join the cube 1 and the cube 6 it is merely necessary to offer up the two faces 2 and 3 together and on pressing the cubes 1 and 6 together the male inter-engaging portions 4 engage the female inter-engaging portions 5. The cubes 1 and 6 may be easily separated by pulling. It will be immediately apparent that if the construction of building blocks is as illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 it will be necessary to ensure that in each case a contact face having a male inter-engaging portion is pushed against a contact face having a female inter-engaging portion. Also all contact faces will generally be fully or partially covered with filaments.
Thus, referring to Figs. 4 and 5 there is illustrated alternative arrangements of building blocks, namely, cubes 7 and 8 of which contact faces 9 and 10 are shown. In this embodiment there are alternate areas on each contact face 9 or 10 on which there are strips of Velcro with male inter-engaging portions 4 and female inter-engaging portions 5 with uncovered strips 12 therebetween. The uncovered strips 12 are raised slightly relative to the remainder of the contact faces 9 and 10 which are indented for reception of the filaments. The depth of said indentations is less than the length of a filament.
This provides additional stability. This could also be provided in other embodiments by raised stud-like projections for engagement with corresponding studs on another contact face. The cubes 7 and 8 can be more easily joined together as the male and female inter-engaging portions must at least partly coincide. Thus, it is not necessary to ensure correct orientation as with the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 3.
Referring to Figs. 6(a) to (e) there is illustrated various arrangements by which the contact faces of the building cube may be covered with Velcro. Alternate areas are used to form concentric bands or rings such as shown in Figs. 6(a) and 6(b) or alternate rectangular areas such as shown in Fig. 6(c). While in Fig. 6(d) the male and female inter-engaging portions are on each contact face and are alternately arranged. Fig. 6(e) shows the male and female inter-engaging portions randomly arranged.
It will be appareciated that depending on the arrangement of the male and female inter-engaging portions it may be necessary to orientate some of the cubes correctly together or they will not adhere. This may be advisable, for example, with certain forms of construction of toy where it is desired to ensure that the parts are aligned together correctly. It will be appreciated that, for example, in the construction such as shown in Fig. 6(d) or more particularly 6(e) this cannot happen as it will be appreciated that there can be up to 40 of the filaments per inch run thus 1,600 male and female inter-engaging members per square inch.
Referring to Figs. 7(a) there is illustrated in side view two inter-engaging portions 15 each of hook-like construction while Fig. 7(b) shows two inter-engaging portions which are formed from a thickened portion 16 on the extremity of a filament 18. Fig. 7(c) illustrates a filament having a male inter-engaging portion 19 of hook-like construction engaging a female inter-engaging portion 20 of loop construction. In Figs. 7(a) to 7(c) it will be readily appreciated from the drawing how the filaments inter-engage. Fig. 7(d) illustrates a filament 21 having a thickened end portion 22 which is engaged with a female inter-engaging portion 23 of loop construction. The filament 21 has substantially the same construction as the filament 18, the distortion arising on inter-engagement.
Referring to Fig. 8(a) there is illustrated a construction of excavator in an exploded view. It will be readily appreciated how the various parts may be joined together.
Similarly, Fig. 8(b) shows a model train and Figs. 8(c), (d) and (e) show exploded views of a model horse and two men which may be constructed as shown. The model of Fig. 8(e) requires special parts while those of Figs. 8(c) and 8(d) do not.
While the embodiments above have been described with reference to the use of the fabric sold under the Trade Mark VELCRO it will be appreciated that similar fabrics such as that sold under the Trade Mark CRIC-CRAC, MAGIC TAPE and the like may be used. Strictly speaking, it is not necessary to supply a special material to provide female inter-engaging portions with many of the commercially sold tapes as any knitted loop fabric may be used. Alternatively, it is envisaged that when the constructional toy components are manufactured from a plastics material that the filaments may be integrally moulded or formed therewith.
The advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from reading the specification and while attention is drawn to the following specific advantages of the invention they are not by any means the only advantages.
It will be appreciated that when a constructional toy component, for example, a building brick is so manufactured that the filaments having male inter-engaging portions are of a different colour to the filaments having female inter-engaging portions that this will further allow children to engage in colour matching and additionally it will help to show the principles of positive and negative joining, such as, for example, with the use of magnets. A further advantage of the present invention when, for example, building blocks are covered with fabric is that there will be some protection for young children as the bricks will be softer than conventional building blocks and therefore, less likely to damage the child. Additionally, since the pressure exerted between any two components will, to a certain extent determine the strength at which the components are joined this will, when the pressure is less, facilitate the dis-assembly of a component. In some ways this is one of the major advantages of the invention, in that the components, if joined together by young children will not then be impossible for the same young child to pull apart. This unfortunately is not the case with many well known toys, where if the child is lucky enough to join the two components together he or she then finds it almost impossible to dis-assemble them. Additionally, when many of the commercial separable fabrics are used there is a quite definite audible sound when the two components are pulled apart. This is pleasing to children. Another advantage of the invention is that where a contact face has a plurality of male inter-engaging portions of hook-like construction that they will generally attach to a carpet or floor covering of the loop type or indeed, they will attach to any fabric of looped construction.

Claims

1. A constructional toy component having at least one contact face for releasably mating with the contact face of another component characterised in that a plurality of filaments protrude outwardly from each contact face (2,3) to engage filaments on another contact face (2,3), the filaments having complimentary inter-engaging portions (4,5).

2. A component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that one inter-engaging portion is a male inter-engaging portion (19) of hook-like construction and a complimentary inter-engaging portion is a female inter-engaging portion (20), of loop-like construction.

3. A component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that one inter-engaging portion is a male inter-engaging portion formed from a thickened portion (22) on the extremity of the filament (21) and a complimentary inter-engaging portion is a female inter-engaging portion (23) of loop-like, construction.

4. A component as claimed in claims 2 or 3 characterised in that all the filaments on a contact face have either male (4) or female (5) inter-engaging portions.

5. A component as claimed in claims 2 or 3 characterised in that the filaments on a contact face are so arranged as to form separate alternate areas of filaments all having male or female inter-engaging portions (4,5).

6. A component as claimed in any of claims 2 to 5 characterised in that the filaments having male inter-engaging portions (4) are of different colour to the filaments having female inter-engaging portions (5).

7. A component as claimed in claims 2 or 3 characterised in that the male and female inter-engaging portions (4,5) are randomly arranged on each contact face (2,3).

8. A component as claimed in any preceding claim characterised in that the contact faces (2,3) have mounted thereon a separable fastening material.

9. A component as claimed in claim 8 characterised in that the separable fastening material is a fabric sold under the Trade Mark VELCRO.

10. A component as claimed in any of claims 1 to 7 characterised in that the component (1) is of plastics material and the filaments are integrally moulded therewith.

11. A component as claimed in any preceding claim characterised in that each contact face (2,3) is indented for reception of the filaments, the depth of said indentation being less than the length of a filament.

12. A toy incorporating a component as claimed in any preceding claim.