GB2309396A

GB2309396A - Building element for a toy construction kit

Info

Publication number: GB2309396A
Application number: GB9701103A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ingvar Petersson; Lars Olsson
Original assignee: Brio AB
Current assignee: Brio AB
Priority date: 1996-01-25
Filing date: 1997-01-20
Publication date: 1997-07-30
Also published as: SE9600264L; DE19651742A1; SE9600264D0; GB9701103D0

Description

1 2309396 BUILDING ELEMENT, INCLUDED IN A TOY CONSTRUCTION KIT 1 The

present invention relates to a building element included in a toy construction kit, which also includes building toy bricks having a plane surface, which is adapted to form a front surface or part of a front surface of a construction, such as a house, a castle or the like, which is built by means of the construction kit, a hole being formed in said plane surface.

In a known toy construction kit including building toy bricks which essentially are of the type described above but have no holes in their plane surface, at least part of the building toy bricks have a facing decoration painted on the plane surface, for instance in the form of a window, door, balcony, flower-box or the like. In some cases, the painted decoration has been replaced with a correspondingly decorated thin plastic film applied to the building toy brick. These building toy bricks with painted decorations or applied plastic films permit no change of the decoration.

One object of the present invention is to increase the possibilities for the children playing with the toy construction kit to choose decorations on their own and vary the positioning thereof on a building built by means of the toy construction kit and, to this end, provide a building element which can be used as an exchangeable and optionally positionable facing element and which despite the exchangeability can be attached sufficiently firmly to a building toy brick so as not to come loose therefrom while playing, but which also can be removed in a fairly simple manner.

This object is achieved by a building element which is of the type mentioned by way of introduction and char acterised in that it is designed as a, for instance, window- or door-shaped facing element, which is to be attached to the front surface and, to this end, comprises 2 a projecting peg which is elastically yieldable in its transverse direction and is adapted to be inserted with a close fit into the hole in a building toy brick, and that the peg comprises a plastic sleeve, which has at least two longitudinal slots extending from the free end of the sleeve over substantially the entire length of the sleeve.

The longitudinal slots define between themselves sleeve wall portions, each preferably having a longitudi- nal rib formed externally thereon and adapted to engage the building toy brick material surrounding said hole.

The peg is suitably formed with a bevelled portion at its free end.

An edge portion of the building element is prefer- ably formed with a recess, into which a fingernail can be inserted for easy removal of the building element.

The invention will now be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is front view of a building element according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a rear view of the building element.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the building element.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view and shows the building element applied to a building toy brick, the building element being shown in cross-section along line IV-IV in Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a front view of another building element.

Fig. 6 is a rear view of the building element in Fig. 5.

Fig.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view and shows the building element in Fig. 5 in cross-section along line VIII-VIII in Fig. 6.

Figs 1-4 illustrate an inventive building element 1 of injection-moulded plastic material included in a toy construction kit which also contains wooden toy 7 is a side view of the building element in 3 bricks 2, which have the form of orthogonal parallelepipeds and one of which is shown in Fig. 4. Each of the plane sides of the wooden toy bricks 2 can constitute a front surface 3 or part of a front surface of a construction, for instance a house, a castle or the like, which is built by means of the construction kit. The wooden toy brick 2 shown in Fig. 4 has a through centre hole 4 which extends between the side forming the front surface 3 and the opposite side extending perpendicular thereto.

The building element 1 has a substantially plateshaped part 5 having a plane back 6 and is formed as a window element which is to be attached to the wooden toy brick 2, the plane back 6 abutting against the front surface 3. A window 7 is painted on the front 8 of the plate-shaped part 5.

The plate-shaped part 5 has a peg 9 projecting perpendicularly from the back 6 and having the form of a sleeve, whose outer diameter is substantially the same as the diameter of the hole 4, the peg being adapted to be inserted into the hole 4. The peg 9 has a bevelled portion 10 at its free end. Three longitudinal slots 11 which are uniformly distributed along the circumference of the peg 9, extend from the free end of the peg 9 over the entire length of the peg.

The slots 11 define between themselves three sleeve wall portions 12 forming three tongues which are elastically yieldable in the transverse direction of the peg 9. Each tongue or sleeve wall portion 12 has a longitudinal rib formed externally thereon and adapted to engage the hole wall surrounding the hole 4. The peg 9 thus is insertable into the hole 4 with a sufficiently close fit to hold the building element 1 on the wooden toy brick 2 while playing, at the same time as the building element 1 can be removed therefrom in a simple manner. To facilitate removal, the plate-shaped part 5 of the building 4 element 1 has in its lower edge portion a recess 14, into which a fingernail can be inserted.

Figs 5-8 show a further building element 11 according to the invention made of injection-moulded plastic material, which is also included in the toy construction kit. This building element 11 differs from the building element 1 in Figs 1-4 only by being formed as a door element and thus having a door 7' painted on the front of the plate-shaped part 5. Therefore, the building element 1' according to Figs 5-8 will not be further described here.

As will be appreciated, the inventive building element can be formed as a facing element other than a window or door, for instance as a balcony, a flower-box or the like. The building element can also be made by injection moulding in two steps with two plastic materials of different colours, the "decorations" (window or door) painted on the above-described building elements 1 and 1' being possible to make by means of one of the two plastic materials, thereby eliminating the painting operation.

Claims

1. A building element included in a toy construction kit. which also includes building toy bricks (2) having a plane surface, which is adapted to form a front surface (3) or part of a front surface of a construction,. such as a house, a castle or the like, which is built by means of the construction kit, a hole (4) being formed in said plane surface, characterised in that the building element is designed as a, for instance, windowor door-shaped facing element, which is to be attached to the front surface (3) and, to this end, comprises a projecting peg (9) which is elastically yieldable in its transverse direction and is adapted to be inserted with a close fit into the hole (4) in a building toy brick (2), and that the peg (9) comprises a plastic sleeve, which has at least two longitudinal slots (11) extending from the free end of the sleeve over substantially the entire length of the sleeve.

2. The building element as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the longitudinal slots (11) define between themselves sleeve wall portions (12), each having a longitudinal rib (13) formed externally thereon and adapted to engage the building toy brick material surrounding said hole (4).

3. The building element as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterised inthat the peg (9) has a bevelled portion (10) at its free end.

4. The building element as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, characterised in that anedge portion of the building element is formed with a recess (14), into which a fingernail can be inserted for easy removal of the building element.