US20180161688A1

US20180161688A1 - Soft building block assembly

Info

Publication number: US20180161688A1
Application number: US15/376,676
Authority: US
Inventors: Wen Yao Chang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-12-13
Filing date: 2016-12-13
Publication date: 2018-06-14

Abstract

A soft building block assembly includes at least one soft building block element formed by soft material and having at least one buckling portion; by stacking of the soft building block element elements, various kinds of toys being formed; a Shore value of the material of the soft building block element is between 20 to 95. Material of the soft building block element is selected from one of PE(Thermal Plastic Elastomer), TPR(Thermal Plastic Rubber), TPU(Thermal PU, PU(Polyurethane) or thermal static material, such as silica rubber. the soft building block element has at least one of a buckling portion and a coupling portion, and the buckling portion of a soft building block element is buckled to the coupling portion of another soft building block element.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to building blocks, and in particular to a soft building block assembly for assembling toys.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Building blocks are popular and widely accepted by children through several hundred years, which can be assembled to form various kinds of toys. In 1960s, LEGO building block has been developed, which are formed mainly by a plurality of basic elements. Each basic element has buckles. By buckling these elements together, various different kinds of toys can be formed, while the conventional building blocks cannot be buckled together so that they are loose in structure and thus are easily be detached. Furthermore, conventional building blocks cannot form complicated structure, such as a standing robot.
However, conventional LEGO building blocks are formed by hard material which may be harmful to children. Furthermore, the feeling of the quality of the toy formed by LEGO building blocks is fixed.
Therefore, the inventor of the present invention is eager to design a new kind of building blocks which can improve the prior art defects.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a soft building block assembly, wherein the soft building block element of the assembly can be combined with conventional hard building blocks so that the toys so formed have soft corners and edges and thus the toys are safe. Furthermore, the toys formed from the present invention have different quality from those formed by the conventional hard building blocks, for example, qualities about light reflections and hues.
To achieve about object, the present invention provides a soft building block assembly comprising at least one soft building block element formed by soft material and having at least one buckling portion; by stacking of the soft building block element elements, various kinds of toys being formed; a Shore value of the material of the soft building block element is between 20 to 95. Material of the soft building block element is selected from one of PE(Thermal Plastic Elastomer), TPR(Thermal Plastic Rubber), TPU(Thermal PU, PU(Polyurethane) or thermal static material, such as silica rubber. the soft building block element has at least one of a buckling portion and a coupling portion, and the buckling portion of a soft building block element is buckled to the coupling portion of another soft building block element.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows one application of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment about the buckling portion and coupling portion of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a further embodiment about the buckling portion and coupling portion of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a yet embodiment about the buckling portion and coupling portion of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is another embodiment about the soft building block element of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows one use of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 shows another use of FIG. 8.

FIG. 11 shows a stacking of building blocks.

FIG. 12 shows that the soft building block element elements in FIG. 10 serves to fill the stacking structure in FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 shows the stacking of conventional building blocks.

FIG. 14 shows another embodiment of the soft building block element according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows the turning of the soft building block element according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 shows another embodiment about the soft building block element of the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows the turning operation of the soft building block element shown in FIG. 16.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order that those skilled in the art can further understand the present invention, a description will be provided in the following in details. However, these descriptions and the appended drawings are only used to cause those skilled in the art to understand the objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, but not to be used to confine the scope and spirit of the present invention defined in the appended claims.
At least one soft building block element 10 is formed by soft material and has at least one buckling portion. By stacking of the soft building block element elements 10, various kinds of toys are formed. The Shore value of the material of the soft building block element 10 is between 20 to 95, the material suitable may be selected from PE(Thermal Plastic Elastomer), TPR(Thermal Plastic Rubber), TPU(Thermal PU), PU(Polyurethane), or thermal static material, such as silica rubber, which does not deformed under 200 degree C.
The soft building block element 10 is integrally formed and is formed by the same material. Preferably, the size of the soft building block element 10 is smaller than 2 centimeters.
Thereby, toys formed by the soft building block element elements 10 are soft, collision-proof, and firm. The edge of the toys will not harm the users or cause the user feel ache. The toys are safe.
The soft building block element 10 has at least one buckling portion 20 and at least one coupling portion 30. The buckling portion 20 is engageable with the coupling portion 30 so as to combine two soft building block element elements 10 together.
With reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, the structure of the soft building block element 10 of the present invention is illustrated. The soft building block element 10 has a rectangular structure. A buckling portion 20 is at an upper surface of the soft building block element. The buckling portion 20 has a round shape (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The soft building block element 10 has a hollow inner space. A coupling portion 30 is formed at a wall of the inner space. The coupling portion 30 has a tube like structure for buckling the buckling portion 20. By the coupling of the buckling portions 20 and the coupling portions 30, a plurality of soft building block element elements 10 can be combined as a whole structure, such as a toy.
In the present invention, a soft building block element 10 may have plural buckling portions 20 and coupling portions 30, as illustrated in FIG. 1, in that four buckling portions 20 are illustrated.
In the present invention, the buckling portion 20 and the coupling portion 30 may be a concave and a convex portion, a sliding track and a buckling portion, hair like structures, etc.
With reference to FIG. 5, it is illustrated that the buckling portion 20 is a protrusion and the coupling portion 30 is a track which is suitable for the protrusion. Thereby, by this structure, one soft building block element 10 and another soft building block element 10 may be coupled at different position.
Referring to FIG. 6, another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, in that the structure of this embodiment is identical to those illustrated in above, while only the buckling portion 20 and the coupling portion 30 are formed from different surface of the soft building block element 10.
With reference to FIG. 7, another embodiment about the soft building block element 10 of the present invention is illustrated. In this embodiment, the buckling portion 20 and the coupling portion 30 are formed as hair like structure, as a Velcro so that two different soft building block element elements 10 can be assembled at any positions. Furthermore, operations of combining two soft building block element elements 10 are easy and quick by contacting the two at any positions.
FIG. 8 shows another embodiment about the soft building block element 10 of the present invention. In this the present invention, the buckling and coupling portions are neglected from the drawings, however readers can easily understand that the buckling and coupling portions are formed on the soft building block element. In this embodiment, the soft building block element 10 are formed by two main components 101, 102 and a plate-like connecting portions 103 serves to connect the two main portions 101, 102. The main portions and connecting portion are formed integrally. Since the soft building block element 10 is soft, by bending the soft building block element 10 and thus combined the two main portions by buckling and coupling portions, it can be formed with various different shapes.
An application of this embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 11, in that a triangular structure is desired, while the structure 200 shown in FIG. 11 is not provided by the soft building block element 10. However, by bending the soft building block element 10 illustrated in FIG. 10, we can get the building block 200 as desired so as to form the shape illustrated in FIG. 12. However, in conventional usage, the building blocks can only form the structure shown in FIG. 13, while the portions 200 shown in FIG. 12 are not filled in FIG. 13.
With reference to FIGS. 14, and 15, another embodiment of the soft building block element 10 of the present invention is illustrated, in that the buckling portion 20 and the coupling portion 30 are neglected. In this embodiment, the inner side and outer side of the soft building block element 10 are coated with different colors, textures, or lines so that as we turn the inner side of the soft building block element 10 to outer side, it is shown that the soft building block element 10 has different colors, textures, or lines. This is because the soft building block element 10 is soft so that it can be turned inside out.
With reference to FIGS. 16 and 17, another embodiment about the soft building block element 10 of the present invention is illustrated. At this embodiment, the buckling portion 20 and coupling portion 30 are neglected. In this embodiment, the inner side of the soft building block element 10 is formed with a shape not corresponding to that in the outer side of the soft building block element 10, so that when the soft building block element 10 is turned inner side out, the soft building block element 10 will present a very different shape. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 17, it is shown that a ball is formed in the inner side of the soft building block element 10.
In the present invention, the inner side of the soft building block element 10 is hollowed so that the whole structure uses less material.
In the present invention, the soft building block element 10 is elastic so that it can be form with some application which is soft, for example, it is assembled as a ball. Because the ball so formed is elastic and thus it can be beaten out.
Furthermore, in the present invention, the soft building block element 10 can be combined with conventional hard building blocks so that the toys so formed have soft corners and edges and thus the toys are safe. Furthermore, the toys formed from the present invention have different quality from those formed by the conventional hard building blocks, for example, qualities about light reflections and hues.
Advantages of the present invention are that the toys of the present invention are soft and thus are collision-proof and not easy to crack. Moreover, the edges or corners of the toys formed by the present invention are soft and not harmful to children. Furthermore, the soft building block element of the present invention can be turned inside out so as to present various outlooks, such as colors, textures and lines.
The present invention is thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A soft building block assembly, comprising:

at least one soft building block element formed by soft material and having at least one buckling portion; by stacking of the soft building block elements, various kinds of toys being formed; a Shore value of the material of the soft building block element is between 20 to 95;

wherein the thermal static material is silica rubber; and

wherein the soft building block element has at least one of a buckling portion and a coupling portion, and the buckling portion of a soft building block element is buckled to the coupling portion of another soft building block element.

2-4. (canceled)

5. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the soft building block element is formed integrally and is formed by one kind of material.

6. (canceled)

7. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the buckling portion and the coupling portion is selected from one of a concave and a convex portion, a sliding track and a buckling portion.

8. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the soft building block element is formed by two main portions which are connected by a thinner plate portion; the main portions and the thinner portion are formed integrally.

9. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein an inner side and an outer side of the soft building block element are coated with different colors.

10. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein an inner side and an outer side of the soft building block element are coated with different textures.

11. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein an inner side and an outer side of the soft building block element are coated with different lines.

12. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein an inner side of the soft building block element is formed with a shape not corresponding to that in the outer side of the soft building block element, so that when the soft building block element is turned inner side out, the soft building block element will present a different shape.

13. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein a size of the soft building block element is not larger than two centimeters.

14. The soft building block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the soft building block element is combined with a hard building block so that the toys so formed have soft corners and edges and thus the toys are safe.