US20180255924A1

US20180255924A1 - Toy brick and storage space combination assembly

Info

Publication number: US20180255924A1
Application number: US15/453,305
Authority: US
Inventors: Brian Semling
Original assignee: Brian Semling
Current assignee: Pike Brands LLC
Priority date: 2017-03-08
Filing date: 2017-03-08
Publication date: 2018-09-13

Abstract

A toy brick and storage space combination assembly includes a mounting brick that has a plurality of sides including a top side, a bottom side, a front side, rear side, a first lateral side, and a second lateral side. A plurality of male interconnection members is integrally coupled to the top side of the mounting brick and extending away therefrom. A female interconnection member extends into and is integral to the bottom side of the mounting brick. The male and female interconnection members releasably engage bricks from a building brick system and engage male and female interconnection members of other mounting bricks. The front side of the mounting brick is open to define an access to an interior of the mounting brick to facilitate the positioning of articles within the mounting brick. The access is the only opening into the interior.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not Applicable

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not Applicable

INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

Not Applicable

STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98

The disclosure and prior art relates to building brick devices and more particularly pertains to a new building brick device for holding small articles within a larger structure of toy building bricks.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a mounting brick that has a plurality of sides including a top side, a bottom side, a front side, rear side, a first lateral side, and a second lateral side. A plurality of male interconnection members is integrally coupled to the top side of the mounting brick and extending away therefrom. A female interconnection member extends into and is integral to the bottom side of the mounting brick. The male and female interconnection members releasably engage bricks from a building brick system and engage male and female interconnection members of other mounting bricks. The front side of the mounting brick is open to define an access to an interior of the mounting brick to facilitate the positioning of articles within the mounting brick. The access is the only opening into the interior.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top front perspective view of a toy brick and storage space combination assembly according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a bottom front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a broken front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 6 thereof, a new building brick device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described.
As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 6, the toy brick and storage space combination assembly 10 generally comprises a mounting brick 12 that has a plurality of sides including a top side 14, a bottom side 16, a front side 18, rear side 20, a first lateral side 22, and a second lateral side 24. The mounting brick 12 may come in any conventional size for use with toy building brick systems but typically the mounting brick 12 will have a height, length and width each being less than 3.5 inches. The mounting brick(s) 12 may also come in different sizes and shapes as can be seen be FIGS. 3 and 4. A plurality of male interconnection members 26 is integral to the top side 14 of the mounting brick 12 and extends away therefrom. A female interconnection member 28 extends into and is integral to the bottom side of the mounting brick 12.
The male 26 and female 28 interconnection members are configured to releasably engage bricks from a building brick system and to engage male 26 and female 28 interconnection members of other ones of the building brick assembly 10. Thus, while the assembly 10 may be used with bricks already commercially available, the assembly 10 may include a plurality of interconnectable mounting bricks 12.
Brick systems utilizing similar structures for frictionally coupling together toy bricks 30 are ubiquitous in the toy arts and are found in multiple references such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,282. These toy bricks 30 may be found, for instance, being sold under the names Lego and Duplo. Generally, the male interconnection member 26 includes one or more male protrusions that extend upwardly from an upper surface of the toy brick 30. The female interconnection member 28 includes one or more recesses for receiving the male interconnection member 26 that would be found on the toy bricks 30. The recesses may be formed in any conventional manner.
The front side 18 of the mounting brick 12 is open to define an access 32 to an interior 34 of the mounting brick 12. The access 32 may comprise the only opening into the interior 34. The access 32 extends from a top wall 36 to a bottom wall 38 of the mounting brick 12 and may extend from a first lateral wall 40 to a second lateral wall 42. The access 32 allows for any article, and in particular small toys, toy figurines and accessories therefore, to be stored or hidden within the assembly 10 as the child plays with the mounting brick 12.
A dividing wall 44 may be positioned in the interior 34. The dividing wall 44 may be used to divide the interior 34 into an upper receiving space 46 and a lower receiving space 48, wherein the upper receiving space 46 is positioned adjacent to the top wall 36. The dividing wall 44 may be fixed in position or be slidably mounted on a pair of guides 50 attached to the mounting brick 12 such that the dividing wall 44 is removable from the mounting brick. The guides 50 extend from the access 32 to a back wall 52 of the mounting brick 12. This allows a person to customize the interior depending on the size of the toy(s) to be positioned therein.
Also, a door 54 may be positioned on the mounting brick 12 and be positioned in a closed position closing the access 32 or an open position exposing the access 32 and the interior 34. The door 54 may be pivotally coupled to the mounting brick 12 in a conventional manner such as, for example, by pins, not shown, positioned on the door 54 which extend into the mounting brick 12 to pivotally hold the door 54 in place. The door 54 may frictionally engage an interior surface of the access 32 to retain the door 54 in the closed position and a grip 56 may be provided to facilitate moving of the door 54 from the closed position to the open position.
In use, the mounting brick 12 may be used as conventional building toy brick to create a layered structure of toy bricks or “bricks.” However, the mounting brick 12 of the assembly 10 allows a person using the mounting brick to store, hide, or display articles, such as accessories for figurines, small toys or small figurines, within the mounting brick. The mounting brick 12 may be comprised of any conventional material used for mounting bricks, however, while the mounting brick 12, dividing wall 44 and door 54 would each typically be opaque, each may also be comprised of a transparent plastic material to allow viewing of the article through the mounting brick 12 from all directions.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.

Claims

1. A building brick assembly configured to store small toy articles and to engage a brick system, said building brick assembly comprising:

a mounting brick having a plurality of sides including a top side, a bottom side, a front side, rear side, a first lateral side, and a second lateral side, said top and bottom sides being positioned opposite of each other, said first and second lateral sides being positioned opposite of each other, said front side and said rear side being positioned opposite of each other, said front, rear, first lateral and second lateral sides extending between each of said top and bottom sides, said top and bottom sides lying in planes being orientated parallel to each other and said planes being spaced from each other, each of said top, bottom, front, rear first lateral and second lateral sides each being positioned on an exterior surface of said mounting brick;

a plurality of male interconnection members being integrally coupled to said top side of said mounting brick and extending away therefrom;

a female interconnection member extending into and being integral to said bottom side of said mounting brick, each of said male and female interconnection members being positioned outside of an interior of said mounting brick;

said male and female interconnection members being configured to releasably engage bricks from a building brick system and to engage male and female interconnection members of other ones of said building brick assembly; and

said front side of said mounting brick being open to define an access to said interior of said mounting brick, said access being an only opening into said interior.

2. The building brick assembly according to claim 1, wherein said access extends from a top wall to a bottom wall of said mounting brick, said top wall including said top side, said bottom wall including said bottom side.

3. The building brick assembly according to claim 1, further including a dividing wall being positioned in said interior, said dividing wall lying in a plane orientated parallel to said planes of said top and bottom sides and being spaced from said planes of said top and bottom sides, said dividing wall abutting a back wall of said brick, said back wall including said rear side.

4. The building brick assembly according to claim 3, wherein said dividing wall divides said interior into an upper receiving space and a lower receiving space, said upper receiving space being positioned adjacent to a top wall of said mounting brick, said upper receiving space extending upwardly from said dividing wall to said top wall, said lower receiving space extending downwardly from said dividing wall to said bottom wall.

5. The building brick assembly according to claim 3, wherein said dividing wall is slidably mounted on a pair of guides attached to said mounting brick such that said dividing wall is removable from said mounting brick.

6. The building brick assembly according to claim 1, further including a door being positioned on mounting brick and being positioned in a closed position closing said access or an open position exposing said access and said interior.

7. The building brick assembly according to claim 6, said door being pivotally mounted to said mounting brick.

8. A building brick assembly configured to store small toy articles and to engage a brick system, said building brick assembly comprising:

said male and female interconnection members being configured to releasably engage bricks from a building brick system and to engage male and female interconnection members of other ones of said building brick assembly;

said front side of said mounting brick being open to define an access to an interior of said mounting brick, said access being an only opening into said interior, said access extending from a top wall to a bottom wall of said mounting brick;

a dividing wall being positioned in said interior, said dividing wall dividing said interior into an upper receiving space and a lower receiving space, said upper receiving space being positioned adjacent to said top wall, said dividing wall being slidably mounted on guides attached to said mounting brick such that said dividing wall is removable from said mounting brick, said dividing wall lying in a plane orientated parallel to said planes of said top and bottom sides and being spaced from said planes of said top and bottom sides, said dividing wall abutting a back wall of said brick, said back wall including said rear side, said upper receiving space extending upwardly from said dividing wall to said top wall, said lower receiving space extending downwardly from said dividing wall to said bottom wall; and

a door being positioned on mounting brick and being positioned in a closed position closing said access or an open position exposing said access and said interior, said door being pivotally coupled to said mounting brick.