US3564763A - Yo-yo doll - Google Patents

Abstract

A DOLL WHICH CAN EITHER WALK OR MOVE ONE OF ITS ARMS UP AND DOWN TO SIMULATE OPERATION OF A YO-YO OR PADDLE BALL. A MOTOR DRIVEN MECHANISM MOUNTED ON THE LEGS HAS AN OSCILLATING BAR WHICH CAN BE COUPLED TO SWAY THE TORSO SO AS TO CAUSE THE DOLL WALKING, AND CAN BE UNCOUPLED FROM THE TORSO TO PIVOTALLY OSCILLATE ONE OF THE DOLL''S ARMS SO THE ARM APPEARS TO OPERATE A YO-YO.

Description

Feb. 23, 1971 p, LEvELAND ET AL.

Yo-Yo DOLL Filed MayV 5, 1969 3 l sheets-sheet 1 l #fraz/vif lFebxzs, 1971 DRCLEVELAND ETAL 3,564,7'63

YO -YO DOLL Filed May 5. 1969 :a sheets-sheet 2 )so if f iff@ L i Il 'S 452 A,

'mmv l D. P. CLEVELAND ET AL Feb. 23, 1971 YO-YO DOLL 3 Sheets-Shet 5 Filed May 5. 1969 f Z V I M@ fw, Mm n a United States Patent O 3,564,763 YO-YO DOLL Dale P. Cleveland, Torrance, and Thomas R. Wilson,

Manhattan Beach, Calif., assignors to Mattel, Inc.,

Hawthorne, Calif., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 5, 1969, Ser. No. 821,767 Int. Cl. A63h 11/00 U.S. Cl. 46-120 7 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A doll which can either walk or move one of its arms up and down to simulate operation of a yo-yo or paddle ball. A motor driven mechanism mounted on the legs has an oscillating bar which can be coupled to the torso to sway the torso so as to cause the doll walking, and can be uncoupled from the torso to pivotally oscillate one of the dolls arms so the arm appears to operate a yo-yo.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to motor driven toys, and more particularly to a ligure toy which can walk and perform arm movements.

Description of the prior art One type of walking doll employs a frame pivotally mounted on the doll legs and carrying a motor that drives an oscillating bar. The oscillating bar is connected to the torso to sway it back and forth, which causes the doll to take steps and therefore perform a walking movement. This apparatus, which provides a very simple and economical walking doll, is described in patent application S.N. 513,380 filed Dec. 13, 1965 and hereby incorporated by reference. The doll could be made even more interesting if the other appendages (arms and head) could also be made to move in a lifelike manner or perform an interesting functional movement. However, the limited space available and the necessity for keeping the cost as low as possible generally prevents the inclusion of additional mechanisms for performing such movements. If a simple mechanism were available for coupling the oscillating bar of the walking mechanism to one of the appendages to move it in an entertaining manner, such additional doll movements could be incorporated without substantially increasing the price of the doll.

OBIECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One object of the present invention is to provide a doll which can walk and/or perform movements of its arms or head, and which is simple and economical.

Another object is to provide a simple mechanism for coupling an oscillating bar to a doll arm to pivot the arm up and down.

In accordance with the present invention, a simple Walking doll mechanism is provided which can also drive the arms or head of a doll in a lifelike manner. The driving mechanism includes a frame supported on the doll legs, and an oscillator bar pivotally mounted on the frame which can be coupled to the torso to sway it back and forth, and/or coupled to the head or arms to pivot them. In one embodiment of the invention, one of the doll arms is pivotally mounted for up and down movement, and has a hand adapted to hold a yo-yo-like member to simulate a child operating a yo-yo. The oscillating bar has an angled slot in it that engages a pin on the arm shaft. A manually operated lever can be moved to one position to couple the oscillator bar to the torso, so the torso sways and the doll walks. The operating lever also 3,564,763 Patented Feb. 23, 1971 ICC BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a doll constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the doll of FIG. 1 showing the torso section with the front cover removed;

FIG. 3 is a partial front view showing the oscillator bar of the mechanism shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the mechanism shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a rear View of the front torso housing;

FIG. 6 is a partial sectional side view of the doll of FIG. l;

FIG. 7 is a partial sectional rear view of the torso section of the doll of FIG. l;

FIG. 8 is a partial sectional front view of a doll constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the invention, wherein the dolls arms alternately swing back and forth; and

FIG. 9 is a partial perspective view of another embodiment of the invention, wherein the doll operates a paddle ball.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a doll with a torso 10, legs 12, 14 and arms 16, 18. The doll torso includes a driving mechanism which can sway the torso and head thereon from side to side to allow the legs to alternately raise above the ground. The legs are supported on the driving mechanism so that they pivot forward each time they are raised above the ground, to cause the doll to take a forward step and thereby walk. The arms are pivotally mounted on the torso, and one of the arms 16 has a support shaft which can be coupled to the torso driving mechanism so that it pivots the arm up and down in the direction of arrows at 20. The hand 22 is fashioned to hold one end of an elastic string 24 whose other end is joined to a disc 26 representing a yo-yo. As the dolls arm pivots up and down, the yo-yo disc bounces up and down between the hand and ground to simulate a child playing with a yo-yo. A switch on the rear of the doll can be operated to change the doll between an off state, a walk state wherein the doll walks but its arm 16 does not pivot, and a yo-yo state wherein the doll does not walk but its arm pivots up and down. The dolls hand 22 is formed so that, as shown in FIG. 9, it can hold a paddle 11 with a ball 13 coupled thereto by an elastic string 1S instead of the yo-yo, to simulate a child playing with a paddle ball.

As shown in detail in FIGS. 2-7, the driving mechanism 28 includes a frame 30' on which are mounted leg couplings 32 and 34 that are attached to the legs 12 and 14. An electric motor 36 powered by batteries in a battery case 38 drives a gear train including a gear 40 with an off center pin 42. An oscillator bar 44 has one end pivotally mounted at 46 on the frame and an opposite end portion 48 which is free to pivot about 46. A slot 50 in the oscillator ibar receives the olf center pin 42 to enable the pin to pivot the bar back and forth. An actuator member 52 is coupled to the torso housing to resist sideward movement, as will be described below, although it can move forward and backward in the direction of arrows 54. When the actuator member 52 is moved in the rearward direction toward oscillator bar 44, a rear lug 56 on the actuator member engages a slot `58 in the oscillator bar. This couples the oscillator bar 44 through the actuator member 52 to the torso so that both of them sway sidewardly together. Thus, when the lug 56 is engaged in slot 58, the oscillator bar 44 drives the torso from side to side, thereby causing the doll to walk.

The actuating member 52 can be moved in a forward direction, so that the lug 56 disengages from the slot 58 in the oscillator bar. This frees the bar to pivot from side to side relative to the torso, so that the torso does not sway and the doll does not walk. In order to assure full oscillating movement of the bar within the torso, the frame 30 of the driving mechanism should be fixed to the torso when the oscillator bar is not coupled to it. This is accomplished by a lower lug 60 on the actuator member, which engages a slot 62 formed in the frame to fix the frame against swaying sidewardly with respect to the torso. With the torso xed to the driving mechanism frame 30 so that the oscillating bar 44 pivots to a maximum eX- tent within the torso, the oscillations of the bar can be coupled to the arm 16 to pivot it up and down.

As shown in FIG. 4, the housing of the arm 16 is fixed to an armature 64 that is mounted on an arm shaft 66. A pair of bearings 68 and 70 on the doll torso pivotally support the arm shaft. A driving pin 72 is also xed to the arm shaft to receive driving forces from the oscillator bar 44 to pivot the arm up and down. The oscillator bar has an arm driving slot 74 at its upper end which is angled about 45 from the direction of movement of the outer end of the bar. The angle is chosen in accordance with the amount of arm movement desired. The driving pin 72 on the arm shaft is engaged with the arm driving slot 74. As the bar 44 pivots from side to side, the walls of the slot 74 move the pin 72 up and down, thereby causing oscillatory pivoting of the arm shaft 66 and the arm 16 mounted on it. Of course, the arm will not pivot unless the oscillator lbar 44 is moving from side to side relative to the torso. When this occurs, the oscillator bar generally is not moving the torso from side to side in a substantial amount and therefore the doll is not walking. Accordingly, in one mode of operation, when the oscillator bar pivots relative to the torso, all of the power from the motor 36 of the driving mechanism is used to pivot the arm 16 up and down to simulate operation of the yo-yo. On the other hand, when the oscillator bar 44 is fixed to the torso, by moving the actuator member 52 rearwardly into the bar, the bar does not move relative to the driving pin 72 and no up and down oscillation of the dolls arm occurs. In -this case, al1 of the power from the driving motor is used to sway the doll from side to side to cause it to walk.

The actuating member `52 is slideably mounted in a slider bearing 76, best shown in FIG. 5, that is mounted on the front portion 78 of the torso housing. The actuating member is mounted so that the lower lug 60 protrudes downwardly from the bearing, to enable it to engage the slot 62 of the driving member frame when the actuating member is in the forward position. Movement of the actuating member v52 forward and backward is accomplished by operation of a control lever 80, and is best accomplished when the motor is on. As shown in FIG. 2, the control lever 80` is pivotally mounted at 81 on the battery case 38, which is in turn mounted on the rear portion 82 of the torso housing. A pin 84 at the upper end of the actuating member is engaged in a slot 86 of the control lever. An operating end 88 of the control lever protrudes through a slot in the rear of the torso housing. When the operating end of the control lever is moved in the direction of arrow 90, the walls of slot 86 in the control lever pulls the pin 84 to the rear. This moves the actuator member 52 to the rear, causing the rear lug 56 to engage the oscillating bar 44 and thereby cause walking movements of the doll. When the operating end 88 of the lever is moved in a direction opposite to arrow 90, the actuating member is pushed forwardly so that lug 56 disengages lever 44, while bottom lug 60 er1- gages the slot 62 -in the driving mechanism frame. The 0scillating lever 44 is then free to pivot from side to side and drive the arm shaft pin 72 to pivot the arm 16 up and down. In order to better guide the activating member 52 in back and forth motion, a pair of guides 92 are formed near its upper end, that engage a guide slot 94 formed at the top of the battery case.

As shown in FIG. 7, the operating end 88 of the control lever can be moved between three lateral positions designated on the case. One of these is the off position wherein the electric motor is de-energized, another is the walk position wherein the oscillating bar is coupled to the torso to sway it from side to side for doll walking, and the third is the yo-yo position wherein the oscillator bar is free to pivot relative to the torso so the dolls arm pivots up and down. Control of motor energization is accomplished through a pair of electrical conductors 96 and 98 which are electrically connected in series with batteries within the battery case and with the driving motor. One of the conductors 96 is a resilient member which is biased toward an upward position wherein its end 100 is away from the end 102 of the other conductor. However, when the operating end 88 of the lever is moved from the off position to the walk position, it deects the conductor 96 downwardly so that its end 100 contacts the end 102 of the other conductor. When the operating end 88 0f the lever is moved even further to the yo-yo position, it continues to downwardly deflect the conductor 96 into electrical Contact with the other conductor. Thus, at any position to the right of the off position, the motor circuit is completed and the motor operates.

The oscillator bar can be used to perform doll movements other than merely moving one arm up and down. One other movement is to swing both arms back and forth, which can be accomplished by the mechanism illustrated in FIG. 8. The mechanism of this figure is identical With the apparatus described above, except that an additional end portion 104 is provided on the oscillator bar 44A, the end portion 104 being coupled through a pin 106 to a shaft 108 on which the other doll arm 18A is mounted. When the bar 44A pivots from side to side, both arms 16A and 18A pivot up and down, or back and forth depending upon the initial orientation of the arms. Other doll moving mechanisms can also be employed which can be driven by the oscillator bar when it is uncoupled from the torso. If it is desired to pivot the arms while the doll is walking or takes steps in place, a mechanism can be employed which couples the frame to the arms to move them, while the bar is xed to the torso to pivot it.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that modifications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art, and consequently, it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.

What is claimed is:

1. A doll comprising:

a torso;

a pair of legs;

driving means including frame means coupled to said legs, oscillator bar means mounted on said frame means, and means for moving said bar means relative to said frame means;

a doll arm;

means for coupling said oscillator bar means to said doll arm, to move said arm when said bar means moves relative to said torso; and

means for selectively coupling and uncoupling said bar means with said torso.

2. The doll described in claim 1 wherein:

said means for coupling and uncoupling said bar means with said torso includes means for uncoupling and coupling said frame with said torso when said bar means is coupled and uncoupled, respectively, with said torso.

3. The doll described in claim 1 wherein:

said means for coupling said bar means to said doll arm comprises shaft means pivotally mounted on said torso and coupled to said arm to pivot said arm when said shaft means pivots, and a pin mounted on said shaft means; and

said bar means includes walls dening a slot engaged with said pin and extending at an angle with the direction of movement of said bar means.

4. The doll described in claim 1 wherein:

said means for moving said bar means is constructed to move said bar means laterally toward either side of said torso;

said bar means includes walls deining an aperture;

and

said means for coupling and uncoupling said bar means with said torso comprises a member having lug means, said member slideably mounted to move substantially forward and backward with respect to the front and back of said torso to engage and disengage said lug means with said walls of said aperture.

5. In a walking doll with a torso, legs, arm and head appendages, which includes a mechanism mounted on the legs and having a member driven to sway the dolls torso from side to side, the improvement comprising:

means for coupling said member to a rst of said appendages to move it. 6. The improvement described in claim 5 wherein: said means for coupling comprises rst means for selectively coupling and uncoupling said member with said torso, and second means for coupling said member to said first appendage to move it when said member moves relative to said torso. 7. The improvement described in claim 6 wherein: said first appendage includes an arm, a shaft pivotally coupling said arm to said torso, and a pin on said shaft; and said second means comprises walls defining a slot in said member, which is engaged with said pin on said shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,171,125 2/1916 Jones 46-119X 3,452,473 7/ 1969 Convertine 46-119 3,462,875 8/1969 May 46-120 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner D. L. WEINHOLD, JR., Assistant Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 46-116 Disclaimer 3,564,763.-Dale P. UZeveZam, Torrance, and Thomas R. Wilson, Manhattan Beach, Calif. YO-YO DOLL. Patent dated Feb. 23, 1971. Disclaimer filed Apr. 30, 1971, by the assignee, Mattel, I nc. Hereby enters this disclaimer to claim 5 of said patent.

[Oficial Gazette August 17,1971]

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