US3664055A

US3664055A - Electrical doll accessory

Info

Publication number: US3664055A
Application number: US145682A
Authority: US
Inventors: Sidney Bass; Charles D Clarke; James E Morse
Original assignee: Mattel Inc
Current assignee: Mattel Inc
Priority date: 1971-05-21
Filing date: 1971-05-21
Publication date: 1972-05-23
Anticipated expiration: 1989-05-23

Abstract

A wall assembly which represents a wall of a home, the wall assembly having a natural-appearing electrical outlet that can supply current to energize toy accessories that have motors or lamps. The wall assembly includes a sheet that represents the wall of a home, and a battery box with a plug-receiving portion projecting through a hole in the wall to represent an electrical outlet. The battery box supports the wall in a substantially vertical orientation on a table or the like. A decorative paper label printed with a wallpaper pattern and with regions representing a picture and a mirror hung on the wall, is applied to the front wall surface to cover most of it, thereby permitting the same wall structure to be used for different rooms in the home by merely using a different label for each room. A makeup mirror accessory is provided which has an electric lamp that can be energized from the outlet, the mirror accessory constructed so it can be switched to represent day or evening type lighting by operating a lever that moves a red-colored hood over or away from the lamp.

Description

nited States Patent ass et al.

[ 51 May 23, 1972 [54] ELECTRICAL DOLL ACCESSORY [72] Inventors: Sidney Bass, Los Angeles; Charles D. Clarke, Redondo Beach; James E. Morse, Hawthorne, all of Calif.

[73] Assignee: Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif.

[22] Filed: May 21, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 145,682

Pn'mary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant ExamineF-Robert F. Cutting Attomey-Seymour A. Scholnick [57] ABSTRACT A wall assembly which represents a wall of a home, the wall assembly having a natural-appearing electrical outlet that can supply current to energize toy accessories that have motors or lamps. The wall assembly includes a sheet that represents the wall of a home, and a battery box with a plug-receiving portion projecting through a hole in the wall to represent an electrical outlet. The battery box supports the wall in a substantially vertical orientation on a table or the like. A decorative paper label printed with a wallpaper pattern and with regions representing a picture and a mirror hung on the wall, is applied to the front wall surface to cover most of it, thereby permitting the same wall structure to be used for different rooms in the home by merely using a different label for each room. A makeup mirror accessory is provided which has an electric lamp that can be energized from the outlet, the mirror accessory constructed so it can be switched to represent day or evening type lighting by operating a lever that moves a redcolored hood over or away from the lamp.

8 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented May 23, 1972 2 sheets-sheet 1 @HAQLES D. @LAQKE James E- M0056 I N VEN TORS Patented May 23, 1972 2 Sheets-Shoat DAVTIME filo/65V $95 @HQQLES Du @LHQK JAMES E, moese INVENTORS A EVENNC-a DAYTIME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to doll accessories.

2. Description of the Prior Art The enjoyment derived from playing with dolls can be enhanced by providing a realistic setting for the dolls, such as a wall decorated to represent the wall of a home. The play can be further enhanced by providing household accessories that operate in a realistic manner. The desirability of realism in the appearance and operation of the accessories is counterbalanced for the need for mass producing the accessories at a low cost. Thus, designs are desirable which provide a high degree of realism while permitting production of the accessories at low cost.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a doll wall which has a realistic appearance and which enables play with electrical doll accessories in a realistic manner.

Another object is to provide a doll wall with a working electrical outlet, which can be produced to represent any of a number of different walls in a home, with a minimal tooling cost for the different walls.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a doll wall assembly is provided which realistically represents a wall of a home that contains an electrical outlet, the accessory being constructed so that plugs of toy appliances can be inserted into the outlet to receive energizing currents. The wall assembly includes a rigid sheet-like member with an aperture in one lower corner, and a battery box fastened to the rear of the wall member and having a pair of two-prong receiving outlets projecting through the wall aperture. The battery box not only holds the batteries at a location behind the wall and connects them to the prongs of an inserted plug, but also serves to support the wall member in a substantially vertical orientation on a table. A label having markings representing decorations on a particular home wall, such as a bedroom wall, is adhesively fastened to the front of the wall member. The same wall member and battery box can be used for a variety of home walls, by merely printing different decorative labels to represent the different walls. A realistic mirror is provided by pasting a small sheet of reflective material directly on the wall member and then pasting an ordinary paper label on the wall member, the ordinary label having a hole representing the border of a mirror frame to permit part of the reflective sheet to be seen.

One doll appliance that can be utilized with the wall assembly is a makeup mirror. The makeup mirror contains a lamp and a red-colored hood that can be moved over the lamp to represent night-time lighting or moved away from the lamp to represent daylight lighting.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of a doll wall assembly constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the wall assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken on the line 4-4 ofFlG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5A is a view taken on the line 5A-5A of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a front view of a makeup mirror constructed in accordance with the invention, with a portion broken away to show the mechanism, and with the mirror in a night lighting configuration;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6, but with the mirror in a day lighting condition; and

FIG. 8 is a view taken on the line 88 of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a wall assembly 10 which includes a sheetlike wall member 12 and a battery box 14 extending from the rear of the wall member. The battery box has a pair of forwardly projecting

outlet pads

16, 18, each pad having a pair of slots 20 for receiving the prongs 22 of a plug 24, in the same manner as household plugs are inserted into household electrical outlets. A decorative label 26 is adhesively fastened to the front face of the wall member so that the wall member appears to represent the wall of a particular room in a home. The particular label 26 illustrated in the drawings includes a picture design 28, a repetitive wallpaper pattern design 30, and a mirror frame design 32 which represent decorations on a bedroom wall. The wall member also is provided with a slot 34 for receiving and holding a table 36. Electrical appliances such as a lighted makeup mirror 38 may be conveniently utilized with the wall assembly, as by placing it on the table, and the appliance can be energized by inserting the prongs of the plug 24 thereof into the slots 20 of the electrical outlet.

As also shown in FIGS. 2-5, the battery box includes a housing 40 for holding two batteries indicated at 42, 44, and three

electrical contact members

46, 48, and 50 for making electrical contact with the battery terminals. The

upper contact members

48, 50 are substantially mirror images of each other, and each is designed to contact a battery terminal and a prong of a plug. Contact member 50, for example, has a resilient arm 52 for contacting a battery terminal and two other

resilient arms

54, 56 for contacting the prongs of plugs. Each of the laterally extending

arms

54, 56 has a tip portion 58 bent to extend with a rearward directional component in line with one of the prong-receiving slots 20. As shown in FIG. 5, when the prongs 22 ofa plug are inserted through the slots 20, they engage and deflect the ear-like tips 58 of the

conductive members

48, 50 to establish a wiping electrical contact with them. The prongs 22 of the plug are therefore connected in series with the two

batteries

42, 44 in the battery box to provide current to the appliance that carries the plug 24.

The battery box 14 is fastened to the rear face of the wall member 12 by four rivet-like members or

eyelets

60, 62, 64, and 66. All of the eyelets project through holes in the forward wall of the battery box housing 40 and through the wall member 12. The

eyelets

60, 64, and 66 also extend through the

conductive members

48, 50 and 46, to hold these three conductive members in place.

The use of only three

conductive members

46, 48, and 50 to provide electrical connection with the battery terminals and the prongs of the plug, and the use of only four rivets 60-66 to hold the battery box in place on the wall member and to hold the conductive members in place on the battery housing, enables very low cost assembly of the apparatus. The use of the rivet-like eyelets could detrementally affect the appearance of the wall if they could be seen from the front of the wall assembly. However, during assembly of the toy, the decorative label 26 is applied only after the battery box has been fastened to the wall member, and the label 26 covers the four eyelets so that they do not show.

The battery box 14 not only serves to hold the batteries and to make electrical contact with the plug prongs, but also holds the wall member 12 in a substantially upright, or vertical orientation. It can be seen that the bottom surface of the battery box has a rearward portion 68 that lies at approximately the same level as the bottom surface 70 of the wall member 12. Accordingly, when the wall assembly is positioned on a flat horizontal surface such as a tabletop, the wall member 12 extends substantially vertically. Actually, the level 68 is slightly above the level at 70, so the wall has a slight backward tilt. However, so long as the difference in level between the surfaces at 68 and 70 is less than about 1/5th the distance between the front wall surface and the rear of the battery box, the deviation from the vertical is not noticeable. The weight of the battery box itself is sufficient to prevent toppling of the wall assembly, and even greater stability is present when the batteries are in place.

The electrical outlet apparatus is designed to closely resemble electrical outlets present in homes. To this effect, the wall member 12 has a slightly raised region 72 defining the outlet area, and the

outlet pads

16, 18 of the battery box project through holes 74 in this region. However, the front surfaces of the region 72 and of the

pads

16, 18 are only slightly forward of the major area of the wall, preferably raised less than onequarter inch forward of the surrounding wall area to closely simulate the only slight projection and therefore substantial flushness with the surrounding wall of typical home outlets.

Except for the label 26, the wall apparatus can be used to represent a wide variety of different walls in the home, including those which may be found in a master bedroom, kitchen, nursery, den, and so forth. In order to adapt the wall assembly to represent the different walls, it is only necessary to change the label 26. The label 26 may be printed on ordinary paper, so that highly decorative designs can be produced at minimal cost. The injection molded plastic parts which are used for the wall member 12 and the housing of the battery box 40, as well as the three

metal contact members

46, 48, and 50 in the battery box, are the same for all of these different walls. In most rooms, a table-like member is located against the wall. This may be the table 36 illustrated in FIG. 1, a sink and counter combination for a kitchen, or a variety of other devices. All such devices can be attached to the wall member by insertion through the slot 34. The slot 34 is generally formed by a core in the mold, and the slot can be eliminated or changed by removing the core. All of the labels are provided with an aperture at 76 where the raised outlet pad 72 is located, to prevent interference with it.

One especially interesting type of label arrangement, illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, and A includes a mirror region 78. Although it would be possible to apply a highly reflective sheet onto an ordinary paper label to provide a mirror effect, the edges of the reflective sheet would show and create an artificial appearance. To prevent this, the mirror region 78 is formed by a disc of reflective material such as aluminum foil which is applied directly to the front face of the wall member 12, The label 26 is formed with an aperture 80 which is smaller than the reflective sheet 78, and the label region surrounding the aperture 80 is printed to represent the mirror frame. The edges of the reflective sheet 78 are therefore concealed. The edges of the label 26 around the mirror aperture 80 can be seen, but they provide the appearance of a mirror set in a frame and lying slightly behind the front surface of the frame, which creates a natural appearance.

The wall assembly can be utilized as the sole background for play with a doll and appliances, or may be utilized as part of a partial or complete doll house arrangement. Ribs 82 are provided near the edges of the wall member 12 to receive the edge of another similar wall member. If two of such wall assemblies are thus joined, a corner ofa room is provided, while additional of such assemblies can be utilized to create an entire room.

A wide variety of electrically energizable doll accessories can be utilized with the outletcontaining wall assembly, including those containing motors or lights. One type of accessory is the lighted makeup mirror 38 which is illustrated in greater detail in FIGS. 6-8. The makeup mirror includes a housing 90, transparent front wall 92, and a rectangular reflective sheet 94 representing a mirror on the front wall. The reflective sheet 94 is narrower than the front wall 92, so that it leaves two

transparent border portions

96, 98 on either side of the mirror. An electric lamp 100 is located behind the mirror sheet 94, and it can be energized by current received through a two-wire cord 102 that is connected to the plug 24.

When the lamp 100 is energized, the

border portions

96, 98 of the front wall are illuminated. The

border portions

96, 98 have bumps 104 formed in them which simulate rows of lamps that might be found in actual expensive makeup mirrors. In many actual makeup mirrors, both white and colored lamps are employed to enable a choice of either white lighting that represents daylight or another color of lighting to represent incandescent lighting, so that a woman can determine how the makeup will appear in the particular lighting in which she will be seen. To simulate this effect, a color selector member 106 is provided which is pivotally mounted on a post 108 of the housing 90. The selector member 106 is constructed of substantially transparent red-colored plastic, and has a hood portion 110 that can lie over the lamp 100.

When the selector member 106 is in the position shown in FIG. 6, the hood portion 110 covers the lamp 100, so that primarily red light illuminates the

border portions

96, 98 of the front wall 92. When a child pushes down on a handle portion 112 of the selector member that protrudes from one side of the housing, the child moves the selector member to the position shown at 106A in FIG. 7. At this position, the primarily white light of the uncovered lamp illuminates the

border regions

96, 98.

When the selector member 106 is in the position shown in FIG. 6, a distinctly red color is imparted to the

border regions

96, 98. Although this red color would not normally be utilized in a real makeup mirror, it does provide a highly distinctive coloration, and enables the coloration to be easily seen when the doll accessory is played with in a lighted room where a slight change in coloration might not be noticeable. It may be noted that the lower portion of the housing has markings at 114 indicating the direction in which the handle 112 should be moved to create evening or daylight lighting conditions. The makeup mirror accessory can be constructed at low cost, and it provides a distinctive light color change that creates an entertaining simulation of real makeup mirrors.

Thus, the invention provides a doll wall assembly with electrical outlet, which is useful for the realistic reception and energization of doll accessories, and a novel and entertaining makeup mirror accessory. The wall assembly can be constructed at relatively low cost, and can be adapted to represent a variety of walls in a home with a minimum of tooling costs, by merely changing a paper label.

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 accessory comprising:

wall means defining a substantially flat forward surface that has a pair of prong-receiving slots near the bottom thereof, and a box portion extending behind said slots for holding at least one battery, the region of said forward surface containing said slots being substantially flush with the rest of said forward surface; and

a pair of electrical contacts having first portions for contacting plug prongs inserted through said slots and second portions for electrical coupling to at least one battery in said box.

2. The doll accessory described in claim 1 including:

a decorative label adhesively secured to said forward surface of said wall means and printed with markings representing the interior of a home wall, said label having an aperture surrounding said slots.

3. The doll accessory described in claim 1 including:

a mirror label of highly reflective material disposed facewise against said flat forward surface ofsaid wall means; and

a decorative label bearing markings representing the interior of a home wall and disposed against said forward surface of said wall means over said mirror label, said decorative label having a mirror aperture smaller than said mirror label and aligned with it to permit said mirror to be seen.

4. A doll accessory wall comprising:

a substantially rigid sheet-like wall member with front and rear faces and with an electrical outlet aperture extending therethrough;

A battery box fastened to said wall member and extending behind said rear face thereof, said battery box having a plurality of prong-receiving slots located at said outlet aperture in said wall member and a plurality of electrical contact members adjacent to said slots for making electrical contact with plug prongs that are inserted through said outlet aperture and into said prong-receiving slots; and

a label having markings representing decorations on a home wall, and having a label aperture at a location corresponding to the location of a home electrical outlet in a home wall, said label joined to said front face of said wall member with the edges of said label aperture disposed about said outlet aperture in said wall member.

The doll accessory wall described in claim 4 wherein:

said battery box has a lower portion lying a predetermined 7. A doll accessory comprising:

a substantially sheet-like wall member with forward and rearward faces and with at least one aperture; and

a battery housing with a forward surface fastened facewise to the rearward face of said wall member, said battery housing having a plurality of slots for receiving plug prongs inserted through said aperture in said wall member;

said battery housing having a lower portion spaced behind said rearward face of said wall member and lying at a level approximately even with the bottom of said wall member to support said sheetlike wall member substantially vertically on a horizontal surface.

8. The doll accessory described in claim 7 including:

a pair of contact members constructed of electrically conductive resilient material mounted within said housing. each contact member having a first portion for contacting one terminal of a battery and a second ear-like portion opposite one of said slots for deflection by a plug prong to establish a wiping electrical contact with it when the prong is inserted through the slot.

Claims

1. A doll accessory comprising: wall means defining a substantially flat forward surface that has a pair of prong-receiving slots near the bottom thereof, and a box portion extending behind said slots for holding at least one battery, the region of said forward surface containing said slots being substantially flush with the rest of said forward surface; and a pair of electrical contacts having first portions for contacting plug prongs inserted through said slots and second portions for electrical coupling to at least one battery in said box.

2. The doll accessory described in claim 1 including: a decorative label adhesively secured to said forward surface of said wall means and printed with markings representing the interior of a home wall, said label having an aperture surrounding said slots.

3. The doll accessory described in claim 1 including: a mirror label of highly reflective material disposed facewise against said flat forward surface of said wall means; and a decorative label bearing markings representing the interior of a home wall and disposed against said forward surface of said wall means over said mirror label, said decorative label having a mirror aperture smaller than said mirror label and aligned with it to permit said mirror to be seen.

4. A doll accessory wall comprising: a substantially rigid sheet-like wall member with front and rear faces and with an electrical outlet aperture extending therethrough; A battery box fastened to said wall member and extending behind said rear face thereof, said battery box having a plurality of prong-receiving slots located at said outlet aperture in said wall member and a plurality of electrical contact members adjacent to said slots for making electrical contact with plug prongs that are inserted through said outlet aperture and into said prong-receiving slots; and a label having markings representing decorations on a home wall, and having a label aperture at a location corresponding to the location of a home electrical outlet in a home wall, said label joined to said front face of said wall member with the edges of said label aperture disposed about said outlet aperture in said wall member.

5. The doll accessory wall described in claim 4 wherein: said battery box has a lower portion lying a predetermined distance behind said wall member and at approximately the same level as the bottom of said wall member, to support said wall member in approximately a vertical orientation on a flat horizontal surface.

6. The doll accessory wall described in claim 4 including: a plurality of rivet means extending through said wall member and a wall of said battery box to hold them together, said label covering the portions of said rivet means lying on the front surface of said wall member.

7. A doll accessory comprising: a substantially sheet-like wall member with forward and rearward faces and with at least one aperture; and a battery housing with a forward surface fastened facewise to the rearward face of said wall member, said battery housing having a plurality of slots for receiving plug prongs inserted through said aperture in sAid wall member; said battery housing having a lower portion spaced behind said rearward face of said wall member and lying at a level approximately even with the bottom of said wall member to support said sheetlike wall member substantially vertically on a horizontal surface.

8. The doll accessory described in claim 7 including: a pair of contact members constructed of electrically conductive resilient material mounted within said housing, each contact member having a first portion for contacting one terminal of a battery and a second ear-like portion opposite one of said slots for deflection by a plug prong to establish a wiping electrical contact with it when the prong is inserted through the slot.