WO2006127662A2

WO2006127662A2 - Toy in book form

Info

Publication number: WO2006127662A2
Application number: PCT/US2006/019841
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dana Murray; Frederick Murray
Original assignee: Dana Murray; Frederick Murray
Priority date: 2005-05-26
Filing date: 2006-05-23
Publication date: 2006-11-30
Also published as: WO2006127662A3

Abstract

A toy in book form includes covers and pages, with an illustration of a skeleton releasably supported on a page, and with stickers of illustrations of bodies, heads, hairdos, facial features and articles of clothing supported on pages of the book and applicable to the illustration of a skeleton to form humanlike representations of various human races and cultures.

Description

TOY IN BOOK FORM

BACKGROUND OF THE INNVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

[00001] The present invention relates to a toy in book form, and more particularly, to a toy in book form having elements of a skeleton, at least one body, at least one head, at least one hairdo, ears, facial features and clothing, which can be assembled into a simulated figure of a human.

2. Description of Related Art

[00002] Toys of figures and objects which can be assembled from a plurality of elements residing in or placeable in a book are known, for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1 ,535,925 to Lee entitled "Figure Toy"; U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,962 to Klein entitled "Toy Book"; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,189 to Holt entitled "Duplicate Books or Kits for Assembling Game". While these toys are somewhat useful for amusing, educating and training children and adults, they fail to address the reality of the diversity in humanity, and variations of style and dress of diverse cultures.

[00003] Thus, there is a need for a toy which is capable of teaching to children and adults an appreciation of the diversity of humankind, particularly regarding the variation in skin color and features of people and their styles of dress. [00004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy in book form which includes a representation of a skeleton, and to which an illustration of a body and a representation of a head of a selected color can be added to cover the representation of a skeleton.

[00005] It is another object of the invention to provide a plurality of facial features and hair styles which are adapted to be selectively applied to a representation of a head in connection with an illustration of a body applied to a representation of a skeleton.

[00006] It is still another object of this invention to provide representations of articles of clothing which can be selectively applied to a representation of a body applied to a representation of a skeleton.

[00007] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description:

[00008] In accordance with the present invention, a toy in book form is provided having at least one page having at least one illustration of a skeleton which is separable from the page, at least one sticker illustrating a headless body releasably supported on a page of the toy, and the toy in book form further providing stickers of at least one illustration of a head, at least one hairdo, and at least one sticker selected from a group illustrating eyes, eyebrows, lips, noses and clothing. It is understood that "page" herein may refer to a page of a book or the cover of a book, particularly the inside of the front or back cover of a book. Furthermore, "separable" in connection with the illustration of the skeleton is perforations, such that the illustration can be separated from the page of which it is a part or on which it is supported by tearing or otherwise separating the illustration therefrom at the perforations outlining the illustration. The toy further may include more than one illustration of a skeleton, each of which is separable from the page or pages of the toy which it is a part or on which it is supported. Also, the toy may include a real life or conventional illustration of a heart in the chest cavity of skeleton illustration.

[00009] As noted above, the toy includes at least one sticker illustrating a headless body releasably supported on a page of the toy, which sticker can be applied to the illustration of a skeleton. The illustration of the headless body includes a torso, limbs and at least a portion of a neck. The sticker illustrating a headless body can be supported on the same page as the skeleton or on another page of the toy. The illustration of the headless body is desirably colored to generally approximate one of the several races and/or cultures of humankind. Preferably, the toy includes a plurality of stickers, each illustrating a headless body of a color different from the color of other stickers illustrating headless bodies. The sticker illustrating a headless body, as well as a plurality of such stickers, and the other stickers described herein can be applied to and at least temporarily adhered to a substrate, which initially may be the page of the toy, or an illustration of a skeleton or another sticker by means of a suitable adhesive as known in the art of stickers, for example stickers of clothing for two-dimensional dolls or book of dolls. By having the stickers temporarily adherable to a desired.

[00010] The toy of the present invention further includes at least one sticker illustrating a head which can be applied to at least an edge of a sticker illustrating a headless body. The sticker with the illustration of the head preferably includes ears and at least a portion of a neck. It is also preferred that the color of the head in the illustration on the sticker match the color of the illustration of the body with the body sticker and the proportions of the head and neck portion illustrated on the sticker are in proportion with the illustration of the body on the body sticker, such that placement of the neck portion of the sticker illustrating the head onto the neck portion of the body sticker provides an esthetically pleasing appearance to the user of the toy, and is generally recognizable as of one race or culture of humankind.

[00011] In accordance with the invention, it is preferred that the toy include a plurality of stickers illustrating heads, each of which is of a color matching the color of at least one of the plurality of stickers representing a body. The plurality of stickers representing heads can be releasably supported on the same page of the toy as the body sticker of corresponding color, or can be releasably supported on another or other pages of the toy. It is further contemplated that the plurality of stickers illustrating heads can represent heads of different shapes, as are encountered among humankind.

[00012] The toy of the present invention further includes at least one sticker illustrating a hairdo configuration or style and hair color or coloration illustration of a head of the toy, particularly to the top of the head illustrated on the head sticker, and may cover part of the top of the head illustration. It is preferable that the toy include a plurality of hairdo configurations with different colors or colorations, e.g., hair with streaks of a different color than the main body of hair, or salt and pepper, or other variations normally encountered among humans.

[00013] The toy of this invention also includes at least one sticker selected from the group illustrating a plurality of different eyeglasses, pairs of eyes, a plurality of different pairs of eyebrows, a plurality of different pairs of lips, a plurality of different noses and combinations thereof. The at least one other sticker described above is releasable from the page initially supporting the sticker, and can be and is intended to be applied to a sticker illustrating a head. Preferably, the toy in book form of this invention includes pluralities of stickers of each of these items, namely, stickers illustrating different eyeglasses, different pairs of eyes, different pairs of eyebrows, different pairs of lips and different noses. It is most preferable that at least some of the stickers described in this paragraph are matched to a sticker illustrating a body, a sticker illustrating a head matching at least by color the sticker illustrating a body of that color, and a sticker of a hairdo configuration and color representing a generally recognized race and culture of a group of humans.

[00014] As noted above, the present invention further includes at least one sticker illustrating an article of clothing which is removable from the page of illustrating a body. The sticker can be an illustration of a complete article of clothing, such as a dress or suit, or suit, shirt and tie, which can be applied to the sticker illustrating the body, or can be a less than complete article of clothing, such as a shirt, or trousers, jacket, scarf, etc. It is preferred that the toy in book form provide a plurality of stickers of different articles of clothing which are releasable from the page or pages of the toy supporting the stickers and can be applied to the sticker illustrating a body or can be applied to a sticker illustrating another article of clothing which has previously been applied to a sticker illustrating the body.

[00015] The toy in book form of the present invention may include a sticker of a life-like or a conventionalized representation of a heart which is releasable from a page of the toy and which can be applied to a sticker illustrating a body or an article of clothing. "A conventionalized representation of a heart" is a representation of a heart having a conventional shape with rounded sides meeting in a point at the bottom and curving inward to a cusp at the top.

[00016] The toy in book form of the present invention optionally can include at least one page, which can be an interior page or the inside or outside of a cover, having a pocket for storing at least one of the plurality of elements of the toy. The pocket can be open along one of its marginal edges, for example the top marginal edge, or can be cioseabie by a fastener, such as a snap fastener with portions on each of a flap of the pocket and the body of the pocket. It is understood that the pocket is of sufficient size for storage of illustration of the without the sticker illustrating a body and with or without a sticker illustrating a head applied to the latter, and with or without other stickers of this invention applied to the stickers illustrating a body and a head.

[00017] The toy in accordance with the present invention can include tweezers for assisting in the handling of small stickers, such as those noted above. It is preferred that one page of the toy, and most preferably, the inside of the front or back cover, include a depression or other means to removably support the tweezers, for example of plastic for this purpose. Desirably, the storage pocket and the tweezers can be supported on the same page or cover.

[00018] In this manner, a toy in book form is provided which permits the assembly, disassembly and reassembly of representations of humans of diverse races and colors, and variations thereof of selected gender, age and hairdos and dress, presenting the user with an appreciation of such variations in humankind. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[00019] Fig. 1 is an isometric view of the toy in book form of the present invention;

[00020] Fig. 2 is a partially fragmentary plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having an illustration of a skeleton separable from the page;

[00021] Fig. 3 is a plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having stickers of headless bodies and heads reieasably supported on the page; Fig. 1 having stickers of headless bodies and ears of a color different from the

stickers shown in Fig. 2 releasably supported on the page;

[00023] Fig. 5 is a plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having stickers of hairdos releasably supported on the page;

[00024] Fig. 6 is a plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having stickers of eyes, eyeglasses, eyebrows, lips, noses and facial coloring, namely freckles, releasably supported on the page;

[00025] Fig. 7 is a plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having stickers of articles of clothing, releasably supported on the page;

[00026] Fig. 8 is a perspective view showing the back cover of the toy having a pocket and storage of tweezers; and

[00027] Fig. 9 is a plan view of a page of the toy of Fig. 1 having stickers of a life-like and a conventional representation of a heart, lined for the color red.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [00028] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawing, a toy in book form 10 of this invention is provided having a front cover 12 and a back cover 14. Front cover 12 may have indicia (not shown) on its outside informing the user of the nature of the toy 10 and/or a trademark or tradename or other indicia. Cover 12 may also have indicia (not shown) on its inside, for example, explaining how the toy can be used. front cover 12 and back cover 14. One page of pages 16, page 16A as shown in Fig. 2, includes an illustration 18 of a skeleton which is separable from page 16A by a series of perforations represented by line 20 outlining illustration 18. The illustration 18 of a skeleton optionally may include a representation 18A of a heart, for example, a representation of a life-like heart in red, as shown in Fig. 2, positioned within the chest cavity of illustration 18. It is intended that use of toy 10 may begin with the user separating skeleton illustration 18 from page 16A by tearing the illustration 18 from the page along the line 20 of perforations. Alternatively, skeleton illustration 18 may be utilized without separating it from the page, and the toy assembled on page 16A.

[00030] Toy 10 further includes another page 16B, as illustrated in Fig. 3, supporting a first sticker 22 of an illustration of a body without a head, and a second sticker 24 of an illustration of a body of a different shape, and both illustrations of a color representing the color of one of the races and/or cultures of humankind. Page 16B also includes a plurality of stickers 26 of illustrations of heads 28 including illustrations of ears 30, having a color matching the color in the illustrations in stickers 22, 24. The illustrations of a body in each of stickers 22 and 24 includes in the illustration shortened neck portions 32. The stickers 26 illustrating heads include more fully developed neck portions 34.

[00031 j Toy 10 further inciudes at ieast one additional page 16C, as shown in Fig. 4, releasably supporting stickers 36, 38 illustrating bodies of different shapes, as in the illustrations in stickers 22, 24, but of a different color the same color as the illustrations in stickers 36, 38, as shown, but alternatively, page 16C may be of another color, for example, the color of the other pages 16. Page 16C also includes a plurality of stickers 40 of illustrations of heads 42 having ears 44, which heads and ears are of different shapes from each other, but all of the color of the illustrations of stickers 36, 38. As in the case of the illustrations of bodies in stickers 22, 24, the illustrations of bodies in stickers 36, 38 have shortened neck portions 46. Similarly, the illustrations of heads in stickers 40 include more fully developed neck portions 48.

[00032] In the preferred manner of use of the toy in this preferred embodiment, the user is instructed by the instructions (not shown) to release one of the stickers 22, 24, 36, 40 illustrating a body from pages 16B and 16C, and placing that sticker onto the illustration 18 to cover the skeleton illustrated therein, except for the head of the skeleton illustration. The user then selects one of the illustrations of heads on stickers 26 or 40, preferably corresponding to the matching body sticker 22, 24, 36, 40 and releases that selected sticker from the page and places that sticker illustrating a head onto the illustration 18 of the skeleton aligning the neck portion 32 of the selected body sticker 22, 24, 36, 38 to cover the skull and neck portion of illustration 18.

[00033] The toy 10, includes another page 16D of the plurality of pages 16, illustrated in Fig. 5, releasabiy supporting a plurality of stickers 50 of differing hairdo configurations or styles, and colors representing different genders and cultures. In the use of this embodiment, the user is instructed to select and sticker 26, 40 which had been placed on the skeleton illustration 18. It is contemplated that the sticker 50 will cover the top and top portion of the selected head sticker to which it is applied.

[00034] Toy 10, further includes another page 16E of the plurality of pages 16, illustrated in Fig. 6, releasably supporting a plurality of stickers 52-62 of illustrations of eyeglasses, pairs of eyes, pairs of eyebrows, lips, noses and of freckles, respectively, hereinafter referred to as eyeglasses stickers 52, eyes stickers 54, eyebrow stickers 56, lips stickers 58, nose stickers 60 and freckles stickers 62. It is preferred that nose stickers 60 include a plurality of differing shapes and colors to match the colors of head stickers 26, 40.

[00035] In using the toy 10 of this embodiment, the user is instructed to select one of the pairs of eyes stickers 54, remove the selected stickers from page 16E, and apply the selected stickers to the selected head sticker 26, 40 in a position where eyes are commonly found on the human face. If desired, one of the eyeglasses stickers 52 can be applied to the selected eyes stickers 54 or in lieu of eyes stickers 54 directly to the selected head sticker 26, 40. One of the pairs of eyebrow stickers 56 can be selected and removed from page 16E, and applied to the selected head sticker 26, 40 above the selected and applied eyes stickers 54 and/or eyeglasses stickers 52. One of the lips stickers 58 can be selected and removed from page 16E and applied to the selected head sticker 26, 40 in a position commonly found for lips on the human face. Similarly, one of the nose stickers 60 can be selected, removed from page 16E, and applied to the face.

[00036] Optionally, a pair of freckle stickers 62 can be selected, removed from page 16E, and applied to the selected head sticker 26, 40 on the side portions thereof representing cheeks of a face as found on a human face. The use of freckle stickers 62 should be considered optional as not all humans have freckles, and it is contemplated that toy 10, when assembled, represent an illustration of a human as closely as possible.

[00037] Toy 10 also includes another page 16F, as illustrated in Fig. 7, containing stickers of articles of clothing, in this embodiment, a sticker 64 representing pants, shirt, jacket and belt combination, a sticker 66 representing a tank top, and sticker 68 representing a pair of pants. Additional stickers (not shown) illustrating articles of clothing, such as suit and tie, dresses, swimwear, caftans, robes and other articles, as well as footwear, can be supported on page 16F or other pages of the plurality of pages 16, but are omitted here for the sake of brevity. Stickers 64, 66, 68 , and the additional stickers mentioned above can be selected and removed from the supporting page or pages individually or in various combinations and applied to the selected body sticker 36, 38, as desired by the user of the toy.

[00038] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in Fig. 8, toy 10 includes a pocket 70 which can be a cut polymeric sheet secured to one of the pages 16 of the toy, preferably to a cover of the toy, e.g., back cover 14, as shown. Pocket 70 has an open top into which an assembled figure of a skeleton the stickers can be stored.

[00039] Toy 10 also preferably includes tweezers 72 for handling the stickers, particularly small stickers such as stickers 52, 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62. Tweezers 72 can be supported in a depression 74 in back cover 14 as illustrated in Fig. 8. The user of toy 10 may remove tweezers 72 from depression 74 as desired, and return the tweezers to depress 74 for storage. A cover (not shown), can be provided over depression 74 to enclose tweezers 72 therein, and securable, for example by providing a hook and pile fastener (VELCRO®, registered trademark of Velcro Industries B.V., Curacao, Netherlands).

[00040] As shown in Fig. 9, toy 10 may also include at least one sticker of a representation of a heart either a life-like heart or a conventionalized representation of a heart. Preferably, a page of the toy, for example 16G, releasably supports a sticker 76 of a representation of a life-like heart and a sticker 78 of a representation of a conventionalized heart, as shown in Fig. 9. Either sticker 76 or 78 can be applied to illustration 18 of a skeleton or on another sticker applied thereto, such as body sticker 22, 24, 36, 38 or to a sticker applied thereon, such as sticker 64, 66.

[00041] As noted above, the present invention provides a toy in book form which provides elements which can be assembled into a two dimensional representation of a human to represent one of a number of diverse racial and cultural representations. invention, with several optional embodiments, has been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the invention in its broader aspects and as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A toy in book form having a plurality of elements capable of being assembled, comprising: a. at least one page of the toy having at least one illustration of a skeleton which is separable therefrom; b. at least one sticker illustrating a headless body releasably supported by a page of the toy which can be applied to said illustration of a skeleton; c. at least one sticker illustrating a head which can be applied to at least an edge of said sticker of a headless body; d. at least one sticker illustrating a hairdo configuration and color which can be applied to said sticker of a head; e. at least one sticker selected from the group illustrating a plurality of eyeglasses, a plurality of different pairs of eyes, a plurality of different pairs of eyebrows, a plurality of different pairs of lips, a plurality of different noses, and combinations thereof, which can be applied to said sticker illustrating a head; and f. at least one sticker illustrating an article of clothing which can be applied to said sticker of a headless body.

2. The toy in book form of claim 1 , wherein the illustration of a skeleton includes a representation of a heart positioned in the skeleton. }3,, Ti;lij€i!iti)y,inibθδ)teft3rrø of claim 1 , including a sticker illustrating a representation of a heart which can be applied to said sticker of a headless body or a sticker illustrating an article of clothing.

4. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of pages each releaseably supporting at least one sticker illustrating a headless body of a color different from the color of stickers illustrating headless bodies supported by other pages of the toy.

5. The toy in book form of claim 4, having a plurality of stickers illustrating heads each of which is of a color matching the color of at least one of the stickers illustrating a headless body.

6. The toy in book form of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of stickers illustrating heads are releaseably supported on the at least one other page of the toy which releaseably supports the at least one sticker illustrating a headless body of matching color.

7. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers illustrating different hairdo configurations and color which can be applied to said sticker illustrating a head.

8. The toy in book form of claim 7, having a plurality of stickers illustrating heads each of which is of a color matching the color of at least one of the stickers illustrating a headless body, and wherein each of the plurality of stickers illustrating different hairdo configurations and color can be applied to the individual stickers illustrating the plurality of stickers of heads.

9., • Ihe tov in,book focm-of claim 8, wherein the plurality of stickers of hairdo configurations are reieaseaoiy supported on at least one other page of the

toy.

10. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyes which can be applied to said at least one sticker illustrating a head.

11. The toy in book form of claim 10, wherein the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyes are releaseably supported on at least one other page of the toy.

12. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyebrows which can be applied to said at least one sticker illustrating a head.

13. The toy in book form of claim 12, wherein the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyebrows are releaseably supported on the at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyes.

14. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of lips which can be applied to said at least one sticker illustrating a head.

15. The toy in book form of claim 14, wherein the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of lips are releaseably supported on the at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyes. ilϋlffilϊpyiπlMMlεΦriπ of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers illustrating different noses which can be applied to said at least one sticker illustrating a head.

17. The toy in book form of claim 16, wherein the plurality of stickers illustrating different noses are releaseably supported on the at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyes.

18. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a plurality of stickers of different articles of clothing which can be applied to said at least one sticker illustrating a headless body.

19. The toy in book form of claim 18, wherein the plurality of stickers of different articles of clothing are releaseably supported on at least one other page of the toy.

20. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having at least one page having a pocket adapted for storing at least one of the plurality of elements of the toy.

21. The toy in book form of claim 20, wherein the at least one page having a pocket for storing at least one of the plurality of elements of the toy has a fastener adapted for closing the said pocket.

22. The toy in book form of claim 1 , having a pocket for storage including a page thereof.

23. The toy in book form of claim 1 , wherein tweezers are provided by the toy.

a plurality of elements capable of being

assembled, comprising: a. at least one page of the toy having at least one illustration of a skeleton which is separable therefrom; b. at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting at least one sticker illustrating a headless body of a first color which can be applied to said skeleton; c. at least one sticker illustrating a head of said first color which can be applied to at least an edge of said sticker of a headless body of said first color, said sticker being releaseably supported on said at least one page releaseably supporting said sticker illustrating a headless body; d. at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting at least one sticker illustrating a hairdo configuration and color which can be applied to said sticker of a head; e. at least one other page of the toy releaseably supporting a plurality of stickers illustrating a plurality of different pairs of eyes; f. a plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyebrows which can be applied to said sticker of a head; g. a plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of lips which can be applied to said sticker of a head; h. a plurality of stickers illustrating different noses which can be applied to said sticker of a head; and 3&,,PWΦW_!®$_'$}^ck^ers illustrating articles of clothing which can be applied to said sticker of a headless body.

25. The toy in book form of claim 24, having a sticker of a representation of a heart which can be applied to said sticker of a headless body.

26. The toy in book form of claim 23, wherein the illustration of a skeleton includes a representation of a heart positioned in the skeleton.

27. The toy in book form of claim 24, wherein the at least one other page releaseably supporting the plurality of stickers illustrating the plurality of different pairs of eyes releaseably supports the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of eyebrows, the plurality of stickers illustrating different pairs of lips and the plurality of stickers illustrating different noses.

28. The toy in book form of claim 24, wherein at least one other page releaseably supports the plurality of stickers illustrating articles of clothing.

29. The toy in book form of claim 24, having at least one page having a pocket adapted for storing at least one of the plurality of elements of the toy.

30. The toy in book form of claim 24, wherein the at least one page having a pocket for storing at least one of the plurality of elements of the toy has a fastener adapted for closing the said pocket.

31. The toy in book form of claim 24, having a pocket for storage including a page thereof.

32. The toy in book form of ciaim 24, wherein tweezers are provided by the toy.