US2996832A - Toy construction kit - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 22, 1961 r R. RUBIN TOY CONSTRUCTION KIT Filed Jan. 20, 1959 United States Patent G n 2,996,832 TOY CONSTRUCTION KIT Robert L. Rubin, 12 'Parkside Court, Brooklyn, N.Y. Filed Jan. 20, 1959, Ser. 'No. 787,978 4 Claims. (Cl. 46--16) The present invention relates to a toy construction or building kit having a plurality of members which may be assembled in a varied manner to provide an original and creative configuration of said members.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a toy construction or building kit comprised of a plurality of members having characteristics permitting each of the members to be readily connected and disconnected to each other.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy construction kit having a plurality of members which may be readily assembled by a child in accordance with the childs imaginationand artistic inclinations to provide education and amusement for the child.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a toy construction kit comprised of a plurality of members which are formed of a material having characteristics permitting the formation of mounting holes readily therein for the assemblage of said members.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings:

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toy construction kit according to the present invention, in the assembled condition thereof;

FIG. 2 is a partial vertical View, in section, on an enlarged scale, taken on line 2--2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a hand tool that may be used to provide the mounting holes in each of the members of the toy construction kit shown in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is shown a toy construction or building kit 10, pursuant to the present invention, in an assembled condition and comprisedof a plurality of relatively thin blocks, chips or plate-like members 12, each of said blocks being connected to each other by connecting elements ,or dowel pins, indicated at 14. Each of the blocks or chips 12 consists of a flat laminated structure having opposite confronting flat surfaces 15 and having various peripheral shapes, such as triangular, circular, square, rectangular, rhomboidal, etc., as shown.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown an enlarged cross-sectional view of the laminated structure of each of the blocks 12. Said laminated structure consists of a layer of sheet material 16, of plastic foam, interposed between two layers of relatively thin sheet material 18, for example heavy paper which cover each of the fiat confronting surfaces of the blocks. The plastic foam sheet material 16 has little resiliency or compressibility and is relatively rigid and easily penetrated to permit mounting holes or sockets 20 to be easily formed therein for receiving connectors, such as the previously mounted dowel pins 14. The foam material is extremely light and may be easily cut into various shapes and sizes to provide blocks of convenient size and weight for handling by a child. The outer layers of sheet material 18 may be formed from material other than paper as long as said material may be easily pierced to form the holes 20 in each of the blocks. In addition, the outer layers of sheet material should be of such a nature as to permit the surfaces therein to be easily colored or provided with pictorial representations, as for example, the elephant shown Patented Aug. 22, 1961 on the face of block 12a in FIG. 1. It will be noted in FIG. 1 that the outer layers of sheet material of each of the blocks 12 are of varying colors, as indicated by the varying pattern of lines shown thereon. The outer layers of sheet material 18 help to reinforce the foam material 16 and prevent breaking and crumbling of the walls 22 shown in FIG. 2, surrounding each of the holes 20. Accordingly, as holes are made near the outer layers of sheet material 18, said sheet material will prevent breaking through the relatively thin wall portions 22 as the holes are formed within the layer of foam material 16. The plastic foam material 16 is of such a nature as to offer sufiicient frictional engagement with the connecting pins 14, when they are mounted in the holes 20, to prevent the bloeks 12 from becoming disengaged from the connecting pins. However, the force of the frictional engagement is sufliciently small to enable a child, with a minimum amount of effort, to easily disengage each of the blocks from the connecting pins and thereby disassemble the structure. A non-limitative example of a laminated structure having a polystyrene plastic foam material disposed between outer layers of kraft paper and having the characteristics just described is available under the trademark of Fome Cor, said laminated material being manufactured by the St. Regis Paper Company, New York, New York.

Each of the holes 20 may be formed at any position in the block 12, so that the blocks may be assembled at any angle and in any plane. It will be noted in FIG. 2, that the holes 20 are formed along the edge portion 24 of block 12a and along the face portion 26 of block 12b. A convenient hand tool for forming three holes simultaneously is shown in FIG. 3, said hand tool being indicated by the reference numeral 28. Hand tool 28 comprises a fiat board 30, made of a'suitable material, as wood, having a hand portion 32 and three pointed dowels 34 suitably attached to board 30 and depending therefrom. By placing the pointed ends of dowel 34 against the edge portion or face portion of a block, at any position desired on said edge or face portion, and by applying a small amount of pressure the outer layer of paper 18 and the foam material may be readily penetrated to provide the previously mentioned mounting holes 20 without the edges of said holes breaking. or crumbling. 'In lieu of the hand tool 28, an individual pointed dowel pin may be used by the child to form mounting holes in each of the blocks and said mounting holes need not necessarily be made perpendicular or parallel to the faces of the block but may be readily formed at any angle in the blocks, according to the imagination and desires of the child.

The previously mentioned connecting members or dowels 14 may be made of any convenient material, such as wood or plastic. The pins may be straight, as indicated at 14a, or they may be bent at any angle, as indicated at 14b, so that the blocks may be assembled in varying planes. They also may be colored or transparent, as for example, dowel pins made from Lucite, to promote varying color schemes.

The varying colors and pictorial representations on the faces of each of the blocks, said blocks being of varying shapes, plus the provision of a plurality of colored and transparent connecting pins of varying shapes promote the exercise of the childs curiosity, artistic inclinations, and imagination in providing a structure of varying colors and picture schemes, and an abstract, original and creative configuration thereof, when the blocks are assembled by the child. In addition, the act of forming holes at varying positions along the face and edge portions of each of the blocks, by piercing the surfaces of the blocks with a pointed dowel or hand tool, provides an immense source of pleasure for the child as well as aiding in developing the mechanical aptitudes of the child as the blocks are assembled, according to the pattern of holes formed by the child to provide the resultant structure.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that various changes may be made in the idea or principles of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A toy construction kit, comprising a plurality of relatively thin plate-like members having various peripheral shapes, each member including a layer of plastic foam material having opposite confronting flat surfaces and an outer layer of relatively thin and penetrable sheet material covering each of said confronting surfaces to provide a reinforcing surface for the plastic foam material and a decorative covering for each of said flat surfaces, said plastic foam material being substantially rigid and readily penetrable to permit the manual piercing of said members by a pin-like member to form mounting holes at a plurality of positions along the sides and edges thereof, and a plurality of pins adapted to be detachably ins'erted in the formed mounting holes for detachably interconnecting said members in spaced relation to each other to form an original and creative configuration of said members in their assembled condition.

2. A toy construction kit, comprising a plurality of relatively thin plate-like members having various peripheral shapes, each member including a layer of plastic foam material having opposite confronting flat surfaces and an outer layer of relatively thin and penetrable sheet material covering each of said confronting surfaces to provide a reinforcing surface for the plastic foam material and a decorative covering for each of said fiat surfaces, said plastic foam material being substantially rigid and readily penetrable to permit the manual piercing of said members by a pin-like member to form mounting holes at a plurality of positions along the sides and edges thereof, and a plurality of pins adapted to be detachably inserted in the formed mounting holes for detachably interconnecting said members in spaced relation to each other to form an original and creative configuration of said members in their assembled condition, certain ones of said pins having bent portions along their respective lengths extending in planes different from the other portions of the respective pin to permit the assembly of said members in a variety of planes.

3. A toy construction kit, comprising a plurality of relatively thin plate-like members having various peripheral shapes, each member including a layer of polystyrene plastic foam material having opposite confronting flat surfaces and an outer layer of relatively thin and penetrable sheet material covering each of said confronting surfaces to provide a reinforcing surface for the plastic foam material and a decorative covering for each of said flat surfaces, said plastic foam material being substantially rigid and readily penetrable to permit the manual piercing of said members by a pin-like member to form mounting'holes at a plurality of positions along the sides and edges thereof, and a plurality of pins adapted to be detachably inserted in the formed mounting holes for detachably interconnecting said members in spaced relation to each other to form an original and creative configuration of said members in their assembled condition, certain ones of said pins having bent portions along their respective lengths extending in planes different from the other portions of the respective pin to permit the assembly of said members in a variety of planes.

4. A toy construction kit, comprising a plurality of relatively thin plate-like members having various peripheral shapes, each member including a layer of polystyrene plastic foam material having opposite confronting flat surfaces and an outer layer of relatively thin and penetrable sheet material covering each of said confronting surfaces to provide a reinforcing surface for the plastic foam material and a decorative covering for each of said fiat surfaces, said plastic foam material being substantially rigid and readily penetrable to permit the manual piercing of said members by a pin-like member to form mounting holes at a plurality of positions along the sides and edges thereof, and a plurality of pins adapted to be detachably inserted in the formed mounting holes for detachably interconnecting said members in spaced relation to each other to form an original and creative configuration of said members in their assembled condition, some of said pins having bent portions along their respective lengths extending in planes difierent from the other portions of the respective pin to permit the assembly of said members in a variety of planes, certain ones of said pins being transparent and other of said pins being of different colors, and said sheet material of certain of said members having different colors and other sheet material of other members having different pictorial representations on their respective outer surfaces.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 228,052 Frost May 25, 1880 2,011,714 Friedman Aug. 20, 1935 2,244,343 Meyercord June 3, 1941 2,618,901 Braun Nov. 25, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 371,638 Great Britain Apr. 28, 1932 452,749 Italy Oct. 19, 1949

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