Building or construction toy

Abstract

 A building or construction toy comprising a plurality of construction modules made from a first material which provides stiffness and interchangeable male (1) and female (2) module connecting means made from a second material which is resiliently deformable to permit releasable but firm interengagement between male (1) and female (2) connecting means. The modules may have holes or recesses therein and at least some of the connecting means (1,2) may be fixedly held in the holes or recesses.

Description

[0001] The present invention concerns a building or construction toy in which blocks or other parts may be releasably but firmly interconnected by interengaging male and female connecting means. Toy sets of this type are known, which are made of unitary material, mostly plastics materials, the male and corresponding female connecting means being integral with the body of the blocks or other parts and as the material is, in most cases expensive, the blocks must, be necessity, be of a hollow form and also of relatively thin cross-section so that the cost should not become excessive. This renders the blocks or other parts somewhat flimsy and may also cause early breakage if the blocks are roughly handled as may happen with children for whom the blocks are usually intended. There are also known to^y sets of the said kind, also of unitary material, mostly wood, where blocks and other parts are interconnected by pegs of the same material inserted into holes in the blocks. Constructions made from such sets tend to be unstable and sometimes somewhat clumsy.

[0002] The present invention provides an improved construction-building toy set made of two different materials wherein the blocks and other parts which make up the bulk of the set may be of an inexpensive material such as wood, in which case also waste material of other wood working processes may be utilised, and connecting means are provided made from a second material having suitable characteristics, in the main some elasticity and ease of providing a suitable form, preferably plastics materials.

[0003] Thus, the invention provides a building or construction toy comprising a plurality of construction modules made from a first material which provides stiffness and interchangeable male and female module connecting means made from a second material which is resiliently deformable to permit releasable but firm interengagement between the male and female connecting means.

[0004] The main advantages to be gained by the present invention are saving in costs, as the bulk of the materials used are inexpensive and the more expensive plastics comprise only a small fraction. A second advantage is that constructions made from the claimed set are firm as the first material provides stiffness and the elasticity of the plastics material provides for firm interconnections. Therefore, houses constructed from the present toy hold firmly and other constructions such as cars or see-saws may be put to a measure of active use by children.

[0005] The basic elements or building modules of the building or construction toy of the present invention may be elongated or cubic blocks having through holes and/or closed end recesses therein. Male and female connecting means are provided, made from an appropriate material which may preferably be a plastics material, the female connecting means may be fixedly held inside the holes or recesses in said blocks and the male connecting means which protrude from said blocks may be integral with the female means or separate, in which latter case they are also fixedly held in said holes or recesses. The protruding length of the male connecting means may be so dimensioned that when they fully interchange with the corresponding female means, the adjacent blocks thus connected should lie in close contact as when building a wall. In other words, the length of the protruding part of the male means should be equal to the depth of the corresponding female means. End blocks may also be provided, having only female means held in closed end recesses therein. Appropriate corner elements may also be provided, these may be either blocks having appropriate male or female means or adjacent faces or formed angle pieces with appropriate male or female means therein, in appropriate faces; preferably they are female means interengaging with male means on corresponding blocks or other parts; and additional elements such as hinged windows or doors, wheels, wheel hubs and the like may be provided in addition (which may also comprise the characteristic features of the invention). The end blocks and possibly also intermediate blocks may assume the form of arches, spires, gable roofs and other like pieces may also be provided.

[0006] The most characteristic components of the claimed toy are the connecting means. These may be male and female but may also preferably be integral male-female parts. These may be inserted in through holes in blocks or the like intended to build main walls or the like.

[0007] The connecting means may assume different forms, they may be simply cylindrical, the male means fitting into the female ones, they may be slightly conical facilitating interfitting, the male means may be plain, solid or hollow, or they may be of any other suitable form. In the most preferred embodiment, the male means are hollow, cylindrical and have serrated ends in order to confer more elasticity thereto, their diameter is preferably slightly less than the diameter of the main lumen of the female means. The corresponding female means have a cylindrical lumen and there is a constriction or projections near the inside end thereof, e.g. an annular ring, the ends of the male means engaging only this constriction.

[0008] Another conceivable embodiment, less preferred, may consist of male means having serrated ends with appropriate protrusions thereon, said protrusions inter-fitting with corresponding recesses in the walls of the female means. In the case of integral male-female means, the inner end of the female part may be formed only by an appropriate shoulder, there is'.no need for an integral dividing wall. When the male and female means are separate and the male means is hollow, the non-interengaging ends thereof may be open or closed; this may be dictated by the convenience of methods of fabrication.

[0009] For the sake of brevity, only the most preferred embodiment of an integral male-female connecting means will be described in more detail and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

[0010] There is no necessity for illustrating the blocks or other like parts, these being conventional except for the holes or recesses, which holes or recesses by necessity correspond to the connecting means described in more detail hereinafter. The drawing illustrates an integral male-female connecting means in longitudinal section. It is self-explanatory. In the case of male and female parts which are separate, the dividing line therebetween. would be the line A----A in the drawing.

[0011] In the drawing, which illustrates an integral male-female connecting means, the male part is designated in general by the numeral 1 and female part by the numeral 2. The line dividing between the two parts is indicated by A--A, the part of the integrated connector below the line indicated by B--B being embedded in a through-hole in a corresponding block, the part above this line protruding and the lower end of the connector preferably flush with a face of the block or slightly recessed therein. It is self-evident that when the protruding male part is inserted into the female part of the connector in an adjacent block, the appropriate faces of the two blocks will be in close contact and a clean finished wall will be formed by a series of thus-connected blocks. The same applies in relation to other components such as e.g. arches, spires or columns, if appropriate. The serrated end of the male part is designated in general by 3, it comprises prongs 4, there preferably being three such prongs and correspondingly cut-out slits 5, the number of slits being equal to the number of prongs. The numeral 6 designates a constriction. in the form of an annular ring in the lumen of the female part elastically interengageable with prongs 4 of an adjacent connector. The end of the female part is formed by a shoulder 8. In order to hold the connector more firmly in the block, a number of ridges, preferably three (designated by numeral 7) may optionally be provided.

[0012] As already stated hereinbefore, separate male or female connecting means are not illustrated by separate figures; they can easily be envisaged by separating the appended drawing along dividing line A--A.

[0013] The wooden and plastics parts of the claimed building or construction toy may be produced by methods accepted in the woodworking and in the plastics materials industries.

[0014] The preceding general and detailed description discloses only non-limiting general and specific embodiments of the invention and the scope of the invention is not limited thereby.

Claims

1. A building or construction toy comprising a plurality of construction modules made from a first material which provides stiffness and interchangeable male and female module connecting means made from a second material which is resiliently deformable to permit releasable but firm interengagement between the male and female connecting means.

2. A toy as claimed in claim 1, wherein the modules have holes or recesses therein and at least some of the said connecting means are fixedly held in the holes or recesses.

3. A toy as claimed in claim 2, wherein at least some of the male and female connecting means are integral and are fixedly held in through holes in the modules.

4. A toy as laimed in claim 2, wherein the male connecting means which are fixedly held in the holes or recesses protrude from the modules and the female connecting means which are fixedly held in the holes or recesses are fully held thereinside.

5. A toy as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least some of the female connecting means are fixedly held inside recesses which are closed ended recesses.

6. A toy as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the second material is a material having some elasticity.

7. A toy as claimed in claim 6, wherein the first material is wood and the second material is a plastics material.

8. A toy as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the ends of the male connecting means are serrated and the female means have a lumen with a constriction or protrusions therein and near the end thereof., whereby firm interengagement between the male and female connecting means takes place only when the male means are inserted past the constriction or protrusions.

9. A toy as claimed in claim 8, wherein the constriction in the female means has the form of an annular ring protruding into the lumen near to the inner end thereof.

10. A toy as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the ends of the male connection means are serrated and have protrusions thereon interengageable with grooves or recesses in the wall of the female connection means.

11. A toy as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the male connecting means are solid and interengageable with constrictions in the female connecting means.

Drawing