Cross-reference to related application
[0001] This application claims priority from Chinese Patent Application No.
201220110066.2, filed 21 March, 2012, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all
purposes.
Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to a field of toy design, and more particularly, to
a toy brick.
Background of the Invention
[0003] There are two kinds of toy bricks which are two-dimensional and three-dimensional
toy bricks in the market. The toy brick is usually made of wood or plastic, and has
a cubic shape, with letters or patterns decorated on the surface thereof. The toy
brick can be differently arranged or built to obtain various houses or animals.
[0004] Lego is one of the popular toy brick in the world, which made of plastic and invented
by a Dane named Ole Kirk. A convex ball is provided at one end of the Lego toy brick,
and a hole suitable for the convex ball is provided at the other end of the Lego toy
brick. The Lego toy brick has more than 1300 shapes, each of which has 12 different
colors mainly including red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Children themselves can
manually build them to obtain different constructions through their endless imagination,
which renders user to be indulged in Lego, thus it is also called "magic plastic toy
brick".
[0005] Due to unreasonable structures of the toy brick in prior art, the toy bricks can
be merely directly connected to represent a line structure, and cannot be bent to
form a flexible structure, which not only limit the imaginary space of users, but
also decrease benefits of development of mentality by using toys. It is reported that
some toy bricks with specific shape used for flexible connection are manufactured,
in order to solve the above questions. But these toy bricks can only apply in specific
condition or build a specific construction by means of using toy bricks, which leads
to a worse compatibility.
Brief Description of the Invention
[0006] The object of the invention is to provide a toy brick with good compatibility and
flexible connection.
[0007] To achieve the above object, the following technical solution is adopted:
a toy brick comprising a main body; a male connecting portion and a female connecting
portion being symmetrically provided at two ends of the main body respectively; the
male connecting portion being shaped as a ball and the female connecting portion being
shaped as a letter "U" in which one end of the U-shaped female connecting portion
is connected to the main body, and the other end thereof has two projections which
are inwardly bent and an inner side surface that is an arc surface.
[0008] According to the present invention, the male connecting portion and the female connecting
portion are provided at the two ends of the main body respectively, which leads to
a flexible engagement effect when the male connecting portion and the female connecting
portion are connected each other. The male connecting portion is shaped as a ball
and the female connecting portion is shaped as a letter "U". When the male connecting
portion is snapped into the female connecting portion, the main body can be rotated
by 180° with respect to the horizontal axis. The two projections of the female portion
are designed to be inwardly bent, which can enhance the engagement between the male
connection portion and the female connecting portion, and can prevent the male connecting
portion from being separated from the female connecting portion. Moreover, the inner
arc side surface of the female connecting portion can render the surface of ball-shaped
male connecting portion to be better matched the inner arc side surface of the female
connecting portion, thereby obtaining a better connecting effect.
[0009] According to the present invention, a plurality of raised portions is projected on
a first surface of the main body, and a plurality of grooves suitable for the raised
portion is provided on a second surface of the main body.
[0010] The above designs can enhance the compatibility of the toy brick, and can used for
connecting other kinds of toy brick, which improves the practical applicability of
the invention.
[0011] According to the present invention, said toy brick is made of ABS plastic.
[0012] By defining the material of the toy brick, the compatibility and consistency of the
invention would be better.
Brief Description of the Drawings
[0013] The present invention would be better understood by referring to the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
FIG.1 is a perspective view of the toy brick of the present invention; and
FIG.2 is a perspective view of the toy brick shown in Fig.1, which is rotated by 180°
with respect to the horizontal axis.
Detailed Description of the Invention
[0014] The invention will be detailed by an exemplary embodiment in combination with the
accompanying drawings, in which the embodiment is only used to explain the invention,
not to limit the scope of the invention.
Example 1:
[0015] As illustrated in Fig.1, this example discloses a toy brick comprising a main body
100, in which a male connecting portion 110 and a female connecting portion 120 are
symmetrically provided at the two ends of the main body 100 respectively. The male
connecting portion 110 is a ball-shaped member, and the female connecting portion
120 is a U-shaped member. One end of the female connecting portion 120 is connected
to the main body 100, while the other end of the female connecting portion 120 has
two projections (121,122) which are inwardly bent, and an inner side surface which
is an arc surface.
Example 2:
[0016] As illustrated in Fig.1, this example discloses a toy brick comprising a main body
100, in which a male connecting portion 110 and a female connecting portion 120 are
symmetrically provided at the two ends of the main body 100 respectively. The male
connecting portion 110 is a ball-shaped member, and the female connecting portion
120 is a U-shaped member. One end of the female connecting portion 120 is connected
to the main body 100, while the other end of the female connecting portion 120 has
two projections (121,122) which are inwardly bent, and an inner side surface which
is an arc surface.
[0017] As illustrated in Fig.2, a plurality of raised portions 101 is projected on a first
surface of the main body 100, and a plurality of grooves 102 suitable for the raised
portion 101 is provided on a second surface of the main body 100.
Example 3:
[0018] As illustrated in Fig.1, this example discloses a toy brick comprising a main body
100, in which a male connecting portion 110 and a female connecting portion 120 are
symmetrically provided at the two ends of the main body 100 respectively. The male
connecting portion 110 is a ball-shaped member, and the female connecting portion
120 is a U-shaped member. One end of the female connecting portion 120 is connected
to the main body 100, while the other end of the female connecting portion 120 has
two projections (121,122) which are inwardly bent, and an inner side surface which
is an arc surface.
[0019] As illustrated in Fig.2, a plurality of raised portions 101 is projected on a first
surface of the main body 100, and a plurality of grooves 102 suitable for the raised
portion 101 is provided on a second surface of the main body 100.
[0020] In this example, all the members including the mail body 100, the male connecting
portion 110 and the female connecting portion 120 of the toy brick are integrated
by using material of ABS plastic, so as to enhance the consistency.
[0021] While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will
be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications can be made
without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. It should be understood
that the embodiments of the present invention described above are illustrative only,
and all the changes and modifications made by those skilled in the art are covered
by the appended claims.