Toy figure simulating a jump shot
An easy to manufacture toy figure (10) for throwing balls or other aerial projectiles by emulating a jump shot in simulated games such as basketball. Resilient means (12) may be bent or compressed and then released to rebound substantially to their original form and position with speed sufficient to throw an aerial projectile (15) placed upon a body of animate shape (13) linked or attached directly or via said resilient means to supporting base (11). Said resilient means may be provided by a coil, leaf or other type of spring, or by a resilient or elastic material forming a part of the body or the base. Said animate body (13) may be designed to resemble popular ballplayers or imaginary animate shapes for marketing purposes, including player numbers on club color uniforms, with fixed or rotatable arms.
This application is related to the utility patent application Ser. No. 10/384,515, filed Mar. 7, 2003, now abandoned.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCHNot applicable.
SEQUENCE LISTINGSNot applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONVarious types of simulated games using an aerial projectile, popular with children and adults alike, are known in the art. The projectile is usually propelled by a simple catapult or a spring launcher, which sometimes replace a simulated ballplayer figure at the time of shooting the projectile toward a goal. Neither the launchers nor their substitution for a player figure at a critical point in the game simulate the reality very convincingly. While figures used in simulated games using a surface projectile often mimic the live action fairly well, figures devised for games using an aerial projectile, such as basketball, were so far much less successful.
Many simulated game inventions propose a catapult or a launcher: U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,242 (Rudell et al., 1998) shows a TWO SIDED BASKETBALL GAME with two simple launchers. U.S. Pat. No. 2,878,801 to Patchin et al. (1959) discloses a vertical TOY CATAPULT DEVICE with a horizontal support for rectangular projectiles. U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,990 to R. J. Haynur (1940) proposes a multiplayer GAME APPARATUS using a molded spring launcher and a projectile with parallel faces indicating a play board position for the next player. U.S. Pat. No. 1,612,699 to C. de V. Cole (1926) for a BASKET-BALL GAME has multiple player pieces, moving to random positions on the play board determined by a roll of dice, replaced for attempts at scoring by a catapult resembling an artillery piece. U.S. Pat. No. 731,850 to R. S. Bradbury (1903) discloses a GAME whereby a blade-spring launcher shoots a ball toward multiple baskets.
LEGO Sports sells HUMAN-LIKE TOY FIGURES based on U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,769 to Skov et al. (2005) with a coil spring connecting torso to its legs part, allowing the figure to ‘chest-slam’ a ball. U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,169 to Saunders (2001) discloses an ARTICULATED TOY FIGURE SIMULATING BASKET-BALL PLAY using a spring-loaded mechanism with a trigger and latch to swing an arm forward and downward, flinging a ball toward a basket. U.S. Pat. No. 2,911,758 to F. D. Carson uses a human figure shaped BALL CATAPULTING DEVICE with arms propelled by an elastic strip pulled crank to throw balls either upward from around its knees, or overhead backwards. U.S. Pat. No. 1,433,335 to K. Bensch (1922) discloses a BASKET-BALL TOY using figures with spring-loaded arms holding a cup, pulled by strings to shoot a ball. Probably the most realistically acting prior art figure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,330 to Ozawa (1997.) It shows a TOY BASKETBALL GAME WITH SELF-JUMPING PLAYER ejected from a stationary base and releasing the ball on contact with the basket rim, simulating a so-called ‘slam dunk.’ None of the known figures simulates a player executing a jump shot or a hook shot, perhaps the most common shooting actions in basketball, handball and other games using an aerial projectile.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, the present invention provides an easy to manufacture and inexpensive toy figure simulating a jump shot, a hook shot and a ball pass for simulated games using aerial projectiles, such as basketball and others. Several objects and advantages of the present invention are to provide such toy figure, more particularly:
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- 1. to provide a toy figure throwing serial projectiles using the energy supplied by resilient means in the form of a coil, leaf or other type of spring, or the energy of a resilient or elastic material forming a part of the figure or of its supporting base, said toy figure having either fixed or rotatable arms;
- 2. to provide said toy figure that may be made or decorated for marketing purposes to resemble real-life ball-players including club uniforms, or animals, imaginary literary, movie and other characters; and
- 3. to provide a method of playing a simulated basketball game using at least one said toy figure, where the figures in a game may be either all of the same type or the various designs described in the present invention can be used for different game positions.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
In the drawings, closely related figures or parts have the same number but different alphabetic suffixes.
A user places said toy
FIG. 4: the toy figure uses a compression coil spring 42 deformable between a compression flange 43b and base 41. Arms and hands 44 rotate around an arm pivot 46 joining them through a hollow body 43 within shoulder area. A shaft 47 is attached to said arm pivot 46 by an upper pin 49a and link 48, and to base 41 by a lower pin 49b; together they form the connecting means (here identical to anchoring means.) An optional flange 40 provides an easier hold for pushing down body 43. Rack and pinion assembly could be also used to translate the vertical movement of the body into the rotation of the arms.
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- body of animate shape (including fixed or rotatable extensions, e.g. arms, tentacles),
- base, and
- resilient means (various leaf, coil and other springs, resilient material, or combinations thereof;
- linked together in various order by anchoring means limiting the movement of said body to correspond to the deformation of the resilient means. Said anchoring means can be either physically separate (which can be fixed like glue 20, screws etc., or with at least one degree of freedom such as axle 19 and rigid platform 12b, pins, joints etc.), or identical to any of the first three components (e.g. casting around the resilient means in
FIG. 1a , spring ends 32a/32b, all linked into one unit inFIG. 6 , notches or bumps on one fitting into indentations in another etc.), and - supplemented, when desired, by connecting means for rotating an extension of said body, such as an arm or tentacle supporting chosen projectile(s), to aid throwing the projectiles.
Even the connecting means and anchoring means can be identical (e.g. string 37 or shaft 47.)
Accordingly, the reader will see that the toy figures of the present invention simulate more realistically the jump shot or hook shot action of such aerial projectile games as simulated basketball and others. The toy figures are inexpensive to manufacture and can be shaped and decorated to resemble popular live ballplayers and their game uniforms, animals, literary or other personages and other real or imaginary characters providing various marketing opportunities.
While the above description contains specific embodiments of the invention, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention. Many modifications obvious to those skilled in the art may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the toy figure body can be oriented sideways with one tentacle formed to shoot a so-called hook shot; the leaf spring can be variously shaped to generate different ball trajectories; a rack and pinion assembly can be used as connecting means in place of a string 37 or shaft 47 to rotate the arms; a spring type from one embodiment can be combined with an arm assembly from another; the body can be cast either solid or hollow or hand-carved from an exotic wood in any animate shape, such as an imaginary extraterrestrial being tossing a medium size galaxy and so on.
Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
Claims
1. A toy figure for throwing aerial projectiles by simulating a jump shot, comprising: whereby a realistic simulation of a jump shot is obtained by placing at least one aerial projectile upon said upper limb, deforming and then releasing said resilient means to propel the projectiles to fly off said upper limb.
- a. a base of sufficient size to provide stability;
- b. resilient means deformable essentially vertically for supplying energy to throw the projectiles;
- c. a body of animate shape urged by said resilient means to jump up while said resilient means is rebounding substantially to its original position and shape after having been deformed;
- d. anchoring means to joining said body movably to said base so as to limit the movement of said body to substantially correspond to the deformations of said resilient means;
- e. at least one upper limb attached pivotally to said body, said upper limb being formed to support and launch the projectiles; and
- f. connecting means for rotating said upper limb by translating an essentially vertical movement of said body relative to said base so as to add a horizontal vector to the projectile flight,
2. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said body is formed to resemble at least one hand shaped to support and throw the projectile.
3. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said body is formed and decorated to resemble a real or imaginary personage.
4. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said resilient means is a leaf spring comprising essentially at least one flat or curved leaf.
5. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said resilient means is a coil spring of a tension, compression, or torsion type.
6. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said resilient means is the material forming a section of said base or said body.
7. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said toy figure is outwardly uniform, wherein parts of the figure perform the functions of said body, said base and said resilient means.
8. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said resilient means and said anchoring means are identical.
9. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said anchoring means is a direct movable attachment between said body and said base.
10. The toy figure of claim 1 wherein said connecting means and said anchoring means are identical.
11. A toy figure for throwing aerial projectiles by simulating a jump shot, comprising: whereby a realistic simulation of a jump shot is obtained by placing at least one aerial projectile upon said body, deforming and then releasing said resilient means to propel the projectiles to fly off said body.
- a. a base of sufficient size to provide stability;
- b. a body of animate shape having at least one fixed upper limb formed to support and throw aerial projectiles; and
- c. a leaf spring comprising essentially at least one flat or curved leaf attached at or toward one edge to said body and at or toward another edge to said base so as to simulate a jump shot by rebounding, after having been deformed, together with said body substantially to their original shape and position with sufficient speed and momentum to throw aerial projectiles placed upon said body,
12. The toy figure of claim 11 wherein said body is formed to resemble at least one hand shaped to support and throw the projectile.
13. The toy figure of claim 11 wherein said body is formed and decorated to resemble a known ballplayer.
14. A toy figure for throwing aerial projectiles by simulating a jump shot, comprising: whereby a realistic simulation of a jump shot is obtained by placing at least one aerial projectile upon said body, deforming and then releasing said resilient means to give impetus to said body to throw the projectile.
- a. a base of sufficient size to provide stability;
- b. a body of animate shape having at least one fixed upper limb formed to support and launch aerial projectiles;
- c. resilient means interposed between said body and an element selected from the group consisting of said base and a surface said base is resting on, so as to supply energy to said body for throwing the projectiles by urging said body to jump up; and
- d. anchoring means for linking pivotally said body and said base so as to add a horizontal vector to the movement of said body and limit the movement of said body to substantially correspond to the deformations of said resilient means,
15. The toy figure of claim 14 wherein said body is formed and decorated to resemble a real or imaginary personage.
731850 | June 1903 | Bradbury |
1433335 | October 1922 | Bensch |
1612699 | December 1926 | Cole |
1982491 | November 1934 | Bamum |
2203990 | June 1940 | Heymer |
2627700 | February 1953 | Weiss |
2799501 | July 1957 | Barbolla |
2827035 | March 1958 | Modica, Jr. |
2878801 | March 1959 | Patchin et al. |
2911758 | November 1959 | Carson |
3074720 | January 1963 | Carver et al. |
4085540 | April 25, 1978 | Jernstrom et al. |
5690330 | November 25, 1997 | Ozawa |
5788242 | August 4, 1998 | Rudell |
5851012 | December 22, 1998 | Langieri et al. |
6171169 | January 9, 2001 | Saunders |
6837769 | January 4, 2005 | Skov et al. |
Type: Grant
Filed: Jul 10, 2007
Date of Patent: Nov 25, 2008
Inventor: Vlad Mitvalsky (Torrance, CA)
Primary Examiner: Mitra Aryanpour
Application Number: 11/825,835
International Classification: A63F 7/20 (20060101);