Abstract: A toy hovercraft apparatus and which includes a toy hovercraft and a launcher therefor. The hovercraft comprises a frame having an outwardly flaring skirt with a downwardly projecting peripheral lip to form an air chamber therebeneath. A motor, e.g., an electric motor, supported centrally of the skirt, rotates a fan located in an upper portion of the chamber to draw in air through inlets and create a pressurized air cushion in the chamber, which, in turn, causes the hovercraft to float or hover over a floor, or other surface. One or more relatively small rechargeable batteries are also carried on the frame and connected to the electric motor for powering the motor and the batteries may be periodically recharged. The hovercraft is preferably round and is constructed so that the weight is symetrically distributed which permits the torque created by the fan to cause rapid rotation of the hovercraft in a level horizontal plane without imparting horizontal motion to the hovercraft.

Abstract: Toy mother and baby animal figures which simulate the giving of birth to the baby animal. The mother animal figure includes a hollow body having an interior chamber with an exit opening. An openable door is provided over the exit opening. The toy baby figure which is representative of an offspring of the mother animal is disposed within the chamber. The baby figure is capable of being collapsed, as by having multisection foldable legs which fold up against its body, so it will fit within the chamber. A conveyor mechanism is included within the mother animal figure and is manually actuable by the user to move the baby figure toward the exit opening while also opening the door so that the baby figure may be pushed out through the exit opening and thus be "born". After it is born, the baby figure may be expanded as by having its legs unfolded and it may be self-standing. The chamber may also be openable to permit replacing the baby figure.

Abstract: A play set comprising a three-dimensional doll figure and a variety of flexible, resilient clip-on pieces representing clothing for the doll to wear, vehicles and animals for the doll to ride in and/or on, etc. The doll has an original appearance, i.e. original clothes, pose, etc. The clip-on pieces may cover over portions of the original appearance and replace them in addition to adding to them. For example, original arm positions and a shirt may be replaced by different arm positions and a coat. Similarly, legs of a standing figure may be replaced by a motorcycle and legs positioned astride the motorcycle. In preferred form, the figure is bias-relief, having a flat rear surface defining a peripheral shoulder and the clip-on pieces each conform generally to the front of the bias-relief figure and have retaining lips that engage the peripheral shoulder.

Abstract: A surprise action game apparatus comprising in a presently preferred form a game board defining a plurality of pathways, one for each player, and each having a starting end and extending longitudinally therefrom to a finish line. There are a plurality of play pieces, one on each player's path for longitudinal movement therealong. The play pieces are adapted to be knocked over when engaged. The game apparatus further includes a knock-down unit which may be positioned at the starting end of any selected one of the pathways. The unit includes a movable wheeled toy striker vehicle and operating mechanism for propelling the vehicle along the selected pathway, but only after random or apparently random operation of the mechanism, to engage and knock down the play piece on that pathway. In play of the game, at each player's turn, the player places the knock-down unit at the start of his or her pathway and selectively operates the mechanism.

Abstract: A movable amusement toy in the form of a vehicle adapted for pulling, and which is also provided with a seat for a user to push the vehicle with his legs while sitting on the same. The vehicle could also be adapted for pedalling action. A "popper" or ejecting mechanism provides an action or ejecting or "popping" balls or similar objects into a chamber formed by a transparent cover on the toy vehicle during movement. The chamber transparent cover is highly visible to a child as the child rides or pulls the toy. The ejecting mechanism includes a head which is capable of simultaneously popping several of the balls or similar objects from a trough formed beneath the housing and is actuable through mechanical connection to the wheels of the vehicle so that rotation of the wheels during movement of the toy will actuate the mechanism to pop the various balls or similar objects.

Abstract: A competitive game device which comprises a frame having a rippled playing surface. The rippled surface is formed by a plurality of transversely extending spaced apart recesses separated by arcuately shaped transversely extending ridge portions. The various recesses are assigned scoring values and certain of the recesses also have higher scoring values than other recesses. Each player may have a plurality of balls bearing his indicia. For example, the balls of each player may be a different color. A ramp leads downwardly to the first recess and the players take turns releasing balls down the ramp and onto the rippled playing surface. In a preferred form, the values of successive recesses initially increase; however, if a player's ball goes past the highest value recess, he will get a lower score, by virtue of the ball landing in a lower scoring recess or other area such as a gutter.

Abstract: A three-dimensional toy representation of a figure such as an animal, e.g. a goat, which includes an outer body and a head pivotally mounted on the body which may be manually shifted between an upright and a lower position. The head includes an opening representative of a mouth and a conveyer mechanism inside the body extends into the head and has a portion located close to the mouth opening. Articles representative of solid or relatively solid "food," such as carrots, tin cans, etc., can be introduced into the mouth. The articles may be physically grasped by the conveyer mechanism and moved into an interior compartment. A portion of the path of movement of the articles may be upward or partially upward. The conveyer mechanism can be operated by manually actuating a portion of the animal figure, such as reciprocatively shifting a tail thereon.

Abstract: A competitive toss game where each player has tossable play objects such as bean bags and there is a target apparatus with one or more receptacles each having a pivotally mounted flippable lid. Each lid is provided with an opening large enough for a bean bag to be tossed directly into the associated receptacle. The bean bags of each player bear an encoding or indicia, with the indicia being different for each player. Thus, the bean bags of one player may be one color and the bean bags of the other player may be a different color. The lids have different indicia on each side, the indicia on one side matching the indicia of one player's bean bags, the indicia on the other side matching the indicia of the other player's bean bags.

Abstract: A toy milkable figure representative of an animal of the type capable of dispensing milk. The figure has a pivotally mounted head which may be pushed downwardly from an upper position to a lower position where a mouth opening in the head is immersed in liquid. The figure has a pivotally mounted tail which may be pumped up and down to create a liquid pumping action. The figure has an udder that forms a liquid holding chamber and has one or more flexible and squeezable teats. When the head is lowered into the liquid supply and the tail pumped, liquid is drawn into the mouth opening and delivered into the udder chamber. A liquid intake limiting mechanism causes the head to automatically raise out of the liquid after a predetermined amount of pumping.

Abstract: A slow-moving object, such as a toy vehicle car, is movable forwardly along a roadway which is extended in one direction. The roadway is extended by laying successive planks on a pair of rails. The planks are present in sufficient number to extend between opposite ends of the rails. The edges of the planks are encoded by having irregular edges. The irregular edges of only one or a few of the planks will conform to the irregular edge of the then forwardmost end of the roadway. When properly matched, the planks form a generally continuous roadway for the slowly moving vehicle. The user must properly position planks in place in advance of the arrival of the vehicle to provide a roadway for the vehicle to travel upon. If the vehicle arrives at the forwardmost end of the roadway, the movement of the vehicle may be interrupted or the vehicle may fall through the roadway.

Abstract: A toy game for removing objects from a trough representative of a trash dump with self-propelled toy vehicle. The game is comprised of a game board with longitudinally spaced opposed player ends with a playing surface eXtending between the opposed player ends. The playing surface includes a trough in which removable objects are disposed and a pair of inclined walls eXtending upwardly and outwardly from the trough toward each of the opposed player ends. The objects located within the trough are irregularly shaped score-representing objects and are movable by a self-propelled toy vehicle, preferably in the characterization of a bulldozer. The players take turns positioning and aiming the toy vehicle on the inclined wall at their player end and permitting the toy vehicle to run down the inclined wall into the trough in an attempt to engage an object and move the object up the inclined wall at the opposed player end.

Abstract: A preschool toy amusement arcade which includes a base frame having a plurality of amusement arcade games thereon. Each of the amusement games are designed so that they are self-contained and include no loose parts. In each of the games, a moving part is tied to some part of the arcade by a flexible connector, or otherwise a moving part is contained within a completely enclosed housing. Thus, the amusement arcade may contain all game features where the moving part is located in an enclosed housing. Otherwise, the arcade may contain one or more game features where the moving part is connected to the arcade by a flexible connector. Game features which utilize a moving part connected to the game by a flexible connector may adopt the form of a simulated gun range where a simulated gun issues a projectile toward a target member located to be contacted by the projectile.

Abstract: A competitive action game apparatus including a game board having a playing surface thereon. The playing surface has a high section intermediate each of a pair of opposed player ends and extends downwardly toward each of such player ends. A goal area is located at each of the opposed player ends. A rebound frame surrounds the playing surface except at the goal areas to retain a playing piece in the form of a ball on the surface. The playing surface is generally solid and continuous and uninterrupted between each of the goal areas. Manually shiftable support members are located in front of each of the goal areas and are capable of being shifted transversely in a direction substantially perpendicular to a line extending between the opposed playing ends. A pair of actuable striker elements, which may adopt the form of flippers, are disposed on each of the support members, and are manually actuated by means on the support members.

Abstract: A toy game apparatus including a game playing board with a retaining wall extending around the playing board for retaining a playing surface of complex curvature with a pair of spaced apart recessed goals located at low areas in the playing board and with the game board having inclined walls leading from the center of the board and the periphery of the board to the pair of recessed goals. In this way, the portions of the game board surrounding the goal areas converge downwardly and inwardly toward the recessed goals so that a playing piece on the game board can enter the goals through arcuate paths and at any point around the entire periphery of the goals and from any direction. A goal cup is rotatably mounted in each of the goal recesses and a striker member is operatively connected to the goal cup for rotation therewith.

Abstract: A toy spray painting system which includes a hand-held manually powered spray gun along with an easel for holding a substrate such as paper to receive a paint spray from the spray gun. The hand-held spray gun includes a frame having a pistol-grip handle with a trigger for one hand operation. Squeezing of the trigger will operate a member to issue air under pressure; the member could adopt the form of, for example, an expandable and contractable bellows which is operable by squeezing the trigger. Upon squeezing of the trigger, air under pressure is ejected through an orifice in a spray head of the spray gun to create an issued air stream. The issued air stream passes over a paint outlet defined by an opening in the upper end of an upright tube which extends down into a container of liquid paint. The paint container is also held by the frame. The spray gun operates in the manner of a liquid ejector so that a portion of the liquid paint is atomized and entrained in and carried by the stream to the substrate.

Abstract: A projectile toy which may be thrown by a first player and caught by a second receiving player. The toy is designed to follow a generally horizontal stable flight path and to glide in a generally horizontal orientation, particularly through the latter portion of its flight to facilitate being caught by the receiving player. The toy includes an elongated shaft, a set of front fins mounted at the forward end of the shaft, and a set of rear fins mounted at the rear end of the shaft. Both sets of fins are circumferentially spaced around the shaft and extend outwardly therefrom. The fins are made of a readily deformable plastic material which tends to retain its deformed shape upon removal of deforming forces. The toy is of lightweight construction, particularly with reference to its weight versus fin area ratio.

Abstract: A competitive board game wherein two players propel a ball back and forth between them, each attempting to get the ball past his opponent. Each player has a mechanical energy-storing catch-and-propel mechanism which is coupled to the board for limited movement. When the ball is propelled toward a player, he attempts to catch it with his mechanism. The mechanism automatically returns the ball toward the player's opponent. Each catch and propel mechanism is manually cocked by a player after each discharge. The player directs the return to attempt to make it more difficult for the opponent to catch the ball. The play proceeds until someone misses. The players may be opposite one another with the board extending between them, or they may both face an upright wall against which the ball is rebounded. The ball is discharged automatically and essentially instantaneously each time it is caught by a mechanism. One illustrated form of the mechanism discharges the ball each time at a generally predetermined speed.