Patents Examined by Michael J. Foycik
  • Patent number: 4251949
    Abstract: A toy racing apparatus including an inclined section of track and a bowl. The track enters the bowl through an opening in the lower sidewall where its surface is tangent to the interior wall. A vehicle placed at the upper end of the track will speed down the track, enter the bowl, and progress in a spiral path upwardly inside the bowl. In a preferred embodiment, the bowl is transparent and flags are positioned to be displaced as a vehicle reaches particular heights in the bowl.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 1979
    Date of Patent: February 24, 1981
    Assignee: Mattel, Inc.
    Inventors: Gordon H. Buck, Kenneth I. Amamoto, William Hart, Michael T. McKittrick, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4250644
    Abstract: A hand held microfilm reader wherein the film is maintained within the reader housing and the controls for positioning the film are easily manipulated by one hand. An optical system provides an intense automatically focused image projected onto a screen for viewing by the user. The light source is a conventional lens end bulb that has been rendered uniformly directional by its having been mounted in pre-aligned relationship with respect to a clip which is configured to be precisely registered with remaining portions of the optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1978
    Date of Patent: February 17, 1981
    Assignee: Topex, Inc.
    Inventor: Johannes K. Jantzen
  • Patent number: 4248006
    Abstract: A toy having an upper and a lower body section is disclosed. The lower body section is operatively attachable to the upper body section in a plurality of configurations. A container capable of holding a liquid is included in the upper body section. A compressable bellow, and a nozzle is operatively connected to the container whereby the liquid may be squirted out from the toy at the option of a player. The lower body section includes an electric motor and a track assembly which is capable of locomoting the toy in any of the possible configurations assembled at the option of the player.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 1979
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1981
    Assignee: California R & D Center
    Inventors: Lawrence T. Jones, Anson Sims, Ashley G. Howden, Robert S. Lee
  • Patent number: 4245430
    Abstract: A sound responsive toy which seeks an emitted sound such as a child's voice, the toy includes control circuitry for activating an associated drive to turn and/or guide the toy toward the child's voice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 1979
    Date of Patent: January 20, 1981
    Inventor: Steven D. Hoyt
  • Patent number: 4244140
    Abstract: Toys of any shape which recover their original shapes after deformation when they are heated by electrical or thermal stimulus are introduced. The deformation and shape recovery action can be repeated. The form regaining action is achieved by a special characteristics of the shape memory alloys, for example, nitinol, which change their phase and thereby change their shapes when their temperature is raised beyond their transition temperature. Toys are covered by a soft plastic to enhance the look of them.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1977
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1981
    Inventor: Kibong Kim
  • Patent number: 4244142
    Abstract: A puppet rug that resembles a skinned animal, human, or an imaginary character. The head of which can be manipulated so as to mimic an animal, a human, or an imaginary character. The head is lined and stuffed to keep its shape when it is in use as a puppet. The body is lined, but not stuffed. It has a large surface area so that a child can play on it, sleep on it, sit on it, and wrap himself in it. It is designed to provide visual and tactile stimulation. It may be used as a toy, a puppet, or as a decorative object. It may be used in the treatment of tactually defensive children to overcome their fears of being touched. Its large surface area facilitates the development of good feelings needed to produce the treatment goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 1978
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1981
    Inventor: Robert L. Crawford
  • Patent number: 4244143
    Abstract: A highway game has a base supporting a conveyor-like roadway belt on which a toy vehicle is mounted. The vehicle has a control mechanism mounted at one end of the base and this mechanism includes a winding device wound with a tether secured to the vehicle. The roadway belt is driven in one direction by a motor to turn the wheels of the tethered vehicle and simulate movement of the vehicle in the opposite direction. The winding device of a simplified form of the game is mounted on a transverse shaft which can be rotated manually to shift the vehicle longitudinally on the rotating roadway belt. In a preferred embodiment of the game, the control mechanism is driven by a power take-off from the motor and the winding device is slidably mounted on a control shaft which is movable to engage and disengage the device from the drive so as to achieve a similar longitudinal movement of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1978
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1981
    Inventor: Terrence A. Scully
  • Patent number: 4244688
    Abstract: An orthodontic appliance is provided which applies a pulsating force to the tooth to be moved, rather than a continuous force as in the case with the prior art devices. The invention is predicated on the concept that when pulsating forces are applied to the tooth, there is little or no hyalinization and consequently more cellular activity, giving rise to more oesteoclastic activity for bone resorption and more oesteoblastic activity for bone opposition. Moreover, the pulsational effect of the tooth on the adjacent periodontal membrane and bone tends to loosen their fibrous structure, and helps the tooth to find a path of least resistance through the bone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1979
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1981
    Inventor: Craven H. Kurz
  • Patent number: 4242831
    Abstract: A toy apparatus with a photoemissive motor control system includes a chamber into which a phosphorescent member is placed, whereupon photoemission acts upon a photosensitive element to activate a motor control circuit for operation of a motor which drives the toy apparatus. An activation apparatus is provided, which includes a battery operated lamp for periodic re-energization of the phosphorescent member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 1979
    Date of Patent: January 6, 1981
    Assignee: Ned Strongin Associates, Inc.
    Inventor: John F. O'Shaughnessy
  • Patent number: 4243386
    Abstract: An orthodontic appliance is disclosed which is suitable for supporting a wire during treatment. The appliance is adapted to be directly adhered to the surface of the patient's tooth and includes on the base thereof a plurality of indentations which have the surfaces thereof roughened so as to provide a mechanical lock with the adhesive and facilitate direct adherence of the appliance to the tooth's surface with a superior bonding action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 1978
    Date of Patent: January 6, 1981
    Assignee: GAC International, Inc.
    Inventor: Kozo Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 4242829
    Abstract: A device for providing a waterproof connection between two separate sections of a water canal in a toy kit. In that connection a connecting element with transversal sealing strips is used said element principally having a U-shaped section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 1978
    Date of Patent: January 6, 1981
    Inventors: Anders P. Arnstrom, Lennart K. Dahlgren, Britt I. Dahlgren
  • Patent number: 4238906
    Abstract: A flying toy of the boomerang type having two airfoil arms extending horizontally from a center portion. Each arm carries at its outer end a horizontally disposed, annular-shaped stabilizer having a horizontally disposed outer periphery whose diameter is approximately twice the horizontal width of the arm at the juncture of the arm and the stabilizer, and having an inner periphery which is disposed in the same horizontal plane as the outer periphery, and which defines a center opening through the stabilizer. The stabilizer has a convex top annular surface and a concave bottom annular surface extending between the inner and outer peripheries. During flight, the stabilizers serve simultaneously as airfoils, airfoil arm stabilizers, and a gyroscope for the flying toy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1978
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1980
    Inventor: Joseph Bradford, Sr.
  • Patent number: 4237649
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 1979
    Date of Patent: December 9, 1980
    Assignee: Adolph E. Goldfarb
    Inventors: Adolph E. Goldfarb, Elonne Dantzer
  • Patent number: 4235595
    Abstract: A surgical bone operation instrument that has a straight tube-shaped shaft and arrangement coaxially in relationship to the longitudinal axis of the instrument to form a continuous channel from one end of the instrument to the other including the end parts, which serves for the guidance of materials utilized in the operation of the instrument, and a driving assembly being of a bell-type electrical motor with the stator enclosed within the bell-shaped rotor, the latter having windings of lacquered wire embedded in a plastic material, the windings further being wound to form a hollow cylinder of relatively thin wall thickness to form a part of the bell-shaped rotor, the mechanical structure of the rotor being furthermore reinforced by glass fibers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1978
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1980
    Inventor: Richard E. Arnegger
  • Patent number: 4233778
    Abstract: A modular toy is provided in the configuration of a building, such as a doll house, formed of a plurality of modular units, each representing, for example, a room or a group of rooms. The modular units are constructed to permit them to be stacked one above the other and/or retained in side-by-side assembly so as to define, when so assembled, a simulated building. In one form, the modular units are molded of plastic with one or more walls thereof shaped to retain objects in place such as furniture, fixtures and appliances. In another form, the modular units are molded in a flat box-like configuration defining five walls of the room which are joined together by molded hinge-like portions permitting the flat molding to be folded into the configuration of the room shell which may also define the walls for the packaging of the unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1978
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1980
    Inventor: Jerome H. Lemelson
  • Patent number: 4233776
    Abstract: An artificial eye structure in which the diameter of the dish shaped backing member is larger than the diameter of the eye so that face material is squeezed between the eye and the backing member to produce an unusual recessed effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1978
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1980
    Assignee: Suzusei Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kenichi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 4232478
    Abstract: An animated doll includes a body having a head with a face including a mouth defined by lips formed of flexible material. An operator is secured to the lips behind the face and is reciprocated to move the lips inwardly and outwardly in a suckling type action. The nipple of a nursing bottle or the thumb of the doll's hand is manually insertable into the doll's mouth to provide realism when the lips are activated as described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 1979
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1980
    Assignee: Marvin Glass & Associates
    Inventor: Rouben T. Terzian
  • Patent number: 4232477
    Abstract: An inflatable toy which when inflated has the contour of a hassock. The toy features a cylindrical envelope and inner radially-extending planar baffles, these elements being composed of soft limp flexible material such as a thermoplastic plastic. When the toy is inflated by introducing air under mild pressure into the envelope, the top and bottom walls of the envelope are distended so as to assume the contour of the top and bottom of a hassock, i.e. with a central bulge and discrete radial outward bulges. This configuration is formed by disposing the baffles vertically and mutually angularly spaced, each of the baffles extending radially from near the central axis of the envelope and terminating short of the periphery of the envelope, with rectilinear attachments of the top and bottom edges of each of the baffles to the top and bottom walls of the envelope. The baffles are tautened by outward force exerted on the top and bottom walls between the baffles, by the pressure of the inflating air.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1979
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1980
    Assignee: Shelcore, Inc.
    Inventor: Charles C. C. Lin
  • Patent number: 4232473
    Abstract: A novelty toy device for forming a variety of geometric configurations. The device is constructed of a series of uniquely shaped members which form at least one closed loop. The members are joined together such that each member is axially rotatable with respect to adjacent members, thereby enabling the members to be twisted into a variety of shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 1978
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1980
    Inventor: Sherman Jenkins
  • Patent number: 4231183
    Abstract: A toy vehicle for use in a toy vehicle game including an endless track defining at least two parallelly extending vehicle lanes in which two or more toy vehicles are adapted to be operated. The toy vehicles each include a reversible rotary drive motor and a transmission operatively engaged between the motor and two drive wheels for simultaneously driving the drive wheels in the forward direction, while selectively driving them at different speeds, in response to the direction of rotation of the drive motor, thereby to control the turning radius of the vehicle when changing lanes and biasing the vehicle against one or the other of the side walls of the track to guide the vehicle along its path of travel in one or the other of the lanes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1979
    Date of Patent: November 4, 1980
    Assignee: Ideal Toy Corporation
    Inventor: Robert G. Lahr