POP UP TOY

Abstract

A pop-up toy includes an housing with a lid and a handle operable by a player to release a pop-up doll within the housing. The pop up toy is a licensed character where rights in a copyright and/or trademark in the character are held by another party and licensed to the manufacturer to allow use of the character. The handle also operates a sound generating system having a memory containing a plurality of sound tracks at least some of which are associated with the licensed character.

Description

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119 of Provisional Application No. 61/138,794 filed Dec. 18, 2008

This invention relates to a pop up toy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Traditional pop-up toys commonly known as a “Jack in the Box” have been available for many decades. Commonly there is NO sound once the box pops open and the construction quality of the doll is fabric only with little detail.

In recent years there has been little development so that only a limited number of patents have been filed or granted. These include:

US Published Application No: 2006/0030236 published Feb. 9, 2006 by Ueno that is now abandoned and shows a toy that pops by way of insertion of elements into the housing.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,525 (How) issued Oct. 17, 1995 relates to a toy where a head is raised and vibrated from a housing mechanism in the shape of a pumpkin.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,538 (Willett) issued Oct. 17, 1995 relates to a pop-up bouncing doll.

None of these is directed to the modern marketing and promotion situations that are currently available.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is one object of the invention to provide a novel pop-up toy.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a pop-up toy comprising:

a housing;

a lid on the housing

a handle on the housing operable by a player of the toy;

a pop-up doll within the housing having the appearance of a licensed character;

a sound generating system operated by the handle for generating sounds as the handle is rotated;

a memory containing a plurality of sound tracks at least some of which are associated with the licensed character;

a pop-up mechanism for opening the lid and elevating the doll to a pop-up position after a time period of operating the handle;

the sound generating system being arranged to play one of the sound tracks from the memory when the doll is in the pop-up position.

The licensed character can be selected from one of the many well known characters available from television, movies, cartoons and other fields of copyright protected endeavor. The doll therefore is not merely a generic doll but is shaped and designed carefully to simulate the appearance of the licensed character selected.

The sounds tracks are selected so as to also be associated with the licensed character. Such sound tracks can thus be of the nature of a “catch-phrase” or the like associated with the character. Alternatively the sounds may be those which are selected so as to be in keeping with the character. The sounds are preferably voice with the voice simulating the voice of the licensed character selected.

Licensed characters are selected for the doll which is of a nature that are both a well known appearance and associated voice and/or catch-phrases or sayings or character which make the doll, the ongoing sounds or music and the sound tracks immediately recognizable to the target customer.

Thus the product provides an additional revenue stream for the owner of the licensed character and the selection of the licensed character enhances the sale of the pop-up toy.

This is significantly different from the conventional generic toy where there is no synergism between the doll, the sounds and the licensed character. This synergism can lead to significantly enhanced sales relative to conventional toys of this type where the pleasure to the customer simple arises from the operation of the toy itself.

Preferably the music is a recording of a licensed song or music associated with the licensed character.

Preferably a length of each sound track is of the order of ten seconds.

Preferably there are of the order of ten different sound tracks.

Preferably sound tracks are chosen at random to play upon each new time the doll pops up.

Alternatively the sound tracks can be selected in order each time the doll pops up.

Preferably the doll is of hard plastic with fine detail to be as life-like in appearance as possible.

The device described herein is a pop-up toy that is a box, with a turning handle on the side, a puppet style doll with a hard plastic head and fabric body inside along with micro chip technology and an optimum sound speaker compacted on the inside.

The pop-up toy is unique for several reasons. Firstly, turning the handle starts the sound which is very clear and can be a recording of any licensed song or similar. Secondly, while turning the handle and the song reaches a certain point, the doll inside the box pops up from under the lid and begins to speak. The recording of the voice is of good audible quality. The sound device for the doll's voice has a length of ten seconds. There are a total of ten different sound tracks for the doll's voice. Only one sound track is played each time the doll pops up. The sound tracks can be chosen at random to play upon each new time the doll pops up, or they can play in order. Finally, the quality of the doll construction is unique as the head of the doll is of hard plastic with fine detail to be as life-like in appearance as possible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is schematic illustration of the pop-up toy.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The drawings attached hereto show the details of the device. The pop-up toy 10 includes a housing 11 with a pop-up lid 12 on the housing. A handle 13 on the housing is manually operable by a player of the toy by cranking the handle as a mechanical input into the device.

The pop-up doll 14 within the housing which pops up when the lid opens has the appearance of a licensed character. A sound generating system 15 is operated by the handle for generating sounds such as music as the handle is rotated, either directly by mechanical action or by generating an input into an electrically powered circuit 20 containing a processor 16 and a memory 17. The memory 17 contains the music and a plurality of sound tracks at least some of which are associated with the licensed character. Preferably the music and the sound tracks are all related to the character either as sayings of the character or as sayings which might be associated with the character. The sound tracks are generally in the form of spoken word using the voice of the character.

The character is licensed in the sense that rights based on copyright or on trademark are held by another party other than the manufacturer of the pop-up toy so that the character cannot be duplicated without the permission of the rights holder and permission is obtained for payment of compensation from the rights holder to apply the appearance of the character and/or to duplicate the sayings and/or music associated with the character.

The circuit 20 includes a pop-up mechanism 21 for opening the lid and elevating the doll to a pop-up position after a time period of operating the handle;

The sound generating system 15 is arranged to play a selected one of the sound tracks from the memory 17 when the doll is in the pop-up position.

In one alternative arrangement (not shown) there is provided a 2-headed pop-up toy. For example: the user turns the handle and one character then pops up through a lid in the top wall of the housing. The user then closes the first lid, turns the handle, and a second character pops up. Then, the user closes the lid, and the next pop-up is again the first character. The two characters pop up in turn every time. Each character can be a separate licensed character or both may be from a common group of licensed characters. In each case, the sound system generates sound or voices related to the respective character.

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without department from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

1. A pop-up toy comprising:

a housing;

a lid on the housing

a handle on the housing operable by a player of the toy;

a pop-up doll within the housing having the appearance of a licensed character;

a sound generating system operated by the handle for generating sounds as the handle is rotated;

a memory containing a plurality of sound tracks at least some of which are associated with the licensed character;

a pop-up mechanism for opening the lid and elevating the doll to a pop-up position after a time period of operating the handle;

the sound generating system being arranged to play one of the sound tracks from the memory when the doll is in the pop-up position.

2. A toy according to claim 1 wherein the music is a recording of a licensed song or music associated with the licensed character.

3. A toy according to claim 1 wherein a length of each sound track is of the order of ten seconds.

4. A toy according to claim 1 wherein there are ten different sound tracks.

5. A toy according to claim 1 wherein the sound tracks are chosen at random to play upon each new time the doll pops up.

6. A toy according to claim 1 wherein the sound tracks are selected in order each time the doll pops up.

7. A toy according to claim 1 wherein the doll is of hard plastic with fine detail to be as life-like in appearance as possible.