Handle-Navigable Rolling Wheel Toy
A manually-driven hand-navigable wheel toy comprising a handle with a fork portion comprises at least two prongs that rests on a wheel and which enables and guides the wheel's motion during the operation. The at least two prongs straddle the wheel rim with the fork portion being in contact with the outer portion of the wheel rim during operation. The wheel is set in motion via, for example, a forward push of the wheel through the handle and is kept steadily moving toward a desired direction by steering the wheel with the aid of the at least two prongs of the fork portion of the handle. The wheel toy further comprises lights such as blinking LED lights located along various sections of the toy.
The present application is based on, and claims the benefits of priority of U.S. application Ser. No. 62/016,762, filed on Jun. 25, 2014, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to a handle-navigable rolling wheel toy.
2. Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,253,030 discloses a toy comprising a wheel pushable with a handle on which various toys can be attached and wherein the handle is connected to the wheel's hub.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,791 discloses a single-wheel push or pull toy comprising a hollow cylinder, two circular discs mounted-on either end of hollow cylinder, wherein the handle for pushing or pulling is connected to the smaller cylinder positioned off-center within the larger cylinder.
“Having Fun the Traditional Way” reference shows two images in which one and two boys, respectively, are shown with a traditional toy in which a wheel (which does not appear to have any spokes) is pushed using a stick. The images do not clearly show how the stick is connected to the wheel, but the image that shows two boys pushing his own push-wheel toy seems to suggest a stick having a hook-like design to keep the wheel in motion.
Other push-wheel type toys have also been previously disclosed, but they comprise a wheel hub to which the handle is directly connected. For example, the reference entitled “Plastic Pushing Wheel” reference discloses a toy consisting of a single wheel in which the handle for pushing the wheel, which is shown as having 3 spokes, is connected to the wheel's hub.
Another reference entitled “Rare Vintage Hand Push One Wheel Cultivator” discloses not a toy, but a farm implement, in which the handle is also attached to the wheel's hub, wherein the wheel has multiple spokes. The portion of the handle that connects to the hub also connects on the other end to a Y-shaped metal bar, with two ends connected to the wooden handle, and the other hand being connected directly to the cultivator.
The reference entitled “Having Fun the Traditional Way” shows two images in which one and two boys, respectively, are shown with a traditional toy in which a wheel, which does not appear to have any spokes, is pushed using a stick. The images do not clearly show how the stick is connected to the wheel, but the image that shows two boys pushing their own push-wheel toy seems to suggest a stick having a hook-like design to keep the wheel in motion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a manually-driven hand-navigable wheel toy comprising a handle with a fork portion comprising at least two prongs that rests on a wheel which enables and guides the wheel's motion during the operation. The at least two prongs straddle the wheel rim with the fork portion being in contact with the outer portion of the wheel rim during operation. The wheel is set in motion via, for example, a forward push of the wheel through the handle and is kept steadily moving towards a desired direction by steering the wheel with the aid of the at least two prongs of the fork portion of the handle. The wheel toy may further comprise a transparent hollow tubular wheel that may contain multi-colored objects such as plastic balls or may further comprise lights such as blinking LED lights located along various sections of the toy.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements.
In the embodiment of the invention as shown in
In another preferred embodiment, the lights are motion-activated so that the wheel's rotation activates the blinking of the lights. In another embodiment, the individual lamps may have their own separate switch for turning on and off. The lights may be attached to the wheel toy using various methods including using a double-sided tape, adhesives, screws, etc. In still another embodiment, the wheel may also include other implements such as bells and other music- or sound-playing implements that are activated via either a switch or some other mechanisms such as a motion sensing switch. Thus, in one preferred embodiment, the wheel's motion is accompanied by both lights and sounds.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the wheel is navigated via the at least two prongs of the fork portion of the handle,
As shown in
In another embodiment of the invention, the two prongs' ends are connected via, for example, a detachable snap-on connector or a clip-lock to prevent separation of the wheel from the handle during operation.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the horizontal prong-connecting portion of the fork portion that connects the prongs has a length that can be adjusted and set in a selected fixed position to accommodate different wheel diameters. The wheel of the present invention comprises any substantially round object.,
In one embodiment of the invention, the wheel has an essentially flat profile along its cross section. Alternatively, the wheel may be semi-circular or cylindrical. In another embodiment, the wheel may comprise a depression in the middle portion of the wheel's cross-section.
Both the wheel and handle may be made of various types of materials, preferably plastic, but other types of materials such as fiberglass, wood, acrylic, metal such as aluminum, etc. may also be used. Both the wheel and handle may be hollow or solid, or either one may be hollow or solid. For example, the wheel may be made of either a hollow or a solid polymer commonly used in plastic toys. In all embodiments of the present invention, the wheel and handle must be sufficiently rigid to prevent deformation of the wheel and handle during use.
The wheel preferably has dimensions of 16″ and 24″ for the wheel and handle, respectively. In another preferred embodiment, the toy has a dimension of 16″ and 20″ for the wheel and handle, respectively. In a highly-preferred embodiment of the invention, the wheel preferably has a thickness of about ¼″ and 2″ width. But other combination of dimensions may be also used.
Other embodiments of the present invention may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.
Having illustrated and described the principles of the present invention in a preferred embodiment, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiment can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. Any and all such embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A hand-driven rolling toy, comprising:
- (a) at least one wheel;
- (h) a handle portion for pushing or pulling the wheel; and
- (e) a fork portion in contact with the wheel for enabling and guiding the wheels motion, wherein the fork portion comprises at least two prongs, the two prongs are on opposite sides of a wheel rim, the fork portion of the handle rests on the outer surface of the wheel during operation, the two prongs are separated by a length only slightly wider than the wheel's rim to enable wheel motion with minimal wheel wobbling, and the forks allows the wheel to be navigated in any direction with a slight twisting hand motion, and wherein the wheel's motion can be reduced or stopped by a twisting hand motion or by pressing one of the forks downwards against the wheel rim.
2. The toy of claim 1, wherein the wheel is a transparent hollow tubular wheel comprising multi-colored plastic objects that roll within the wheel during operation of the toy.
3. The toy of claim 2, wherein one or more of the multi-colored objects emit light and/or sound during the wheel's motion.
4. The toy of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of light sources.
5. The toy of claim 4, wherein the light sources further comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes.
6. The toy of claim 4, wherein the light sources further comprising a plurality of multicolored blinking lights.
7. The toy of claim 1 further comprising at least one strip of light emitting diode array.
8. The toy of claim 1, wherein the handle is curved.
9. The toy of claim 1, wherein the wheel's rim is essentially flat.
10. The toy of claim 1, wherein the wheel's rim further comprising a depression in the middle portion of the wheel's rim.
11. The toy of claim 1, wherein the wheel's further comprising a semi-circular and/or cylindrical cross-section.
12. The toy of claim 1, wherein the two prongs' ends can be connected via a detachable snap-on connector or clip-lock to prevent separation of the wheel from the handle during operation.
13. The toy of claim 1, wherein a connecting portion that connects the prongs has a length that can be adjusted and set in a fixed position to accommodate different wheel rim diameters.
14. The toy of claim 1, wherein the handle's length is manually adjustable.
15. The toy of claim 1, wherein the toy further comprising two wheels.
16. The toy of claim 15, wherein the two wheels are connected by a bar and the toy handle is connected to the middle portion of the bar.
17. The toy of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the toy is made of polymer.
18. The toy of claim 1, wherein the wheel further comprising a cylindrical tube.
19. The toy of claim 2, wherein the cylindrical tube contains one or more multicolored balls that roll inside the wheel during operation.
20. The toy of claim 19, wherein the one or more multi-colored balls generate light or sound when the wheel moves.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 23, 2015
Publication Date: Dec 31, 2015
Inventor: Gideon Azari (Bay Harbor Island, FL)
Application Number: 14/746,921