Title:

Magnetic-connected inflatable toy

United States Patent Application 20040063380

Kind Code:

A1

Abstract:

A magnetic-connected inflatable toy mainly includes inflatable building blocks and magnets. The inflatable building blocks are geometric pipes with various lengths having an air valve and a magnet on the side connected with another building lock. By the magnetic force between two magnets, the inflatable building blocks are connected with each other to form various models of toys.

Representative Image:

Inventors:

Chi, Pei-ni (Yunghe City, TW)
Yang, Min-fang (Taipei Hsien, TW)
Chang, Chia-ling (Taichung City, TW)

Application Number:

10/260606

Publication Date:

04/01/2004

Filing Date:

10/01/2002

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Export Citation:

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Primary Class:

446/220

International Classes:

(IPC1-7): A63H003/06

Attorney, Agent or Firm:

RABIN & BERDO, P.C. (Suite 500, Washington, DC, 20005, US)

Claims:

What is claimed is:

1. A magnetic-connected inflatable toy comprising a plurality of tubular inflatable building blocks, each having an air valve and with various geometric shapes; and a plurality of magnets disposed on a plurality of side of each of said inflatable building blocks for connecting inflatable building blocks with each other.

Description:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a magnetic-connected inflatable toy, especially to a plurality of geometric shaped inflatable building block connected with each other by magnets so as to build a variety of models.

[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0004] Conventional building blocks are made of wood with paints on the surface thereof. The wood is easy to be damaged by scratches or crash and the shed paints have bad effect on children's health. Thus the wooden building blocks are getting rare gradually. Moreover, there is no connective device on wood blocks so that wooden building blocks just build limited models.

[0005] Thus plastic blocks have replaced wooden blocks. Most of the plastic blocks are made by injection modeling with connective devices. The most common connective devices are insertion rods and insertion holes. The block with an insertion rod connects to another block with an insertion hole by the insertion rod joined with the insertion hole. Therefore, the toys constructed by blocks are increasingly bigger and complicated.

[0006] Although plastic blocks can join with each other by connective devices, one set of building blocks can only makes a small volume toy. If users want to make a bigger toy, they need to add a booster set or add-ons. Furthermore, the bigger the volume of the toy is, the heavier the weight of the toy is. It's dangerous for children to stack a big volume blocks. Man-sized building blocks made of foamed plastic or filler is light and is easy to replace. But the large volume of toys causes inconvenient storage. They also have no connective devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a magnetic-connected inflatable toy having a plurality of geometric shaped inflatable building block connected with each other by magnets so as to construct various kind of models.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] The accomplishment of the above-mentioned object of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and its accompanying drawings which disclose illustrative an embodiment of the present invention, and are as follows:

[0009] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0010] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0011] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a further one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0012] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a further one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0013] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a further one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0014] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a further one of the inflatable building blocks;

[0015] FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0016] Refer from FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 , the present invention includes inflatable building blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and magnets 2 . The position and interactive relationship of each components are as followings:

[0017] the inflatable building blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e , each having an air valve 11 thereof, are tubular geometric shaped;

[0018] the magnets 2 are disposed on several sides of the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e so as to connect each block with others.

[0019] The shapes of the inflatable building blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e , refer from FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 , can be various shape, such as a rod, U-shaped, H-shaped, cross . . . and so on. Refer to FIG. 6 , an inflatable building block 1 f is doughnut-shaped without magnet 2 installed thereof.

[0020] According to users' need, the inflatable building blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e connect with each other by the magnets 2 thereof so as to construct various kind of toys, as shown in FIG. 7 .

[0021] The inflatable building blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f are filled by inflation so that the weight of the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f is quite light. Thus the toys constructed by the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f can be added to large volume without increasing risk.

[0022] Moreover, the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f are deflated through the air valve 11 when not in use for easy storage. In the contrary, when being set up, the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f are inflated by a pump.

[0023] In addition, the blocks 1 a , 1 b , 1 c , 1 d , 1 e and 1 f can be designed with different shapes and volumes. When being designed with larger size, they are able to build inflatable beddings such as mattresses, pillows, and bolsters, or inflatable furniture such as sofa, cods. Or make some other applications such as sliding boards, game rooms.

[0024] In larger size, the blocks can be stacked to form a signboard, a nameboard, a portal, a three dimensional shingle, or a planar sign according to users' need. This is a further embodiment of the present invention.

[0025] It should be noted that the above description and accompanying drawings are only used to illustrated some embodiments of the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof Any modification of the embodiments should fall within the scope of the present invention.