The present invention relates to an invertible toy. In particular, the invention relates to a toy in the form of a doll or puppet that may be easily adapted by a child so as to convert the doll or puppet from one character to another character of a fictional story.

Many childrens stories and tales include reference to several characters, whether they be human characters, animal characters or imaginary characters. In most instances all of the characters are fictional, and have been developed over time through nursery rhymes, picture books, childrens television programs, movies and films.

Traditionally, toys such as dolls and puppets are manufactured to supplement such books and the like, and in order to promote the stories, movies and films. In more recent times, character merchandising of movies and films has become extremely popular and is a common vehicle for the promotion of the writers work.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a single toy that is capable of incorporating at least three characters in one toy. In this respect, the word "doll" is used throughout the following description to refer to the invertible toy of the present invention. However, it will be understood that no gender or character limitations are to be placed on the invention as a result of this use.

The present invention provides an invertible doll having an upper portion and a lower portion, each having a front and a rear and having at least one face thereon, the upper and lower portions being separated by an item of dolls clothing which is capable of covering the lower portion when the upper portion is uppermost and covering the upper

portion when the doll is inverted and the lower portion is uppermost, each portion also having a hood member, wherein at least one of the hood members is adapted for movement between first and second positions such that in the first position the front of the relevant portion is exposed while the rear is covered, and in the second position the rear of said relevant portion is exposed and the front is covered, and wherein the front and rear of said relevant portion both incorporate a face thereon.

In a further form of the invention, both of the hood members are adapted for movement between first and second positions such that each of the upper and lower portions both have faces on the front and rear thereof. In this form of the invention the invertible doll incorporates four faces, and thus incorporates four different characters, whereas the broadest form of the invention referred to above provides an invertible doll having three faces and thus provides a doll incorporating three different characters.

For example, in the broadest form of the invention described above, the three faces are provided as two faces on the upper portion (on the front and rear thereof) and one face on the lower portion. The hood member on the lower portion may be fixed on the lower portion to only reveal that one face. However, the hood member on the upper portion is adapted for movement between first and second positions to be capable of revealing the front face while covering the rear face so as not to be visible, and to be moveable to the second position where the rear face is revealed while the front face is covered so as not to be visible. In this example, the three characters may be characters from the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which would provide the three characters as Little Red Riding Hood herself, the Wolf and Granny. Alternatively, the

characters could be characters from the story of Hansel and Gretel, where the three characters are Hansel and Gretel themselves and the Wicked Witch. Of course, many other such fictitious characters may be adopted.

In the other form of the invention, there may be faces provided on both the front and rear of each of the upper and lower portions, and the doll may be provided with a hood member on each of the upper and lower portions that is adaptable to reveal each of the four faces. In this form of the invention, the characters may be characters from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where the four characters are Goldilocks herself, the Father Bear, the Mother Bear and the Baby Bear. Other alternatives may be the story of Little Red Riding Hood as described above, but with the inclusion of the Woodcutter, or alternatively some of the characters from the story of the Wizard of Oz, such as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man. Again, many alternatives are possible for providing fictitious characters of any appropriate story, tale, myth or nursery rhyme and the like. Furthermore, it can be seen that the invertible doll in any of these forms is well suited for use by either boys or girls and does not suffer from the reasonably common misconception that dolls are only for girls to play with.

With the invertible doll of the present . invention, any child may readily adapt the hood member of the doll to reveal either of the faces on the upper or lower portions thereof by simply transferring the hood member from the first to the second position, and may reveal the other face or faces on the other of the upper or lower portion by simply inverting the doll such that the clothing item covers the lowermost portion and the uppermost portion is revealed.

Such an invertible doll may conveniently be sold through retail outlets together with a story book or audio cassette for the child to read and or listen to whilst revealing and hiding each of the relevant characters from the story.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the upper and lower portions are provided as heads only, without a torso or limbs such that the neck portions of the upper and lower portions may be secured together having a skirt or the like secured thereabout. The skirt may then be of such a length as to cover each of the upper and lower portions whenever the lower and upper portions are uppermost. However, an alternative arrangement may include the upper and lower portions also incorporating a part of a torso or a complete torso, and possibly the upper limbs.

However, the upper and lower portions are preferably in the form of a head, having two sets of front facial features attached to each other, one at the front and one at the rear of the respective portion, and having the hood member separating the two. Of course, where the upper or lower portion is only to include one face, then only the frontal features of one head would be provided.

In this respect, it will be appreciated that the term "face" or "faces" as used throughout this specification refers to the frontal facial features utilised for the purposes of indicating a character. These frontal facial features may be provided, for example, with or without ears, with or without a hairline, with or without a chin or neck features, but will generally always include eyes, nose and mouth.

The present invention will now be described in relation to the accompanying drawings. However, it must be appreciated that the following description is not to limit the generality of the above description.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a schematic sectional view of the general form of a preferred embodiment of an invertible doll according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic sectional view of the embodiment of Figure 1 having faces incorporated thereon;

Figures 3a and 3b are side views of the embodiment of Figure 2 in an upright and an inverted position; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the embodiment of Figure 2 having breakaway portions revealing the various parts thereof.

Illustrated in Figure 1 is an invertible doll 10 having an upper portion 12 and a lower portion 14 rigidly secured together at the point illustrated by the numeral 16. Located between the upper and lower portions 12 and 14 is an item of clothing 19 that is large enough to fall over the lower portion 14 when the doll 10 is in the position illustrated in Figure 1. Thus, the lower portion 14 would in this instance be covered so as not to be visible.

Both the upper and lower portions 12 and 14 include a hood member (18 and 20 respectively). Considering firstly hood member 18, it can be seen that in the position illustrated, hood member 18 covers the rear 22 of the

upper portion 12 but allows the front 24 thereof to be revealed. Similarly, the front 26 of the lower portion 14 is revealed while the rear 28 is covered by hood member 20.

The hood members 18 and 20 are both preferably secured to the upper and lower portions 12 and 14 respectively about the periphery thereof so as to be capable of being adapted by a child to allow movement front a first position covering the respective rear sides of the upper and lower portions, to second positions where those rear sides are revealed. This is preferably accomplished by stitching the hood members to the upper and lower portions respectively about the periphery thereof, and by making the hood members of such a size as to allow them to be easily manipulated over the upper or lower portion as required.

Figure 2 illustrates the invertible doll 10 of Figure 1 incorporating four faces A, B, C and D thereon. Faces A and B are included on the front and rear (24 and 22) of the upper portion 12, whereas faces C and D are included on the rear and front of the lower portion.

Thus, as illustrated in Figures 3a and 3b, the appearance of the invertible doll at any one time is preferably such that only one face is revealed. In Figure 3a, face A is the only face revealed, while the hood member 18 covers face B and the item of clothing 19 in the form of a free hanging skirt covers both faces D and C (face D and the hood member 20 which hides face C are included in outline in Figures 3a and 3b) . Of course, when the hood member 18 is manipulated by a child over the upper portion, face B is revealed and face A is hidden.

When either of faces C and D are required to be revealed, the doll is inverted such that the lower portion 14 is revealed as the skirt 19 falls about the upper portion 12, and the hood member 20 may be manipulated as necessary to reveal either of the faces as required.

It will be understood that one of the upper or lower portions may only include one face and may have the hood member incapable of being manipulated, or may have a hood member as normal but have only the features of the rear of a head on the rear thereof.

Figure 4 also illustrates the invertible doll of this invention showing a face A revealed and having breakaway portions 30 and 32 revealing faces B and C which remain hidden from view. In this particular embodiment, the top side 34 of the material of the skirt 19 is preferably of a type that suits the character of face A, as is the material on the outer surface 36 of the hood member 18. Similarly, the front portion of the skirt 19 (immediately below face A) may include a depiction of clothing that also suits the character of face A. Of course, in each of the four possible positions for the hood members and the skirt, suitable material and/or additional features may be included as necessary.

Finally, and as indicated above, any of a range of possible characters may be included as the faces in the invertible doll of this invention. The characters need not necessarily be from known stores or tales, but may be any of a number of characters as necessary.

It will also be appreciated that there may be other modifications and alterations to the configurations described above that are also within the scope of the present invention.