BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to a toy ball such as a toy baseball or a toy tennis ball with which children amuse themselves and, more particularly, to a polyhedral toy ball.

Description of the Prior Art

As well known to those skilled in the art, typical toy balls such as a toy baseball and a toy tennis ball, with which children amuse themselves, have spherical shapes which are εimilar to conventional sports balls. Due to the spherical shapes of the typical toy balls, the bouncing direction of the toy balls are not random but regular in the same manner as the conventional sports balls, so that those spherical toy balls are not satisfactory in giving amusement to the children. In addition, the spherical toy balls roll well to a distance when the child players miss them while playing the balls, thus to make the child to repeatedly walk far for picking up the missed ball and, as a result, to cause the child to be soon tired of playing the balls. As shown in Fig. 3A, the typical toy ball generally comprises a rubber ball body 2' and a felt skin 3' covering the rubber ball body 2'. In order to produce this typical toy ball, the rubber ball body 2' is prepared and, thereafter, covered by the felt skin 3' such aε by bonding. Hence, the process for production of the typical toy ball is very complex. Furthermore, since the bonding force between

the felt skin 3' and the ball body 2' does not assure the ball of remaining the bonded state of the felt skin 3' and the ball body 2' for a long time, the felt skin 3' is apt to easily get stripped off from the rubber ball body 2' during use of the ball.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a polyhedral toy ball in which the aforementioned problems introduced by the typical spherical toy balls can be overcome and which has a polyhedral shape, such aε a cubic εhape or a rectangular hexahedral shape, other than the spherical shape, thus to bounce in a random direction and to prevent from rolling to a distance when a child player misses it while playing and, as a result, to promote interests in ball games and to allow children to play with the ball without boring.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a polyhedral toy ball which is produced by preparation of a hollow polyhedral ball body using a rubber-coated felt cloth comprising a felt coated with a thin rubber layer on its back εurface and, thereafter, by blowing the ball body, thus to εimplify its production procesε and to reduce the cost.

In order to accomplish the above object, a polyhedral toy ball in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises a rubber-coated felt cloth comprising a felt coated with a thin rubber layer on its back surface.

In order to produce the polyhedral toy ball of this invention, a .hollow ball body having a desired polyhedral

shape, that is, a regular hexahedral ball body or a rectangular hexahedral ball body, is prepared using the rubber-coated felt cloth and, thereafter, blown in order to provide the resilient polyhedral toy ball.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a regular hexahedral toy ball in accordance with a primary embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a rectangular hexahedral toy ball in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3A is a sectional view of a typical spherical toy ball, showing a conεtruction and a production proceεε of the ball;

Fig. 3B is a partial sectional view of a polyhedral toy ball of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a view showing a practical use of the polyhedral toy ball of the present invention with a racket; and

Figs. 5A to 5D are perspective views showing a process for production of a hexahedral toy ball in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2, there are shown a regular hexahedral toy ball and a rectangular hexahedral toy ball in accordance with primary and second embodiments of the present invention, respectively. As shown in these drawings, the toy ball of the present invention has a polyhedral shape, such as a hexahedral shape, differently from the typical toy ball. This polyhedral toy ball shows a resilience in order to achieve its bouncing function similarly to the typical toy ball.

Turning to Fig. 3B showing a sectional structure of a polyhedral toy ball of the present invention, the polyhedral toy ball is produced using a rubber-coated felt cloth 1 comprising a felt 3 coated with a thin rubber layer 2 on its back surface. In order to produce the polyhedral toy ball of this invention, a hollow ball body having a desired polyhedral shape, that iε, the regular hexahedral ball body or the rectangular hexahedral ball body, is prepared using the rubber-coated felt cloth 1 and, thereafter, blown in order to provide the resilient polyhedral toy ball, thus to simplify the production process and to reduce the cost. It should be understood that there exists a different sectional structure of the polyhedral toy ball of this invention as shown in Figs. 5A to 5D. These drawings, Figs. 5A to 5D, show a process for production of a regular hexahedral toy ball in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention. The εectional εtructure and the process for production of the hexahedral toy ball of the third embodiment are εimilar

to those of the typical spherical toy ball, respectively. That is, in order to produce the hexahedral toy ball of this third embodiment, a pair of rubber members are integrated into a hexahedral rubber ball body as εhown in Figε. 5A and 5B. The hexahedral rubber ball body is, thereafter, covered by two felt skinε such as by bonding as εhown in Figs. 5C and 5D. However, it should be understood that the felt skin of the ball of thiε third embodiment may get εtripped off from the rubber ball body during itε use differently from the balls according to the primary and second embodiments using the rubber- coated felt cloth 1.

Since the toy ball of the present invention has a polyhedral shape aε described above, it bounces in a random direction when it is hit lightly such as by a tennis racket as shown in Fig. 4, thus to give amusement to the child. However, when this polyhedral toy ball is hit strongly by the racket, the flying ball is elastically deformed in its shape from the polyhedral shape into a nearly spherical shape thanking for its resilience. Hence, the flying direction of the strongly hit polyhedral ball is nearly regular alike the spherical toy ball, so that the incident angle and the bouncing angle of this ball with reεpect to the net εurface of the racket are nearly regular εimilarly to the εpherical toy ball.

In addition, when a child player iεses the polyhedral ball of this invention while playing, this unique ball does not roll far before it stops thanks to the protruding edges between the adjacent surfaceε of the ball. This would help the players to pick up the ball eaεily without the troubles of chasing after the ball.

Further, the polyhedral shape helps eliminate the anxiety of losing the ball.

The surfaces of the polyhedral toy ball of the present invention which are nearly planar may be advantageously, so that this ball improves its advertising effectiveness when its planar surfaceε are printed with advertising characters.

As described above, a polyhedral toy ball in accordance with the present invention is preferably produced using a rubber-coated felt cloth comprising a felt coated with a thin rubber layer on its back surface. That is, thiε ball is produced by preparation of a hollow polyhedral ball body uεing the rubber-coated felt cloth and, thereafter, by blowing the ball body, thuε to simplify its production process and to reduce the cost. The use of the rubber-coated felt cloth, comprising the felt coated with the thin rubber layer on its back εurface, as the ball body material reliably overcomes the problem of the typical toy ball that the felt skin is apt to easily get stripped off from the rubber ball body during play with the ball. Hence, the using life of the toy ball is remarkably increased according to the present invention.

Although the preferred embodimentε of the preεent invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and subεtitutions are posεible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.