Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention relate to toys that have a pixel-like appearance, giving the impression of having been generated by a computer. Embodiments of these toys can have the shape of a character, an animal, an object such as a vehicle or a bridge, a building, or the like. The embodiments are free-standing, and do so without being attached to a support platform. A toy configured as a character has a moveable head, and can have two arms, one or both of which are moveable. The head is rotatable and removable, and the heads of different toys are interchangeable. Embodiments can be distributed individually, or a group can be bundled as either a play set or collection.

Background of the Invention

During the earlier stages of video game development, particularly in the 1970s- 1980s, video game characters had a pixelated appearance, due in part to the low resolution of the monitors and/or video terminals on which they were displayed, and the limited computing power available at that time. As the computing power of the personal computer increased from that time period, accompanied by an increase in screen resolution, graphic cards and computing power, this increased resolution has resulted in more life-like graphics and video game characters having more realistic appearances.

There is currently a trend underway towards more things that have a "retro" appearance, to remind one of earlier days. Examples of such a retro trend are the resurgence of interest in typewriters (whether manual or electric) instead of computer printers, vinyl records and turntables in lieu of compact disk recordings ("CDs"), and older video games, such as SPACE INVADERS® (Registered trademark of Taito Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) or PAC-MAN® (Registered trademark of Banda Namco Entertainment, Inc., Tokyo, Japan), which were played on display screens generated from an 8 bit computer. Embodiments of the present invention are designed to take advantage of this trend, and include characters having an image that resembles those generated by 8 bit computers.

Brief Summary of the Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a toy that has the appearance of being generated by a computer using 8 bit graphics.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy having a rotatable head.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy having a removable head.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a toy having a movable component other than or in addition to the head.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to toys that have a pixel-like appearance, giving the impression of having been generated by a computer. Embodiments of these toys can have the shape of a character, an animal, an object such as a vehicle or a bridge, a building, or the like. The embodiments are free-standing, and do so without being attached to a support platform. A toy configured as a character has a moveable head, and can have two arms, one or both of which are moveable. The head is rotatable and removable, and the heads of different toys are interchangeable. Embodiments can be distributed individually, or a group can be bundled as either a play set or collection. Toys are formed of molded plastic, and include various accessories appropriate to the particular toy. A spaceman character could have an accessory ray- gun that fits within a hand.

Brief Description of the Several Views of the Drawing

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates the components of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 illustrates the arm connectors of the embodiment of Fig. 1

Fig. 4 illustrates the receiver for the arm connector shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a second embodiment of the present invention, a spaceman holding a gun in the left hand.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of a third embodiment of the present invention, the character holding a briefcase in the left hand.

Fig. 8 is a schematic drawing of the glasses on the embodiment in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of an alternate embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Given the current trend towards things that have a "retro" appearance, to remind one of earlier days, embodiments of the present invention are designed to take advantage of this trend, and include characters having an image that resembles those generated by 8 bit computers. An embodiment of the present invention is shown in Fig. 1. The toy 100 is a freestanding character with accessories, such as headphones 200 and a sword 300. The character 100 is assembled from components (Fig. 2) that include a body 110, legs 120, head 130, and arms 140, each arm 140 including a pivotable fastener 144 extending from the shoulder 142 of each arm (Fig. 3).

The head 130 is formed to give the appearance of a mouth 132, a nose 134 (that extends outward from the head 130 when seen in Fig. 2), cheeks 136, eyes 138 and projections 139. The projections 139 can also be considered as either ears or horns, depending upon how one views this particular character.

The body 110 includes a neck 112, a rod-like projection onto which the head 130 is attached. The head 130 includes an opening 131 in its bottom, into which opening 131 the neck 112 is received. The head 130 is rotatable about the neck 112, and can be rotated; multiple rotations and reverse rotations are possible. Alternate embodiments not only allow rotation, but allow the head 130 to slide up and down the neck 112 for height adjustment, and to be out of the way when the arms 140 in some of these embodiments are raised and consequently block movement of the head 130. In the embodiments, the head is removable, and the heads of different toy embodiments are interchangeable with each other, subject to the imagination of the user.

The character 100 is assembled by attaching the body 110 to the legs 120, followed by attaching the head 130 to the body. The shoulder portion 114 on each side of the body 110 includes an opening 116 therein, the opening 116 sized to receive the semi-circular end 146 of the fastener 144 therein, such that the arm 140 can pivot freely in a forward and backwards movement. Replacement of the pivotable fastener 144 by a fastener having a ball joint or similar structure at each end can result in the arms 140 being capable of movement in an up and down or roundabout movement as well as forward and backward movement. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the legs 120 are stationary, however, the legs 120 could be manufactured separately from the body, and a set of pivotable fasteners or pivot pins or fasteners with a ball joint could be added to provide movement of the legs 120. Similarly, both the arms 140 and legs 120 could be manufactured such that there is movement of the elbows and wrists, and knees and ankles, respectively, or combinations thereof. The character 100 is free standing, standing on feet 122. The arms 140 include a hand portion 148 that has an opening 150 therethrough, the opening 150 sized to receive the handle 310 of the sword 300. In other embodiments, the opening 150 may extend partially into the hand portion 148.

Depending upon manufacturing considerations, components such as the body 110 and legs 120 could be manufactured as a single component.

When seen from the rear (Fig. 5), the character has the pixel appearance, and may have an accessory, such as a cape 118 attached to it. The cape 118 may contain indicia 119. The components are generally formed from injection molded plastic, using conventional processes. The inside of the mold contains projections, such that once the component is released from the mold, the grid-like appearance and rounded corners of each grid have been formed. Alternatively, the components could be manufactured in a mold without internal projections, and after molding, the grids can be formed either by machining the molded component, or by impressing a grid pattern onto the molded component to form the grid, such as by the use of a heating and pressing process. The head 130 is generally hollow, and the other components generally solid, although depending upon manufacturing and other parameters, the head maybe more solid than hollow, and the other components may contain some hollow regions inside, and have varying amounts of solidity.

Some of the color gradation seen in the drawings is due to components having different coloration. Generally the character is molded in a single color, and additional colors to distinguish the eyes, mouth or other component are added later on in the manufacturing process by painting or finishing processes known to those skilled in the art.

The types of characters can range from representations of an individual person, animals, cartoon characters, cowboys, astronauts or spacemen, airplanes, rocket ships and the like. These toys can (as shown in Figs. 1-2) include accessories appropriate to the particular toy; for example, a spaceman character could have an accessory ray-gun that fits within a hand.

Figure 6 illustrates a second embodiment 400 of the present invention. This second embodiment 400 is a free-standing spaceman 400 with a raygun 320 accessory in its left hand. The character 400 is assembled from components (similar to those shown in Fig. 2) that include a body 410, legs 420, head 430, and arms 440, each arm 440 including a pivotable fastener (not shown) extending from the shoulder 442 of each arm.

The head 430 is formed to give the appearance of a mouth 432 (that extends outward from the head 430), eyes 438 and projections 439. The projections 439 could be considered as either ears (because of their coloration) or antennae, depending upon how one views this particular character.

The body 410 includes a neck 412, a rod-like projection onto which the head 430 is attached. The head 430 includes an opening (not shown) in its bottom, into which opening the neck 412 is received. The head 430 is rotatable about the neck 412, and can be rotated; multiple rotations and reverse rotations are possible. Alternate embodiments not only allow rotation, but allow the head 430 to slide up and down the neck 412 for height adjustment, and to be out of the way when the arms 440 in this embodiment are raised and consequently block movement of the head 430. In the embodiments, the head is removable, and the heads of different toy

embodiments are interchangeable with each other, subject to the imagination of the user.

The character 400 is assembled in the same manner as has been described for the character shown in Figs. 1-5. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 6, the legs 420 are stationary, however, the legs 420 could be manufactured separately from the body, and a set of pivotable fasteners or pivot pins or fasteners with a ball joint could be added to provide movement of the legs 420. Similarly, both the arms 440 and legs 420 could be manufactured such that there is movement of the elbows and wrists, and knees and ankles, respectively, or combinations thereof. The arms may include an elbow, and the legs may include a knee. Placement of an articulating joint in either the elbow or the knee would provide the user the ability to bend either the arms or the knees of the character.

The arms 440 include a hand portion 448 that has an opening 450 therethrough, the opening 450 sized to receive the handle 330 of the raygun 320. In other embodiments, the opening 450 may extend partially into the hand portion 448.

Depending upon manufacturing considerations, components such as the body 410 and legs 420 could be manufactured as a single component. A third embodiment 500 (Fig. 7) shows the character 500 with a briefcase 350 (Fig. 7) in its left hand. This character 500 is also free-standing, like the previously described

embodiments of the present invention. Character 500 is assembled from components that include a body 510, legs 520, head 530, and arms 540, each arm 540 including a pivotable fastener (not shown) extending from the shoulder 542 of each arm.

The head 530 is formed to give the appearance of a mouth 532, eyes 536, glasses 538 and projection 539. The projection 539 can be considered as a hat or other function, depending upon how one sees this character.

The arms 540 include a hand portion 548 that has an opening 550 therethrough, the opening 550 sized to receive the handle 360 of the briefcase 350.

The glasses 538 (shown enlarged in Fig. 8) include a set of rims 560, and within the rims 560 are a set of braces 562 within the corners to aid in maintaining the glasses' shape.

Character 600 (Fig. 8) is similar to the characters previously described, comprising a body 610, legs 620, head 630, and arms 640, each arm 640 including a pivotable fastener (not shown) extending from the shoulder 642 of each arm.

The head 630 is formed to give the appearance of a mouth 632, cheeks 636, eyes 638 and projections 639. The projections 639 can also be considered as either hair or a hat, depending upon how one views this particular character. The construction of this character 600 is similar to that of the embodiments described previously, and will not be described further.

Referring to Fig. 5, in which indicia 119 are on the back of the character, and Figs.5-6 showing one or more accessories attached to or being held by the character, accessories such as wings, a backpack, an oxygen tank (for example, firefighter or SCUBA diver) or other items could also be attached to the character's back. In such instances, one or more openings (not shown) may be formed at different location on the back, into which a pin attached to the accessory would be placed to attach that accessory to the back. An alternate type of pin could be one to which a swivel is attached, allowing the attached accessory to be swivelled by a user.

Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made only by the way of illustration, and that numerous changes in construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.