GB2156737A - Game and educational apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Game apparatus or educational apparatus comprises a container having the appearance of a book with a spine (3) and front and rear covers, one cover (2) which is openable to give access to bound pages (1) mounted between that openable cover and an openable compartment (12) formed between the bound pages and the second, dummy, cover containing play articles or educational apparatus. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Game and educational apparatus The present invention relates to game apparatus and to educational apparatus, including educational toys.

When children are read stories from books or read stories for themselves, they may not obtain the full benefit to be obtained from the book simply from the written word. To enhance the impact of the story, books for children, particularly for younger children, often contain large numbers of illustrations related to the text. These help to retain the child's interest and to provide a valuable educational function, for instance by helping the child to understand the story and recognise by name objects appearing in the illustrations and referred to in the story. Stories for young children are often read many times and it decreases the value of the book as an amusement and an educational aid that the illustrations presented to the child are the same at every reading of the story.

Moving away from the area of the children's story, there is often a need to present physical objects and written material in conjunction for use together. Conventionally, the written material is presented as a separate book or booklet which may be contained in the same overall container as the physical objects in question. For instance, the rules for a game are often presented as a small booklet in the same container as the playing pieces for the game. It would be desirable to produce a packaging system for presenting written information and objects such as game playing pieces together in an attractive manner better adapted to ensure that the two do not become separated.

Accordingly, the present invention provides in a first aspect game apparatus comprising a container having the appearance of a book, the container having a spine, an openable cover and a dummy cover, bound papers inside the openable cover and a closed but openable compartment between the bound pages and the dummy cover containing play articles.

In a second aspect, the invention provides educational apparatus comprising a container as defined above, of which the closed but openable compartment contains educational aid pieces.

More generally, the invention provides packaging apparatus comprising a container as defined above wherein the closed but openable compartment contains packaged goods.

Preferably, the compartment is a drawer slidable in a sleeve formed by a top member, the dummy cover, and three edges members joining the dummy cover to the top member.

Preferably, the drawer opens away from the spine of the container.

Alternatively, the compartment may be formed as a box. The lid of the box may be any one of the edges of the container or may be a top member underlying the bound pages or, most preferably, may be the dummy cover of the container.

Preferably, those portions of the container occupying the place of page edges in a book are given the appearance of page edges.

Preferably, the bound pages lie within a tray defined by a base within the container and edge portions of the container.

It is possible that the pages may be blank or substantially blank to enable writing or artwork to be applied to them by the user. For instance, in game apparatus the child playing with the game apparatus might be enabled to produce pictures relating to the game being played with the playing pieces.

Generally, and most preferably, the pages will bear indictia. The pages may have printed material such as a story in the case of game apparatus, instructions for playing a game with the playing pieces provided, or instructions for the use of some object packaged in the compartment.

Preferably, the pages provide a story and the playing pieces are thematically linked to the story. For instance, the pages may contain a story relating to a farm and the playing pieces may constitute a farm yard, farm house and characters from the story.

Preferably, the playing pieces in game apparatus according to the invention, or at least some of them, are erectable from a flat state in which they are storable in the compartment to an erect state in which they may be stood upon a playing surface.

The playing pieces may include a playing surface, for instance a board or a number of playing surface pieces to be joined together to form a larger playing surface.

The invention will be illustrated by the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a container according to the invention in a closed position, and Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the same container in a partially open condition.

As shown in Figure 1, the book 1 comprises a top cover 2 bearing a suitable title, in this case "playbook" and has a spine 3, a front edge 4 and top and bottom edges 5 and 6. Apart from a tag 7, the container resembles a conventional hard bound book. As shown, the book is resting upon a dummy cover 8 corresponding to the top cover 2 in appearance, apart from lacking the title. It can be seen that top cover 2 and the dummy cover 8 both extend slightly beyond the area bounded by the side edges 4, 5 and 6, just as the real covers of a conventional book extend slightly beyond the pages. The surfaces of the edge portions 4, 5 and 6 are finished to resemble the edges of the pages of a book.

As shown in Figure 2, the top cover 2 is an openable cover serving to close a shallow tray having a base 9 and an upstanding wall 10.

The sidewall 10 extends around the whole periphery of the tray and is provided by an internal face of the edge members 4, 5 and 6 and the spine 3. Within the tray 9 are bound a plurality of pages 11 having thereon a printed story with or without illustrations. The container 1 further comprises a drawer 1 2 below the tray 9 and received in a sleeve defined by the base of the tray 9 which forms a top member of the sleeve, the dummy cover 8 and the edge members 5 and 6. The drawer has a base and a sidewall upstanding therefrom surrounding the base. The front wall of the drawer is provided by the edge member 4 of the container to which is attached the tag 7, the purpose of which is to enable the drawer to be pulled out. The drawer contains game playing apparatus (not shown) having a sthematic link with the story in the book.In particular, the game playing apparatus may comprise a playing board composed of a number, for instance 4, sections which may have interlocking means thereon so that they may be joined together as pieces of a jigsaw to provide a larger playing surface.

The board may have suitable surface markings to enable it to represent a particular location such as a farm yard, castle court yard or whatever is applicable to the story. The playing pieces may comprise small figures of people and animals to be used in playing, as well as buildings, trees, and other background features to be used in assembling scenery in which the characters may be moved.

Preferably, some of the playing pieces provided, particularly the background features and larger items provided may be in the form of cut out figures in board such as cardboard with means by which they may be supported such as fold out support tabs. There may be provision for interlocking some of the playing pieces with the board to stand the pieces in defined positions.

The embodiment described above enables a child to animate the story or stories or lesson or lessons contained in the printed pages by moving characters and pieces on the board with three dimensional scenery and bringing to life the written word, or if the story is being read to the child, the spoken word. The child s imagination will thereby be stimulated and the child will be taught word association at an early age.

The story or stories contained in the book portion of the game apparatus may be of any kind, for instance simple nursery stories, traditional fairy stories, historical stories and biblical stories.

Apart from the essentially recreational purposes described above, the same type of apparatus may be of considerable value in the medical field as an assessment aid and as a therapeutic device for teaching the mentally sub-normal or handicapped.

In more strictly educational aspects, a similar container may contain a written lesson on the pages bound into the container and educational apparatus needed for the performance of the lesson contained in the drawer.

As a general packaging mechanism, the container may contain instructions on the printed pages for the operation of a device stored in the drawer portion.

Whilst the invention has been described with reference to particular features and characteristics of the embodiment described above, it will be recognised that many variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the invention.

Claims (11)

1. Game apparatus comprising a container having the appearance of a book, the container having a spine, an openable cover and a dummy cover, bound pages inside the openable cover and a closed but openable compartment between the bound pages and the dummy cover containing play articles.

2. Educational apparatus comprising a container as defined in claim 1, of which the closed but openable compartment contains educational aid pieces.

3. Packaging apparatus comprising a container as defined in claim 1 wherein the closed but openable compartment contains packaged goods.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the compartment is a drawer slidable in a sleeve formed by a top member, the dummy cover, and three edges members joining the dummy cover to the top member.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the drawer opens away from the spine of the container.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the compartment is formed as a box.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein those portions of the container occupying the place of page edges in a book are given the appearance of page edges.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the bound pages lie within a tray defined by a base within the container and edge portions of the container.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the pages provide a story and the pieces are thematically linked to the story.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the playing pieces or at least some of them, are erectable from a flat state in which they are storable in the compartment to an erect state in which they may be stood upon a playing surface.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 10 wherein the playing pieces include a playing surface, or a number of playing surface pieces to be joined together to form a larger playing surface.

1 2. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.