US3624960A - Posable figure manikin - Google Patents

Abstract

A BENDABLE TOY FIGURE WHICH IS ECONOMICAL TO PRODUCE COMPRISING A BODY WIRE, ARM WIRE, AND LEG, ALL OF THE WIRES BEING BENDABLE AND COVERED BY A FLEXIBLE PLASTIC MATERIAL THAT DEFINES A MECHANICAL MAN. THE CENTER OF THE ARM WIRE, WHICH EXTENDS THROUGH THE CHEST PORTION OF THE FIGURE, HAS A SINGLE BEND, SO THAT THE ARMS EXTEND AT ABOUT A 120* ANGLE FROM EACH OTHER. THE HEAD OF THE

FIGURE IS FEATURELESS AND A SEPARATE HAT WITH EAR FLAPS IS PROVIDED WHICH ENGAGES THE HEAD FOR ROTATION THEREON, SO THAT THE FIGURE APPEARS TO FACE IN A DIRECTION DEFINED BY THE ORIENTATION OF THE HAT.

Description

- 7, 1971 H. J. FoLsoN ETAL 3,624,960

POSABLE FIGURE MANIKIN 2 Shoots-Shoot 1 Filed Oct. 31, 1969 Dec. 7, 1971 H. J. FoLsoN ETAL 3,624,960

POSABLE FIGURE MANIKIN Filed Oct. 3l, 1969 2 Sheets-Shoot 2 mM/'JM irral/vil United States Patent O 3,624,960 POSABLE FIGURE MANIKIN Henry J. Folson, Redondo Beach, J. Stephen Lewis, Pacific Palisades, Marius J. Morin, Torrance, and John W.

Ryan, Los Angeles, Calif., assignors to Mattel, Inc.,

Hawthorne, Calif.

Filed Oct. 31, 1969, Ser. No. 872,949 Int. Cl. A63h 3/00 U.S. Cl. 46-151 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A bendable toy figure which is economical to produce comprising a body wire, arm wire, and leg wire, all of the wires being bendable and covered by a flexible plastic material that denes a mechanical man. The center of the arm wire, which extends through the chest portion of the figure, has a single bend, so that the arms extend at about a 120 angle from each other. The head of the ligure is featureless and a separate hat with ear flaps is provided which engages the head for rotation thereon, so that the figure appears to face in a direction defined by the orientation of the hat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the invention This invention relates to toy figures.

(2) Description of the prior art Posable toy figures can be constructed using bendable wire armatures covered with a flexible plastic or other material. Such figures have typically been molded by using a length of bendable wire for the body, a second length laid straight across the body wire to form a pair of arms, and a third length laid across the bottom of the body wire to form a pair of legs. These wires were held in an injection mold and a flexible covering material was injected into the mold to surround the Wires. The arms were typically molded to extend straight out, in alignment with each other. If no precautions were taken to firmly anchor the center of the wire that passes through the body, torque applied to one arm would be transmitted to the other arm, which would interfere with separate posing of the arms. Accordingly, the arm wire was formed with a zigzag portion where it passed through the body. The four bends in the wire required to form a simple zigzag, or even three bends required to form a definite discontinuity in alignment, increases the cost of production. This is because the wire must lay in a particular position in the mold, and a greater number of bends necessitates a smaller tolerance in the angle at each bend so that the location of the opposite ends of the wires can be held within a particular limit.

Several other diiculties are encountered in forming a simple bendable figure. Even with an accurately formed armature wire, difficulties are encountered in holding the wire While molding material around it. Also, while wire armatures allow bending of the arms and legs, it is difiicult to provide means for allowing the head to face in a variety of directions, since the wires and their coverings often cannot withstand large amounts of twisting.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a bendable toy figure which is economical to produce.

Another object is to provide an economical method for producing toy figures.

In accordance with the present invention, a toy figure is provided which can be produced in an economical manner. The gure includes a body portion and a covered bendable wire that extends through the body portion to form a pair of arms. The center of the wire, which passes through the body portion, forms a simple V with a single bend, so that the arms are not aligned with each other. The single bend permits economical production, while preventing transmittal of torque from one arm to the other.

In one embodiment of the invention, a pair of arms and a pair of legs are each formed by a wire with a bend at the center where it is attached to the body of the ligure. The figure is designed to represent a mechanical man, and the body includes a nut at the chest and a nut at the abdomen. The arm wire extends through the chest nut, and the center of the nut is provided with a thin web which is only as thick as the wire, to facilitate holding the wire in the mold. The leg wire extends in the same manner through the abdomen nut.

The body of the figure includes a bolt-like portion that connects the abdomen and chest nuts, the head of the bolt being spherical to form the head of the figure. A hat with ear flaps is provided that can engage the head, the ear flaps holding the hat in place and indicating the direction in which the figure is facing. Although the head has no features, the ear aps indicate the direction in which the figure is facing and this apparent facing direction can be turned by merely turning the hat.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of a toy figure constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation view of the toy figure of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a partially sectional, enlarged view of area 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5--5 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a view taken on the line 6-6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a front elevation view of the wire armature framework of the toy figure;

FIG. 8 is a partial plan View of a lower die for forming the toy figure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a partial bottom view of an upper die for forming the toy figure of FIG. l;

FIG. 10 is a partial front elevation view showing a. hat on the toy figure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIG. 10, but with the hat turned from a straight ahead position; and

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a coupling member which can be used to hold the toy figure on a stand.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a toy FIG. 10 that appears to be composed of nuts, bolts and similar mechanical parts. The mechanical parts include a bolt 12 whose head 14 forms the head of the figure and whose threaded portion 16 forms the neck and part of the body. A pair of nuts 18, 20 engaged with the bolt form the chest and abdomen of the figure, and four link- like assemblies 22, 24, 26 and 28 extend from the nuts to form the arms and legs. The figure is actually constructed of three bendable wire armatures, or wires, including body wire 30, arm wire 32 and leg wire 34, and an integral plastic covering 36 that covers the armatures. The covering 36 is molded to provide the nut, bolt, ad link-like shapes. The figure has coupling holes 37 at the ends of its arms and legs that can receive pins on construction blocks and other toy objects for holding the figure to them.

As shown in FIG. 7, the arm wire 32 has a simple 120 fbend at its center 38. This serves to isolate the arms 22 and 24 from torque applied to either arm, so that when a child twists the end of one arm, the other arm does not move. If, instead, the center portion of the arm wire were straight, so that the arms were aligned, and a child bent the end of one arm in posing the figure, the entire length of wire would twist, since twisting cannot be easily resisted by the covering material. While a 120 bend has found satisfactory, a range of angles can be used so that the wire portions on either side of the toy figure body form an angle of less than 180 with each other.

The toy ligure is molded by first bending the body, arm, and leg wires 30, 32 and 34, to the shape shown in FIG. 7, and placing them in a mold with the body wire 30 positioned adjacent to the arm and leg wires as shown in FIG. 5. The mold has a cavity which defines the covering 36, and a flexible plastic material is injected into the cavity around the wire armatures to form the complete figure. During the molding operation, the wires must be held at particular positions within the mold. Inasmuch as the wires can bend, it is necessary to hold each of the wires at several positions along their length. As shown in FIG. 8, the lower die 40 of the mold has a cavity 42 defining the lower part of the figure to be molded.

In order to mold a figure, an operator first lays the arm armature wire 32 in the position indicated by phantom lines in FIG. 8. The location of the wire 32 is fixed at ve positions along its length by the lower die 40. These five positions include the center of the wire at the bend 38, where a post-like wire-engaging member 44 contacts the wire at the inside of the bend, and Where a pair of die portions 46, 48 defining the inside of the chest nut support the wire to establish its level in the mold. A pair of wire receiving members 50, 52 support a portion of the wire between the body and hands at a predetermined level in the mold. Two pairs of wire-engaging members support the outer ends of the arm wire, these members including a pair 54, 56 at the left hand 36L and a pair 58, 60 at the right hand 36R. The leg wire 34 is layed in position in a similar manner, and it is supported at live positions on the lower die member, in the same manner as the arm wire. After the arm and leg wires are laid in the die cavity, the body wire 30 is laid in position over the posts, such as post 44, that engage the center of the arm and leg wires.

In order to prepare the arm wire 32, it is first bent t an angle of more than 120, so it is under bending stress in the die and therefore it holds itself in place, particularly against post 44. The extreme ends 33, 35 of the arm wire are bent to partially encircle the wire engaging members 54, 58 in the die. The arm wire is short enough so that the extreme ends 33, 35 bear against members 54, 58 to accurately locate these ends in the die. The members 54, 58 also serve to form coupling holes that can receive a pin that holds the toy ligure to other toy apparatus such as building blocks.

After the wires have been laid in the lower die member 40, and upper die member 80, shown in FIG. 9 is moved down over the lower die member to close the mold. The upper die member also engages the arm wire at five positions along its length. These include the center portion lwhere a pair of die portions 82, 84 press down against the wire to hold it between themselves and the lower die portions 46, 48, posts at 86 and -88 that press down against the arm wire to fix its lever in the mold at positions beltween the hands and body, and posts at 90 and 92 that press against the arm wire near the outer ends. In addition, the upper die includes a post at 94 that lies opposite the post 44 in the lower die member., the body wire 30 being trapped between these posts 44, 94 to fix the position 4 of the body wire in the mold. Similar wire engaging members are utilized at the leg wire.

The several wire engaging members leave apertures in the finished figure. Most of these apertures serve no especially useful purpose, except for the coupling apertures 37 which are designed to receive coupling pins, these apertures being left by the wire engaging members such as those at 54 and 58 in the dies. The rest of the apertures are smaller, and the wires often can be seen through them in the finished figure, since these holes extend to the wires. However, inasmuch as the figure represents a mechanical man, the appearance of wire in him does not detract from his appearance. In a similar manner, the die portions 46, 48, 84 and 82 that engage the center of the arm wire, leave a thin web in the center of the chest nut that reveals the wire running therealong within the thicker peripheral nut portions. However, the revealing of wire here and at the center of the abdomen nut does not detract from the appearance of the mechanical figure. The die lalso includes cores for forming a hole in the head (to permit more rapid cooling of the molded figure) and coupling holes in the feet, but these and other die portions are of a tyne well known in the art.

As shown in FIG. 10, the head 114 of the mechanical figure may be covered by a hat that represents a hard hat of the type typically worn by construction workers. This hat has a pair of ear flaps 102 and 104 of the type which is sometimes provided on hat liners for use in cold weather to warm the ears of construction workers. The ear flaps serve to engage the head 14 of the figure to hold the hat thereon while allowing its rotation thereabout. The flaps 10'2, 104 extend below the center of the substantially spherical head, and they are biased toward each other to hold the hat onto the head. In addition to serving as hat retainers, the flaps indicate the position of the figures ears, and therefore indicate the direction in which his head is facing.

The head 14 is molded without any facial features. Therefore, an indication of the direction in which the head is facing is given almost solely by the ear flaps 102, 104 on hat 100. Accordingly, the head can be made to appear to face in a variety of directions by merely rotating the hat 100 on the head. Other types of hats can be used which are pivotally mounted on the head in another manner, such as by a plug 101 that fits into a hole at the top of the head. However, so long as the hats contain indicia indicating the direction in which the wearer is facing, such as the emblem on a firemans hat or the viser on a policemans hat, such indicia will enable apparent rotation of the head merely by rotating the hat thereon.

As mentioned previously, the various coupling holes in the mechanical figure are designedto receive coupling pins for coupling the figure to blocks and stands. FIG. 12 illustrates a stand 110 which can support a leg 26 of the ligure. The figure leg and stand can be coupled by a member with a pin that projects through a hole 112y in the figure leg and a hole such as hole 1=14 in the stand. However, such a coupling member would position the fig-ure leg off the center of the stand, which is undesirable in some cases. In accordance with the invention, a coupling member 116 is provided which enables the figure to be held at a position between two holes such as hole 114 and hole 118 in the stand. The coupling member 116 includes a base 120, a pair of coupling pins 122, 124 on one side, and a coupling pin 126 on the other side. The coupling pin 126 is located at a position along the base which is inbetween the pins -122, 124 therealong. Accordingly, any toy member such as the mechanical figure leg 26, which is held by pin 126 is held at a position inbetween the coupling holes 114, 118- of the stand. The coupling member 116 can be used in another way, to support two legs of the mechanical figure, by turning the coupling 1'16 upside down, inserting pin i12-6 into a hole such as hole 114 in the stand, and inserting the two legs 26,

2'8 of the mechanical figure onto the two pins 122, 124 of the coupling member.

Thus, the invention provides a bendable mechanicalappearing figure which is economical to construct. The invention also provides a hat for the gure which allows an apparent turning of the gure head, and a coupling member for facilitating coupling of the ligure to a stand or other toy apparatus.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that 10 modications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art and, consequently, it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.

What is claimed is:

1. A toy figure comprising:

a molded ligure of elastic material having a body portion and limbs extending therefrom;

a bendable wire armature embedded in said -gure and having portions extending along said limbs;

a coupling hole extending through the ends of at least some of said limbs; and

the end portions of the wire armature in at least some of said limbs being configured to at least partially encircle an associated one of said coupling holes.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,626,533 4/1927 Hergershauscn 46-156 5 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner I. Q. LEVER, JR., Assistant Examiner

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