JP7693628B2 - Assembly toys - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an assembly toy.

There are known assembly toys that can be easily assembled even by beginners and young people. For example, Patent Document 1 proposes an assembly toy that does not have a runner, but has two adjacent main parts connected by a gate, and can be almost completed simply by bending the gate. Because there is no need to detach the part from the runner before assembling it, there is no need to figure out which part the detached part belongs to, and it can be easily assembled.

Patent Document 2 also proposes an assembly toy in which multiple components that can be arranged in a straight line are stacked and assembled by inserting rod-shaped support members into each through-hole. With this assembly toy, each component can be locked by inserting a support member and rotating it around an axis. This provides an assembly toy that is easy for even young people to assemble, and is safe, fun, and educational.

Publication number 8-7915 JP 2012-148172 A

In the above conventional technology, if the number of parts is small, it is easy to assemble. However, as the number of parts increases, the assembly process becomes more complicated, and it is difficult for young people to judge from the instructions, etc., the assembly order and which part of the whole the assembled parts at the intermediate stage of assembly correspond to. For example, in the assembly process in which the left leg and the right leg are assembled from multiple parts and connected to the torso, it is difficult for young people to judge which part of the left leg or the right leg the focused part belongs to, or which leg the assembled part at the intermediate stage belongs to, and it is also difficult to judge which part each part is connected to. In addition, it is difficult to judge whether the assembly process up to that point has been carried out without any problems during assembly, and if the assembly is continued while making a mistake, it may come to a dead end later, and the assembly user will find the assembly process troublesome. In such a situation, the user will not be able to feel the fun and sense of accomplishment of assembling multiple parts to create a toy, and will not be motivated to try even more difficult assembly toys. With such conventional technology, it is not possible to know the fun of the assembly process of plastic models, etc., and to obtain the effect of promoting sales of the next toy.

The present invention aims to provide a mechanism for assisting the user in the assembly work, for example by appropriately forming information on the assembly process or information on the assembly toy on the assembly parts.

The present invention is, for example, an assembly toy comprising a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts and a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined, wherein, when the plurality of parts are accurately assembled, information related to the assembly toy or an assembly process is formed at a joint portion of the first assembly part that is connected to the second assembly part.The present invention is, for example, an assembly toy comprising a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts and a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined, wherein, when the plurality of parts are accurately assembled, a predetermined shape indicating information related to the assembly toy or an assembly process is formed at a joint portion of the first assembly part that is connected to the second assembly part, and wherein the information related to the assembly toy is information related to a model targeted by the assembly toy .
The present invention also provides, for example, an assembly toy comprising a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts and a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined, wherein when the plurality of parts of the first assembly part are accurately assembled, a predetermined shape indicating information relating to the assembly toy or an assembly process is formed at a joint where the first assembly part is connected to the second assembly part, and the information relating to the assembly process is information indicating which part of the assembly toy the first assembly part corresponds to.

According to the present invention, during the assembly process of assembling multiple parts, information about the assembly process and information about the assembly toy are appropriately formed on the assembly parts, providing a mechanism to assist the user in the assembly work.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an external front view of a construction toy according to an embodiment. 1 is an exploded view of a face of a construction toy according to one embodiment. FIG. 1A is an exploded view and FIG. 1B is an assembled view of a face part in a construction toy according to one embodiment. FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a leg portion of the construction toy according to one embodiment. FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a right foot of the construction toy according to one embodiment. FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a left foot of the construction toy according to one embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of a chest of a construction toy according to one embodiment.

The following embodiments are described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims, and not all combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the invention. Two or more of the features described in the embodiments may be combined in any combination. In addition, the same reference numbers are used for the same or similar configurations, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

<Exterior of assembly toy>
First, an example of the external configuration of a constructional toy 100 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 shows the external front view of the constructional toy 100. Note that arrows indicating up/down, left/right, and front/rear indicate the orientation of the constructional toy in the figure, and the same applies to other figures.

The assembly toy (doll toy) 100 shows the final assembly product after assembly. The assembly toy 100 is composed of multiple assembly parts, for example, including a right arm 102a, a left arm 102b, a torso 103, and a right leg 104a and a left leg 104b. As shown in FIG. 1, the right leg 104a and the left leg 104b are covered by a trouser part included in the torso 103. The assembly part according to this embodiment refers to one part of the assembly toy 100 that is composed of multiple parts. In this embodiment, these assembly parts are shown as examples to explain the assembly toy of a person as an example, but the assembly toy according to the present invention is not limited to a person and can be modeled after various objects, and the assembly parts also include various objects.

<Face assembly configuration>
Next, the assembly configuration of the face portion 101 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Fig. 2(a) shows an exploded perspective view from the front, and Fig. 2(b) shows an exploded perspective view from the back.

The face part 101 is composed of face members 201, 203 and an assembly part 202. The face members 201, 203 are composed of one part. Meanwhile, the assembly part 202 is composed of multiple parts. Details will be described later with reference to FIG. 3. The face member 201 forms the back of the head, and the face member 203 forms the face surface. The assembly part 202 is fitted into the back of the face member 203 on the face surface to form part of the face surface, for example, the eyes. Furthermore, the face member 201 at the back of the head is attached to the back of the assembly part 202 to form the face part 101.

The front surface of the assembly part 202 is formed with a mating portion 204, which is a protruding rib. The mating portion 204 fits into a recess 205 provided on the back surface of the face member 203. This joins the assembly part 202 to the face member 203. Furthermore, information about the assembly toy is formed at the portion of the mating portion 204 that fits into the recess 205. The mating portion is an example of a joint, which will be described later.

Here, the information about the assembly toy is information about the model targeted by the assembly toy 100, and includes, for example, the name of the model, a character string, a symbol, a figure, and a pattern indicating the model. The information about the assembly toy may be information that can be recognized by an assembly user. If the information is recognizable by an assembly user, the assembly user can recognize that the assembly process up to that point has been performed correctly at the stage at which the information is formed. In the example of FIG. 2, the character string "Colon" is formed in the fitting portion 204 as a name indicating the model. Note that, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the information about the assembly toy may be formed so that it can be confirmed from the back side of the fitting portion 204. Also, although an example is given here of information about the assembly toy being formed in the fitting portion 204, information about the assembly process may also be formed. Details of the information about the assembly process will be described later.

<Facial part assembly configuration>
Next, an assembly configuration of the assembly part 202 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3(a) shows an exploded perspective view of the assembly part 202 from the front, and Fig. 3(b) shows the state of the assembly part 202 after assembly from the front.

The assembly part 202 corresponds to the first assembly part and is composed of multiple parts 301 to 303. As shown in FIG. 3A, part 302 is assembled to part 301, and part 303 is further assembled to the first assembly part 202. This completes the assembly part 202, and on the front of the assembly part 202, information about the assembly toy, in this case the name of the model of the assembly toy 100, "Colon" is formed. By forming the name of the model to be assembled by the assembly toy 100, the assembly user can confirm that the assembly process up to this point, especially the assembly of the assembly part 202, has been performed accurately. On the other hand, if the multiple parts 301 to 303 are not assembled accurately, information about the assembly toy is not formed, and as described above, they cannot be fitted accurately into the face member 203. In this case, the assembly user can recognize that the assembly of the assembly part 202 is incorrect.

In this way, the information about the assembly toy is formed when the assembly parts 202 are assembled accurately, but is not visible unless the assembly is performed accurately. Therefore, for an assembly user who is assembling the assembly toy 100, when the information about the assembly toy is formed during the assembly process, the user can recognize that the assembly process so far has been performed accurately, and furthermore, for young children, a sense of accomplishment can be obtained during the assembly process, which can arouse interest in the assembly process. Note that in this embodiment, multiple such assembly parts may be provided. As a result, even if the assembly toy is more complex and includes many parts, the assembly user can easily complete the assembly toy by repeatedly combining a small number of parts.

<Leg assembly configuration>
Next, the assembly configuration of the right leg 104a and the left leg 104b according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 4. Fig. 4(a) is an exploded perspective view of the legs from the front, and Fig. 4(b) is an exploded perspective view of the legs from below. Here, the trouser parts of the body part 103 shown in Fig. 1 are omitted. In other words, the right leg 104a and the left leg 104b shown in Fig. 4 are joined near the waist of the body part 103 as described below, but are further covered by the trouser parts of the body part 103 as shown in Fig. 1.

The right leg 104a and the left leg 104b are composed of assembly parts 401a and 401b corresponding to the thigh and the lower leg, respectively, and assembly parts 403a and 403b corresponding to the feet. In the explanation of FIG. 4, the assembly parts 401a and 401b correspond to the first assembly part, and the assembly parts 403a and 403b correspond to the second assembly part. That is, the right leg 104a is composed of the assembly parts 401a and 403a, and the left leg 104b is composed of the assembly parts 401b and 403b. The assembly parts 401a and 401b are each composed of a plurality of parts. The assembly parts 401a and 401b, which are assembled from a plurality of parts, are formed with joint parts 402a and 402b, which are joined to the torso 103, respectively.

Enlarged views of joints 402a and 402b are shown in the speech bubbles indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 4(a). The character "口" (kuchi), which corresponds to the radical of the character "右" (right), is formed in joint 402a, and the character "エ" (e), which corresponds to the radical of the character "左" (left), is formed in joint 402b. This allows the assembly user to recognize that assembly part 401a is a part of right leg 104a, and that assembly part 401b is a part of left leg 104b.

Note that here, instead of forming the complete characters for "right" and "left," only the radicals are formed, but this is not intended to limit the present invention, and the complete characters may be formed. However, since it is not possible to secure the space required for formation, only the radicals are formed. Therefore, when information regarding the assembly process is formed by forming only the radicals, it is desirable to include this information on the product package or instruction manual, for example, so that the assembly user is aware of this. For example, it is desirable to include an explanation that, by assembling multiple parts, the symbol "口" appears on the right assembly parts such as the right leg and the right arm, and the symbol "エ" appears on the left assembly parts such as the left leg and the left arm. In addition, although the radicals "口" and "エ" are used here, this is not intended to limit the present invention, and various letters, numbers, symbols, figures, etc. may be used, such as the right being "◯" and the left being "×," or the right being "A" and the left being "B."

As shown in FIG. 4(b), joints 404a and 404b are further formed on the right leg 104a and the left leg 104b, respectively. Joint 404a is joined to assembly part 403a corresponding to the right leg, and joint 404b is joined to assembly part 403b corresponding to the left leg. Furthermore, "ロ" corresponding to the radical of the character "右" is formed on joint 404a, and "エ" corresponding to the radical of the character "左" is formed on joint 404b. This allows the user to recognize whether assembly parts 401a, 401b are parts on the left or right side.

<Detailed configuration of right and left feet>
Next, a detailed assembly configuration of the assembly parts 403a, 403b corresponding to the right foot and the left foot according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Fig. 5 shows (a) an exploded perspective view, (b) an assembly drawing, and (C) a rear view of the toe part of the right foot assembly part 403a. Fig. 6 shows (a) an exploded perspective view, (b) an assembly drawing, and (C) a rear view of the toe part of the left foot assembly part 403b.

First, the detailed configuration of the right foot will be described with reference to FIG. 5. The assembly part 403a is composed of a plurality of parts 501a to 505a. Parts 501a and 503a are formed with parts 506a and 507a for forming information related to the assembly process, as shown by dotted lines. 506a is formed as a protruding rib representing the "口" character, which corresponds to the radical of the character "右", and 507a represents the "ナ" character of the character "右". As shown in FIG. 5(a), the "ナ" portion 507a may not be formed as a protruding rib, but may be drawn and formed on the part. Of course, the "ナ" portion 507a may be formed as a protruding rib. In this way, the joint according to this embodiment may be formed as a protruding rib, at least a portion of which is fitted into another part. FIG. 5(b) shows the state in which parts 501a and 503a are combined with 502a from both the left and right sides.

As shown in 508a in FIG. 5B, by combining parts 501a and 503a, part 506a corresponding to "ロ" and part 507a corresponding to "ナ" are combined to form the character "Right". This "Right" is a fitting part (rib) that is fitted into part 504a. By checking the character "Right", the assembly user can recognize that the assembly of assembly part 403a has been performed correctly up to this point, and further recognize that this assembly part 403a is the right assembly part. In the example of FIG. 5B, part 505a corresponding to the toe has already been assembled before part 504a is fitted, but this is not intended to limit the present invention, and part 505a may be finally assembled after part 504a is assembled.

As shown in FIG. 5(c), part 505a, which corresponds to the toe of the right foot, contains part 509a, which forms information about the assembly process. Part 509a shows the letter "R," which is the first letter of "Right." This allows the assembly user to easily recognize whether part 505a is a part of the right foot or a part of the left foot. Part 509a also functions as a fitting portion (rib) when fitting into the combined parts 501a to 504a.

Next, the detailed configuration of the left foot will be described with reference to FIG. 6. The assembly part 403b is composed of a plurality of parts 501b to 505b. Parts 501b and 503b are formed with parts 506b and 507b for forming information on the assembly process, as shown by dotted lines. 506b is formed as a protruding rib representing the "e" character, which corresponds to the radical of the character "left", and 507b represents the "na" character of the character "left". As shown in FIG. 6(a), the "na" part 507b may not be formed as a protruding rib, but may be drawn and formed on the part. Of course, the "na" part 507b may be formed as a protruding rib. In this way, the joint according to this embodiment may be formed as a protruding rib, at least a part of which is fitted into another part. FIG. 6(b) shows the state in which parts 501b and 503b are combined with 502b from both the left and right sides.

As shown in 508b in FIG. 6B, by combining parts 501b and 503b, part 506b corresponding to "e" and part 507b corresponding to "na" are combined to form the character "left". This "left" is a fitting part (rib) and is fitted into part 504b. By checking the character "left", the assembly user can recognize that the assembly of assembly part 403b has been performed correctly up to this point, and further recognize that assembly part 403b is the left assembly part. In the example of FIG. 6B, part 505b corresponding to the toe has already been assembled before part 504b is fitted, but this is not intended to limit the present invention, and part 505b may be finally assembled after part 504b is assembled.

As shown in FIG. 6(c), part 505b, which corresponds to the toe of the left foot, contains part 509b, which forms information about the assembly process. Part 509b shows the letter "L," which is the first letter of "Left." This allows the assembly user to easily recognize whether part 505b is the right or left foot part. Part 509b also functions as a fitting portion (rib) when fitting into the assembled parts 501b to 504b.

<Chest assembly configuration>
Next, the assembly configuration of a part of the chest will be described with reference to Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) is a perspective view from the front of the chest, Fig. 7(b) is a perspective view from the back of the legs, and Fig. 7(c) is an exploded perspective view from the back of the chest.

Parts 701 and 702 form part of the chest. Part 702 is a member that represents a bow tie. As shown in FIG. 7(c), part 702 is provided with a joint 703 that is joined to part 701. Joint 703 is key-shaped, and functions as a fitting part that fits into key-shaped hole 704 formed in part 701.

Thus, according to this embodiment, the joint of one part that fits into another part may be a concrete representation of a predetermined object. Here, a key-shaped figure is used as an example, but other shapes such as letters, symbols, and patterns may also be used. This allows the assembly user to work as if solving a puzzle, trying to decide in which direction the parts should be fitted together, thereby increasing the interest of the assembly process. Also, by searching for part 701 that has a similar shape to joint 703, it is easy to find parts to be combined.

As described above, the assembly toy according to this embodiment includes a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts, and a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined. In addition, when the first assembly part is accurately assembled, information related to the assembly toy or the assembly process is formed at the joint that connects to the second assembly part. Therefore, the user does not assemble the assembly toy 100, which is the final assembly product, from the beginning, but can assemble it while being aware of smaller assembly parts, and can feel a sense of accomplishment each time information about the assembly toy is formed and can easily perform the assembly work. In addition, when information about the assembly process is formed, information suggesting the joint destination of the first assembly part is formed at the joint, so that the user can feel a sense of accomplishment by accurately assembling a model of a predetermined part for the user to an incorrect joint destination, and can confirm that the assembly process so far has been performed accurately. In this way, according to this embodiment, it is possible to provide a mechanism that allows easy assembly and further increases the interest of the assembly process.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the gist of the invention. In addition, the shape of the assembly toy is not particularly limited, and includes various shapes such as people, animals, robots, insects, and dinosaurs.

100: Assembly toy, 101: Head, 102a: Right arm, 102b: Left arm, 103: Torso, 104a: Right leg, 104b: Left leg

Claims (9)

A construction toy comprising:
a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts;
a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined;
When the first assembly part is assembled accurately, a predetermined shape indicating information about the assembly toy or the assembly process is formed at a joint portion where the first assembly part is connected to the second assembly part ,
The information relating to the assembly toy is information relating to a model that is a target of the assembly toy . A construction toy comprising:
a first assembly part assembled from a plurality of parts;
a second assembly part to which the first assembly part is joined;
Equipped with
When the first assembly part is assembled accurately, a predetermined shape indicating information about the assembly toy or the assembly process is formed at a joint portion where the first assembly part is connected to the second assembly part,
11. An assembly toy, wherein the information relating to the assembly process is information indicating which part of the assembly toy the first assembly part corresponds to. 3. The assembly toy according to claim 1, wherein the information about the assembly toy or the assembly process formed at the joint forms a fitting portion that fits into the second assembly part. 4. The assembly toy according to claim 1, wherein unless the plurality of parts are assembled accurately, no information relating to the assembly toy or the assembly process is formed. 5. The assembly toy according to claim 1 , wherein the first assembly part does not function as a part of the assembly toy unless information relating to the assembly toy or the assembly process is formed. 6. The assembly toy according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to the assembly process is information indicating a destination to which the first assembly part is to be joined. The assembly toy according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , further comprising a part having the predetermined shape formed thereon. 8. The assembly toy according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined shape is represented by at least one of a figure, a letter, a symbol, and a pattern. 9. The assembly toy according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , wherein the second assembly component is a single part or is assembled from a plurality of parts.

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