Shooting toy

Abstract

The shooting toy (1) includes a shooter (5) and a projectile (4) to be ejected from the shooter. A trigger element (6) is movably mounted in a shooter body (7) and has a pusher part (10) adapted to push the projectile (4) away from its loaded position. The shooter (5) is adapted to eject the projectile (4) along a centre axis of a cylindrical surface of the projectile (4). A pinching element (8) is adapted to prevent ejection in said direction of the projectile (4) in its loaded position in the shooter body (7) by means of frictional force acting between a pinching surface of the pinching element (8) and the cylindrical surface of the projectile (4). The pinching surface is adapted to guide the cylindrical surface of the projectile (4) in the ejection direction.

Claims

1. A shooting toy comprising: a circular projectile having a cylindrical surface extending along a center axis and having a coupling stud on a top surface thereof and a coupling skirt on the bottom surface thereof and an outwardly-extending cylindrical part therebetween, the coupling skirt being complementarily configured to connect to the coupling stud; a shooter comprising: a shooter body comprising at least one substantially tubular pinching element, the at least one substantially tubular pinching element consisting of two opposed, inner pinching surfaces, one or more cut-outs between said opposed, inner surfaces, and a rounded tip end, wherein in a loaded position, the opposed, inner pinching surfaces of the substantially tubular pinching element are configured to pinch the projectile along an outer surface of the coupling stud and thereby hold it in the shooter body, and whereby in a non-engaged position, the opposed, inner pinching surfaces are configured to extend slightly away from one another and release the projectile; a trigger element having a finger touch part adapted to be activated by an operator; and a pusher part adapted to push the projectile away from its loaded position when the trigger element is moved from a passive position to an activated position; the trigger element being movably mounted in the shooter body between the passive position, in which the projectile may occupy the loaded position in the shooter body, and the activated position in which the shooter is configured to eject the projectile along the center axis of the cylindrical surface of the projectile; wherein the projectile is configured to be held within the substantially tubular pinching element of the shooter body by the frictional force until suitable ejection force is created by the pusher part; and wherein the opposed, inner pinching surfaces of the substantially tubular pinching element are adapted to guide the cylindrical surface of the projectile in the ejection direction of the projectile, against the frictional force, and along the center axis of the cylindrical surface of the projectile during ejection of the projectile.

2. A shooting toy according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pinching surface has the form of a raised surface on an at least partly cylindrical surface of the at least substantially tubular pinching element.

3. A shooting toy according to claim 1, wherein the shooter body is at least partly formed by the at least substantially tubular pinching element having a first part forming the pinching surfaces and having a second part accommodating the trigger element.

4. A shooting toy according to claim 3, wherein the trigger element is mounted pivotally in a slot in a wall of the shooter body so that the pusher part is located inside the at least substantially tubular pinching element and so that the finger touch part is located outside said substantially tubular pinching element.

5. A shooting toy according to claim 4, wherein the trigger element is so arranged in the shooter body that a line extending through the pusher part and the finger touch part forms an acute angle with a central axis of the at least substantially tubular pinching element of the shooter body.

6. A shooting toy according to claim 1, wherein the trigger element has a V-formed part, each leg of the V-form forming a separate pusher part at its end, and wherein the entire trigger element is symmetrical or substantially symmetrical about the symmetry axis of the V-form.

7. A shooting toy according to claim 1, wherein the projectile has the form of a circular stud coupling in the form of a rotationally symmetrical unit comprising: a coupling stud on its top surface and a coupling skirt on its underside which is complementary relative to the coupling stud, wherein the at least one substantially tubular pinching element is adapted to interact with the coupling stud of the projectile, and wherein the shooter body, opposite the at least one substantially tubular pinching element, is provided with a coupling stud corresponding to the coupling stud of the circular stud coupling and adapted to interconnect with the coupling skirt of the circular stud coupling.

Description

(1) The invention will now be explained in more detail below by means of examples of embodiments with reference to the very schematic drawing, in which

(2) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a Lego minifigure holding a shooting toy according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a shooting toy according to the invention, however, without a projectile loaded;

(4) FIG. 3 is a side view of the shooter body of the shooting toy in FIG. 2;

(5) FIG. 4 is a side view of the trigger element of the shooting toy in FIG. 2;

(6) FIG. 5 is an end view of the shooter body in FIG. 3, seen from the right side;

(7) FIG. 6 is an end view of the trigger element in FIG. 4, seen from the right side;

(8) FIG. 7 is a side view of the shooting toy in FIG. 2, however with a projectile loaded;

(9) FIG. 8 is an end view of the shooting toy in FIG. 7, seen from the left side;

(10) FIG. 9 is an axial section through the shooting toy in FIG. 8 taken along the line IX-IX;

(11) FIG. 10 is a top view of the shooting toy in FIG. 7;

(12) FIG. 11 is an axial section through the shooting toy in FIG. 7 taken along the line XI-XI;

(13) FIG. 12 is an end view of the shooting toy in FIG. 7, seen from the right side;

(14) FIGS. 13 to 17 correspond to FIGS. 7 to 10 and 12, respectively, however, without a projectile loaded;

(15) FIG. 18 is a cross-section through the shooting toy in FIG. 16 taken along the line XVIII-XVIII;

(16) FIG. 19 is a side view of a projectile as shown in FIG. 1; and

(17) FIG. 20 is a perspective view of the projectile in FIG. 19.

(18) FIG. 1 illustrates a Lego minifigure 2 holding a shooter 5 of a shooting toy 1 according to the present invention in a left hand 3, whereby a projectile 4 in the form of the above-described 1×1 circular stud coupling is just ejected from the shooter 5 of the shooting toy 1. The projectile 4 is ejected by pressing a trigger element 6 by means of a finger of the user, for instance a child playing with the minifigure 2.

(19) FIG. 2 illustrates the shooter 5 in greater detail, however without the projectile 4. The shooter 5 includes a shooter body 7, a pinching element 8 adapted to pinch the projectile 4 and thereby hold it in the shooter body 7 in a loaded position as for instance illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 9. The shooter 5 furthermore includes the trigger element 6 being movably mounted in the shooter body 7 between a passive position, in which the projectile 4 may occupy its loaded position in the shooter body 7, as for instance illustrated in FIGS. 2, 7 and 9, and an activated position, as for instance illustrated in FIGS. 1, 13 and 15.

(20) The trigger element 6 has a pusher part 10 adapted to push the projectile 4 away from its loaded position when the trigger element 6 is moved from its passive position to its activated position, so that the projectile 4 may be ejected from the shooter body 7. The trigger element 6 furthermore has a finger touch part 11 adapted to be activated by the finger of an operator. Although this finger touch part 11 conveniently may be activated by pressing it by means of the tip of a finger, of course, it may also be activated by any other suitable means, such as by means of a toy tool, for instance a toy brick or the like.

(21) As explained above, the projectile 4 may have the form of a 1×1 circular stud coupling 13, illustrated for instance in FIG. 20. The 1×1 circular stud coupling 13 is provided in the form of a rotationally symmetrical unit and comprises a coupling stud 14 on its top surface and a coupling skirt 15 on its underside which is complementary relative to the coupling stud 14 so that two of these coupling devices may be interconnected by insertion of the coupling stud 14 of one coupling device into the coupling skirt 15 of another coupling device, as it is well known, or that they may be connected to any one of the abovementioned several other various plastic toy construction elements available under the name LEGO. The coupling stud 14 has a top surface 18 which the pusher part 10 of the trigger element 6 may abut when the projectile 4 is to be ejected. As illustrated in FIGS. 19 and 20, the 1×1 circular stud coupling 13 has a cylindrical part 19 between the coupling stud 14 the coupling skirt 15. However, the projectile 4 may also be a not shown, however well known, 1×1 square stud coupling having a square skirt instead of the cylindrical part 19 and the circular coupling skirt 15 of the illustrated 1×1 circular stud coupling 13.

(22) As also illustrated in FIG. 20, the projectile 4 has a cylindrical surface 12. The shooter 5 is adapted to eject the projectile 4 along a centre axis 16 of the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4, as illustrated for instance in FIGS. 1 and 9.

(23) The pinching element 8 is adapted to prevent ejection in the abovementioned direction of the projectile 4 in its loaded position in the shooter body 7 by means of frictional force acting between pinching surfaces 17 of the pinching element 8 and the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4. Furthermore, as it will be understood, said pinching surfaces 17 are adapted to guide the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4 in the ejection direction of the projectile 4 along the centre axis 16 of the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4 during ejection of the projectile 4.

(24) In the illustrated embodiment, the pinching element 8 has the form of a tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element adapted to interact with the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4 by means of four pinching surfaces 17, each having the form of a raised surface on a cylindrical surface 20 of the tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element forming the pinching element 8, as illustrated in FIG. 18. The distance between two opposed pinching surfaces 17 is slightly smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical surface 20. Any suitable number of pinching surfaces 17 is possible, and the pinching surfaces 17 may simply be positioned on a diameter 38 being slightly smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical surface 20.

(25) Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 18, the tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element forming the at least one pinching element 8, is divided into two opposed parts 22 by means of two opposed cut-outs 23 in a wall 21 of said element. The tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element forming the at least one pinching element 8 may be divided into any suitable number of parts, such as three, four, five or even any larger number.

(26) The shooter body 7 is at least partly formed by a tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element having a first part 24 forming the at least one pinching element 8 and having a second part 25 accommodating the trigger element 6. The trigger element 6 is mounted pivotally in a slot 26 in a wall 27 of the shooter body 7 so that the pusher part 10 is located inside the at least partly or substantially tubular element and so that the finger touch part 11 is located outside said element. The trigger element 6 is provided with pivot pins 32 adapted to be mounted in bearings 33 in the wall 27 of the shooter body 7. The bearings 33 are adapted to elastically flex and thereby grip the pivot pins 32 when the user presses the pivot pins 32 into engagement with the bearings 33. The bearings 33 therefore has a first section 34 with a diameter corresponding to or slightly larger than that of the pivot pins 32 and a second section 35 with a cross-sectional dimension slightly smaller than said diameter.

(27) The shooter body 7 is provided with a handle 36 in the form of a slightly angled pin extending downwardly from the lower part of the shooter body 7 so that a Lego minifigure 2 may hold the shooter 5 in its hand 3 by said handle 36.

(28) The trigger element 6 is so arranged in the shooter body 7 that a line 28 extending through the pusher part 10 and the finger touch part 11 forms an acute angle with a central axis 29 of the tubular or at least partly or substantially tubular element of the shooter body 7, as illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 15. Thereby, it may be possible triggering the shooting toy 1 simply by pressing it between two fingertips, one fingertip pressing the finger touch part of the trigger element and the other fingertip pressing an opposed part of the shooter body. Thereby operation of even very small-scale versions of the shooting toy may be facilitated. Preferably, the shooter body 7 has a diameter of less than 15 mm, more preferred less than 12 mm and most preferred less than 10 mm. Preferably, the shooter body 7 has a length of less than 25 mm, more preferred less than 20 mm and most preferred less than 18 mm.

(29) The trigger element 6 has a V-formed part 30, each leg of the V-form forming a separate pusher part 10 at its end, and the entire trigger element 6 is symmetrical or substantially symmetrical about the symmetry axis of the V-form as best illustrated in FIG. 4.

(30) As illustrated in the figures, opposite the pinching element 8, the shooter body 7 is provided with a coupling stud 31 corresponding to the coupling stud 14 of the 1×1 circular stud coupling 13 and adapted to interconnect with the coupling skirt 15 of the 1×1 circular stud coupling 13, thereby enabling the user to store a number of projectiles 4 on the back of the shooter body 7.

(31) Advantageously, the pinching element 8 and possibly the shooter body 7 may be formed, for instance by injection moulding, from ABS which among its properties has good toughness and rigidity, low creep, and good dimensional stability. Thereby, the pinching element 8 may retain its elasticity over a very long time, such as 10 years or more.

(32) In the embodiment illustrated in the figures, it may be understood that the projectile 4, in its loaded position, is held practically only by friction force between the pinching surfaces 17 and the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4. Furthermore, it may be understood that in the loaded position of the projectile 4 in the shooter body 7, the two opposed parts 22 of the pinching element 8 may be flexed slightly away from each other in relation to a resting position that they take up when the projectile 4 is not loaded. This may be obtained by forming the diameter on which the pinching surfaces 17 are located in the resting position of the two opposed parts 22 slightly smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4, such as, for instance, more than 1%, more than 3% or even more than 5% smaller. By this arrangement, it may be obtained that a larger friction force is present between the pinching surfaces 17 and the cylindrical surface 12 of the projectile 4 in the loaded position of the projectile 4. Furthermore, thereby it may be possible to slightly boost the ejection of the projectile 4 just before it leaves the shooter body 7 by rounding a tip end 37 of the pinching surfaces 17 so that this rounded tip end 37 may “kick” the projectile 4 in the ejection direction as the two opposed parts 22 flex back to their resting position. It may also be understood, that in the embodiment illustrated in the figures, the two opposed parts 22 of the pinching element 8 are not flexed further away from each other during ejection of the projectile 4. However, in a not shown embodiment, this could be the case, if the two or more opposed parts 22 of the pinching element 8 were formed with a slightly hook-formed tip end gripping over the cylindrical part 19 or other part of the 1×1 circular stud coupling 13 in the loaded position of the projectile 4.