Brick System for Forming Globe and Spherical Shaped Structures

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/470,412 filed on Jun. 1, 2023.

The present device relates to a building block system for toys and modeling. More particularly, the device and method herein relate to a building block system configured with a plurality of differently curved blocks configured to engage layers of other such blocks to form globe and other spherical shapes. The building block system is employable for forming curved and globe type structures as well as for forming three dimensional globe puzzles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Toy bricks for building structures have been enjoyed by children and adults alike for decades. Brick systems, such as those by LEGO, provide brick pieces in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, which are adapted on two or more side surfaces to form removable engagements with bricks having a mating engagement of adjacent blocks. Through the employment of such removably engageable brick systems, users build many differing types of structures which are limited in type and scope only by the imagination of the builder.

Conventionally, such brick pieces are configured primarily for the formation in substantially linear configurations. That is to say such conventional engageable toy brick systems use linear brick-like components which have sequentially aligned mating connectors and receptors on adjacent blocks. So configured, such are best adapted to form wall-like and planar structures in a linear configuration. Such conventional, self-engaging toy brick systems are also not configured for engagements which, when stacked, will form globes and spherical and structures with curved exterior walls.

The forgoing examples of engageable toy bricks for model and toy structure building and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various other limitations of the related art are known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The toy brick device and system herein disclosed and described provides a solution to the shortcomings in prior art and achieves the above noted objects through the provision of a toy brick system configured to form globes and other spherical shaped structures when the bricks are stacked and engaged.

The disclosed and shown in the figures the brick system provides bricks of varying curves which are configured to be removably engaged using mating connectors in respective individual layers. A plurality of differently shaped bricks having differing exterior curved surfaces are configured for stacked engagement. In this engagement, bricks are stacked upon each other such that circular layers are formed using respective differently sized bricks for each layer. In a particularly preferred mode of the device and system herein for ease of construction each brick may be formed in a manner extending 45° of latitude along the circular layer of the sphere which the bricks form. Thus, bricks forming layers closer to the top and bottom of a formed globe will be narrower and bricks forming layers toward or within the equator of a formed globe will be wider and provide a longer length of a curved portion which is substantially 45° of latitude along the circular layer area of the globe formed thereby.

In all modes of the system, the upper surfaces of each formed circular layer of toy bricks are configured to engage with an adjacent layer of engaged bricks. Each layer is formed by a plurality of bricks which are configured to at least engage a lower larger circular layer. The layers are formed of bricks having exterior curves to form a circular layer which is concentric to or surrounding an adjacent formed brick layer.

Each such layer of bricks in a particularly preferred mode herein for ease of construction and strength when formed, attach vertically to two bricks with a one half brick or 45° latitudinal overlap for bricks both above and below.

An exterior curved surface of each brick configured to form one layer of the sphere or globe is curved horizontally and vertically so that it will be level or even with the horizontal and vertical curve of adjacent circular layers of brick. The user thus may forms a globe or sphere or other curved or circular object by engaging layers of bricks forming circular layers to adjacent layers of bricks which are configured to form circular layers of a larger or smaller circumference.

At the top and bottom positions on the formed globe or sphere, where the circumference of the exterior surface of a formed ring is smallest, a curved end cap, having a curved surface will engage to cover the interior of the last formed brick circle. The curved surface of the end cap, once engaged, mates with and is substantially even or level to the horizontal and vertical curves of the adjacent formed ring of bricks.

With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the herein disclosed brick system for forming globes and spherical structures in detail, it is to be understood that the brick system or invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The toy brick invention herein described and shown is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other toy brick systems which when engaged forms layers and spheres, and for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

As used in the claims to describe the various inventive aspects and embodiments, “comprising” means including, but not limited to, whatever follows the word “comprising”. Thus, use of the term “comprising” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present. By “consisting of” is meant including, and limited to, whatever follows the phrase “consisting of”. Thus, the phrase “consisting of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, and that no other elements may be present. By “consisting essentially of” is meant including any elements listed after the phrase, and limited to other elements that do not interfere with or contribute to the activity or action specified in the disclosure for the listed elements. Thus, the phrase “consisting essentially of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present depending upon whether or not they affect the activity or action of the listed elements. Finally, by the term “substantially” is meant plus or minus five percent, unless respectively otherwise defined.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy brick system which enables the user to form globes, spheres, and portions thereof through the formation of layers of engaged bricks.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide such a toy brick system which also enables the user to form portions of spheres and globes using the same engaged bricks. It is a further object of this invention to provide such an interlocking toy brick system for forming globes which employs successive round layers formed of interlocked bricks which are easy to construct by having them attach vertically to one half of two bricks forming respective layers above and below.

It is another object of this invention to provide an interlocking toy brick system for forming globes which employs successive round layers formed of interlocked bricks to form hemispheres which are engaged at the end of the assembly thereof to form a globe.

These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present toy brick system, as well as the advantages thereof over existing prior art, which will become apparent from the description to follow, are accomplished by the improvements described in this specification and hereinafter described in the following detailed description which fully discloses the invention, but should not be considered as placing limitations thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some, but not the only or exclusive examples of embodiments and/or features of the disclosed toy brick system. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative of the invention herein, rather than limiting in any fashion.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 depicts an exterior of a globe which may be formed by two engaged formed hemispheres H1 and H2, which are themselves formed of engaged individual bricks which are sized to form the individual layers of differing diameters to form the half hemispheres.

FIG. 2 depicts a sectional view through FIG. 1 showing the stacking of circular layers of bricks upon lower circular layers and showing the exterior curvature of each formed layer being level with that of adjacent layers both vertically and horizontally.

FIG. 3 depicts a brick configured for engagement to form a smallest circular layer adjacent positions of end caps on each end of a formed globe or sphere.

FIG. 4 shows views of a brick segment configured to form another layer of the brick sphere or globe.

FIG. 5 shows a brick segment configured for another larger circular layer of bricks in a formed globe or sphere.

FIGS. 5-9 show views of respective brick segments each of which is configured to form a different circular layer on a globe or sphere formed using the system herein.

FIGS. 10-11 show a typical removable engagement of connectors, such as projections on brick segments of one layer, with those of an adjacent layer of brick segments.

FIG. 12 shows the assembly of a globe or sphere using the bricks herein which are engaged to form individual circular layers with sequentially smaller diameters which, when engaged, will form the first hemisphere and second hemisphere on opposing sides of an equator as a position to start the formation of a completed globe, as in FIG. 1.

FIG. 13 depicts a configuration of the globe structure as in FIG. 1 but having an external surface of each brick which has a portion of a graphic or photo or the like depicted thereon and forms a piece of a globular jigsaw puzzle which as shown is the Earth.

FIG. 14 shows a configuration of the structure herein as a jigsaw puzzle similar to FIG. 13 but wherein the depicted image formed upon sections thereof on individual bricks is a sports team logo jigsaw puzzle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down, downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawings and are used for convenience only and such are not intended to be limiting or to imply that the device has to be used or positioned in any particular orientation.

Now referring to drawings in FIGS. 1-14, there are depicted and described similar components of the toy brick system 10 which are identified by like reference numerals.

The system herein is configured of a plurality of respective individually configured bricks 12, such as shown in FIGS. 2-9. Each brick 12 is sized to form a segment in a circular layer 14 which, when stacked, form a globe 16 or sphere or a section thereof, such as the half globe or hemisphere shown in FIG. 2. Each such layer 14 of bricks in a particularly preferred mode of the system 10 herein for ease of construction and strength when the globe is formed, attaches vertically to half portions of two bricks above and below, with a one half brick or 45° of longitude of overlap in the respective layer 14 and for bricks 12 both above and below.

As can be seen in FIGS. 1-2, the respective individual bricks 12 in the respective individual sizes and dimensions, shown herein, are configured to engage and form circular layers 14 in a globe or spherical shape. As shown in FIG. 1, the globe is formed in two hemispheres such as a first hemisphere H1 and second hemisphere H2, which are formed of the layers 14 of engaged bricks 12. Once each hemisphere H1 and H2 has been formed, they may be engaged at an equator or center line to form the globe 16 whereupon the end caps 18 may be attached. It is preferred to make the end caps 18 as separate top and bottom pieces which may be engaged at the end of assembly, so that the globe 16 may be supported on a flat surface and not roll.

The layer of bricks 12, sized to form the largest diameter layer of each of the hemispheres H1 and H2, form adjacently positioned equator layers E1 and E2, which are configured to engage with both the adjacent smaller diameter layers 14, as well as to engage with the largest diameter layer 14 of the other hemisphere of H1 and H2. This configuration allows for the easy construction of each of the two hemispheres H1 and H2, whereupon those two hemispheres can be connected by engaging the equator layers E1 and E2 to each other to form the majority of the structure of the globe 16, as in FIG. 1, whereupon end caps 18 are engaged at the end of assembly.

As noted above, in a particularly preferred mode of the device and system herein, for ease of construction and rendering the puzzle of assembly more intuitive, each brick 12 forming a layer 14 may be formed with a width of the curved edge 24 between two side edges 20 thereof, where that width fills 45° of latitude of the formed globe 16 along the respective layer 14 of the globe 16 which the bricks 12 form. Thus, bricks 12 forming layers 14 closer to the top and bottom of a formed globe 16 will be narrower in width. Bricks 12 forming layers 14 closer to or within the equator layers E1 and E2 of a formed globe 16 will be wider and provide a longer length of a curved portion which is substantially 45° of longitude along the area of the globe 16 formed thereby.

This construction, in a preferred mode, also divides each layer 14 into eight individual bricks 12 which, when their exterior surface 26 is covered by portions of a depicted jigsaw puzzle, such as a map of the Earth (FIG. 13), allows a user to visualize the portion of the puzzle on each of the different exterior surfaces 26 to help assemble a layer 14. Such allows the user to better determine which bricks 12 engage each other to form the area of the puzzle depiction, such as the Earth, in that layer 14 of the depicted puzzle image. This configuration is especially preferred in the modes of the system which are configured as globe 16 jigsaw puzzles formed of individual exterior surfaces 26 which form individual sections of an image, such as in FIGS. 13-14.

As shown in the sectional view of FIG. 2, layers 14 adjacent the two “poles” or top sections of the globe 16 have a smaller circular footprint and sit atop or adjacent layers 14 which form successively larger circular layers 14 in the globe 16. Each circular layer 14 is formed by a brick 12 of the same dimensional characteristics. For example, the circular layer 14 closest to the upper end cap 18 in FIG. 2 is formed of bricks 12 similar to that shown in FIG. 1. Each brick 12 is positioned adjacent another brick 12 until a circular layer 14 is formed. But for the end layers adjacent the end caps 18, each formed circular layer 14 engages at least one adjacent circular layer 14 which has a larger circumference or a circumference substantially equal at the equator of the formed globe 16.

As noted, each brick 12 has a body formed with side edges which angle outward from a narrower first edge 22 to a curved outer edge 24. An exterior surface 26 of each brick 12 extends in the horizontal curve between the first side edge 20 and opposite side edge 20. The exterior surface 26 extends in a vertical curve between a first edge adjacent the first edge 22 and the outer edge 24.

In all modes of the system herein, where a globe 16 is formed of rings or circular layers 14 of engaged bricks 12 of similar dimensions, the exterior surface of the formed globe 16 is made up primarily of the individual exterior surfaces 26 of adjacently positioned bricks 12. The vertical curvature of each exterior surface 26 will be level or even with the vertical curvature positioned on adjacently engaged bricks 12. The horizontal curvature of each brick 12, forming a circular layer 14 in a globe 16, will be level or even with the others in the circular layer 14. This configuration, thus, forms a globe 16 or sphere or the like, where the entire exterior surface of the formed globe 16, but for the end caps 18, is formed of individual exterior surfaces 26 of the respective bricks 12 engaged in the circular layers 14, which are stacked on each other.

Also shown in FIG. 3, for example, and included with all the brick 12 configurations shown herein, are a projection 28 extending from one angled side edge 20 which will engage within a slot 30 formed in a mating side edge 20 of an adjacently positioned brick 12 forming any one circular layer 14. This projection 28 and slot 30 engagement system helps to hold the bricks in the circular layer 14 they form.

Also included in the body of the bricks 12 in FIGS. 4-9 are a recess 32 in the upper surface 34 of the body of the brick 12. This recess 32 is positioned to allow engagement of lower projections 36 extending from the bottom of bricks 12 in an adjacent engaged circular layer 14 where the lower surface is stacked on an underlying circular layer 14.

Shown in FIG. 10 is a depiction of the engagement of the body of the bricks 12 of one formed circular layer 14 to an underlying or adjacent circular layer 14, such as in FIG. 12 which shows the initial engagement of the two equator layers E1 and E2. The posts 38 on the surface of the body of the bricks 12 of one circular layer 14 are positioned and sized to form a connection with mating recessed areas 39 on the bricks 12 of the adjacent circular layer 14. Where a circular layer 14 is positioned to surround the end cap 18 at the top or bottom end of the formed globe 15, the end cap 18 is configured to engage within layer 14 surrounding it, such as the engagement of the interior circumference of the formed circular layer 14. This may be accomplished using side edges forming the edge of the end cap 18 which are configured to engage with positions on the interior circumference of the formed circular layer 14 surrounding the end cap 18. Where each formed layer 14 is formed of eight bricks 12 the perimeter edge of the cap 18 is formed in the shape of an octagon, where each of the eight sides will fractionally engage against the first edge 22 of a respective brick 12 forming the layer 14.

Shown in FIG. 12 is the typical assembly of a globe or sphere or portion thereof using the bricks 12 of the system herein. As shown, the bricks 12 are assembled to form circular layers 14 which reduce in diameter as smaller bricks 12 are engaged to form smaller diameter layers 14. The largest diameter layer 14 of each hemisphere H1 and H2 is formed of the largest width bricks 12 which are configured to connect and form a circular equator area of the formed globe 16.

In forming the hemispheres H1 and H2 in layers 14, one formed circular layer 14 is positioned atop a smaller diameter circular layer 14 formed of bricks 12 of a smaller width. The circumference of each formed circular layer 14, formed of bricks 12, is sequentially reduced in size to form layers 14 in sequentially smaller respective diameters. This allows a globe 16 or sphere structure, such as in FIG. 1, to be formed first of a first hemisphere H1 and second hemisphere H2, where the circumference of each formed circular layer 14, in each formed hemisphere, reduces as they approach the end cap 18. Once formed, each of the two hemispheres H1 and H2 are engaged by connecting the equator layers

FIG. 13 depicts a configuration of the structure, as in FIG. 1, but having an external surface 26 of each brick 12 which has a portion of a graphic depiction or photo or the like thereon. Each such external surface 26 portion, thus, forms a piece of a globular jigsaw puzzle which, as shown, is the Earth. The jigsaw image may be any image that preferably is globe-oriented to allow for reproduction thereof on the exterior of the formed globe 16. Shown in FIG. 14 is a configuration of the structure herein as a globe 16 forming a globe-shaped jigsaw puzzle similar to FIG. 13 but wherein the depicted image formed upon the external surface sections thereof on individual bricks is a sports team logo.

It should be noted that any of the different depicted and described configurations and components of the toy brick system for forming globes, spheres, and sections thereof herein, can be employed with any other configuration or component shown and described as part of the device herein. Additionally, while the present toy brick invention has been described herein with reference to particular embodiments thereof and/or steps in the method of production or use, a latitude of modifications, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure, and it will be appreciated that in some instance some features, or configurations, of the invention could be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. All such changes, alternations and modifications as would occur to those skilled in the art are considered to be within the scope of this invention as broadly defined in the appended claims.

Further, the purpose of any abstract of this specification is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. Any such abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting, as to the scope of the invention in any way.