Figure including means for extruding plastic substance

An activity toy including a hollow skull extending from a hollow, tubular neck and having eye, nose, and mouth openings. Attachable about and spaced from the skull in relatively tight relation to the neck is a clear face and head mask formed of separable halves secured together by clamps. A plastic amorphous solid substance is loaded into the skull through the neck and extruded out of openings to fill the space between the skull and the mask. Removal of the mask permits further hand working of the plastic substance to modify the appearance of the formed face. Suitable appendages and a hooded cloak are provided to obscure the plastic substance extrusion mechanism and provide a figure that may be placed in combination with the face and head extruding feature.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates generally to toy figures and more particularly to a 
toy figure that is combined with a plastic substance extruder for forming 
the face and head of the figure. 
2. Background Art 
Figures and dolls have long been popular toys with both boys and girls. 
More recently, figures resembling monsters or fantasy characters have 
become very popular. Clay and other plastic substances have long provided 
children with entertaining activity including the sculpting of heads or 
faces. However, not all children have the innate artistic ability or 
talent to make a satisfying head or face. Prior art toys have provided 
children with mechanical molding means for clay or similar plastic 
substances such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,936 to mold animal-like 
characters. Other toys such as LJN "Dr MAD'S HAIRY-SCARY MONSTERS" and 
KENNER "FUZZY PUMPER" pet shop have combined mechanical extruder bases 
with hollow apertured attachments for monster and animal-like figures for 
the purpose of extruding a mass of strands of a plastic substance to 
decorate the figure with "hair" or the like. There remains, however, a 
need for an activity toy that combines a figure with a self-contained 
extruding mechanism and provisions for molding a head and face that is 
operable during play with the figure in an entertaining way and which 
produces a result that is aesthetically pleasing to the child. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is concerned with providing a figure that includes a 
self-contained extruding mechanism and a mold for forming an aesthetically 
pleasing head and face for the figure in an entertaining manner. These and 
other objects and advantages of the invention are achieved by a figure 
that has a hollow skull extending from a tubular neck and having openings 
for the eyes, nose and mouth and which combines with a separable clear 
mask that is attached such that the mask is relatively tight about the 
neck but is spaced from the skull. The figure supports a mechanism for 
forcing a plastic amorphous solid substance loaded into the skull through 
the tubular neck out of the eye, nose, and mouth openings to fill the mask 
to form a face wth the substance. Separating and removing the mask permits 
further play with the formed face and head. The figure is provided with 
suitable appendages, which may interact with the extrusion mechanism, as 
well as a cloak or other covering to obscure the mechanism and permit 
additional play with the figure. A detachable cap is conveniently provided 
in the top of the skull to facilitate removal of the plastic substance 
from the interior of the skull.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now to the drawing in which like parts are designated by like 
reference numerals throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 
an activity toy 10 that includes a toy figure 12. In this embodiment the 
figure is somewhat simplified and has a generally cylindrical body 14. An 
upper member includes a tubular neck 16 mounted in the body at an angle of 
approximately 45 degrees to the vertical center of the body and has an 
upper outwardly extending end that supports a hollow skull 20. Both the 
neck tube 16 and the hollow skull 20 may be integrally formed with the 
body 14 or otherwise permanently mounted on the body. The open lower end 
of the tubular neck 16 receives a sliding extrusion piston 24 that has a 
shouldered portion 26 on the back end to prevent the piston being pushed 
all the way into the tubular neck 16. To facilitate pushing the piston 
with a thumb or finger a further enlarged portion 28 is provided behind 
the shouldered portion. As is best illustrated in FIG. 2, the piston 24 
extends out of the back of the figure at a point below the shoulder so 
that the piston may be pushed into the neck 16 by the thumb of a hand 
grasping the body of the figure 12. 
In order to provide a monster like appearance, the skull 20, neck 16, and 
body 14 are covered with a hooded cloak 30 which obscures the extrusion 
mechanism. Appendages, such as bony hands 32, extend from sleeves or 
openings in the cloak and may be attached directly to the cloak. 
Alternatively, the body 14 may be shaped to more closely conform to that 
of the monster or other fantasy character being represented. In addition, 
arms (not shown) could be attached to the body and through a suitable 
linkage (not shown) be used to operate the extrusion mechanism. Similarly, 
it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that different types of 
extrusion mechanisms, such as a screw type extruder, could be used. 
Hollow skull 20 may be integrally formed with the neck 16 and is provided 
with a detachable cap 32 for access of the interior of the skull for 
cleaning purposes. The cap and the skull are generally circular along the 
plane on which they abut. Spaced from the lower edge of cap 32 is a 
circular groove 34 below which depends a cylindrical wall portion 36 that 
is an integral part of the cap. A similar circular groove 38 is spaced 
from the top edge of the skull 20 a distance substantially equal to the 
spacing of the groove 34 from the bottom edge of the cap 32. Extending 
upwardly from the groove 38 is a circumferential wall 40. Opposed 
retaining "C" shaped bands 42 have inwardly directed flanges 44 which fit 
into the grooves 34 and 38 to secure the cap 32 and the skull 20 together. 
The size of the "C" shaped bands 42 is equal to or slightly smaller than 
the circumference of the cap and skull adjacent the plane of the 
attachment and the bands have sufficient resiliency so that the bands are 
retained in the grooves to keep the cap and skull together. 
The front of skull 20 is provided with a number of openings representing 
eye sockets 48, nose cavity 50, mouth 52, and holes in the cheeks 54. 
Accordingly, the figure 12, as illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises a hooded, 
cloaked skeleton-like monster which may be played with like a conventional 
monster or fantasy figure. In addition, the interior of the skull 20 is 
loadable with a colored clay or other malleable amorphous solid 56 used by 
children for modeling and other activities. With the piston 24 inserted as 
shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, pushing the piston into the neck 16 with thumb or 
finger will cause some of the substance 56 to be extruded out of the 
openings in the skull. 
A relatively rigid clear mask 60 is formed of two separable front and back 
halves 62 and 64, respectively, each having a substantially uniformed wall 
thickness. The front half 62 has the external appearance of a face and the 
interior forms a mold cavity for a face. Back half 64 forms the remainder 
of the head, both externally and internally. Halves 62 and 64 have a 
projecting plate 66 and 68, respectively, that lies in the generally 
vertical parting line plane. In addition, each portion has a respective 
downwardly extending semi-cylindrical front sleeve 70 and back sleeve 72. 
When abutted, sleeves 70 and 72 conform substantially to the outer 
dimension of the tubular neck 16 creating a relatively tight fit about the 
neck. The rectangular plates 66 and 68 are of substantially identical 
outer dimensions so that when the two halves 62 and 64 of the mask 60 are 
assembled with the edges of the rectangular plates aligned, the sleeves 70 
and 72 fit about the neck 16. Clamps 74 placed over the side edges of the 
joined plates 66 and 68 secure the two separable halves together. As with 
the "C" shaped bands 42 the rectangular clamps 74 are formed of a 
resilient material and have a slot 76 that is slightly narrower than the 
combined thicknesses of the plates 66 and 68 to retain the clamps 74 in 
place. Because the lower side edges of the rectangular plates extend down 
below the face and head to intersect an upper portion of the sleeves, the 
clamps 74 also sufficiently secure the top of the sleeves 70 and 72 about 
the neck 16. 
With the detachable cap 32 on and the separable halves 62 and 64 clamped 
together about the neck 16 to form mask 60, plastic substance 56 extruded 
out of the hollow skull 20 through the openings 48, 50, 52, and 54 fills 
the annular space between the skull 20 and the interior of the mask 60 to 
form a face and head for the figure 12. In order to facilitate putting the 
mask on, the hood portion of the cloak 30 may be flipped off the skull, 
and after the mask is in place flipped back up to substantially hide the 
clamped parting plates 66 and 68. Once the face and head has been formed 
by pushing the piston 24 into the neck 16, the mask 60 may be removed and 
the child may further play with the face and head thus created. For 
example, a child could with fingers or othertools modify the formed face 
particularly in the region of the openings 48, 50, 52, and 54. Further 
pressure on the piston 24 will then cause additional material to be 
extruded out through the openings to expand and deform the already formed 
face and perhaps erupt out of the weakened regions. 
While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown an described 
with some modifications, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art 
that further changes and modifications may be made without departing from 
the invention. It is intended in the appended claims to cover all such 
changes and modifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of 
the invention.