Novelty kit and method for using it to relieve tension and stress

A method and kit for helping relieve tension and stress includes inflatable cellular assemblies, which are either configured in the shape of a desired design, or bears markings in the shape of a desired design. A mallet is used for striking the individual cell chambers so as to explode said cells with sound producing force thereby releasing the gaseous contents of the chamber, the sound and gaseous contents further stimulating the user's physical senses to produce humor and amusement whereby the user's tension and stress is relieved.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates in general to a novelty item kit and a method 
of using it, and more particularly relates to a kit and method for using 
the kit to relieve tension and stress. 
BACKGROUND ART 
Novelty items, such as games, puzzles, and various mechanical contrivances 
have long been popular purchased items amongst executives and other 
professionals for the purpose of relieving tension, stress and hostility. 
However, there are many other people in our society, apart from executives 
and professionals, whose daily job-related activities are anxiety 
producing. 
For example, commuting on heavily congested highways not only can produce 
stress and tension, but also can lead to extreme hostile behavior that can 
endanger life. As another example, consider the unique stress and tension 
that a modern homemaker must face in managing a household, directing the 
activities of children and meeting the companion needs of a spouse. From 
the foregoing, it should be clear that daily stress in modern life, is not 
limited to business executives, but cuts across the entire spectrum of our 
society. 
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved novelty 
kit and method of using a kit for helping relieve stress, tension, and 
hostility. Such a kit should be easy to use, and appeal to a wide variety 
of people, including the pressured executive or professional, the 
over-burdened homemaker, and the weary highway commuter. 
Because stress and tension can also result in both mental and physical 
strain, there have been a wide variety of techniques for relieving stress. 
For example, movies, entertainment activities, music, and sports are but a 
few of the many ways society has employed to relieve stress and tension. 
However, such activities are usually expensive and require a special 
setting and/or special equipment to achieve the desired results. 
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a novelty kit which can be 
used to help relieve stress and tension, and which can be used in almost 
any location, even while traveling in an automobile. Also, such a kit 
should be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, so that a large number of 
people can afford to purchase the kit and obtain its beneficial results 
from its use. 
It is also known that amusement activities which keep a person pleasantly 
and enjoyably occupied, and which cause laughter, aid in relieving tension 
and stress, because laughter serves to divert a person's attention from 
more serious thoughts and worry. In this regard, it would also be highly 
desirable to have a novelty item, which is laughter provoking, and would 
be both pleasant and enjoyable to use. It should appeal to a wide variety 
of a person's physical senses of sight, smell, sound and touch, so that 
stress and tension can be more easily relieved. In this regard, by 
appealing to more than one sense of the user, a more effective and 
efficient impact can be made on the mind, where the source of the anxiety 
resides. 
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION 
Therefore, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a 
new and improved novelty kit and method of using it, to aid in the relief 
of tension, stress and hostility. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a novelty item, 
which can be used by a person in almost any location, appeals to a wide 
variety of people, and would be relatively inexpensive to manufacture and 
easy to use. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a kit which 
tends to invade several of a person's physical senses, in such a manner 
that such a kit may cause amusement and may provoke laughter, to help 
further relieve tension and stress of the user. 
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present invention are 
realized by providing a method of helping relieve tension, stress and 
hostility in a safe and amusing manner, and includes a kit to help 
facilitate the process. 
The kit includes an inflated thermoplastic cellular assembly, which 
includes one face having a series of individual gas-filled cell chambers 
composed of film material, and the other face being substantially planar 
or flat. An indicia is disposed on the flat surface, configured in the 
shape of a design, such as a neck tie or other novelty design, for 
amusement purposes. The kit further includes a tool for exploding 
selectively the individual cells of the assembly. The method of using the 
kit includes placing the assembly on a firm supporting surface with the 
flat face engaging it, and then manually and forcibly moving a tool into 
engagement with individual ones of the cells to compress abruptly against 
the supporting surface, until the gas pressure on the interior of the cell 
chamber causes the film material to rupture rapidly or to explode, thereby 
allowing the gas under pressure to escape from the interior of the 
selected cell. 
Upon impact, the cell explodes, and produces an audible popping or cracking 
sound. As a result, the tension, stress and hostility of the user may be 
relieved by reason of the stimulation of the user's physical senses. Also, 
the physical act of striking the assembly tends to relieve ones' 
frustrations and anxieties.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, 
there is shown a novelty kit 10 which is constructed in accordance with 
the present invention. The kit 10 is used according to the method of the 
present invention to help relieve tension and stress, and yet provide an 
amusing past time. The kit 10 can be used in almost any location, and it 
is relatively inexpensive to manufacture. 
As illustrated in the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is 
shown a novelty kit 10, which generally comprises a mallet 12, and a 
plurality of similar thermoplastic inflated cellular assemblies, such as 
the assemblies 11 and 11A disposed in a predetermined base figure 
configuration, which, as shown in FIG. 1, is in the shape of a neck tie. 
Thus, the assemblies 11 and 11A are designed to be used by, and marketed 
to, business executives. 
Each assembly includes a plurality of cell chambers generally indicated at 
13 and 13A, which are each filled with a suitable gas under pressure. The 
gas may be air, colored smoke, or a fragrant gas. 
Each one of the assemblies are similar to one another. The assembly 11A 
will now be described in greater detail. 
A decal 14 is affixed to the assembly 11A to impart color and an added 
contrast to the predetermined base figure configuration of the assembly 
11. The mallet 12 is used for striking manually by the user the individual 
cell chambers 13A of the cellular assembly 11A for exploding them one at a 
time. 
Considering now the inflated cellular assembly 11A in greater detail with 
reference to FIG. 1A, the cell chambers of the cellular assembly 11A, is 
composed of film material, and filled with colored smoke in a similar 
manner as conventional bubble wrap material, used for packaging purposes. 
The assembly 11A includes front and back surfaces composed of thin-walled 
sheets of thermoplastic material. A sheet 16 is generally smooth and flat 
and is fixed to another sheet 17 by a suitable process to form a plurality 
of spaced apart hemispherical annular cell chambers affixed sealingly to 
the sheet 16, as generally shown at 13A. Each individual cell chamber 13A 
is filled with colored smoke under pressure. 
A decal 14 is affixed to the marginal edge of the sheet 16 to impart color 
and added contrast dimension to the predetermined base figure 
configuration of the sheet 16. The decal 14 is affixed to sheet 16 by any 
well known securing technique, such as by applying a suitable adhesive. 
The method of relieving tension and stress with the kit 10 will hereinafter 
be described in greater detail. In operation, the inventive method of 
using the kit 10 to relieve tension and stress is initiated by a user 
placing an assembly, such as the assembly 11, on any stationary supporting 
surface, such as the surface 9, with the individual cell chambers 13 
facing downwardly flat against the surface 9. 
The user than picks up the mallet 12 and commences striking each individual 
chamber cell 13 to rupture them abruptly with a resounding popping or 
cracking sound. By selectively striking with sufficient force individual 
cell chambers 13 with the mallet 12, the volume area within the chamber is 
reduced abruptly, so as to increase the interior pressure of the gas 
contained in the selected cell chamber to a sufficient pressure to rupture 
the sheet 17 of the thermoplastic film material, thereby allowing the 
rapid egress of the gas under pressure from the interior thereof. Thus, 
the resulting explosion produces an accompanying sound, due to the sound 
producing force delivered to the cell. 
As each cell is struck thereafter seriatim, as desired, each one explodes 
with sound producing force, thereby releasing the air or other inert sense 
stimulating contents within the cell chamber to the atmosphere. The act of 
striking the assembly 11 releases the user's hostility in a non-harmful 
manner, while the produced sound with sense stimulating cells contents 
continues to amuse the user thereby helping to relieve the user's stress 
and tension. 
As shown in FIGS. 2, there is shown another cellular assembly 51, which is 
also constructed according to the present invention, and which forms a 
part of a kit (not shown) in a similar manner as the kit 10. The assembly 
51 is similar in construction to the assemblies 11 and 11A. 
The method of making the individual inflated cellular assembly 51 useful in 
relieving stress and tension is illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 2A. Considering 
now the initial step of making the inflated cellular assembly 51 with 
reference to FIG. 2A, the inventive method is initiated by preparing a 
predetermined base figure design, such as an outline of a neck tie, by 
imparting a marking impermeable material 15 such as ink or paint, on a 
sheet of silk 23 or other fine woven fabric material or the like material, 
which has previously been rendered impermeable. After the marking material 
15 has dried, the imparted material 15 is removed from the silk 23 by 
cutting out the figure outlined by the material 15 leaving a neck tie 
shaped opening 15A (FIG. 2). In this manner, a stencil 18A as shown in 
FIG. 2 is formed. 
Stencil or template 18A is then superimposed over a flat base sheet 20 of 
gas filled cells 21 on the opposite side thereof. The assembly 51 is 
similar in construction to the assemblies 11 and 11A, and is composed of 
thermoplastic film material, as illustrated in FIG. 2A. A marking material 
19 is then imparted to the entire area defined by the stencil 18A so the 
impermeable material 23 prevents all portions of the design not to be 
imparted to the thermoplastic sheet, thereby imparting the marking 
material 19 to the base sheet 16 in a predetermined configuration 21 as 
shown in FIG. 2. The sheet 16 can then be cut to any desired shape, such 
as a rectangular shape. 
Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown another inflated cellular assembly 
52, which is constructed according to the present invention. The assembly 
52 is generally similar to the assemblies 11 and 11A, and is configured in 
the shape of a neck tie. 
The assembly 52 is made by forcing a cutting mold or die 60, configured in 
the shape of a neck tie, into cutting engagement with a sheet 62 of 
cellular material. The sheet 62 has a series of spaced apart hemispherical 
gas-filled cells 64 on the back side 66 thereof. A neck tie shaped opening 
68 in the sheet 62 is left therebehind, as the completed assembly 52 drops 
under the force of gravity therefrom. 
Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown another method of making an 
inflated cellular assembly 31, which is also constructed according to the 
present invention, and which is generally similar to the assembly 52, 
except the assembly 31 is configured in the shape of a woman. 
Considering now the initial step of making the assembly 31 with reference 
to FIG. 4, the inventive method is initiated by imparting colored marking 
material 71 to a flat surface of a sheet 76 having inflated cells 73 on 
the back side thereof, to form a base figure configuration of the desired 
shape of a female form. 
It is understood that the inflated cellular thermoplastic material 30 has 
two thin-walled overlying sheets 76 and 34 of thermoplastic. One sheet 76 
is substantially flat, and the other sheet 34 is molded to form the 
plurality of annular cell chambers 73 disposed thereon. 
The marking material 71 is then dried. The remaining surface 78 of the 
sheet 76 is coated with a contrasting color coating to make the marking 
material 71 configured in the desired shape, to be readily apparent. 
The method of making an individual cellular assembly 32 useful in relieving 
stress and tension is illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. Considering now the 
initial step of making the assembly 32 with reference to FIG. 5 the 
inventive method is initiated by adhering a decal sticker 40 of a 
predetermined base figure configuration to a flat surface 36 of an 
inflated cellular thermoplastic material, by any suitable adhesive. 
Another form of an individual cellular assembly 62 is shown in FIGS. 6, 7 
and 8. In this construction, the inflated cellular assembly 32 includes a 
plurality of cellular chambers B filled with smoke or a fragrant gas 
generally shown at 43 in FIG. 6. 
The inflated cellular assembly 32 is placed with its flat surface 36 facing 
upwardly and an adhesive backed decal 40 is imparted to the surface 36. 
After the decal 40 is adhered to the surface 36, the thermoplastic 
material is cut at a distance from the decal 40 to form any desired 
overall configuration, such as a rectangular shape. 
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate another inflated cellular assembly 62, which is 
constructed according to the present invention. The assembly 62 includes 
an inflated cellular material 54, which has a fibrous border material 52 
such as cardboard, at the outer periphery thereof, to serve as a border. 
The material 52 may be composed of fiberboard. 
As shown in FIG. 8, the material 52 is in the form of an annular sheet 
folded over into a channel shape in cross section throughout its annular 
configuration for receiving the marginal edge of the material 54 for 
finishing purposes. 
The fibrous material 52 has a predetermined base configuration contoured in 
the shape of a circle. The inventive method of making the device 62, is 
initiated by adhering the fibrous border material 52 to the flat surface 
58 of inflated cellular thermoplastic material 56, by suitable adhering 
technique. The inflated cellular thermoplastic material is similar to the 
material of the assembly 11, and has two sheets composed of thin-walled 
thermoplastic material. One sheet 58 is substantially flat and molded to 
another sheet 54, having a plurality of hemispherical cell chambers 53 
disposed thereon. Thereafter, the thermoplastic sheet is cut along the 
circular peripheral edge by a hot wire (not shown). 
As shown in FIG. 8, each one of the cell chambers contains a fragrant gas 
59 under pressure. Thus, when the chambers are exploded, the fragrant gas 
is released to the atmosphere for detection by the sense of smell. 
Therefore, it should now be apparent that the inflated assemblies are 
configured in various different shapes, such as outlines of neck ties, 
women, or generic designs, such as a circle. Each one of the designs could 
be marketed to different groups of people, such as executives, women, 
members of the public in general, as well as many others. For example, the 
assemblies can be configured in the shape of an automobile for people 
desiring to use them while riding in an automobile or other vehicle. 
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed, 
it is to be understood that various different modifications are possible 
and are contemplated within the true spirit and scope of the appended 
claims. There is no intention, therefore, of limitations to the exact 
abstract or disclosure herein presented.