Abstract:
A toy log assembly set is disclosed having various length stackable log-like structural members, nail-like fasteners and a hammer for building composite structures like a house or cabin and stimulating child development. Structural members may include base pieces and/or stacking pieces that are used to form the foundation and walls of the composite building structure. Each of the pieces has an aperture for receiving the fasteners to secure the pieces together and some or all of the apertures are countersunk to receive the head of the fasteners. A hammer may be used to insert the fasteners completely in the apertures.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates generally to toy building sets for children, and more particularly, to toy sets made up of stackable structural members and construction fastening devices from which composite building structures of sufficient complexity may be erected to challenge a range of child ages and interests.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0004]    Toys are an important ingredient in childhood development. Toys not only offer amusement, but they can effect the physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth of children. For example, age-appropriate hands-on toys help develop fine-tuning motor skills and hand-to-eye coordination in children. Structural building blocks are especially suitable for facilitating those attributes in children, and have been known in the art for many years going back at least to 1922 when U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,438 to Nichols was issued for Lincoln Logs© type building blocks. Many toy building block sets, as described below, are limited to simple structural members that can be interfitted or stacked to erect small, modular, building structures like houses.  
           [0005]    U.S. Pat. No. 2,110,990 to Forbes, for example, discloses a toy building set having various linear wooden structural members with multiple notches that allow the members to be stacked in the shape of a cabin having vertical walls and a pitched roof. The stated advantage of the toy set is the ability to form gable-ended roof structures to demonstrate the superior rigidity of the structure compared to previous toy sets.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,304 to Sofer improves on the basic structural member building block toy set by providing structural members having multiple numbers of rectangular notches along the length of the members. Those multi-notched members facilitate erection of not only plane and horizontal surfaces, but also stepped (i.e., slopped) surfaces.  
           [0007]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,076 to Beck discloses a toy set having modular interlocking structural construction pieces made of wood that may be assembled in the shape of a cabin or house. The toy set preferably includes up to twenty different shaped members having rectangular notches at the ends on one or more sides that allow the pieces to stack together thereby, forming crossed, half-lap joints. It is stated that the toy set enhances rational thinking and reasoning in children and adults as a result of the assembly process and also teaches the relationship between orderliness and efficiency.  
           [0008]    Simple building block toy sets like the aforementioned toy sets rely entirely on notches that form loose joints and friction for holding the assembled modular structure together. Interfitting or stackable wood pieces with fastening devices add a degree of complexity to the toy set and enhance their educational value. U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,808 to Podell et al., for example, discloses a toy set having multiple wood pieces with pre-drilled aperatures for receiving oversized wooden bolts and nuts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,515 to George discloses a toy set having several different shaped modular structural members and fasteners for erecting toy structures. George discloses structural members with evenly spaced, pre-drilled apertures along the length of the members for receiving fasteners. In George, the different types of fasteners include dowels, pegs, bolts, screws, pins and flexible barbs made of various materials.  
           [0009]    Toy sets that involve using a hammer or other striking tool to strike pegs or objects can further enhance development of motor skills and hand-to-eye coordination in children. U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,894 to Reaux, for example, discloses a peg board toy that allows a child to strike wooden pegs in pre-drilled holes using a hammer. The object of the toy is to provide amusement and assist developing physical coordination. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 1,555,993 to Larson discloses a toy block set having a nail connected to a spring that can be repeatedly driven into the block by striking it with a hammer.  
           [0010]    Combining building block toy sets with toys having hammerable fasteners would offer increased complexity and, therefore, enhance the physical, cognitive, and emotional growth of children while providing a source of amusement.  
         SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    In view of the foregoing, it should be apparent that there exists a need in the art for a building block toy set that includes interfitting and/or stackable structural members and hammerable construction fasteners that challenge the development of a range of children of different ages and interests.  
           [0012]    Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a structural member that is stackable on other structural members and has one or more apertures extending through the structural member for receiving a fastener, and to provide a fastener that is insertable in the aperture of the structural members for connecting two or more of the structural members together.  
           [0013]    It is another object of the present invention to provide a fastener in the shape of a nail that can be struck with a hammer.  
           [0014]    It is still another object of the present invention to provide structural members and fasteners of various sizes for erecting a modular structure that is sufficiently complex to challenge a wide range of children, both physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially and that is entertaining and interesting.  
           [0015]    Briefly described, these and other objects and features of the present invention are accomplished, as embodied and fully described herein, by a series of linear structural members made of virgin or recycled wood, plastic, metal or other lightweight yet rigid material or a combination of those materials having a generally rectangular profile that can be stacked together to form horizontal and vertical planar surfaces defining the walls, ceiling, floor and roof of a building structure, such as a cabin or a house. Windows, doors, dormers, chimneys and other conventional items may be integrated into the composite building structure. There are two types of linear structural members: base pieces and stacking pieces. The base and stacking pieces have approximately the same width, but the height of the base pieces is generally half the height of the stacking pieces. The lengths of each piece varies.  
           [0016]    To provide dimensional stability in the modular structure, each structural member may include one or more apertures that is pre-drilled in the member and extends through the member for receiving a fastener. Each aperture is counterbored to provide a countersink recess for the head of a nail-like fastener. The nail-like fastener is made of virgin or recycled plastic, wood, metal or other material or a combination of those materials and has a generally flat head, round shank and flat or tapered tip. The diameter of the shank is equal to or slightly larger than the diameter of the aperture so that when the fastener is inserted in the aperture it is held in place by friction contact with the surface of the walls of the aperture. The fastener is designed not to fail under moderate compressive forces from a hammer striking the head of the fastener and also from moderate bending or torsional forces applied to the head and shank.  
           [0017]    The objects and features of the invention are also accomplished by a method of using the linear structural members and fasteners. With a supplied hammer, a child may outline the shape of a building structure using base pieces and then begin adding stacking pieces on top of the base pieces to form walls. One or more fasteners are inserted into one or more apertures on the pieces and driven into the apertures with the hammer to hold them together.  
           [0018]    With these and other objects, advantages and features of the invention that may become hereinafter apparent, the nature of the invention may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention, the appended claims and to the several drawings attached herein. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a drawing of a perspective view of the set of linear structural members of the present invention showing both base and stacking pieces;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a partial, cross-sectional, perspective view of one of the base pieces shown in FIG. 1;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is a partial, cross-sectional, perspective view of one of the stacking pieces shown in FIG. 1;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 a  is a side view of one embodiment of a fastener of the present invention;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 b  is a side view of another embodiment of a fastener of the present invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 4 c  is a side view of another embodiment of a fastener of the present invention;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of some of the base and stacking pieces of FIG. 1, and the fastener of FIG. 4 b  being inserted into an aperture on the pieces;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a toy claw and anvil hammer with an oversized grip;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a finished composite building made from the base and stacking pieces shown in FIG. 1 and the fasteners shown in FIGS. 4 a ,  4   b  and  4   c ; and  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 8 is a drawing of a child using the fasteners shown in FIGS. 4 a ,  4   b  and  4   c , the base and stacking pieces shown in FIG. 1, and the hammer shown in FIG. 6. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0029]    Several preferred embodiments of the invention are described for illustrative purposes, it being understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms not specifically shown in the drawings.  
         [0030]    Referring now in detail to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout, FIG. 1 is a perspective drawing of a set of linear structural members of the present invention each made from virgin or recycled wood, plastic, metal or other lightweight yet rigid material or a combination of those materials. As shown in FIG. 1, there are two kinds of structural members: base pieces  102 ,  104  and  106 , and stacking pieces  108 ,  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118  and  120 . The base pieces  102 - 106  are approximately rectangular and have a width W b , height h b , and length l b  such that l b &gt;W b  and l b &gt;h b  (see FIG. 2). The width and height dimensions can be linearly related according to W b ≈p×h b , where p=2, 3, . . . n; however, it is preferred that W b ≈2×h b . That is, the width dimension is approximately twice the height dimension. It is contemplated that the width dimension may be slightly greater than or less than twice the height dimension.  
         [0031]    The stacking pieces  108 - 120  are approximately rectangular and have a width w s , height h s , and length l s  such that l s &gt;w s  and l s &gt;h s  (see FIG. 3) The width and height dimensions can be linearly related according to w s ≈p×h s , where p=1, 2, 3, . . . n; however, it is preferred that w s ≈h s . That is, the width dimension is approximately equal to the height dimension. Again, it is contemplated that the width dimension can be slightly greater than or less than the height dimension. It is also preferred that W b ≈w s . That is, the width dimension of the base pieces should be approximately equal to the width dimension of the stacking pieces. The cross-sectional dimensions W b  and h b , in the case of the base pieces  102 - 106 , and w s  and h s , in the case of the stacking pieces  108 - 120 , are nearly constant along the length of the individual pieces.  
         [0032]    As shown in FIG. 1, the base pieces  102 - 106  and the stacking pieces  108 - 120  have apertures A drilled through the pieces so that the longitudinal axes of the apertures are approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the pieces. The apertures A are separated by a distance d apart. Preferably, the apertures A are evenly spaced along the length l b  and l s  of the pieces. The number of apertures A on each piece depends on the lengths l b  and l s  and the separation distance d. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, when d is approximately 0.75-inches, there would be 20 holes on a base or stacking piece that is 15-inches long (see base piece  106  and stacking piece  120 , for example), 18 holes on a piece that is 13.5-inches long (not shown), 10 holes on a piece that is 7.5-inches long (base piece  104  and stacking piece  118 ), 6 holes on a piece that is 4.5-inches long ( 102 ,  116 ), 5 holes on a 3.75-inch piece ( 114 ), 4 holes on a 3-inch piece ( 112 ), 3 holes on a 2.25-inch piece ( 110 ), and 2 holes on a 1.5-inch piece ( 108 ). If the distance d is greater than or less than 0.75-inches, then a fewer or greater number of apertures A may be included on each piece.  
         [0033]    Some of the pieces may include apertures A that are not equally separated by the same distance d. For example, on one piece the apertures A may be spaced 0.75 inches apart and on another piece the apertures A may be spaced 1.5-inches apart. Further, the apertures A may be grouped at a particular end of the pieces or grouped on both ends with the center portions having no apertures A at all. As shown in FIG. 1, it is preferred that the apertures A be round; however, they may also be square, rectangular, triangular, oval or other non-round shape. Further, each piece  102 - 120  may have a combination of different shaped apertures A.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 2 is a partial, cross-sectional, perspective view of one of the base pieces shown in FIG. 1. Each aperture A has an outside diameter D 1  that is pre-drilled in the piece. The apertures A are preferably pre-drilled completely through the piece forming a hole  204 . In some instances, however, the apertures A may be pre-drilled to a depth that is less than the height of the piece. Each aperture may be counterbored to provide a countersink recess  202  to accept the shape of a fastener (see FIGS. 4 a ,  4   b  and  4   c ) so that the fastener is flush with the top surface of the base or stacking piece. The countersink is made to a depth s on one end of the aperture and has a diameter D 2  such that D 2  &gt;D 1 .  
         [0035]    Similarly, FIG. 3 is a partial, cross-sectional, perspective view of one of the stacking pieces shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 3, each aperture A has a countersink  302  and a pre-drilled hole  304  and is separated by a distance d. The dimensions of each aperture A in FIG. 3 are the same as the dimensions of the apertures A on the base piece shown in FIG. 2.  
         [0036]    The apertures A on the linear structural members are designed to accept a fastener like that shown in FIG. 4 a . FIG. 4 a  is a side view of one embodiment of a fastener  400  according to the present invention. The fastener  400  is made of virgin or recycled plastic, wood, metal or other material or a combination of those materials and generally resembles a flat-head nail having a head, shank and tip. Although a nail-like fastener is preferred, other types of fasteners may also be used without departing from the nature and scope of the invention, such as screws, pins, rivets, bolts and the like.  
         [0037]    The shank  406  of the fastener  400  should have a diameter D 3  that is equal to or (preferably) slightly larger than the diameter D 1  of the aperture A so that the fastener  400  is held in the aperture A by friction contact with the surface of the walls of the aperture hole  204  (FIG. 2). It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the size of D 3  will vary depending on the tightness of the friction fit desired. When the fastener  400  is inserted in the aperture A, the radial force exerted by the shank  406  of the fastener  400  against the surface of the aperture hole  204  should be sufficient to hold the fastener  400  in place but not too great that a child will not be able to readily separate the linear structural members with reasonable force. Further, it is contemplated that the friction force will be small enough so that a child of reasonable strength can manually insert the fastener  400  by using, for example, a thumb or finger pressed against the top of the head  402  and applying a force in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the fastener  400 . Separation of the linear structural members connected by a fastener  400 , or removal of the fastener  400  from an aperture A, is facilitated by the opening  408  in the shank  406  that flexes inward when the fastener  400  is inserted in the aperture A. The slit-type opening  408  reduces some of the friction force exerted by the shank  406  of the fastener  400  against the surface of the hole  204 .  
         [0038]    As also shown in FIG. 4 a , the head  402  has a height s equal to the depth s of the countersink of the apertures A. This allows the fastener  400  to fit approximately flush in the aperture A. The head  402  has a diameter D 2  approximately equal to the diameter D 2  of the countersink of the apertures A.  
         [0039]    The shank  406  of the fastener  400  is long enough to hold two linear structural members together. Clearly, when a stacking piece is on top of a base piece, the shank  406  should be equal to or less than the combined height of those two pieces, or h b +h s . However, when a stacking piece is stacked on top of another stacking piece, the shank  406  should be equal to or less than the combined height of those two pieces, or h s +h s . Thus, it is contemplated that different lengths of fasteners  400  will be required.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 4 b  is a side view of another embodiment of a fastener  420  according to the present invention. The fastener  420  has all of the same features and attributes of the fastener  400 , except for the opening  428  and lower shank  430  shown in FIG. 4 b . The fastener  420  includes a top  422 , head  424 , upper shank  426 , opening  428 , lower shank  430  and tip  432 . The opening  428  is larger than the opening  408  on the fastener  400  and extends along a larger length of the upper shank  426  of the fastener  420  compared to opening on the shank  406  of the fastener  400 . The lower shank  430  has a slightly smaller diameter of length h t , such that h t &lt;h b  and h t &lt;h s . The lower shank  430  and the tip  432  have a diameter D 4  that is equal to or (preferably) slightly smaller than the diameter D 1  of the aperture A. The smaller diameter of the lower shank  430  and the tip  432  act as a guide when inserting the fastener  420  in the aperture A and allow that portion of the fastener  420  to be loosely held in the aperture A by friction contact with the walls of the aperture hole  304  (FIG. 3). Most of the friction force will be exerted by the upper shank  426 .  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 4 c  is a side view of another embodiment of a fastener  440  of the present invention. The fastener  440  includes a top  442 , head  444 , shank  446  and tip  450 . The end of the shank  446  and the tip  450  have a diameter D 3  that is equal to or (preferably) slightly larger than the diameter D 1  of the aperture A so that the fastener  440  is held in the aperture A by friction contact with the surface of the walls of the aperture hole  204  (FIG. 2) or the hole  304  (FIG. 3). The shank  446  shown in FIG.  4   c  is hour-glass shaped (exaggerated for clarity) to reduce the friction force exerted by the fastener  440 .  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a composite structure  500  made from the base pieces  102  and  104  and the stacking pieces  108  and  116  being connected together using the fasteners  420  inserted into the apertures A on the pieces.  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a toy claw and anvil hammer  600  with an oversized grip. Any type of striking device suitable for use by children in connection with the present invention may be used.  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a finished composite building  700  made from the base pieces  102 - 106  and the stacking pieces  108 - 120  shown in FIG. 1, and the fasteners  400 ,  420  and  440  shown in FIGS. 4 a ,  4   b  and  4   c , respectively. Composite building  700  may include a separately assembled roof  702  with one or more optional dormers  704 , upper windows  706 , lower windows  708 , front entrance  710 , garage door  712  and chimney  714  (not shown). Some of those building items may be attached to the outside of the building structure  700 , like the dormers  704 , the upper windows  706 , and the front entrance  710 . Other building items may be integrated into the building structure  700 , like the garage door  712 . However, each of the aforementioned building items may be either integrated into the building structure  700  or attached to the outside, depending on the desires of the user. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that other sizes and configurations of building structures may be assembled from the pieces  102 - 120  shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0045]    [0045]FIG. 8 is a drawing of a child using the fasteners  400 ,  420  and  440  shown in FIGS. 4 a ,  4   b  and  4   c , the base pieces  102 - 106  and the stacking pieces  108 - 120  shown in FIG. 1, and the hammer  600  shown in FIG. 6. To assemble a building structure  800 , a user outlines the foundation  802  of the structure  800  using base pieces  102 - 106  and then begins building walls  804  by stacking one or more stacking pieces  108 - 120  as shown in FIG. 8. After each layer is added, a fasteners  806  may be inserted into one of the apertures A. Using the hammer  600 , the fastener  806  is inserted into the aperture A by striking the top of the fastener  806  with the hammer  600 .  
         [0046]    Although only preferred embodiments are specifically illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated that many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.