Abstract:
An articulating ornament is in the form of a sports figurine wherein the figurine is secured to a target surface via a post. The legs of the figurine move up and down and slightly forward and back to give the appearance that the figurine is running The arms of the figurine may also arc up and down to further the running illusion. The figurine holds a desired sports implement in one hand, which implement can be swapped out for a different implement. The figurine is capable of emitting light and sound outputs.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sports oriented articulating lawn ornament in a human form wherein the legs and possibly the arms of the ornament articulate. 
         [0002]    2. Background of the Prior Art 
         [0003]    Many sports fans love to get behind their team and cheer them on to victory, especially on game day. Fans show support for the team in many ways including planning game day parties, sometimes even inviting fans from the opposition. There is nothing more exciting than a house full of excited fans, possibly consuming refreshing adult beverages, cheering on their favorite team and rubbing it in to the opposition when the team makes a great play. Additionally fans dress up in their team colors including putting on team shirts, team hats and even face paint in team colors—some fans get even crazier such as covering their bodies in team colored glitter, men putting on women&#39;s dresses appropriate for the specific game at hand, etc. Fans also like to dress out their house. Such house decorations typically involve placing one or more team flags in an appropriate spot and hoping for a strong breeze to help the flags fly. While flags show true team spirit, many fans want more than a single or even multiple team flags adorning the outside of their house as the flags may get overlooked, especially if the flags are not flying due to an absence of wind. 
         [0004]    What is needed is a way for fans to dress up their house in order to show team spirit in order to enhance the overall excitement of the big game that is more robust than a team flag that may or not be flying depending on wind conditions. Specifically, a device is needed that is dynamic and that attracts attention to passersby irrespective of the wind conditions. Such a device must be elegant in design, yet relatively simple in construction so as to be economically attractive to potential consumers for this type of product. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The articulating ornament of the present invention addresses the aforementioned needs in the art by providing a figurine that can be dressed out in support of a favorite team, wherein the figurine articulates at two or more points and potentially draws attention to itself in other ways. The articulating ornament is an attractive device that catches the attention of passersby without depending on wind conditions. The articulating ornament is of relatively simple design and construction, being produced using standard manufacturing techniques, so as to make the device relatively inexpensive and thereby economically attractive to potential consumers for this type of product. The articulating ornament is versatile so that it can be used to show support for more than one team in more than one sport. 
         [0006]    The articulating ornament of the present invention is comprised of a figurine that is in the form of a human having a torso with a head atop and a pair of legs attached to each side of the torso. The legs articulate in an up and down motion. The torso also has a pair of arms attached to each side of the torso. A post is attached to a bottom of the torso and is used to secure the torso to a target surface, such as to the ground or a portable base. The legs also articulate in a back and forth motion while articulating in the up and down motion. The arms may articulate in an up and down arcing motion. At least one light may be located on the figurine. The figurine may emit a sound track through a speaker located on the figurine. The sound track may be recorded onto a storage device held within the figurine via a microphone located on the figurine or may be downloaded onto the storage device held within the figurine or both. A sports implement is removably secured to an end of one of the arms. The motor may be electrically powered by a solar collector seated atop the figurine. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a perspective environmental view of the articulating ornament of the present invention. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a side environmental view of the articulating ornament illustrating the range of articulation of the external moving parts. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a partially exploded view of the articulating ornament. 
       
    
    
       [0010]    Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0011]    Referring now to the drawings, it is seen that the articulating ornament of the present invention, generally denoted by reference numeral  10 , is comprised of a figurine  12  that is in the form of a human, namely a sports figure, such as the illustrated football player. As such, the figurine has a torso  14 , a pair of legs  16  that are pivotally attached the torso  14 —one leg  16  positioned forward and one leg  16  positioned back to simulate running—and a pair of arms  18  that are either pivotally (as shown) attached to the torso  14 —one arm up and one arm  18  down, again to give the appearance that the figurine  12  is running—or for a more simplified device, are fixedly attached to the torso  14 . Of course a head  20  is attached to the torso  14 , which head  20  may be adorned with a helmet  22  as shown. The figurine  12  can be adorned in a favorite team color scheme, including logos, numbers, a player&#39;s name or can be relatively neutral in order to be usable for more than one sport as more fully described below. 
         [0012]    Extending downwardly from the bottom of the torso  14  is a post  24  which may be inserted into the ground G directly in some appropriate fashion known in the art, such as sharpening the end of the post, putting an auger at the bottom of the post, etc., or the post  24  may be formed in two sections, with the upper section  26  attached to the torso  14  and the lower section  28  secured into the ground G in appropriate fashion with the upper section  26  removably receivable within the lower section  28  and secured thereto in appropriate fashion such as via the illustrated set screw  30 . A locking mechanism (not illustrated) may be provided to lock the upper section  26  to the lower section  28  to help prevent the articulating ornament  10  from running away. By using a two-section ground securement system, the lower section  28  may be semi-permanently installed into the ground G in prepositioned fashion such that the upper section, and thus the figurine  12  proper, is attached to the lower section  28  only when needed such as on game day. Of course, the post, whether as a single section post or the two section post illustrated, may be received within a base (not illustrated) or other appropriate holder so that the figurine  12  can be placed on a patio, indoors, etc. 
         [0013]    A sports implement  32 , such as the illustrated football, is removably attachable to the end of one of the arms  18  of the figurine  12  in appropriate fashion such as via the illustrated bolt  34  and wing nut  36 . By making the sports implement  32  removably attached to the arm  18 , different sports implements can be attached to the figurine  12  depending on which team is being supported on a given day. For example, as football season ends and baseball season gears up, the football can be replaced with a baseball in very quick order—fans will gladly overlook the fact that the articulating ornament  10  may possibly have the wrong helmet  22  for the sport being promoted. The torso  14  including the head  20  and helmet  22  are made from two substantially similar halves that are removably secured together in appropriate fashion for ease of manufacturing as well as to easily gain service access into the interior of the figurine  12 . 
         [0014]    The legs  16  of the figurine  12  articulate up and down with a bit of forward motion as well. In order to achieve this articulation, a motor  38  is disposed within the figurine  12 , the motor  38  having an appropriate output shaft  40  driven by the motor  38 . An eccentric gear  42  is operatively coupled to the output shaft  40 , the eccentric gear  42  having an eccentric pin  44  thereon. An articulated eccentric rod  46  is pivotally coupled to the eccentric pin  44  so that as the motor  38  operates, its output shaft  40  rotates which rotates the eccentric gear  42 , which causes the articulated eccentric rod  46  to move up and down as is known in the science of eccentric gear systems. Of course, other methods can be used to translate the rotational output of the motor  38  into linear movement of a rod. Connected to the distal end of the eccentric rod  46  is a connector hub  48 . The connector hub  48  is received within a hub slot  50  located on the torso  14 . The hub slot  50  is dimensioned to snugly hold the connector hub  48  and permit the connector hub  48  to travel through its range of up and down movement within the hub slot  50 . The connector hub  48  is also attached to a leg  16  of the figurine  12  just forward of the pivotal attachment of the leg  16  to the torso  14  proper. As such, as the connector hub  48  moves up and down in response to the eccentric gear system movement, the leg  16  moves up and down at its point of attachment to the torso  14  proper, which causes the leg  16  to have a bit of forward motion as well, giving the illusion of running The opposing leg  16  articulates in substantially similar fashion. Of course a single motor, gearably attached to two sets of eccentric gear systems (or other rotational to linear translation systems) can be used, however, due to the availability of inexpensive small motors, the use of two motors  38  simplifies the gearing system of the articulation subsystem of the articulating ornament  10 . Electric power for the motor  38  comes from batteries  52  located within the  FIG. 12  (a separate access panel (not illustrated) may be provided for easy change out of the batteries  52  without the need to disassemble the figurine  12 ), which batteries  52  may be trickle charged by a small solar panel  54  located on top of the figurine  12 . Of course, the batteries  52  may be rechargeable via an appropriate charging plug (not illustrated) which charging plug plugs into a typical  110  volt electric wall outlet as is known. Such a system can also provide direct electric power to the motors  38  as is well known in the art with or without the use of batteries. 
         [0015]    The arms  18  of the figurine  12  can be simply affixed to the figurine  12  without movement, or the arms  18  can also articulate, as illustrated. To provide arm  18  movement a connector rod  56  connects to a second connector hub  58  located above the leg connector hub  48 , which second or arm connector hub  58  is received within a second hub slot  60  located on the torso  14  above the first hub slot  50 , this arm hub slot  60  is also dimensioned to snugly hold the arm connector hub  58  and permit the connector hub  58  to travel through its range of up and down movement within the hub slot  60 . The connector hub  58  is attached to an arm  18  of the figurine  12  just forward of the pivotal attachment of the arm  18  to the torso  14  proper. As such, as the connector hub  58  moves up and down in response to the eccentric gear system movement via the connector rod  56 , the arm  18  arcs up and down at its point of attachment to the torso  14  proper, which causes the arm  18  to have the illusion of running The opposing arm  18  articulates in substantially similar manner. 
         [0016]    Other optional features of the articulating ornament  10  include having lights  62 , such as the illustrated LEDs located on the figurine  12  in order to attract further attention, especially at night. A speaker  64  is located on the figurine  12  in order to output a desired sound. Such sound can be recorded by a user via a microphone  66 , or one or more sound tracks, such as a team fight song, can be preloaded or can be downloaded and stored onto an appropriate storage device held within a controller  68  within the figurine  12 . Downloading a sound track can be in any appropriate fashion such as via a USB port  70 . One or more switches  72  are provided and are used to control the various functions, including leg  16  and arm  18  articulation, the lights  62 , sound recording if such function is provided, sound track downloading if such function is provide and sound track play. 
         [0017]    In order to use the articulating ornament  10  of the present invention, the appropriate sports implement  32  is secured to an arm  18  of the figurine  12  and the figurine  12  is secured to a target surface such ground surface G or to a base in appropriate fashion. The articulating ornament  10  is turned on via the switch  72 . If provided, the lights  62  can be activated and a sound track or sound tracks played as desired. 
         [0018]    While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to an embodiment thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.