Patent ID: 8517791

Claim:
A toy that rolls on a travel surface when in a substantially spherical first shape in response to a rolling operation caused by a user, and transforms to a second shape at a location where an external magnetic component is disposed, said toy comprising: an external component having a substantially spherical shape, an open hole at a lower portion of said spherical shape and a housing space formed within said spherical shape, said spherically shaped component being configured to form a head of a toy character of the second shape; a lower component movably disposed in said housing space when the toy is in said first shape so that a lower surface of the lower component aligns with the spherical lower surface of said external component to constitute said substantially spherical shape, to allow the external component with the lower component in the first shape to roll on a travel surface, and configured to thrust out from the bottom of said external component through said open hole when the toy is caused to transform to said second shape, said lower component being configured to have a width smaller than the diameter of said spherical shape and to form a trunk of the toy character of the second shape; a locking means; a magnetic body disposed inside the bottom of said lower component; and an elastic component biased to eject the lower component from the bottom of the spherically shaped external component with the magnetic body retained in the bottom of the lower component; wherein, in the absence of any external magnetic component said lower component is retained inside said housing space against a bias of the elastic force of said elastic component by means of said locking means, so that said toy can roll on a travel surface in response to a rolling operation caused by a user, maintaining said substantially spherical shape; and wherein, when said toy rolls by a rolling operation by a user and reaches a location where a magnetic force has acted between said rolling toy and the external magnetic component, the magnetic body moved by the magnetic force causes release of said locking means and said lower component thrusts out towards the external magnetic component from the bottom of said external component through said open hole by means of said released elastic force, and pushes up said external component on the thrusting lower component by means of said released elastic force at the location where the magnetic force has acted to the magnetic body at the bottom of the lower component, whereby the toy character suddenly shows the hidden trunk and rises with the head up on the thrusting-out trunk.