Toy building set

• US 5,645,463 A
• Filed: 05/05/1994
• Issued: 07/08/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lego A/S (Kirkbi A/S)
• Original Assignee: Interlego, AG (Kirkbi A/S)
• Inventors: Olsen, Flemming H.o slashed.jberg
• Primary Examiner(s): Yu, Mickey
• Application Number:
  US08/232,251
• Time in Patent Office: 1,160 Days
• Field of Search: 446/104, 446/102, 446/128, 446/123, 446/122, 446/124, D21/108
• US Class Current: 446/104
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/04 Building blocks, strips, or similar building parts
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/042 Mechanical, electrical, optical, pneumatic or hydraulic arrangements; Motors

Abstract

A toy building set has primary building members having a first type of coupling that includes studs and complementary parts for mating with the studs. The building set also includes secondary and tertiary building members. The secondary building members have elongated bodies and a second type of coupling including coupling faces that are at least partly rotational-symmetric about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of the body and coupling faces adapted to grip and receive the aforementioned coupling faces. The tertiary building members include a coupling of each of the primary and secondary types.

Claims

1. A toy building set comprising:

box-shaped toy building elements of a first type, each of said first type of building element including a first type of coupling means comprising coupling studs on an outer surface thereof and recesses for receiving coupling studs on another surface thereof, whereby elements of said first type can be releasably stacked with the coupling studs of one of said first type of elements engaging recesses of another element of said first type in a releasable frictional interconnection;

toy building elements of a second type having an elongated body with a second type of coupling means, said second type of coupling means allowing establishing a releasable pivotal interconnection between two toy building elements of the second type, the coupling means of said second type not being directly interconnectable with the coupling means of said first type;

toy building elements of a third type, each of said third type of building element comprising coupling studs on an outer surface thereof allowing interconnection with recesses of toy building elements of said first type and having coupling means of the second type allowing interconnection with toy building elements of the second type, said outer surface of said third type of building element being further provided with a threaded hole for receiving a screw; and

toy building elements of a fourth type, each of said fourth type of building element having recesses of toy building elements of said first type for receiving the coupling studs of said third type of building element in a releasable frictional interconnection and having a threaded screw receivable in said threaded hole of said third type of building element.

2. A toy building set according to claim 1 wherein the third type of elements (100;

200;

300;

400;

) have a substantially box-shaped body, and that the coupling means (140, 122, 126, 128, 129, 130;

222, 226, 228, 230;

342, 344, 346;

     440) of the second type extend beyond the contour of said box-shaped body.

3. A toy building set according to claim 1 wherein the first set of coupling means includes coupling studs (102;

202;

302;

     402) arranged in parallel rows with a mutual modular distance (M) between the coupling studs (102;

202;

302;

     402), wherein the screw connection is provided in the intersection point of the diagonals for a square with four coupling studs (102;

202;

302;

     402) in the corners.

4. A toy building set according to claim 3 wherein the width of the first, second and third type of building elements (100;

200;

300;

400;

500;

1-9) is a whole multiple of the modular distance (M) of the coupling studs (102;

202;

302;

     402).

5. A toy building set according to claim 4, wherein the width of the primary, secondary and tertiary building elements (100;

200;

300;

400;

500;

1-9) is twice the modular measure (M).

6. A toy building set according to claim 1 wherein the body of the third type of building element (100;

200;

300;

     400) is box-shaped and the height of the box-shaped body of the third type of building element (100;

200;

300;

     400) corresponds to the height of the box-shaped first type of building element (8,

     9) without coupling studs.

7. A toy building set according to claim 6 wherein the height of the second type of building element (500) corresponds to the height of the box-shaped body of the third type of building element (100;

200;

300;

     400).

8. A toy building set according to claims 1, wherein the third type of building element (100) has coupling studs (102) on the upper side, complementary coupling means (106, 108) on the underside, a first coupling part (140) at one end of the element and a coupling part (122, 126, 128, 129, 130) complementary therewith at the other end of the element.

9. A toy building set according to claim 8, wherein the first coupling part (140) is rotationally connected with the third element (100) about an axis transversely to the axis of rotation formed by interconnection of the second type of coupling means.

10. A toy building set according to claim 8 wherein the first set of coupling means including coupling studs (102;

202;

302;

     402) arranged in parallel rows with a mutual modular distance (M) and the box-shaped third element (100) has a row of threaded holes (150) along two long sides, and that the distance between the threaded holes (150) corresponds to the modular distance (M) of the coupling studs (102).

11. A toy building set according to claim 8, the distance in the longitudinal direction of the third element (100) between the center of an arbitrary coupling stud (102) and the axis of rotation formed with the second type of coupling means (122, 126, 128, 129, 130, 140) is a whole multiple of half the modular distance (M) of the coupling studs (102).

12. A toy building set according to claim 11, wherein the distance between the axis of rotation and the adjacent pair of coupling studs (102) corresponds to three times half the modular distance (M).