A toy figure with an electronic tag

Abstract

A toy figure comprising a body part with a number of articulated legs (5) attached thereto, wherein the body part comprises a bell shaped torso (1) with an inner space and a lower rim (3) forming an opening to the inner space. An electronic tag (11) is arranged in the inner space of the bell shaped torso (1) and the articulated legs (5) are attached to a hip part (5) that is attached to the bell shaped torso (1) via a snap lock and shaped so that it rests against the lower rim (3) and covers the opening.

Description

[0001] Title:

[0002] A toy figure with an electronic tag

[0003] Prior art:

[0004] The present invention relates to a toy figure comprising a body part with a number of articulated legs attached thereto, and where the body part comprises a bell shaped torso with an inner space and a lower rim forming an opening to the inner space. More specifically the present invention relates to providing such a figure with an electronic tag.

[0005] An embodiment of a toy figure as mentioned above is disclosed in e.g. US patent no. 4205482 showing a toy figure with a torso part and a separate hip part with articulated legs. The hip part has coupling knobs and the torso part have complementary coupling sockets adapted for frictionally receiving the coupling knobs on the torso part to form an assembly with articulated legs.

[0006] Toy figures provided with tags exist in many different embodiments and are used e.g. in toy construction sets or board games where the electronic tag can be read by other equipment, such as a tag reader, in the board game or the toy construction set.

[0007] US patent application no. 10 155 156 disclose one embodiment of such a board game comprising toy figures having an electronic tag attached underneath the feet of the toy figure.

[0008] Object of the invention: On this background it is the object of the present invention to provide a a toy figure of the kind mentioned in the introduction with an electronic tag without sacrificing the option of being able to manipulate the articulated legs.

[0009] This is achieved by the invention as disclosed in present claim 1 specifying that the electronic tag is arranged in the inner space of the bell shaped torso and the articulated legs are attached to a hip part that is attached to the bell shaped torso via a snap lock comprising at least one flexible cantilever beam, preferably a U-shaped cantilever beam, being attached to the hip part so that it extend into the inner space and engages with a protrusion arranged on an inner side of the torso when the hip part and the torso are mutually assembled and shaped so that it rests against the lower rim and covers the opening and thereby encloses the electronic tag in the inner space.

[0010] For the purpose of this application, and unless otherwise specified, the term electronic tag covers any embodiment of an electronic device that can submit or transmit a wireless signal to identify the electronic tag. Examples of such electronic tags are the widely used passive or active RFID tags.

[0011] In order to ensure that the hip part and the torso are inseparable after being mutually assembled the snap lock is preferably adapted to provide a retention force being significantly higher than the insertion force. The retention force meaning the force required to dismantle the hip part from the torso must be so high that it will require some kind of plastic deformation to do so.

[0012] The bell shaped torso may advantageously comprise a flat or planar front wall and back wall, and where the front and back walls may be mutually parallel and arranged opposite to each other and sidewalls may be arranged extending between the periphery of the front wall and back wall.

[0013] The electronic tag may advantageously comprise an electronic chip and an antenna connected to the electronic chip, and where the antenna comprises an electric conductor and at least a first stretch of the electric conductor is arranged in a coil or a spiral.

[0014] In this relation, the first stretch of the electric conductor is preferably arranged in a plane close to one of the flat or planar front wall or back wall.

[0015] Furthermore, a second stretch of the electric conductor is preferably arranged in a coil or a spiral in a plane close to the other one of the flat or planar front wall or back wall. Thereby it leaves optimal space for the snap lock but may also be used with other connector types than the snap lock.

[0016] In order to provide a simple and efficient assembly of the electronic tag it mat advantageously comprise a bobbin with the electronic chip attached thereto and the electric conductor being wound around the bobbin to form each coil.

[0017] In a preferred embodiment the bobbin comprises two planar structures being mutually held apart by a bridging structure so that one of the planar structures is positioned parallel with and close to the planar front wall and the other one of the planar structures is positioned parallel with and close to the planar back wall, and the first stretch of the electric conductor is wound around the periphery of one of the planar structures and the second stretch of the electric conductor is wound around the periphery of the other one of the planar structures.

[0018] The cantilever beam can advantageously extend between the two planar structures.

[0019] The toy figure may further comprise articulated arms each being attached to the torso via an annular snap into a hole arranged in the torso.

[0020] The drawing:

[0021] Figure 1 : Shows one embodiment of the invention in an exploded perspective view.

[0022] Figure 2: Shows the same embodiment of the invention as shown in figure 1 but as a vertical cross section of the embodiment in an assembled state.

[0023] Figure 3: shows a enlarged perspective view of one part of the embodiment shown in figure 1 and 2.

[0024] Figure 4: shows a vertical cross section of a second part of the assembled toy figure.

[0025] Description of one embodiment of the invention:

[0026] Figure 1 and 2 shows an embodiment of toy figure according to the invention where figure 1 shows a perspective and exploded view og the toy figure and figure 2 shows a vertical cross section through the toy figure but in an assembled state. The toy figure have a bell shaped torso 1 adapted for mounting a head 20 on a stud 21 , a set of arms and hands 7, 8, and a hip part 4 with articulated legs 5 that can be mounted on hip axles 23. To this extent, the design of this toy figure corresponds closely to an existing toy figure in the market, but it will be apparent to the skilled person that the principle of the invention as disclosed herein will be applicable also to toy figures with different designs.

[0027] The torso 1 is bell shaped with an inner space and a lower rim 3 providing an opening from below the torso 1 . According to the invention, the toy figure comprises an electronic tag 11 that can be inserted into the inner space via the opening provided by the lower rim 3. The electronic tag can thereby be designed having a significant size with respect to the overall size of the complete toy figure. This is important in order to achieve good connectivity between the electronic tag and e.g. other equipment such as an electronic tag reader.

[0028] The hip part 4 comprises a set of flexible U-shaped cantilever beams 6 that extend into the inner space of the bell shaped torso 1 where they engage with protrusions 24 arranged on the inside of the bell shaped torso so that they provide a snap lock adapted for locking the hip part 4 onto the bell shaped torso 1 . In this embodiment, the hip part 4 completely covers the opening as it rests against the complete lower rim 3 surrounding the opening. The design of the snap lock is adapted such that it would require destruction of either the bell shaped torso 1 or the hip part 4 in order to release snap lock and thereby the bell shaped torso and the hip part efficiently encloses the inner space so that the electronic tag 11 is safe from being tampered with. In this embodiment of the invention the bell shaped torso 1 have a flat or planar front wall and back wall 9, 10 that are arranged opposite to each other and mutually interconnected via side walls 12 extending between the periphery of the front wall 9 and back wall 10. The side walls 12 have annular openings 2 arranged at the upper end of the torso 1 and each being adapted for snap insertion of a tap 13 arranged on the arms 7 so as to form an articulated joint between each arm 7 and the torso 1 . the electronic tag in this embodiment comprises a bobbin as shown in detail on figure 3 where an electronic chip 22 is arranged at the bobbin and is connected to the ends of an electric conductor 16. A first stretch

[0029] 14 of the electric conductor 16 is wound around the bobbin to form a coil arranged in a plane close to the front wall 9 and a second stretch

[0030] 15 of the electric conductor 16 is wound around the bobbin to form a separate second coil in a pane close to the back wall 10.

[0031] As shown in detail on figure 4 the bobbin comprises two planar structures 19, 20 being mutually held apart by a bridging structure. One of the planar structures 19 is positioned parallel with and close to the planar front wall 9 and the other one of the planar structures 20 is positioned parallel with and close to the planar back wall 10. The first stretch 14 of the electric conductor 16 is wound around the periphery of one of the planar structures 19 and the second stretch 15 of the electric conductor is wound around the periphery of the other one of the planar structures 20. Thereby a significant space is provided between the two planar structures 19, 20 allowing that the cantilever beams can extend into the inner space of the bell shaped torso between the two planar structures. This provides freedom to design the first 14 and the second 15 stretch of the electric conductor 16 into rela- tively large coils, and to shape the coils in order to fine tune the antenna frequency for optimal connectivity with e.g. an electronic tag reader.

Claims

C l a i m s:1 . A toy figure comprising a body part with a number of articulated legs attached thereto, and where the body part comprises a bell shaped torso with an inner space and a lower rim forming an opening to the inner space, and where an electronic tag is arranged in the inner space of the bell shaped torso and the articulated legs are attached to a hip part that is attached to the bell shaped torso and shaped so that it rests against the lower rim and covers the opening, characterized in, that the hip part is attached to the bell shaped body part via a snap lock comprising at least one flexible cantilever beam, preferably a U-shaped cantilever beam, and where the cantilever beam is attached to the hip part and extend into the inner space and engages with a protrusion arranged on an inner side of the torso when the hip part and the torso are mutually assembled.

2. A toy figure according to claim 1 , characterized in, that the snap lock is adapted to provide a retention force being sufficiently higher than the insertion force to ensure that the hip part and the torso are inseparable after being mutually assembled.

3. A toy figure according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in, that the bell shaped torso comprises a flat or planar front wall and back wall, and where the front and back walls are arranged opposite to each other and are mutually interconnected via side walls extending between the periphery of the front wall and back wall.

4. A toy figure according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in, that the electronic tag comprises an electronic chip and an antenna connected to the electronic chip, and wherethe antenna comprises an electric conductor and at least a first stretch of the electric conductor is arranged in a coil or a spiral.

5. A toy figure according to claim 4, characterized in, that the first stretch of the electric conductor is arranged in a plane close to one of the flat or planar front wall or back wall.

6. A toy figure according to claim 5, characterized in, that a second stretch of the electric conductor is arranged in a coil or a spiral in a plane close to the other one of the flat or planar front wall or back wall.

7. A toy figure according to one of the claims 4, 5 or 6, characterized in, that the electronic tag comprises a bobbin with the electronic chip attached thereto and the electric conductor being wound around the bobbin to form each coil.

8. A toy figure according to claim 6 and 7, characterized in, that the bobbin comprises two planar structures being mutually held apart by a bridging structure so that one of the planar structures is positioned parallel with and close to the planar front wall and the other one of the planar structures is positioned parallel with and close to the planar back wall, and where the first stretch of the electric conductor is wound around the periphery of one of the planar structures and the second stretch of the electric conductor is wound around the periphery of the other one of the planar structures.

9. A toy figure according to claim 1 and 8, characterized in, that the cantilever beam extends between the two planar structures.

10. A toy figure according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in, that it further comprises articulated arms each being attached to the torso via an annular snap into a hole arranged in the torso.

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