Hand Operated Catapult Toy

Abstract

A catapult toy, embodying a flexible resilient wand, with a finger grip handle, a tapered whippable shank, and a shaped front end, to receive a mass to be loosely but frictionally fitted on said front end, to be catapulted from said wand by a whipping action by the operator.

Description

This invention relates to a catapult toy, comprising a flexible wand having a front or free end shaped to frictionally receive a mass, preferably in the shape of a round ball, so the wand can be whipped to project the ball through a selected trajectory and to a preselected distance, to strike a pre-set target area, thereby to test and measure the skill of the operator in controlling the whipping action of the toy.

The wand is provided with a handle at one end which is held by the operator, and the free outer end of the wand may be shaped in any suitable way, such as, by the formation of fluted regions along the front end, to frictionally hold the ball when fitted onto the wand. The ball is provided with a central axis hole diametrically disposed to enable the ball to be fitted onto the front end of the flexible wand, with the ball material having sufficient resilience, and the diametral hole being of such dimensions, that the ball will be frictionally held on the front end of the wand until a whipping operation of the wand will forcibly catapult the ball from the wand.

The construction of the toy and some of the features of its operation are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 shows a front elevational view of the wand and the ball in position on the wand; and

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C show sectional dimensional views taken along the shaft of the wand;

FIG. 2 shows the ball positioned on the wand ready to be catapulted from the wand; and

FIG. 3 shows schematically several trajectories through which the ball may be projected from the wand, to illustrate how the skill and dexterity of the operator may be tested and demonstrated by being able to catapult the ball to preselected areas as targets.

As shown in FIG. 1, the toy 10 comprises a wand 12 of resilient flexible material, and a mass in the shape of a ball 14, preferably consisting of a resilient rubber-like material.

The wand 12 embodies a shaped handle 22, with suitable flutes 24, to provide good non-slipping hand grip, and further embodies an elongated shank 26 that extends to a shaped front end 28 whose surface is shaped to embody irregularities 30, to provide frictional characteristics to the surface of front end 28. The wand may be tapered as indicated in the necked region 32 to provide greater flexibility to the wand, for whipping action, when it is operated as a whip to snap the wand for the purpose of operation of the toy, to catapult the ball through a selected trajectory to hit a selected target.

The ball mass 14 may be of any shape, but for the sake of symmetry, is more easily formed as a sphere or ball, and is provided with a hole 40, diametrically and axially through the ball, in order to permit the ball to be applied and pressed onto the irregularly shaped front end surface 28 of the wand 12.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the ball 14 is on the wand 12, the wand may then be whipped as implied by the curved condition of the wand in FIG. 2, and the ball then catapulted and projected off the wand to move in a preselected path of projection, such as one of the many possible paths, of which three are illustrated in FIG. 3, and identified by the numerals 45, 50 and 55.

The toy may be used in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, to test the skill of the operator in being able to catapult the ball through any selected trajectory to reach a predetermined area as the target, as indicated by the regions 60-1, 60-2 and 60-3, under the arrows of the trajectories shown in FIG. 3.

The structural design and formation of the surface irregularities at the front end of the wand may take any desired shape, since their function primarily is to provide sufficient friction to hold the ball against casual displacement, and to require a fair amount of energy in the whipping action to dispel the ball and cause it to travel through a preselected distance, corresponding to some such trajectory as shown in FIG. 3, to reach a selected target area.

The design and construction may be variously modified, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the claims. For example, the wand may be made of wood or metal, and the mass need not be round and need not be made of resilient rubber-like material, but may be made of non-resilient material and may also be made in other forms and shapes such as longer cylinders or flat shallow cylinders in the shape of a disc.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A toy comprising

a flexible wand having a handle grip on one end, and the other or front end having surface irregularities to constitute a frictional surface;

and a ball-shaped rubber-like mass having an axial opening sized to permit the mass to be co-axially selectively frictionally disposed on said frictional surface,

so said wand may be whipped to displace and project the mass in selected direction and with selective force to attempt to place said mass in a preselected area.

2. A toy, as in claim 1, in which the axial opening through said ball mass is of appropriate size to engage the frictional surface with a slight degree of holding pressure to avoid slipping off until whipped off by an operator.

3. A catapult toy, as in claim 1, wherein said wand is resilient and has a tapered whippable shank.