Inflatable Target And Foldable Scoring Apparatus

Abstract

In a preferred embodiment, a game is played with an inflatable bucket adapted when deflated for compact storage in a storage pack formable by score-board foldable into the pack form, with a plurality of separate sets of perforated hollow light-weight balls each set separately identifyable from the others and with a corresponding plurality of sets of numbered cards, each set of cards being identified with its respective set of cards having identical numbers as each of the other sets of cards, and with each card set's cards numbered and arranged face-up from top-to-bottom of its deck as 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, and 36. The game is played by a plurality of players each identifying himself with one particular set one per player of each set being preferably four balls and the particular balls-set corresponding to a corresponding set of cards one set per player, and the players taking consecutive order of turns of play.

Description

This invention is directed to a novel game and game elements for playing the game, in the nature of a bucket-ball ball-tossing game.

BACKGROUND

Prior to the present invention there have existed a large number of games in wich player(s) throw(s) or flip(s) objects such as balls or discs or bean-bags of the like into a receptacle. With many such prior games there have existed inherent safety-hazards for children such as the tossable objects being sufficiently small as to allow a child to place it into his mouth, or when on the floor if stepped on to cause a fall, or sufficiently hard as to be dangerous if hurled into the head or eye of another child or into a vase, a light bulb, the wall, a window or the excessive bulk adds to degree of potential damage. Additionally, however, lack of adaptability to storage results in loss of game parts as well as general confusion and mixing with unrelated toys and games, and to the difficulty in maintaining an orderly game room.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to obtain a bucket-ball game safe for children. Another object is to obtain a game which may be played indoors without the probability of damage to furniture, windows, lamps, vases, or the like by virtue of tossed objects. Another object is to obtain a game which facilitates educationally the learning of numbers, numerical multiples thereof, and of cumulative totals thereof, as well as subtraction. Other objects are to overcome and/or avoid problems and difficulties of the types discussed in the preceding background, while still other objects become apparent from the preceding and following disclosure.

One or more objects of the invention are obtained by the invention defined herein.

Broadly the invention includes a bucket-ball game utilizing a preferably deflatable and compactable bucket preferably also having a rim-gutter element for catching tossed balls which missed going into the central scoring bucket opening. The bucket need not have a bottom but preferably has supportably-erect sides circumscribingly defining the central scoring opening. The tossable objects are preferably devoid of corners that could injure or scare objects hit therewith and preferably are light-weight perforated hollow balls, preferably divided into about four separately identifyiable sets such as each set being differently marked and/or numbered and/or colored or the like. There are similarly a plurality of sets of cards, each set being similarly identifiable with a different one of the ball sets. Each set of cards is numbered from zero upwardly in multiples of the smallest real number (zero not being a real number); accordingly, for a predetermined number of typically face-up stacked-deck separate deck-sets of cards, each first card of the respective sets is zero before any scoring, but the zero card is optional and may be obviated particularly if the cards are stacked face-downwardly and turned-up only when a player scores. Typically when a player scores, the top preferably face-up zero card is flipped-over to conceal the zero and to thereby uncover the next face-up card. The numbers thus typically would run 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or typically alternatively 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36. Multiples of a base number more than one, such as of the afore-going "3" are preferred for teaching purposes. Because a missed toss-ball always goes to the next player for a try at tossing it into the bucket, and because the score of a successful try of a prior-missed ball is deducted from the existing cumulative score of the next-prior player who missed, thereby subtraction and a system of rules of simple nature is taught to instill dicipline into the children as well as to be a source of amusement and fun and excitement to the children playing the game, which may be played by one child but preferably two or more, the present embodiment being preferably disclosed, being a game having four sets of balls and four sets of corresponding score cards. The score-board is preferably a board on which the different sets of cards are separately ring-mounted and the board is lockable into an erect self-supporting state and also foldable into a game-storing package.

Within the scope of the game, the players may position themselves in any desired positions relative to one-another, typically all the same distance from the bucket, and typically either side-by-side or spaced evenly around the bucket in a circle, or smaller children may be closer than older children to equalize advantage of age and skill. Preferably, however, each player is about ten feet away from the bucket with the players spaced around the bucket in a circle so that whichever way a missed ball roll, a player will be conveniently located to retrieve the missed ball if the missed ball fails to fall into the gutter around the periphery of the bucket.

THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A illustrates a perspective side view of a typical preferred bucket of the present invention.

FIG. 1.1 through 1.4 illustrate typical tossable balls of a preferred embodiment, the different sets having different identifying marks or indicia.

FIG. 1B illustrates a perspective side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A except in a deflated state. FIG. 2A illustrates in perspective side view a typical closed-package board-stored game for storing the scoring cards, the balls, and the deflated or collapsed bucket.

FIG. 2B illustrates in an open state the storage game board of FIG. 2A, illustrated in an extended linear state shown in elevation side view.

FIG. 2C illustrates the erected board of FIG. 2B, as it would appear in (during) the playing of the game typically, shown in perspective side view.

FIG. 3 illustrates diagrammatically in elevation plan view the positioning typically of the bucket B and relatively the positioning of the players w, x, y, and z at positions around the bucket.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Broadly the game differs from prior bucket-ball type games in both the novel packaging nature of the game and the game itself including teaching or instructional characterization insofar as both the different markings, letters, numbers, plan of play and rules, and the like.

The basic scoring is that additional score will be gained by a player each time he successfully throws-into the bucket one of his own identifiable balls, and indirectly a player also gets to score (along with other players) against a next-prior player when the next-prior player has missed a toss by virtue of a successful throw of a ball just previously missed by the next-prior player (in the sequence of turns of players) becomes deducted from the cumulative score of the last player to have missed the ball-throw, in a preferred embodiment of the invention; however, if the next-prior player who missed the ball-throw did not as yet have any score, then the successful player may add the score to his own by flipping one of his own score cards, or alternatively, if the next-prior player did not as yet have any score, then the score can be deducted from the player before the next-prior player if that player had missed the throw; or alternatively, when the ball is eventually successfully thrown, each prior player who had missed the throw of that same ball may have one score deducted from each of the players who missed before some other player successfully threw the ball into the bucket. Whenever a player has initially missed the throw of one of his own balls, he loses his opportunity to continue his turn and accordingly the next succeeding player begins his turn once the missed ball has been successfully thrown by someone, this being true even if succeeding players also miss the throw of the missed ball and the original player gets a second opportunity to throw his previously missed ball and succeeds on the second time around, he nevertheless loses his right to continue his turn as a result of having missed the initial throw of the ball, in a preferred embodiment of the game. Although there is this preferred method of playing the game which has value in teaching a child player to add and subtract and to learn a system of rules, it is nevertheless within the scope of the invention to employ of systems of rules together with the present elements of this present game which in themselves are adaptable to other methods while still retaining their instructional value. For example, the illustrated balls of FIGS. 1.1. through 1.4 illustrate four sets of balls differing in identity in that the FIG. 1.1 set of balls is plane in nature as well as being identified by an A, while the second set of balls of FIG. 1.2 has one circumscribing line as well as being identified by B, while the third set of balls has separate circumscribing crossed lines as well as being identified by a C in the FIG. 1.3, while the FIG. 1.4 set of balls each have double parallel circumscribing crossed lines as well as having an identifying D thereon, each of these identifying indicia and/or marks serving to train the eye and memory of the child to remember and to distinguish. In like manner, such ball per set may be of one color while the next set is of a differing color or combination of collors, while the third set is of a still different set of color(s), and the fourth set of a still different color scheme. Also, in place of or in combination with any one or more of the identifying indicia or marks, different arabic numbers of Roman numerals may be utilized to distinguish one set from the other or to distinguish one ball of the set from the other. For example, in the illustrated balls of FIGS. 1.1 through 1.4, for each respective set such as set A, the balls illustrated for that set are numbered 1, 2, and 3 consecutively, and a novel variation of the rules related above would be to deduct a score (an additional deduction) if a player inadvertently throws the ball out of order of sequence -- i.e., if the player throws the "2" ball before he has thrown his "1" ball, or if he succeeded in throwing the ball into the bucket or basket the score does not count if it was the incorrect-sequence ball and accordingly that player gets no score for that ball, loses the ball for future play and immediately loses his right to continue play of that turn, the next succeeding player immediately beginning his turn of play. Additionally, the player sets of scoring cards are similarly identified by corresponding color and/or by corresponding markings and/or by corresponding letter such as a blank ball being shown as associated with one set, together with that set being identified as set A for each card either on the card and/or adjacent the mounting of the card set; thereby the child learns to associate a particular set of card with a particular set of balls by recognizing the corresponding identification of each paired set of balls and set of cards. Also, each child learns to flip his own card, and the difference in meaning in adding to and subtracting from a score, as well as learning the scoring multiples of a particular number such as the illustrated"3" and multiples thereof.

The packaging score board allows convenient and neat maintainence of the card -- preventing disarray of and or mixing of the cards of the same and/or different sets and the fixed teaching order of sequence of the card numbers.

In particular, with reference to all Figures, in FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A there is illustrated the deflatable bucket 5 in the inflated state in FIG. 1A, in the deflated state in FIG. 1B, and in the deflated stored state in FIG. 2A. The bucket 5 in this preferred emodiment illustrates an annular erect wall 6 having a central cavity -- in this case extending all the wall through as a through space, and having a surrounding supporting rim 8 which also serves to catch some of the missed thrown or tossed balls when the ball misses -- fails to fall into -- the central cavity 7, to fall when missed into the gutter 9. The inflatable bucket 5 has an inflating tube and valve 10. The bottom opening in this preferred embodiment is snown only in phantom as hole 7'.

In FIGS. 1.1 through 1.4, there are four sets of balls illustrated as sets A, B, C, and D also identified as a blank set without line-marking, a single-line-marking, a crossed line-marking, and a double parallel crossed lines-markings, also possibly and preferably by color differences of one set as distinguished from the other. The balls 11a identified as A also have numbers 1, 2, and 3 in sequence -- but as well could be 2, 4, and 6, or 3, 6, 9, or could be geometric progressions as 2, 4, 16, or the like. Each ball has preferably a hollow interior and preferably is made of light-weight composition such as plastic, rubber or the like and preferably has perforations 12 therein, the hollowness, light-weight material, and perforations all and each being safety features making the gam better adaptable for indoor play as well as outdoor play. In like manner the 11b single-lined set of balls is separately identifiable but of similar construction as the 11a set, and the same is true for each of the 11c and 11d sets.

FIG. 2A illustrates the closed scoring-board pack with the deflated bucket, the scoring cards, and the balls stored, and the fastened in the closed state. The board includes the board 6 as a whole, the apertured leaft 6a having fastening aperture 6d therein into which fastening leaf 6b is wedgable lockably for detachably locking closed the stored game, and the central leaf 6c on which on the inside front face is mounted the scoring card 7a, 7b, 7c, and 7d -- being identified in the flipped-back state as 7a', 7b' and the like. The set 7 as may be seen from FIG. 2C corresponds in identity of A with balls "A" both by the letter A and the identifying plane (no markings) ball, as well as possibly also matching in color the color of the set 11a of the balls. In FIG. 2A there is also seen the snapped-flap 14b of top 14a of container 14 mounted fixedly (preferably) on the back outside board face of preferably the center leaf 6c, and as illustrated in FIG. 2C, when the board is erectly mounted with the locking leaf 6b insertably locked into the hole 6d aperture, the box 14 is in an out-of-the-way position. In the FIG. 2B, the same elements of the FIG. 2A are identifiable except additionally there is viewable the anchoring ring element 9a, with FIG. 2C better illustrating the preferred double rings 9a, 9a', and other sets' corresponding double rings 9b and 9b', and 9c and 9c', and 9d and 9d', respectively having mounted thereon the four sets of cards 7a, 7b, 7c, and 7d, with the identifying letter A - D identified as 11a-11d and the picture-identity of plane ball, single line ball, crosssed lines ball and double parallel crossed lines ball respectively identified by 10a - 10d.

In FIG. 3, there is illustrated a preferred positioning of the players w - z about equidistantly around the periphery of an imaginary circle 13 at positions 12a - 12d around a centrally located bucket.

Although there are illustrated only three balls in each set of FIGS. 1.1 through 1.4, there may be and preferably are four or more but may be only one or more.

In the FIG. 2C embodiment, there is illustrated flipped-back cards as they would appear during a game. As illustrated, the player with balls and cards A has thrown three successful balls into the bucket during his first turn, such that three cards have been flipped-back to reveal a cumulative score of 9, while for the second player of the B balls and cards, thus far there has been one score whereby one cardhas flipped-back to reveal one card score of three (3).

In addition to having the number "3" on the card, and respectively other score card numbers per card, there additionally may be written-out the spelling of that number, this additionally serving to identify the association of spelling and numerical representation of various numbers.

It is to be understood that the above disclosed and illustrated invention is not intended to unduly limit the scope and nature of of the invention, it being only intended to facilitate the understanding of the nature of the game and the value of the combination of elements both for amusement and fun of children and also the inherent teaching of numbers, spelling, counting, multiples, adding, subtracting, and the like, the easy and sure way. Accordingly, it is within the scope and spirit of the present invention to make such variations and modifications and substitution of equivalents as would be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in this field of endeavor.

Claims

I claim:

1. A bucket ball game comprising in combination: an upright receptacle having an opening defined therein for receiving tossed objects; a plurality of tossable objects each of a size receivable into said opening; at-least two sets of a plurality of numbered cards each having differing numerals, each of said sets being a duplicate of the other set, said numbered cards of each set being arranged from low to high, each consecutive card being representative of an additional scoring by successfully having tossed at least one of said objects into the receptacle opening, said numbers ranging from zero upwardly and in which larger ones of said numerals are multiples of the smallest real-number numeral greater than zero; said objects being visually distinctive and corresponding in number to the number of said sets of cards; sa card-mounting board means onto which each of said sets of cards is separately mounted for flipping over from its respective set while remaining mounted in the flipped state on the board means; said receptacle being an inflatable element; and said board being foldable and lockable into an enclosing container state in which said tossable objects, said mounted sets, and said receptacle in a deflated state can be stored.

2. A game of claim 1, in which said board has male and female elements matable to brace and support said board erectly displaying said plurality of sets of cards.

3. A game of claim 2, in which each of said sets is numbered progressively one number per card as 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, and 36.