Folding Doll House

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a new and useful doll house and in particular to a multi-level doll house which may be conveniently folded into a single level carry case.

2. Description of the Prior Art

There are many types of doll houses in the prior art which may be converted into carry cases. One of these doll houses is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,753 issued Feb. 10, 1959 to R. S. Fenton for a collapsable doll house construction in which a carry case is unfolded to form a single level doll house having a floor and three walls and a plurality of furniture built therein.

A second example of a prior art doll house may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,360 issued Jan. 16, 1968. In this structure, a carry case is unfolded to yield a single level structure having a plurality of moveable walls which can be placed in different positions to make different types of houses. In addition, the walls contain certain elaborate features such as three dimensional built-in simulated cooking ranges, cupboards, wardrobes and the like.

Both of the above structures, however, are comparatively expensive to manufacture because of their complicated construction and provide only a limited play value due to their single level nature.

Accordingly it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a multi-level doll house which may be folded into a single level carry case type structure.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a multi-level doll house which, when collapsed, forms a compact structure resembling a carry case, but which expands to form a multi-level, multi-room house.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a multi-level doll house which is inexpensive to manufacture and easily folds into a structure resembling a carry case.

A multi-level doll house which can be folded into a single level structure which may resemble a carry case is provided. The doll house comprises an upper structure and a lower structure which is foldable into the upper structure. The upper structure has at least top, back, and side portions or panels and may also have a bottom and a front portion or panel. The lower structure has a plurality of lower side walls coupled to the upper structure at the lower side edges thereof and adapted to fold under the bottom of the upper structure and a lower back and floor portion or panel coupled to the upper structure at the bottom rear edge thereof and adapted to fold under the lower side walls and to form a front portion for the upper structure. The lower back and floor portion or panel comprises a plurality of foldable panels in which certain ones of the panels are folded to form the bottom of the folding doll house structure and other ones of the panels are folded to become either the front wall of the folding doll house structure or an inner front wall of the folding doll house when the upper structure has a front portion coupled to the top portion of the structure which forms an outer front wall of the folding doll house structure. A plurality of partitions are provided which are insertable into the lower portion of the multilevel doll house to form a plurality of rooms and one or more additional floors. A handle is provided coupled to the top portion so that the entire structure may be easily carried.

The novel features which are believed to the characteristic of the invention together with further objects and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for purposes of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a doll house, constructed in accordance with the present invention, in its collapsed or portable condition.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of the doll house of FIG. 1 along the line 2--2.

FIG. 3 illustrates the doll house of FIG. 1 in a partially opened condition.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the doll house of FIG. 1 in a fully opened condition with partitions inserted therein.

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of the simplified embodiment of the doll house shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a more elaborate embodiment of the doll house illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the doll house of FIG. 6 along the line 7--7.

In FIG. 1 a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. The multi-level folding doll house is shown in its collapsed state as a carry case 10 having a top portion 12, a front portion 14, side portions 16 and 18, a back portion 20 and a handle 22. As is shown with respect to FIGS. 2 and 3, the front portion 14 lifts up to reveal a folded back and floor portion 24 a,b,c which forms the bottom floor of the carry case structure 10 and folds inside the front wall 14. Also shown in cross section in FIG. 2 is the portion 26 of the upper structure of the doll house and which forms the bottom portion of such upper structure when the doll house is in its opened condition, and the folded side wall 30 in its uplifted, collapsed condition. The side wall 32 is not illustrated in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 3 the doll house of the present invention is shown in a partially opened state. Front portion 14 has been lifted allowing the lower back and floor portion 26 a,b,c to drop down and the side walls 30 and 32 to also drop down from beneath the bottom portion 26. As is shown in FIG. 3, the lower back and floor portion 24 a,b,c comprises a first back portion 24a, a second back portion 24b and a floor portion 24c. The back portions 24a and 24b comprise the back portion of the lower structure of the doll house and the floor portion 24c comprises the floor of the lower structure of the doll house.

In FIG. 4 the doll house is illustrated in its completely opened state. The front portion 14 has been dropped down to form an enclosed dormer room and the side portions 30 and 32 have been fully extended to form the sides of the doll house. A partition 34 has been inserted to form a plurality of rooms and to provide a plurality of floors in the lower structure portion of the doll house, with back portion 24a forming the back of the second floor of the doll house and back portion 24b forming the back of the first floor of the doll house.

In FIG. 5 a cross sectional view of a simplified doll house structure is illustrated. In this embodiment the lower floor portion 24c' alone forms the front portion of the carry case 10 while the lower back portion 24a' forms the bottom of the carry case 10. When the carry case 10 is opened to form the expanded doll house, portion 24c' drops down to form the floor of the first story of the doll house and portion 24a' forms the back of the first story of the doll house. Side portions 30 and 32 drop down to form the walls of the lower portion of the doll house. A partition such as provided in FIG. 4 can then be inserted to form the floor of the upper portion of the doll house and to divide the doll house into various rooms.

In FIGS. 6 and 7 a more elaborate embodiment of the doll house is illustrated. The lower back and floor portion is comprised of portions 24a", 24b", 24c" and 24d", while side walls 30 and 32 now extend the full length of the bottom portion 26 and thus overlap one another in the collapsed state, with both sidewalls 30 and 32 lying adjacent to the bottom portion or panel 26, as shown in phantom in FIG. 6 and in cross section in FIG. 7. When the front portion 14 is lifted, the lower back and floor portion drops down with portions 24a", 24b" and 24c" forming the back walls of the first, second and third floors of the lower structure and portion 24d" forming the floor of the lower portion of the structure. In this embodiment of the invention, the floor portion 24d" folds in the collapsed state underneath the folding side walls 30 and 32 and the floor portion 26 of the upper structure. Partitions such as shown in FIG. 4 may then be inserted to form the floors of the second and third stories of the doll house and the rooms of the doll house.

A folding doll house has thus been provided which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to assemble and which can be folded from a multi-level structure into a single level carry case. Having thus described the invention, it is apparent that numerous modifications and variations may be made by those skilled in the art. Thus the invention is to be limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.