Collapsible toy air gun

[0001] The invention relates to an entertainment device for adults and children and specifically, a toy air gun. In particular, a toy air gun is disclosed that is collapsible, easy to ship, assemble, use and manufacture.

[0002] Toy guns are common with children and provide excitement of playing out the hunting and the hunted or shooting targets. Traditional toy gun resembles a real gun and projects a fake bullet at relatively high speed. This type of toy gun is very dangerous to play with as the projectile can severely injure a child, in particular, his/her eyes. Furthermore, bullets are often lost after shooting from the gun and require constant replenishment or reloading.

[0003] In view of the increase in gun violence in today's society, traditional toy guns have been considered politically incorrect and parents minimize their children's exposure to toy guns. Due to the decrease in popularity of toy guns with a projectile, toy water guns have increased their popularity in recent years.

[0004] Prior art toy water gun uses water and projects a squirt or stream of water. Toy water gun is slightly less dangerous to play with and does not cause severe injury, but does cause a mess if used indoors. Similar to a traditional toy gun that projects a fake bullet, the water ammunition is lost after shooting and requires constant refill. Furthermore, water toy gun is very messy and essentially played outdoors only.

[0005] Another type of safe toy gun is one that shoots a ball or wave of air. A toy air gun is advantageous over traditional and water toy guns because it is safe to play with, does not cause severe injury, no need to refill ammunition during play and it is not messy to use.

[0006] Prior art toy air guns generally use a resilient diaphragm that is drawn and cocked rearward and released (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,157,703, 2,846,996 and 2,614,551) or is struck with a hammer (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,567) to provide a puff of air at relatively high velocity to be felt many feet away. Disadvantageously, all prior art air toy guns have bulky constructions due to the many intricate parts that make up the toy guns and are expensive to manufacture and ship due to their sizes.

[0007] Therefore, there is a need for a toy air gun that is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to use, ship and assemble.

[0008] The present invention provides a toy air gun having a collapsible feature to facilitate shipping and assembly and is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use.

[0009] The toy air gun of the present invention comprises at least two corresponding tapered tubular sections and at least one supporting plate. The tapered tubular sections are correspondingly sized concentrically such that in the extended cooperative, co-axial position, the tubular sections form a tapered tubular body having a total axial length of the combined axial lengths of the tubular sections. Mounted transversely across the larger opening end of the tubular body is a non-resilient, non-porous diaphragm. A pull knob and a back support securely sandwich the diaphragm near the center of the diaphragm. A resilient string is mounted across the smaller opening end of the tubular body, with a section of the string looping through an opening adjacent the back support. The supporting plate has at least two latching elements that correspond to at least one slit on the circumferential surface of each of the outer tubular sections to maintain the tubular sections in the extended position. In one embodiment, the supporting plate has an integral handle to facilitate handling of the toy air gun and/or a sight to facilitate aiming of the toy air gun.

[0019] With reference to the drawings, wherein the same reference number indicates the same element throughout, there is shown in FIG. 1 a toy air gun 10 of the present invention. Toy air gun 10 comprises a tapered tubular body 12, two supporting plates 14, a diaphragm 16 and a resilient string 18.

[0020] As shown in FIGS. 1–5, tapered tubular body 12 comprises a plurality of tapered tubular sections 20, 22 and 24, which are correspondingly sized and adapted to coaxially connect to form a tapered tubular body 12. Although the toy air gun 10 shown in FIGS. 1–5 includes three tapered tubular sections, a smaller tubular section 20, an interconnecting tubular section 22 and a larger tubular section 24, more or less interconnecting tubular sections 22 may be added or subtracted without detracting from the spirit of the present invention.

[0021] As shown in details in FIG. 5, the tubular sections 20, 22 and 24 interlock, in the extended co-axially operational position, to form tapered tubular body 12 having a total axial length of substantially the combined axial lengths of the three tubular sections 20, 22 and 24. In the collapsed position, the toy air gun 10 can be shipped compactly with an axial length of one of the tubular sections 20, 22 and 24 (not shown), with each tubular section 20, 22 and 24 concentrically arranged.

[0022] Smaller outer tubular section 20 has at one end a rim 26 extending radially inward to form a muzzle opening 28 of the toy air gun 10. At the opposite end of the smaller outer tubular section is an L-shape flange 30 extending radially outward, forming a groove 32. The interconnecting tubular section 22 has two L-shape flanges 34 and 36, the first extending radially outward at the larger diameter end and the latter extending radially inward at the smaller diameter end, forming grooves 38 and 40, respectively. The larger tubular section 24 has an L-shape flange 42 extending radially inward at the smaller diameter end, forming a groove 44. At the larger diameter end of the larger tubular section 24 is a radially extending rim 46.

[0023] In the extended position, the groove 32 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 34, the groove 38 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 30, and the groove 40 correspondingly mates with the free end of flange 42. Each of these three groove-flange interlock is held together by friction.

[0024] To facilitate the assembly of the three tubular sections 20, 22 and 24 into the extended operational position, at least one axially linear protrusion 48 may provided on the circumferential surface of smaller tubular section 20 and at least one corresponding channel 50 along the L-shape flange 34 of the interconnecting tubular section 22 to guide in the proper alignment of the three tubular sections 20, 22 and 24. A similar combination of protrusion 48 and channel 50 may be provided on the circumferential surface of the interconnecting tubular section 22 and the L-shape flange 42 of the larger tubular section 24 (not shown).

[0025] As shown in FIG. 4, along the circumferential surfaces of smaller tubular section 20 and larger tubular section 24 are a plurality of slits 52 for receiving supporting plate 14 to maintain the tubular body 12 in the extended position during operation.

[0026] As shown in FIGS. 1–3, with the diaphragm 16 at rest, diaphragm 16 is mounted transversely across the larger end of larger tubular section 24, secured in place by ledge 54. The diameter of the diaphragm 16 is preferably larger than the diameter of the larger end of larger tubular section 24 such that diaphragm 16 extends beyond the confine of the tapered tubular body 12 in preparation of firing a ball of air as shown in FIG. 8. Diaphragm 16 is preferably made of a non-resilient and non-porous material such as thick plastic.

[0027] A pull knob 56 and a back support 58 securely sandwich the diaphragm 16 near the center of the diaphragm 16. The back support 58 has an opening 60 wherein the resilient string 18 is looped through. The two ends of the resilient string 18 are securely mounted diametrically across from each other on the rim 26 of smaller tubular section 20.

[0028] As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, supporting plate 14 is correspondingly curved to rest on the circumferential surface of the tubular body 12. On the concave surface of the supporting plate 14 is a plurality of latching elements 62 that are corresponding located to latch onto slits 52 on the smaller and larger tubular sections 20 and 24 in the extended position. Alternative to the latching elements 62 and slits 52 combination, screws and/or nuts and bolts may be used to secure the supporting plate 14 to the tubular body 12 (not shown).

[0029] As shown in FIG. 1–3, two supporting plates 14 are diametrically located to evenly support the tubular body 12. However, one supporting plate 14 may be sufficient. Shown attached to one of the supporting plate 14 is a handle 64 to facilitate the firing of the toy air gun 10.

[0030] FIG. 8 shows the toy air gun 10 in a position to shoot a ball of air. A user may use one hand to grasp the handle 64 and the other hand to pull the pull knob 56 in the direction 66 away from tubular body 12, stretching the diaphragm 16 to a rearward position. When the pull knob 56 is released, the diaphragm 16 abruptly springs forward and causes the air in the confine of the tubular body 12 to be propelled through the muzzle opening 28. The tapered tubular body 12 acts as a compression chamber and compress air from the larger diameter end to the smaller diameter end to cause the air to shoot from the toy air gun 10 at a relatively high velocity.

[0031] Optionally, a sight 68 may be provided on the supporting plate 14 opposite the supporting plate with a handle 64 (as shown in FIG. 2 only).

[0032] The features of the invention illustrated and described herein is the preferred embodiment. Therefore, it is understood that the appended claims are intended to cover the variations disclosed and unforeseeable embodiments with insubstantial differences that are within the spirit of the claims.