Construction toy

Abstract

A construction toy comprises a plurality of struts and a plurality of strut joining or interconnecting pieces. The struts are elongated members each having a ball at both ends, and each joining piece has at least two sockets each to receive and retain a strut ball. The strut balls are rotatable in the joining piece sockets, thus allowing the struts to be disposed at different angular positions relative to the sockets.

1 . A construction toy, comprising a plurality of joining pieces and a plurality of struts each having two ends, each strut having a ball at both ends and each joining piece having at least two sockets each to receive and retain a respective ball and being so dimensioned as to leave a portion of each ball outside the socket to enable the strut to be located in different angular positions relative to the socket.  
   
   
       2 . A toy as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the joining pieces are generally spherical.  
   
   
       3 . A toy as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the joining pieces each have at least six sockets.  
   
   
       4 . A toy as claimed in  claim 1 , including a base-plate having a face providing an array of sockets.  
   
   
       5 . A construction toy, comprising a plurality of joining pieces and a plurality of struts each having two ends, each end having a cross sectional dimension, each strut having a ball attached to respective ends, each ball having a diameter, and each joining piece having at least two sockets each having a mouth to receive and retain a respective ball, the mouth having a cross sectional dimension smaller than the diameter of the ball and greater than the cross sectional dimension of the strut, to enable the strut to be located in different angular positions relative to the socket.  
   
   
       6 . A toy as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the joining pieces are generally spherical.  
   
   
       7 . A toy as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein the joining pieces each have at least six sockets.  
   
   
       8 . A toy as claimed in  claim 5 , including a base-plate having a face providing an array of sockets.