Marble Race Game

Abstract

A marble race game is made such that tracks for marbles to roll along are formed by a V-groove between flexible tubes that are held side-by-side. The racetrack starts at a higher elevation and transverses downward sloping such that gravity accelerates the marbles along the racetrack. Since the racetrack is made of flexible tubes it may be bent into any form that the imagination can conjure such as curves, loops, hills, figure eights and other convoluted shapes, as well as over, around and through objects. The fun for the game player is in designing a convoluted track where a marble will reach the end of the track successfully. If three or more tubes are placed and held side-by-side, a racetrack is formed where two or more marbles can be raced together. This racing action increases the enjoyment and allows for multiple players.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A marble racetrack game made of a plurality of flexible tubes held side-by-side, where marble toys roll along its length for racing, comprising:
 a plurality of flexible tubes held side-by-side which forms V-grooves in between the tubes where a marble may roll and which forms the racetrack with a plurality of lanes, where the number of lanes equal the number of side-by-side flexible tubes minus one;   the flexible tubes are held side-by side by being joined together where the tubes would touch;   the flexible tubes are of a diameter larger than the diameter of the marbles used on the racetrack;   the plurality of flexible tubes are held side-by-side using clips that reach across the flexible tubes to the outside of the plurality of flexible tubes and hold the plurality if flexible tubes together side-by-side;   the clips are periodically spaced along the length of the plurality of side-by-side flexible tubes thereby holding the plurality of flexible tubes in close proximity along their full length;   the flexible tubes start at a higher elevation and transit to a lower elevation to cause the marble racetrack game to proceed by allowing the marble toys to roll down slope by gravity;   the flexible tubes bend to form curves, loops, hills, drops, figure eights, over-passes, under-passes, s-curves, spirals and any other form in which a plurality of flexible tubes held side-by-side may be bent and still retain it's shape and proximate connection side-by-side, along the length of the plurality of side-by-side flexible tubes;   
     
     
         2 . The marble racetrack game of  claim 1  wherein the side-by-side flexible tubes are banked along a curve such that centrifugal forces will hold the marble within the V-groove and prevent it from being thrown from the track. 
     
     
         3 . The clips of  claim 1  wherein the clips are substantially U-shaped with a flat bottom and are formed of a semi-rigid material with elastic properties;
 the sides of the clips are tall enough to hold the flexible tubes in place side-by-side; 
 the clips are elastic enough such that they can be flexed to clip it around the flexible tubes and hold the flexible tubes side-by-side; 
 the clips are made from metal; 
 the clips are made from plastic; 
 the clips are made of wood; 
 the clips are of varying lengths along the length of the bottom of the U-shape to facilitate clipping a plurality of flexible tubes side-by-side; 
 
     
     
         4 . The clips of  claim 1  wherein the sides of the clip are bent inward in a radius equal to the radius of the flexible tubes. 
     
     
         5 . The clips of  claim 1  wherein the top of the outside edges of the U-shaped clip has a flange pointing outward. 
     
     
         6 . The flange of  claim 5  wherein there is a slightly elongated hole in the center where a rigid stick is placed through;
 the elongation of the hole is in the direction toward/away from the flexible tubes; 
 the rigid stick is made of wood, plastic, metal or any material of suitable rigidity; 
 the rigid stick remains in place in the elongated hole in the flange without slipping by slightly canting the stick to one side; 
 the rigid stick is used to lift the clip on one side to facilitate banking of the tubes in a curve; 
 a rigid stick on both sides is used to lift the entire racetrack to form a hill; 
 multiple clip and stick combinations will form multiple hills and banked curves; 
 the rigid sticks are extended upward from an inverted clip flange in the case of supporting the flexible tubes into a loop formation. 
 
     
     
         7 . The clips of  claim 1  wherein the clips are substantially W-shaped;
 the height of the center part of the W-shaped clip is of less than half the radius of the flexible tubes it is designed to hold side-by-side; 
 the W-shaped clip has as many center parts of the W as the number of flexible tubes it is designed to hold side-by-side, minus one; 
 the outer and inner parts of the W-shaped clip are curved to match the curvature of the flexible tubes the W-shaped clip is designed to hold; 
 the center part of the W-shaped clip is truncated and widened such that the flexible tubes are held a distance apart less than the diameter of the marble toys, whereby the marble toys touch the flexible tubes closer to the marble toys center of rotation thereby causing the marble toy to slow down on the racetrack formed by the plurality of flexible tubes being held side-by-side; 
 
     
     
         8 . A movable hinged gate is placed across the beginning of the racetrack formed by the plurality of flexible tubes held side-by-side, which is used to hold back the marbles from starting down the racetrack;
 the moveable gate is tipped up upon the hinge to allow the marbles to proceed down the racetrack;   the moveable hinged gate fits upon a clip;   the movable hinged gate is wide enough to span the plurality of flexible tubes that are used to form the racetrack.