Expanded Plastic Foam Construction Toy

Abstract

The disclosed invention is of a children's construction toy made of expanded plastic foam extrusions. These extrusions can be cut to a desired size and then assembled either with or without fasteners into a wide variety of configurations including log cabins, pirate ships, castles and cars.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A hollow, substantially oval expanded plastic foam extrusion with flat planar faces on opposing sides of the extrusion tangent to two opposing sides that are curved surfaces of the expanded plastic foam extrusion, extending the length of the extrusion that are used for soft, lightweight foam structural element. 
     
     
         2 . An expanded plastic foam extrusion wherein the flat planar areas along opposing sides of the expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 1 , such that the extrusions are stackable without any fasteners. 
     
     
         3 . An expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 1 , wherein the plastic is expanded polyethylene. 
     
     
         4 . The expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 1 , wherein the flat areas on opposing sides of the expanded plastic foam extrusion have portals to receive fasteners. 
     
     
         5 . The expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 4 , wherein the portals are at regular intervals to receive fasteners along the full length of the extrusion. 
     
     
         6 . The expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 5 , wherein the regular interval portals are along the length of the extrusion such that the measured length of the extrusion can be determined by counting the number of holes along its length and multiplying by the distance between hole centers to determine the measured length of the extrusion without any need for making additional measurements. 
     
     
         7 . The expanded plastic foam extrusion of  claim 5 , wherein fasteners are removably connected to two extrusions through portals in each to connect or disconnect the extrusions without damaging the expanded plastic foam extrusions or the damaging the portals in them. 
     
     
         8 . The fasteners of  claim 7 , are made of injection molded plastic. 
     
     
         9 . The fasteners of  claim 7 , the fastener is symmetrical about a central planar disk having a diameter greater than 1.7 inches. 
     
     
         10 . The fasteners of  claim 9 , wherein each end of the fastener extending out from the central planar disk extends into the hollow area of the expanded plastic foam extrusions through the portals in the expanded plastic extrusion with an interference fit so the fastener can remain removably attached to the expanded plastic foam until it is deliberately removed. 
     
     
         11 . The fasteners of  claim 10 , wherein they are held together by connectors that allow the fasteners to connect expanded plastic foam extrusion in different orientations to each other. 
     
     
         12 . A toy saw, in the shape of an inverted “U” that provides tension to the cutting portion of the toy saw having no saw teeth and creating no “sawdust” from the plastic foam as it simply bursts the bubbles in the foam as it severs the extrusion that it passes through when pushed or pulled in contact with the expanded plastic foam extrusion with some downward pressure on the saw handle. 
     
     
         13 . The portion of the saw in  claim 12 , for cutting the expanded plastic foam extrusion is made of a flat or planar piece of plastic with a cutting edge that is not sharp enough to cut skin. 
     
     
         14 . The portion of the saw in  claim 12 , for cutting the expanded plastic foam extrusions extrusion is made of a flat piece of metal that is not sharp enough to cut skin 
     
     
         15 . The portion of the saw in  claim 12 , for cutting the expanded plastic foam extrusions is made of a linear element such as a string that not sharp enough to cut skin 
     
     
         16 . The portion of the saw in  claim 12 , for cutting the expanded plastic foam extrusions is made of a linear element such as a metal wire that is not sharp enough to cut skin. 
     
     
         17 . A method of using the expanded plastic foam extrusion wherein a toy saw allows the expanded plastic foam extrusions to be cut to desired length and assembled temporarily to build non-weight bearing structures that do not support the weight of children who climb on them and does not hurt the children when a constructed structure falls on them because the expanded plastic foam extrusions are soft and very light weight. 
     
     
         18 . A method of using of expanded plastic foam extrusion in  claim 17 , wherein a toy saw allows the hollow extrusions to be cut to length and assembled temporarily with fasteners to build non-weight bearing structures that do support the weight of children who climb on them or when a constructed structure falls on them because the expanded plastic foam extrusions are soft and very light weight.