Children enjoy pitching, throwing, kicking and swinging at balls especially if the ball bounces back for more practice. Often times they engage in these physical activities indoors where they can be harmful to themselves or their surroundings. A few safe indoor target games have been developed but they are not selling well in today's toy market when these simple target toys are competing with fancy electronic toys. The result is the problem of the child practicing indoors with outdoor equipment not safe for indoor use. Furthermore, parents and children enjoy decorating the children's bedroom or playroom with agreeable artwork that will not mar the wall or door.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,383 (Clarke), issued Mar. 2, 1976 discloses a sports-related target game with a printed baseball player on the target. The target must be attached to the wall with a nail or screw hook or other similar object that will mar the wall. Clarke shows a knit nylon and urethane foam wall-hanging target having a loop threaded material, and a ball partially covered by the hook-threaded fastening materials. The loop-threaded and hook-threaded fastening materials are known as VELCRO™. The hook fabric on the ball causes lint to stick to it and also causes the ball to get caught in other toys or material found in the child's room.
The present applicant solved many of the inherent problems in prior art target games in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,588 (Gerson) issued Nov. 17, 1998. The sports related target game is printed on a self-adhesive mural portraying characters playing an action sport, a loop-threaded stuffed ball corresponding to the sport portrayed in the mural, and a hook threaded fabric target attached to the mural in an appropriate location to facilitate the fantasy of actually play in a game with the figures on the wall mural. The ball is covered in the loop-threaded fabric that does not stick to common material or surfaces found in a child's room or play area. The mural is decorative and enhances the appearance of the child's room. The child can continue play for unlimited time either alone or with friends. The challenge for the child is to get the ball to stick on the mural in the section that is covered with the loop-threaded material. This creates a feeling of instant success. The artwork on the mural engages the child's imagination so that pretending to be the pitcher, soccer forward or quarterback for example, encouraging fun role playing activities. However, this game could be enhanced with audible and visual sound effects to produce an even more exciting game.
Many toy inventors realized the limits of selling the simple target game in the competitive market arena. Prior art electronic target games tend to be complicated to produce and cumbersome for the owner.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,253 (Chen), issued Nov. 4, 1994, describes a light and sound emittable darts-board. In this invention the electronics are bulky and the board must be hung on the wall on a nail, screw, hook or other similar object that will mar the wall. There are three layers used to create the necessary space for the electronics. Thus the target is heavy and must be securely fastened to the wall for safety. The inventor has adults in mind when creating this dart game to be used in bars as he suggests. The theme is limited to simple darts and a target that does not invite a child to use his imagination as one could in a sports-play mural.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,094 (Quinn), issued Jul. 5, 1994, describes an audio sports game that utilizes audio messages to present a functional setting for the person playing the game. In order for the mechanism to trigger an audio message, an object must pass through a 3D structure and hit a mechanical switch as it passes through. To mass-produce a 3D object is more expensive than to mass-produce a 2D surface with a mural creating the illusion of a 3D scene that is printed on the front surface. Also, a mechanical switch has a relatively short life span.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,934 (Black, et al.), issued Oct. 22, 1996, describes a baseball trainer that includes a free-standing target apparatus having a plurality of panels for indicating a “strike” or a “ball”, which indication is communicated to a microcomputer in a console adjacent to the practicing player. Additional features allow the trainer to calculate pitching speed and to audibly report it to the player. Black's trainer is a complicated and expensive apparatus designed for rugged commercial use, therefore not appropriate for the cost-competitive consumer toy market. Referring to Black's FIG. 4, a limitation of its design can be seen in that a strike panel (22) and ball panel (34) are mounted separately from each other, suspended on double hinges (23, 25) from a back panel (26). The panels register a hit by a ball (B) providing the hit has sufficient impact to move the panel enough to compress a spring (28, 31, 32) and a switch (27, 29, 30) that are both positioned between the strike or ball panel and the back panel. The ball panel surrounds the strike panel and is therefore rather large. According to Black's detailed description: “ . . . it is advisable to mount more switches (29, 30) at divers locations behind the ‘ball’ zone panel (24), because of its larger size, to ensure that a ball hitting anywhere on the ‘ball’ zone panel (24) will result in a signal.”