1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to toys involving the simulated transfer of liquid and more particularly to a simulated toy commode or potty for dolls.
2. Background Art
Toys providing for simulated transfer of liquid have been popular playthings and have been particularly associated with feeding and the preparation of food. For example, there have long been baby bottles in which milk, formula, juice or the like appears to be transferred from the feeding bottle into a baby doll. Such prior art baby bottles have used clear, spaced apart, generally cylindrical walls, between which a liquid is contained. As the bottle is tipped over to simulate feeding of a doll or the like, the liquid passes from between the spaced apart walls into an opaque reservoir in the feeding nipple. Although only a relatively small amount of liquid is contained between the spaced apart clear walls, the impression is created that the entire bottle is full of liquid. Thus, a relatively small opaque reservoir, such as the nipple, may contain the entirety of the liquid to give the further impression that a larger volume of liquid has been emptied from the bottle and into the doll.
Simulated kitchen appliances using the same basic principle as the baby feeding bottles have also been popular playthings. For example, simulated coffee pots contain a brown colored liquid to represent coffee. The liquid contained between the spaced apart clear cylindrical walls flows into an opaque spout when the pot is tipped over and is there hidden to create the impression that the simulated coffee has been poured out of the pot and into a cup. For the most part, the simulated baby feeding bottles and the simulated kitchen appliances depend solely upon manual inversion of the toy to effect the transfer of the liquid from between the spaced apart clear walls into the opaque reservoir and do not employ any valves. However, a Fisher-Price automatic drip coffee pot did use a valve gravity biased to a closed position with the drip coffee maker in its normal upright position. By tipping over the coffee maker, the liquid is transferred from between the spaced apart clear plastic walls of a simulated glass pot into an upper opaque part simulating the portion of a drip coffee maker in which the filter and coffee grounds are contained. Pushing a start button opens the valve and the liquid is released from the reservoir back down between the spaced apart clear cylindrical walls to simulate the drip brewing of coffee and subsequent filling up of the simulated glass pot.
While the simulated feeding of dolls is a popular play pattern, there is also a lot of play relating to the simulated elimination of waste by dolls. To this extent there are many prior art dolls that "wet" and the like. However, there remains a need for a doll waste elimination toy that can be used with virtually any doll and does not require any special mechanism associated with the doll.