In the last couple of decades inflatable figurines have become very popular. Such figurines are used to sell automobiles, as holiday backgrounds, and to depict cultural and religious scenes. Inflatable figurines are useful because they are easily set up and taken down, are relatively low cost, are available in a wide variety of figures, and are easily moved.
Typical prior art inflatable figurines are similar to balloons. They are blown up, sealed against air leaks, and put in place. While such inflatable figurines are useful they have certain disadvantageous. They are typically relatively simple items, the will slowly leak, temperature changes will cause different internal air pressures which will tend to deflate or overinflate them, and environmental factors such as wind and rain will disturb them.
One (1) approach to avoiding the foregoing issues is to use a continuously inflated figurine. In such figurines an air blower continuously or at least repetitiously pressurizes the figurine. Another approach to the foregoing problems is to either protect the figurine by keeping it indoors or to provide a shield against raid and wind. Yet another approach to the foregoing issues is to “tie down” the figurine.
The success of inflatable figurines has created its own problem. Users have demanded larger, more intricate figurines and scenes that feature multiple figurines. Instead of a simple figurine multiple figurines having intricate designs and layouts are demanded. Fulfilling that demand was initially relatively easy: simply fabricate a single figurine having multiple individual elements and more intricate designs. That however created a demand that was far more difficult to address: customizable inflatable scenes.
Consider a Nativity scene. It has such religious and cultural significance that individual users often want to configure their Nativity scene to meet their own religious, cultural, family, and social configurations which may have deep seated significance. For example, some individuals or families will want to start the Christmas season with a Nativity scene having just a stable, then over time adding different animals and people until Christmas morning when the infant Jesus is displayed in a manger. Later, wise-men might be added to the Nativity scene along with different gifts and activities, such as a drummer boy playing.
Another problem with customizable inflatable scenes is space limitations, ground limitations, light limitations and other limitations that impact on inflatable scenes.
Prior art inflatable and configurable scenes have not fulfilled user demands. They tend to leak too much, are too difficult to set up, are rather unwieldy in configurability, have limited size, are too costly, or other problems may exist.
Therefore, a technique of creating highly configurable inflatable scenes at low cost would be useful. Even more useful would be a technique of creating highly configurable inflatable scenes that are not only low cost and highly configurable, but also able to be used outdoors or in varying environmental conditions. Preferably such highly configurable inflatable scenes would be easy to set up, to take down, and to move.