Mr. Machine Patent Number

[SH MIKE]

Does anyone know what the ORIGINAL Patent Number is for Mr. Machine?

This number, ( 3,763,734 ) is not it.

It is on the '77 version but the actual patnet shows a Take Apart Train. I need the number that was used for the first version of the toy. Mine has no number. It just says Pantent Pending. I saw this on Ebay but could not define the number.

If anyone bought this item, please let me know what the number is on this actual patent?

Thanks.

[SH MIKE]

I was able to go to the Patent Office web page and enter the number on the back of

Robert The Robot ( D174588 ) and find this photo.

Patents before 1976 can not be searched by Name or Inventor. You can however enter the known number and get the drawings all the way back to the 1790's.

I was able to find this one. I would like to find more but I need actual design Patent Numbers that may be on the toy.

Has anyone ever done this type of research?

[SH MIKE]

Hey, "Application Date Oct 5, 1954". This would be a good date for the TIMELINE.

[Nikola Tesla]

Yeah, the guy who sells these Patent Office printouts thinks he has a good thing going---he downloads the images for free, then charges ten bucks a pop for a laser copy. He covers his action, too, by REMOVING the patent number from the printout---that's why you can't see it on his auction photos.

;)

[Nikola Tesla]

Has anyone ever done this type of research?

As a matter of fact, I've found a few interesting items through the Patent Office site in the past---anybody need the patent design for a Pyrotomic Disintegrator Rifle?

;)

[Volker]

Here the German Patent Number

cu

Volker

[Volker]

and a draw

[SH MIKE]

Volker, would the German Patent have any reference to the American Patent Number on it?

Maybe it refers to other Patents?

I can do a search for "Toy Robot" but It only goes back as far as 1976.

If anyone can find any information about American Patnent Numbers for Toy Robots, let us know. Thanks.

Here is a link if anyone else wants to try

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm

Just enter the number you have and click on search then click on "Images" in the top section of the next page.

You may need to download a TIFF reader (I did) but then you can view and save all the images to your computer and print them out. The photo of Robert The Robot I listed above was cropped and shrunk to fit here. It has much more resolution at the Patent Office Site.

[SH MIKE]

OK I found it.

Mr. Machine: US Patent 3,050,900

I found the European Patent Site and they have

more search options. here is the link:

http://ep.espacenet.com/search97cgi/s97_cg...=ep/en/home.hts

I just noticed that they also can search Japanese Patents!!!!

I will be playing over there today.

[SH MIKE]

I see this was filed on Dec 28th 1959.

It's a 50's Toy Robot after all. (at least the Patent Pending ones)

[Volker]

I think you can search by Company and by creator too - or ?

In the german Patent are only the german patentnumbers - sorry

cu

Volker

[Guest Brian]

Look what might have been! Such a waste.

[SH MIKE]

Here are some more numbers you can search in the US Patent Office.

Great Garloo: 3,199,249

Dux Robot: 3,128,575

Robot Commando: 3,103,762

Here are a couple that were probably from Horikawa.

I remember one of these in a book on Robots.

Maybe it's the Rotating Astronaut and a Zeriod?

3,648,408 and 3,659,379

I think the Application Date makes a good starting date for the Timeline. It could take several years for the Patent to be approved. The Robots could have been made and sold with a Patent Pending on them but I doubt that they were producing them before they sent in the application.

[SH MIKE]

I did not know that Susie Robota was a Marvin Glass Robot.

I wonder why it is so rare?

[Guest Brian]

Well Mike, you managed to get me spending hours on the patent site just when I was considering checking to see if the family were still living with me. The post 1976 items are indexed by name, and I had fun digging up specs on plenty of Transformers and Tomy bots. The pre 1976 need patent numbers, and that's where it gets tricky.

The patents are a fascinating area for research. Now we know that the Dux was invented by Lothar Stanetzki and the Suzie Robette by Marvin Glass. Wonderful! I'm not sure about the dates, though, especially non-US products. There was so much delay involved in the process.

I tried entering some patents from the Horikawa boxes but I've ended up with match making machines and apple corers. I always suspected that those patents were phoney. I also realised that there are two types of patent: one is for a design and the other is for an innovative mechanism. So I guess that the Japanese would have protected the innovation, not the design, (After all, who was going to try to turn out a tin robot cheaper than the Japanese?). The double action mechanism in the Attacking Martian is a good example of something worth the money to protect .

It's such a promising area that it might deserve a separate section. What do you think? If you feel like posting a picture, don't worry if it's ovesize; I can reduce it later.