lego vacuum, patent 6048249 : Plastic building block toy cleanup vacuum attachment

if you have too many legos on the floor, here's the patented design for picking them up:

A toy cleanup vacuum attachment which can be used easily by attaching to household vacuum hose for the quick and efficient clean up of a plurality of different size and shape plastic building block toys. The toy cleanup vacuum attachment compromises: a curved suction channel for sucking up plastic toy building blocks; a convex plate guide with vent holes which guides the plastic building block toys within a suction channel into a drop channel while allowing the passage of vacuum current and dust; a rectangular drop channel through which plastic building block toys pass from the force of vacuum momentum and gravity; a transparent collection container for housing the plastic building block toys during cleanup and an air-tight bottom, hinged lid for conducting quick and simple dropping of plastic building block toys back into a toy box; a spring loaded push/twist thumb button agitator for dislodging clogged or stuck plastic building block toys; a grip handle for ease of use and...

See the whole thing on wikipatents.

Comments

[MK]

This is good news - there are very few things more painful than stepping on a lego block with bare feet...(although a plastic dinosaur hurts bad, too)

[Edward Vielmetti]

Here's a patent which references that one:

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7165289/description.html

now what would be cool would be the roomba version of this, which silently roams around and returns toys to their proper places.