Plinko Party Costume W Prizes for Contestants

First of all, I would like to thank mazinbenny for his a-mazing Plinko Instructable that I roughly based this on. Ultimately, it's TPIR (The Price is Right) we have to thank for the game of Plinko! Even Bob Barker said himself - "A Plinko board would make a good costume" circa 1980s.

In this inscrutable I plan to elaborate on the Plinko costume that mazingbenny created ** it is important to note that this board is smaller in comparison. The different sizes and prices of plexiglass 1/4" thick led me to scale down, in turn, it has made the costume easier to carry and more comfortable to wear.

Its fully working game board, even has that Plinko sound!
I have included my ideas for prizes that contestants can win, but I encourage you to create your own too.
Measurements are included.
Prices for materials along the way.
Step by step process **which can be out of order if materials are still needed
You can do it!
Lets Go!

Step 1: Getting Started

Things you need for this step:

(1) 1/4" x 18" x 24" Plexiglass ($20.00)
(1) 1/4" x 4' x 4' Plywood I had it cut at the store to 2' 1/2'' x 3' 1/2''($14.00 - The curved edges will come later)
(17) 1/2" x.257' Nylon spacers ($7.00 - Gives it that Plinko sound)
(17) 1/4" 20 x 1' 1/4" Machine screws ($2.50)
(17) 1/4" 20 Lock nuts ($2.00)
(2) 1/2" x 2' x 2' Side rails that will fit perfectly under plexiglass ($4.00)

Had these around already

Marker
Cardboard at least 18" x 24"
Ruler

Get a piece of cardboard, at least the size to fit the glass and create a grid running horizontal, from top to bottom….3-5-3-5-3. **Measurements are close, so cardboard will help us figure it out decent screw placement.

Take a ruler and measure 1-1/2" from top of cardboard equal to plexiglass.
Create your first row with 3 holes in cardboard. No matter if you start from left or right it will be 4-1/2" to the sides. Holes should be 4' 1/2" from adjacent from one another.
For the second row of 5, no matter left or right, your corners will be 2-1/4" from side and once again, 4-1/2" between each column. Repeat for the other three rows 3-5-3.

After creating these holes in the cardboard, use your marker to mark through these holes onto the plexiglass underneath. Finish for all holes but make sure the cardboard stays in the same place, tape will help but not necessary.

Get a drill (I borrowed one from a neighbor, thanks dave!) and create the 17 hole pattern. The drill bit should just be strong enough to go through wood & plexiglass and also wide enough (1/4") so that your machine screw can fit comfortably through afterwards. - As for the wood, the plexi should be 6" from either edge & around 7-1/2" from top and around 11-1/2" from bottom. Be sure to test this before moving forward (4th picture).

Next up, put the machine screw through the back of the plywood while standing up. The tricky part here is keeping the screws in place when laying the board down. A shower towel works well, just keep it tight along the back of the wood when setting down so the screws stay in their places.

When you get it laid down, with screws facing upwards, add nylon spacers.

Finally, add plexiglass and attach lock nuts. Add side rails if you want just to make sure everything fits well but everything will be coming back off anyway for painting!

**Next Step!

Step 2: Designing the Board

At this point in the process it is important that you use a power saw for a few minutes (thanks again, dave!) to get a good angle cut around the four corners of the board.

White paint
Wood glue

Paint a few layers of white to get a solid base coat. After allowing that to dry, the side rails will be placed using wood glue. **Looking back now, I would advise to wait and put the side rails on after the final painting (see next step for reference).

1 roll of yellow electric tape ($4.00)

Use the tape to lay out your background by spacing between the four catcher locations and your best judgement for the sides; make it your way.

Plinko Chips

In the picture, the two black circles are the Plinko chips that are specifically made for this size board, mainly because of its 1/4" thickness and weight (how it jumps around when it hits nylon spacers).

2 Chips- get as many as you can though (FREE!! - usually trash anyway)

** These are not hard to get and free! Go down to your local photo developer (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc…) and ask for the end cap holder of their film reams. They will know what you are talking about and are usually nice people; an unusual request but nothing out of the ordinary for most Wal-Mart employees.

Step 3: Painting

Go to local arts and crafts store for acrylic paint, Red, Turquoise, Lavender, respectively. I spent about $3.00 on each bottle.

Find a controlled location to paint, proper for drying and out of anyones way. Put something underneath for safety of surrounding area (I think that goes without saying).

Paint within the lines of tape, don't worry about painting on the tape, you replace it anyway and 1 roll of tape will be more than enough. Make sure to get a few coats on each section.

**Avoid stretching the electric tape out, just let it fit comfortably along the board. Loose but still secured!

Step 4: Creating Chips & Logo

Here is the the chip logo & here is Plinko logo.

For the chips you will have to do some editing to the chip image so that you can print out the same size as the chip. Basically what you need to do is create your canvas size (average print paper size 11 inches by 8.5 inches), bring in your chip file into your editor (in my case photoshop) and enlarge your chip logo so that it is 2 1/2".
You will have to create 4 logos (Front and back x2) and they will fit all on one sheet **again (average print paper size 11 inches by 8.5 inches) create your canvas size - then enlarge your logos.

For the Plinko logo you will want your canvas size to be 11x17 (so its prints on a paper that size). Bring in your logo and enlarge it until it fits like the picture above. Erase the rest ** I added a little arch in Photoshop to match up with the boards cut curve.

Don't get intimidated by Photoshop, these edits are novice and if you need help you can find tutorials online for free, or message me for more details.

I brought both of my .JPEG files up to a local printer and had them print it both pages, spent a total of $2.37. I cut them out and hot glued the paper to the chips. ** I would suggest using something other than hot glue for the main Plinko logo for the top of the plywood.

Step 5: Corner Guard Catcher

Here is the fun part, kinda.

(2) 4' x 1/4" corner guards ($4.00)
Hot glue gun and few sticks of glue ($5.00 for gun and $3.00 for big pack of sticks)
Scissors

Cut your corner guard (facing towards you) so that you have a starting at one rail, cut the guard so that it can bend down, goes along the bottom then bends back up. Cutting a V helps when bending the corner guard (View image 3 & 4). Eventually making a |______| pattern. A total of 2ft - 2in

You will have to cut another corner guard (facing away) only along the bottom _______ attaching this to the first guard creating a perfect catch on either side of chip. It should be around 1ft - 6in

Finally cut 6 same size walls (3-1/2" to 4") that will eventually be hot glued back to back. Like so |__||__||__||__|

Get your hot glue gun warmed up and maybe some gloves to avoid any burns and hold the corner guards together while the glue cools. Glue all items together.

**Create the catcher then attach it to the board. You will want to make sure the board is painted before you attach to catcher.

Step 6: Prizes

**This is where I took it one step further than mazingbenny.

I was trying to think of doing something a little more clever for prizes so that people could really make a connection with the costume.

Vacation spots (jpeg and .psd attached)
Fake money (dollar store $3.00)
Cheap cars (toy store $5.00)
Candy (anywhere)

I have attached the jpeg file & also the .psd to make your own edit and add your own locations to the grid…. if you want (assuming you have Photoshop for the .psd).

**Again, printed on 11" x 17" paper ($1.75), cut out and glued to notecards. I had my Twitter handle (@patricholas424) on the back of each card too.