Plinko Game Construction

UPDATE: 08/29/17 - I saw a new Plinko type game at a trade show.  See my new post here:  New Plinko – Pinball Plinko?

 

If you don't want to make your own Plinko, here's some "premade" Plinko type games on Amazon:

White Prize Drop Game

Disk Drop Game

Portable Plinko Game

Midway Monsters Drop Zone Express Customizable Plinko Carnival Game

Prize Drop

 

I had always loved the Plinko game on the Price is Right gameshow.

This youtube clip shows a video of the Plinko game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNd8JaAXHic

We decided to build one for a game in our Kid's church. I google (or bing) searched and found a few people that had built some awesome ones. Some were way to complicated for me. I did get a great idea from one post. And it was to use pegboard. I bought a sheet of pegboard from Home Depot. I got a 2' X 4' board. So that's how big my Plinko board turned out to be. I started with the board and had to decide what to use as the pegs. I ended up using bolts. Mostly because I had a stack of them that seemed to be the perfect size. Figuring out the spacing will kind of depend on the "puck" size you are going to use. The good thing about the pegboard is that you can put your posts (bolts) in and move the puck around and make sure it fits everywhere correctly.



For pucks, we found an interesting solution. You can buy reflectors at Amazon: Blue Reflectors We bought 3 sets. I popped the blue reflectors out of the holders. Each reflector had a "peel and stick" backing. So I removed the paper on each one and stuck two together. This made it reflective on both sides and slick on both sides. It worked perfect. It moved quick and had a nice "pop" when it hit the bolts. But it also wasn't too heavy as to bend/break the bolts.



I also think these Air Hockey pucks would work great: Air Hockey Pucks

I added a few things to the board to complete it. To keep the puck in play, I added teeth shaped boards on each side. To cut these I simply put the board over the edges, and marked the holes (where bolts would go on the edges). Then draw lines between the points and cut them out with a jig saw.



We added a sign at the top. This was a yellow oval sign from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202256499/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=yellow+oval+sign&storeId=10051

We cut it in half and my wife added the Plinko text.

At the top of the gameboard, make sure you leave enough space for the kids to drop in the pucks. At the bottom, make sure to leave enough space for the landing. We could typically hold three pucks at the bottom in one landing point. We added a piece of wood at the bottom that would hold the pucks in place. Then the wood "swiveled" out of the way to let the pucks drop after the turn. During the first few test runs, I noticed the puck would randomly fly off of the gameboard. To solve this I added a piece of plexiglass to the front of the gameboard. I had some left from a previous project. It was actually part of an old drum shield our church used when we were meeting in the schools.



We just sit the game on a picture/art stand. In the future, if we use it again, I'll probably add some 2X4's for a stand. I like them being totally independant. Where they stand on their own.

If anyone reading this (if anyone does) and makes their own Kid's church games, I would love to see some pictures. I'm always looking for new ideas.

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