Which pieces might work best as legal tender?

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

Quite an odd question to pose, I know.

I'm getting married in April, and the venue we've hired has an unlicensed bar. This means that we can stock the bar however we like but we cannot legally sell alchohol. Since we're not made of money and can't provide a free bar for the event, we're using a 'token' system. In this system, guests will purchase tokens at a station set up somewhere in the venue, then take those tokens to the bar and swap them for drinks.

Naturally, I want to have my favourite hobby be a part of the day, so one idea I've come up with is to have LEGO pieces as tokens. My better half is on board with the idea, but we can't quite agree on what pieces might work best. Are bricks too bulky? Are plates too easy to lose? My personal preference is a 2x2 plate, but my fiancée thinks they would be too small.

Any ideas? It would have to be a somewhat common piece, as I'll have to bulk order from Bricklink when we decide on the right piece.

LostInTranslation · January 2017

I'd say 2x4 brick.

binaryeye · January 2017

Even as an AFOL, I don't think I'd want to be carrying 2x4s in my pocket. Not only are they relatively large, the corners of any square brick or plate are pretty pointy. Of course the advantages might outweigh this: They are more iconic than just about any other part, and guests could be creative with them (depending on how many each person gets).

My initial thought was the Technic disk. But unless all of your guests are AFOLs, it's unlikely anyone would recognize it as LEGO. It also can't be stacked without an axle. An alternative to this is the 4x4 round plate. No sharp corners, pretty good size, and seems to be available for relatively cheap in e.g. Light Bluish Gray.

Yellow minifigure heads with random expressions would be fun. But they'd probably be more expensive and if a 2x2 plate is too small, then so are they.

JudgeChuck · January 2017

Duh! Use these and these. ;-)

Speaking sensibly, I'd agree that a 2x2 plate is probably your best bet. They're not too big and not too small and won't be expensive to source. You could use different colours, if you need to have different denominations.

CCC · January 2017

4x4 round plate. It's like a big coin. No corners to cause life-threatening injuries, big enough not to lose.

AllBrick · January 2017

How about those gold dinner plates...

And pirate treasure coins, may be a bit small though...

I'm also thinking bottles or glasses also.

Congratulations and kudos for being a hardcore AFOL.

bookmum · January 2017

I thought of the little wine glasses but thought they'd probably be too small. But I have to say how much I love the idea!

woony2 · January 2017

You could call the bar ' booze for bricks' obviously the sign would be made from Lego. You can have that idea for free, think of it as an early wedding present.

mr_benn · January 2017

2x4 bricks are the ideal choice - but no one wants to have a pocket full of those!

May I recommend sticking with paper tokens for the most part, but everyone gets one 2x4 or 2x2 for a 'premium' drink - glass of fizz or spirits perhaps?

Alternatively, find another way to get Lego in instead of this (I'll be honest, by the time it comes to drinks, I expect many of your guests will be less interested in the finer points of the wedding!) - perhaps make minifigs of you and your wife getting married and use that as the picture for your thank you cards, or something similar. Best thing is to make it as easy as possible for yourself (and everyone else) and just enjoy the day!

SirKevbags · January 2017

As a thankyou to exhibitors at Bricktastic last year they were all given 3 2 x 2 bricks to use as bar tokens and it worked really well. I just couldn't reveal the colour in case they all brought extra!

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

Thanks for the ideas everyone, some good ones here that I hadn't thought of. Particularly @binaryeye and @CCC, I think the 4x4 round plate might be a winner. @JudgeChuck I like the idea of having different colours for different denominations, though I fear that might be seen as complicating matters, but I'll keep it in mind.

@woony2 I LOVE that idea, and if we do use bricks that is definitely what we'll call the table where we sell off the tokens.

@SirKevbags glad to hear that the 2x2s worked well. It's a tempting one because it's such an iconic shape.

Food for thought anyway, thanks again all.

MrShinyAndNew · January 2017

Bearing in mind the logistics of getting the pieces, what can you get your hands on in quantity most easily? People are usually pretty good at not losing their drink tickets at parties, and that's just like a 2x4-sized piece of paper. So 2x4 bricks or plates would probably be fine. As for the discomfort of keeping them in your pockets, how many drink tickets does the average (or worst-case) wedding guest normally have?

I'd be inclined to go to the local Lego store and buy whatever is in their pick-a-brick. Pink 2x4s? lime-green 2x6 plates? whatever! As long as I can get 500 of them, or however many I think I need. (Though, I guess if the cash area runs out, the bar can send the "used" ones back to be resold)

Switchfoot55 · January 2017

Whatever you end up using, make sure you price your tokens/drinks appropriately so one of your AFOL friends doesn't come and buy the whole lot for their latest MOC at a nice discount!

dougts · January 2017

the 4x4 round plate was my first thought also. to jazz it up, or provide differentiators, you could plop a 2x2 square tile in a multitude of colors on top of it

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

dougts said:

the 4x4 round plate was my first thought also. to jazz it up, or provide differentiators, you could plop a 2x2 square tile in a multitude of colors on top of it

Ooh, I like it. Along similar lines, I wonder if there is a printed 2x2 square tile with a dollar or some such on it. A dozen ideas come to mind if I went the custom route, but that is probably cost prohibitive.

SirKevbags · January 2017

How many do you need? I have a bag of these

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=6256&name=Minifig, Utensil Dish 3 x 3&category=[Minifig, Utensil]#T=S&C=65&O={"color":65,"st":"4"}

I think 500, might be 1000 and I can't think of when I'll use them. If they will work you can have them.

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

That's a good question that I don't actually have an answer to now that I think about it :)

Thank you for the generous offer, but I suspect non-AFOLs might not get that it's a LEGO piece. Much appreciated though.

MaffyD · January 2017

Having the pieces being a little bit bulky might actually be a good idea as the evening progresses. Will stop people... accumulating them, if you know what I mean? Depending on the drinking tendencies of those invited of course! :-)

Congratulations on the impending nuptials by the way!

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

@MaffyD thanks :)

SprinkleOtter · January 2017

CCC said:

4x4 round plate. It's like a big coin. No corners to cause life-threatening injuries, big enough not to lose.

^ This. They need to be big enough that slightly tipsy partygoers don't lose them.

Shib · January 2017

SirKevbags said:

As a thankyou to exhibitors at Bricktastic last year they were all given 3 2 x 2 bricks to use as bar tokens and it worked really well. I just couldn't reveal the colour in case they all brought extra!

It was also a lot of fun discussing the unusual payment method with the bar staff.

Sethro3 · January 2017

So I'm confused. You are having an "open" bar that you are paying to stock, correct? To limit things, people are using a LEGO brick of some sort (that you are providing) to "pay" for these drinks? They will use real money to buy these tokens, correct?

I understand you want to include LEGO, but how is this different than a cash bar? Will people respond better to buying a LEGO token and getting a drink vs just buying a drink with real money? I guess I'm lost.

Good luck though! I liked the idea of the round plate the best.

SumoLego · January 2017

As an aside, you may want to differentiate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

Jackad7 · January 2017

If you want to make some profit sell different types of bricks for different drinks, as the night "progresses" I am almost positive you will find a less than sober individual buying bricks simply to build stuff. Yet again you might have another AFOL in your midst who does that from the start.

ricecake · January 2017

Sethro3 said:

So I'm confused. You are having an "open" bar that you are paying to stock, correct? To limit things, people are using a LEGO brick of some sort (that you are providing) to "pay" for these drinks? They will use real money to buy these tokens, correct?

I understand you want to include LEGO, but how is this different than a cash bar? Will people respond better to buying a LEGO token and getting a drink vs just buying a drink with real money? I guess I'm lost.

Good luck though! I liked the idea of the round plate the best.

It's probably the same idea with buying chips at a casino. You pay for the chips and use that for currency. In the first post it says they legally cannot sell alcohol, so you buy tokens instead.

EvilTwin · January 2017

Use collectible minifigs
Leave a few sealed packs on each table then people can have some fun assembling them and trading them before buying drinks with them

Shib · January 2017

Sethro3 said:

So I'm confused. You are having an "open" bar that you are paying to stock, correct? To limit things, people are using a LEGO brick of some sort (that you are providing) to "pay" for these drinks? They will use real money to buy these tokens, correct?

I understand you want to include LEGO, but how is this different than a cash bar? Will people respond better to buying a LEGO token and getting a drink vs just buying a drink with real money? I guess I'm lost.

Good luck though! I liked the idea of the round plate the best.

It's to do with alcohol licensing laws in the U.K. - the easier work around is to not have a bar but have a bring your own system but some venues don't like that

SumoLego · January 2017

^ This is true. When everyone gets sick in Uncle Fred's 'craft beer', the venue doesn't want the liability.

Many venues will only consider fully licensed vendors bringing in food or drink. (So if your mother-in-law wants to make your wedding cake - check that out ahead of time!)

ImABrickManNow · January 2017

First off, congrats man! anyhoo my choice would have to be 2x4 round bricks or 4x4 plates, although the ladder might be slightly too big.

SprinkleOtter · January 2017

^What's that you say? You want everyone to carry around a large ladder in their pocket?

Insert sausage jokes here...

SumoLego · January 2017

I'm just happy to see you.

SprinkleOtter · January 2017

Have you heard of the fold-able ladders? They're not very much fun...

Steve_J_OM · January 2017

Looks like the round 4x4 plate is the winner! I like the idea of different colours for different denominations, but my better half thinks it'll overcomplicate things. So I'm about to clear some BL sellers out of their stock of light bley plates (I think).

Thanks again all - will be sure to come back with pictures in April.

SumoLego · January 2017

SprinkleOtter said:

Have you heard of the fold-able ladders? They're not very much fun...

Medical Science has done wonders with telescoping... ladders.

KingAlanI · January 2017

last wedding I went to had some LEGO accoutrements but not this complication. congrats on the workaround.
open bar with homebrew beer/cider by the groom's brother and bottled wine, served by the caterers. problem was I had a lot of strong stuff with a lot of food, set like a ton of not-so-fun bricks.

ImABrickManNow · January 2017

Darn it! I just realized my mistake. I was using my phone for that post and it auto-corrected "latter" stinking iphones!

Final_Sign · January 2017

Grats on getting married and the creative idea on using Lego!

I vote for using 2x4 bricks and having something built out of them at the counter where you "buy" them initially. Then as people purchase them you tear a few off your creation and as the night progresses you can visually tell how many drinks have been consumed by seeing how much is missing from your MOC!

Now, when and where is the reception so we can all show up with a sack of bricks and get smashed?!

KingAlanI · January 2017

when I saw the thread title I thought it was a weird apocalyptic scenario. :P

Steve_J_OM · April 2017

With a somewhat frightening 10 days to go before the wedding, it's time to resurrect this thread. Not least because I had a very nice delivery yesterday!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/b7/q2nrqj8b2tws.jpg

That is 1,500 of the 4x4 round plates suggested in this thread. In case it's not clear from the picture, the colour is the bright blue seen in, e.g., 41021. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was the cheapest on BL based on my location and desired quantity. My better half is happy with the colour though, given that it's more 'spring' than my choice of light bley.

Also, with thanks to @woony2, I've drawn up this sign (unfortunately not built from LEGO) for the station where people can buy their tokens:

Thanks again for the suggestions all :) Now I have to go do a hundred million things.

mustang69 · April 2017

The big question is, what are you going to do with all those after the reception ;P

SprinkleOtter · April 2017

mustang69 said:

The big question is, what are you going to do with all those after the reception ;P

Open the world's weirdest Bricklink store?

TyresOFlaherty · April 2017

^ "For Sale: 1,500 Bright Blue Round 4x4 Plates. Good to Very Good condition, may or may not reek of alcohol. Buyer beware."

:)

Steve_J_OM · April 2017

I actually have no idea! I might put up a marketplace thread here and try to move them on for a knockdown price. If anyone has a really niche requirement for 1,500 4x4 plates shoot me a PM!

Galactus · April 2017

I hope you have a great day!

RogerKirk · April 2017

Sell them to the next person on here getting married/having a big party.

TyresOFlaherty · April 2017

All jokes aside, congrats @Steve_J_OM! Wishing the both of you a fantastic wedding day and life together!

mustang69 · April 2017

Absolutely, Congrats @Steve_J_OM!!!

catwrangler · April 2017

Hope your wedding day is beautiful!

Steve_J_OM · May 2017

Thanks for the well wishes all! The day went perfectly, and the LEGO involvement didn't stop at the pieces. We left the church to a lovely arrangement of Everything is Awesome played by a string trio, and we had these guys welcoming the guests when they arrived:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/wm/vxwyu6eezj4t.jpg

These were converted from Halloween costumes we made a few years ago.

Oh, and we were gifted the Disney Castle as a wedding present :)

I've also started a marketplace thread for the tokens.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and well wishes!

sid3windr · May 2017

Congrats! That does sound awesome :-)

TheOriginalSimonB · May 2017

Nice one, and many congratulations.

Which pieces might work best as legal tender?

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