The Golden Pot Coin Pusher

This is "The Golden Pot Coin Pusher". A coin pusher that looks like a pot of gold and is full of it. It is fully operational, by turning the golden handle on the side of it, and the pusher will move back and forth. If you like, you can attach a motor instead.

Have you ever been to an arcade and tried the rush of seeing that pile of coins hanging on the edge, just wanting it so badly to fall into the winning shute? I sure have, and that's the reason why I made this into a Lego Ideas project. A tabletop version of a coin pusher you can keep on playing with for hours. Also, I have never seen any Lego builds for a coin pusher in this size before, so I had to make it.

Here you get countless and countless hours of fun, sending the coins down the plinko before hitting the pusher, through one of the three slots at top, where it will determine whether you hit the right spot or not. That in itself, is reason enough for why I think this would make a great LEGO set. The randomness of the coin drop makes it way more fun. The playable aspect of this set was the key to everything. If it only had the look, it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Of course with a model like this, there had to be a theme as well. What better option than taking the folklore of the Irish Leprechaun, which holds the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? It was really a no-brainer to me. The machine has the black look of a pot with a rim of gold. The sides even have handles which is able to fold up and down. Inside the plinko, the different pegs have different colors representing the colors of a rainbow.

It took me a while to figure out the mechanism, but when I got it, then it was all about the proportions of the model. The golden handle on the side is connected to a technic axel. This axel runs through the machine and is then connected to two different rectangles, by having cylinders sliding up and down the inside of it, while moving the handle. This moves the rectangles (which is connected to the pusher) either back or forth, and even slows down at the end points (like a real machine), due to the design of the rectangles. In order for the rectangles to keep its place and not go from side to side, as well as back and forth, they are held in place by some small panels. In order for them to move, they are sliding on tiles. It's a really simple, but yet very effective mechasnism. The "pusher" has multiple jobs, even though it only moves back and forth. On top of the pusher, the coins fall from the plinko and gets caught there until it goes all the way back and hits the wall. That also pushes all the other coins, which is already present and might even fall down from the edge of the pusher, to the next platform and gets pushed once more. When the coins gets pushed all the way down from the platform, it goes into the winning shute. And then it's just to keep on playing and see if you can win even more with those coins. For the sake of a Lego model and the perspective of having fun, the design didn't feature the "operator shute", which is a slot on each side of the platform, where the coins will fall down eventually in order for the operators to make a profit.

Of course there needed to be a minifigure represented here as well, in form of a Leprechaun. It has a green outfit with a top hat and a belt as well. Leprechauns are quite small, so they need to have short legs. The typical look of a Leprechaun has a large beard, so of course this one should have one too. The Leprechaun has a small stand as well, with a small pot of gold and even a rainbow. On top of the machine, there's two studs meant for placing the minifigure stand, for you to enjoy looking at it, whilst playing the game.

Thank you for reading all of this. Make sure to hit the support button if you like the build. You would be showered with gold if you also share this project with your friends.