Croquet with the Red Queen

Update: Boy blacksmith has posted a number of his wickets on Etsy. You can play croquet with the Red Queen too.

Queen's rules!

The Monkey's Uncle and the monkeys all got together to prank the wedding. Since Alice in Wonderland has been a recurring theme with the bride's family and since the theme for the wedding itself was High Tea in a Sand Castle with Beer, a rousing game of croquet seemed the thing.

Except, of course, it had to be Croquet with the Red Queen.

A quick perusal of the internet, provided a ready made source for the basics. Giant placemat sized cards, hats, flamingos and even hedgehog puppets that roll into balls. (Yes, time and materials permitting we would have made the flamingos and painted some hedgehogs but pranks are always that well thought out so Mr Amazon to the rescue!) The problem was how to make the cards into wickets.

Boy Blacksmith to the rescue. He built himself a 3D printer. (Do not adjust your screen, this is a blurry picture

He used the CAD program on his computer to design hands, feet and faces for the cards. They have slots for the card and holes for a nail to poke into the ground.

This is the prototype set printed in the regular plastic.

Here you can see one of the hands up close. It has a nice notch for fitting the card.

Again the prototype pieces. You can see the club face on this one. You can't really tell from this picture, but he has the cutest smile!


Here is the diamond card wicket. It is printed in red. Unfortunately, the face for this one was printed in black. (Pranking without enough time to execute fully is problematic.)

The flower girl (after her mom had her change into play clothes) is having fun moving the hedgehogs around the field.

Proving there is more than one way to get out of a sticky wicket.