Badges!  Badges?  What's with the Badges and Badge Numbers? Well, it all started back in 1998 at TBOX3.  As we described in "The Early Days of TBOX", that was the year when attendance jumped from around 60 or so to the unimaginable number of over 350.  Shocked by the turnout, we decided to start writing numbers on people's hands to count how many people were there.  Soon, it became like, a THING, to get your hand written on, and then, it became a THING to get a cool number, but it was just up to me, Chris, to write the numbes on everyone's hand, and it became quite laborious.  So, when TBOX7 rolled around, I had my friend red-haired Michelle (not LA Michelle) give me 2 Laminating Machines (thanks!!!) and I had, ahem, some friends who worked in places that had color printers, where those companies "donated" their printing services to the making of said badges.  So at TBOX7, we for the first time ever, had these laminated badges, on pieces of Yarn around people's necks. For the next couple of years, the process was basically, get cardstock paper; beg and borrow to try to have the things printed on color printers somewhere; have them cut into quarters and then thirds, laminate them all by hand, then hole punch each one.  But at TBOX12, we finally began having our sponsor work with us to custom-create the plastic badges professionally, numbered and everything, in the format you see today.  It's always nostalgic to think back on the days of the handwritten numbers, but I'm glad we've moved forward!  We strive now to make the badges a souvenir and keepsake showing that you've been to the world's most spectacular pub crawl - so save your old badges in a place of honor!  At TBOX8 thru TBOX11, we had scavenger hunts to find as many people with badges whose numbers were Prime Numbers, Perfect Squares, Triples, Doubles, or find people with consecutive badge numbers, or line people up with badge numbers that formed a mathematical equation -- but after a few drinks -- it was just too difficult!

And how do you get the "Good" badge numbers??  Read about that in the Royal Court page!

Preparing TBOX7 Badges @ My House, Morning of Dec 14, 2002

Closeup of a TBOX7 Badge

Badges, TBOX7,8,9,10,11

Badge #777 @ TBOX9

#11,#111, and #111 together at TBOX10

# Written on Hand with Sharpie - the Way it Was @ TBOX3,4,5 and 6

The Epic Fail of the Overly Large Bages @ TBOX8

Someone with a Decorated TBOX11 Badge