The Claw

I have a hard time walking by those 'Claw' machines without giving them at least a passing glance, and deciding if there is easy pickings in it.

I don't every play one of these games unless:

a) I have money in my pocket
b) It looks like easy pickings
c) I haven't tried that particular machine before and had a bad experience with it

For those reasons, I think I have a fairly high success rate on these machines. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm just fooling myself, but there are a bunch of stuffed animals in the house that came of these machines...

What makes easy pickings? First, they can't have stuffed the toys in among each other. It doesn't take much friction from neighboring animals to make that claw pull up without the animal. You also have to have something to grab onto. I try hooking around an arm and a neck whenever I can. You can't usually just hook a head or belly and get a prize. A good sense of depth perception and maybe a just a drop of overconfidence doesn't hurt.

No amount of skill helps when they've nerfed the machine. I hate hooking a toy and having the claw just lift up and release it because they've made it so no toys will be picked up. I'm sure anyone that has used more than one of these machines knows what I mean. You've hooked the toy, the claw closes, lifts up, and opens just enough to let go of the toy. If I didn't already have ten thousand things to do in my life, I might start a blog or Google map listing locations of Claw machines and if they are honest or dishonest machines... The one at the Shopko in Provo is a dishonest machine, for what it's worth.