![]() If you want to win, use the claw to move your toy closer with each play. … and maybe maneuver your desired prize to a better position. “The two-pronged claws seem weaker to me.” 5. In general, it’s easier to play machines that have a three-pronged claw rather than a two-pronged claw: “It’s all about the grip-if the claw has a weak grip, forget it,” Morgan says. “A lot of them will jiggle open right after they close, so even if you’ve caught something, it’ll screw you over by opening up the claws a little bit.” If that happens, Yamato says she won’t play again. Īfter Yamato has picked her prize, she’ll play once, “to test the tensile grip of the claw to see how easily it will hold after it closes,” she says. Instead, aim for a prize that has some kind of appendage-a head, or an arm or a leg-sticking out: “Something you can get one of the claw prongs under is your best bet, if the angle’s right.” 4. “Those are hard because a lot of the time there’s nothing to grab onto,” she says. Yamato also avoids round or rotund objects. (If a prize is leaning against the glass, the claw track won’t allow the claw to get close enough to nab it.) Morgan also advises sticking to prizes that are close to the chute: “Don’t drag something from the very end of the machine,” she says. The ideal prize is “sticking out a little bit, isn’t being blocked or obstructed by any other prizes, and isn’t too close to the side,” according to Yamato. “If the pretty pony in the far end, stuffed tightly next to the cute teddy bear, is an impossible option, you’re going to have to settle with the ugly duck/monster thing with red shoes and a cape or whatever the hell it is and live with it,” Morgan says. “Being realistic about what you can win in any given machine will help you win a lot more.” “Sometimes, the most desirable prizes are the hardest ones to get,” Yamato says. Yamato and Morgan go after the prize that looks the most attainable. ![]() Which one will you attempt to snag? / Aaron C Photography/Moment Open/Getty Images “I can see if the claw grip is too loose, or if it’s designed to let go or give a jiggle after it grasps something, then I won’t play because I know the odds are definitely against me … unless it’s a really, really sweet toy that I want. “Don’t necessarily watch how they play, but watch how the machine reacts when they play-that information can help you whenever it comes to be your turn,” Yamato says. Those are the only places you can win because there’s more room to drag an animal.” 2. “I think it’s better to find those weird lone claw machines in places that seem more abandoned-they don’t get stuffed as much. “If the toys are stuffed so tightly that grabbing is impossible, don’t waste your time,” she says. “That means nobody has jiggled anything loose yet, or maybe an employee has just stuffed them in super tight.” A tightly-packed prize pit will make your job a lot harder: “I’m not going to bother playing a machine that is clearly stuffed too tight,” Yamato says. “An easy tell is when all of the stuffed animals have been front faced and they’re packed in like sardines,” Yamato says. The first thing you should look at when thinking about playing a claw machine is the prize pit-specifically, how tightly the prizes are packed. Here are the strategies Morgan and Yamato use to nab a prize. It might seem like fun and games-and, of course, it is. But there’s real skill involved, too. … You get to bask in the glory of holding your bounty high above your head and saying, ‘Yes, I snatched this prize out of this machine! I beat it!’” “I’m a professional person most of the time, and it’s one of the only things that I will let myself be completely competitive about. ![]() “I only realized I was good at it because I kept winning stuff and I was keeping track of it on Instagram,” she says. There was a crowd around me! It was so silly.” Yamato’s obsession with claw games began in her adult life. “A claw? It's almost something out of the Brothers Grimm … One time I clawed six animals in a row. Morgan has always been drawn to claw machines, but got really hooked in 2008: “Must be the dumb kid in me that spies an enormous box of stuffed toys,” she says. But Los Angeles Times film reporter Jen Yamato and film critic Kim Morgan are very, very good at it: Yamato estimates that she’s nabbed 100 toys from the prize pits of claw machines (which she’s deposited in her car and at her house), and at one point, Morgan says, she had “two large garbage bags overflowing with stuffed animals from just one year. Unless you’re small enough to climb inside, grabbing a prize out of a claw machine can be pretty tough. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |