Teddy Claw Machine at Fun fair...technique to win?

S

Squonk

Registered User
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Can anyone tell me the best technique for winning a teddy bear from one of those claw vending machines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_vending_machine). I've never won one in my life (yes, yes...I should have saved my money and just bought a teddy....I know, I know). My kids are now starting to look at me with that 'loser' look in their eyes Any ideas? Thanks.
 
Umm, you mean the game with the claws that are too weak to grab a bear ? I thought everyone knew you could never, ever win those . . . sorry to break it to you, dude.

z
 
Go to Spain...
Not kidding!
If you think the ones here make money because you never win, some of the ones there make much much much more by giving out a free bouncy ball if you don't grab a soft toy. In essence the machine sells toys to each player at a mark up of 100%'s... The owners can just about keep them filled... The claw can go back and forward multiple times to help you line up and only drops down when you decide. I've even seen the people who fill them fluffing the pile so that the toys will release easily when grabbed...
It is positive lateral thinking. Please the consumer and they keep coming back again and again and again...
 

Have you seen 'In America' where the Dad bets the family's rent money to win a $10 ET toy at a fairground game?
 
The winning formula I discovered is a combination of not knowing what you are doing plus not watching how much you spend.
 
Funnily enough I have always had a gift for winning on these machines ( to the extent of being banned from our local parish sale of works games) so I suspect the technique involves lack of any knowledge as to how the machine actually works, poor motor skills and irrepressable optimism despite all the odds.
 
Inspect the claw next time you look at the machine, there is a counter-weight. This makes the strength of the grip almost negligible.
Having said that, a few years ago, I won loads of teddys at the ones in the Square, Tallaght. Pick a bear that's loose on top, near the hole.

[broken link removed]
(about five days too late)
 
I remember that University-standard science programme 'Brainiac' showed how to win on those machines. Apparently they are set by the owner as to how often they let someone win. From 1:1 to maybe one time in five hundred.

Brainiac's scientific solution was to stake out the machine and count the number of attempts between winners and then being the person who is next to use the machine at the right time!!! Faultless!!
 
I won once when I was a kid - the claw hooked a toys label loop and pulled it up from a deeper pile, disturbing a toy above it and knocking both into the prize tray. I have never won since then, but that was a sweet childhood victory that has kept me buoyed up ever since.
 
In my youth I dated a guy who operated one of those large digger machines for a living, he could clear out a teddy bear machine in no time!!
 
That must be the guy I saw operating a JCB full of teddy bears the other day so?
 
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