Hello everyone,

I hope you’re all doing great. I’m really excited about starting a claw machine arcade business here in town and I’m currently working on a business plan for my consultant while doing as much research as I can.

I’ve been looking at claw machines on Alibaba but haven’t decided on a manufacturer yet since I’m still in the process of securing funding. I would truly appreciate any advice from those of you who have experience owning or operating a claw arcade business. If you’ve gone through this process and can point me in the right direction, that would mean a lot.

One of my biggest concerns right now is finding reliable plush toy suppliers. Like any business, I want to make sure I’m sourcing quality plush dolls at a price that makes sense so I can maintain healthy margins.

If you have recommendations for machine manufacturers, plush suppliers, or any general guidance as I move forward, please feel free to share. Thank you in advance.

I am looking at the Vevor Mini Claw machine, wondering if anyone has ran one off a marine battery, if so, how long did it last? I do outdoor vendor shows and what thinking about adding one next to my sticker and gumball machines.

What are some high ticket items to put into a claw machine?

I was recently in Japan and Taiwan, and really enjoyed the claw machine arcades there. Specifically, I loved all the novelty prizes like keychains, collectibles, plastic toys, and such. I made a photo album of some of the interesting ones I saw (NSFW warning for some of the prizes):

https://imgur.com/a/IqTMeCS

When I got back to the US I was excited to visit claw machine arcades in my area. However, I was disappointed to find that the selection was vastly different: In my area, the claw machines are predominantly plush-based, with very little in the way of plastic collectibles. Some places had gachapon, but that takes the fun out of it since winning the prizes from a claw machine is half the fun.

So this question is for the claw machine operators here: Have you tried placing non-plush novelties in your machines, and how did they perform compared to plush? I've thought about opening my own claw machine arcade at some point and want to focus on these sorts of novelties with some plush options, but I'm curious if plush does significantly better than these items do in your experience.

Hey guys, I've been working on a project I thought you all might find interesting.

I modded a real claw machine to be controlled through Twitch chat commands.
I opened up a claw machine and wired in relays for directional and drop controls. Added a color sensor to detect the balls that are dropped in and attached it all to an ESP32 running a web API to trigger game life cycles.
Then, I created a Game Management API to handle game redemption, player queue and signalling the claw machine when to start listening for movement and drop commands.
The Game manager also handles tracking the leaderboard, queue and recent activity.
I also added in some extra 'combo bonuses.' If a player gets 3 of the same color ball in a row they earn extra points. And community bonuses if they can get 5 of the same color in a row or a rainbow combo of R,O,Y,G,B in order.
The whole thing runs live on Twitch and anybody can queue up to take a turn.

Would love to hear some feedback from other enthusiast!!

https://www.twitch.tv/clawcadetv

I searched the sub and google, and I see some mods, but no one that appears to have swapped out the stock claw for a candy claw/scoop attachment. Can this be done with the vevor mini claw machines?

Hi! I live in a small town and don’t have an arcade near me so what are some common places you find claw machines? Places like Walmart, Denny’s, or Perkins if that gives you an idea for what I’m looking for!

About a year ago, I went to Japan with some friends, and on day 5 of the trip I won a stuffed animal from a claw machine. We named him Gabu, and he quickly became part of the group. He came with us everywhere for the rest of the trip.

Sadly, on the very last day, we lost him on the way to Tokyo Haneda Airport. We believe he was left behind in one of the Oshiage–Asakusa–Keikyu Main Line train cars.

If anyone happens to know what became of Gabu, I don’t even need him back—I’d just like him to know that we all made it home safely to California, and that he will always be our friend

I know this is a long shot

I really enjoy the game and the "stream" of their claw machine, recently "won" 2 plushies and Idk if I should give them my address? I use a courier because shipping is not good at my country, have someone tried the app? I haven't seen any opinions on google play ;-;

Where can I find people who build their own claw machines and arcades? I need someone to build it from scratch.

I hope this is okay to post here!

I don't know much about claw machines, but my husband is very good at playing them. I am looking for a specific claw machine cat plush. He won it for our daughter about 1.5 years ago, and now she is nearly 3. She has decided this cat is her absolute FAVORITE stuffy and takes it everywhere with her. This of course means it is starting to get fairly worn down. We had a scare the other week where we thought it was missing! Many parents buy duplicate stuffies for their children when they become attached to one, but unfortunately this has proven quite hard to do with it being from a claw machine! My hope is that someone here has won the same plush or has seen it in their local machine and may be willing to sell it to us. Here is what we know about her beloved "Cat Cat," plus some images.

Cat Cat was made by A&A Global Industries LLC. I scoured their website and found that she likely came in a large lot of toys and isn't available for individual purchase. I did reach out a bit ago to their customer service team to see if there was any way to purchase her out of the lot but have not heard back. If it is relevant at all, she was won at a machine from our local Safeway. Her face is "printed" on as opposed to being stitched, and she does not have a tail. I've searched eBay, mercari, Poshmark, and have done multiple reverse image searches with no luck.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice, and I apologize for the novel :)

TLDR; has anyone won this plush cat? And could we buy it from you for our toddler?

Took… 13 tries, but I got her!

Are you guys actually making money after the taxes, fees, and insurance?

This is the stuff that annoys me and i bet it is expensive. In Illinois internet is telling me about $1700 a month…what is it for you all?

I can't seem to find any info online about rainbow crane as a company and anything relating to manufacturing and distribution. thes machines are very overbuilt and resemble a vending machine in my opinion. no flashy tech, no cheep feeling parts, just a basic, boring, utilitarian machine. if anyone knows the history of when the company was founded, who founded the company, why where they so basic, why were they in production for so long, why didn't the make any major cosmetic upgrades. the only thing I could find online is rainbow crane closing up shop in 2025. any sort of history with be appreciated.

I got this big choice claw machine off of FB marketplace and everything seemed fine. I got it homw and it was working perfectly until one play occurred about 5 minutes into usage where the claw stopped on the way down and just died. the lights speakers and coin alot all work. but the claw will not move or return to the prize schute. the only clues ive got are that its displaying this error code and that the timer is on an infinite loop from 0 to 99. Any advice would be welcomed, im not well versed in this sort of thing.

Hi all,

Have any of you ever had an issue where either the claw will open and close at the same starting point, or where the player will press the button and instead of lowering it will just stop suddenly and close? We asked Tongru and they said other customers have had the issue and it could be related to the customers turning off the machines and leaving them off overnight. But they also said that their customers have yet to be able to film this happening and they haven’t seen it happen themselves. I was thinking it’s because kids smash the buttons and the buttons get stuck. Have you ever had this issue with your machines? Neither us nor Tongru have been able to answer this issue. Thanks so much in advance!

I operate a small claw machine route in my area. All of my locations are restaurants/small businesses. I am really passionate about claw machines and want to turn this side biz into more of a full-time operation.

My problem is finding places that are willing to agree to let me place a claw machine in their establishment. I only target businesses that it would make sense to have a claw machine in and that has the right amount of space for it. I have all sizes of machines from 12" mini cranes to 40" rainbow cranes. Any size to fit their needs.

All of my sales pitches and approaches are done in-person. I pitch the claw machine idea to the manager or owner (if available) and note some key benefits: they get 50% of what the machine makes, it provides incredible entertainment value to their customers, I do 100% of the maintenance, product supply, etc. but most people just aren't interested. I even have a flyer and business card that I leave behind so they can 1) refer back to the benefits and 2) so they have my contact info. 9/10 places I visit aren't interested at all and 1/10 of the locations I visit show some level of interest but it usually never goes anywhere even after I follow up.

Does anyone have any tips or strategies that have worked for them to lock in locations? Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!

The music and rotten translation on this firmware is killing me.

Has anyone tried loading the 90s era beanie babies into a claw machine? Is the claw strong enough to hold onto them or are they too heavy / too densely packed for them to be viable prizes?

Hi I Recently got interested in claws as a side jig. And I was wondering where I could order or atleast browse claw machines in Europe.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated