If you own an arcade with claw games, this guy is the last person you want to see.
In China, Chen Zhitong has nabbed thousands of plush toys thanks to his claw game skills. According to Net Ease and ShanghaiIst, rooms of his house are now filled with his arcade spoils.
Chen says he doesn’t spend more than what the plushie is worth, and if he can’t snag it, he stops. ShanghaiIst reports that arcade owners even ask him not to play their machines.
[Photo: Net Ease]
“The first time I played was last year in July, it was really random, I saw the machine in the entrance of a supermarket,” he said (via ShanghaiIst). “I didn’t think much of it, it was just a way to kill time.”
For Chen, it’s a matter of judging the claw’s shakiness to see if it’s even possible to win prizes.
[Photo: Net Ease]
The most he’s gotten in one session is over 100 stuffed toys. “I’m not actually interested in the dolls themselves, it’s the process of getting them, it’s pretty exciting.”
[Photo: Net Ease]
His collection, however, has become massive, far surpassing other “claw game masters”. According to Chen (via ShanghaiIst), “I once saw a university student put online a picture of his collection, saying ‘Claw machine owners are already crying their hearts out!’ I saw it and laughed it off, it wasn’t even one tenth of my collection, thank you very much.”
Top photos: Net Ease
Comments
10 responses to “‘Claw Game God’ Snags Over 3000 Plush Toys In Six Months”
Worth mentioning that in Asia the claw machines aren’t rigged and have much better design. Australian machines are configured to have the claw give out 9/10.
Yes I agree, I am not a claw god but I can normally win a prize when I try.
You can see the claws lose power and just drop almost anything even when you have a solid grip.
That’s ridiculous
A) it’s up to the retailer
B) all machines have different settings or even how they operate
Most operate on Grab Voltage and Retain Voltage, the voltage dictates strength in both fields…
most retailers I have worked for aim to go between 30-50%, it’s a business after all and if you give away stock you won’t be in business very long…
there is no difference between Asia and Australia for this stuff, most the machines are made in Indonesia, Japan or Belgium
Even worse odds than that. One of my first jobs in 1997 was to work for Timezone in the Queen St Mall in Brisbane when it was first opened. Such a terrible job, honestly. The Assistant Manager was a drunk who sexually harassed the female staff and the Manager was a lazy American who purposely scheduled himself to barely ever be ‘on premises’. During this time, we were advised to go into all skilltesters and to loosen the claws tension screws to the point that we would literally have to clamp it with our physical hands for it to be able to pick something up. It was dodgy as hell.
On the night I quit, I remember going up to the SF3 and SF Alpha machines and setting it to free play, that was fun 🙂 also to the skill testers while the AM was out the back with a bottle of vodka and a co-worker where I tightened the screws on the old tri-claw ones with the rubber grip til they had a vice like grip. I ran a 2 dollar coin through that thing so many times til it had so many credits… Anyhow, the grip was so tight by that point any plush toy they came into contact with was a definite grab lol.
Petty sure, but given how they treated me back in 1997, they deserved it.
+1000000 for sticking it to the system!
Sorry to say this, but your comment shows a lack of knowledge of how skill tester machines work
For almost 10 years i worked at a large amusement centre in Melbourne – our skill tester machines (be it soft toys, watches, chocolates or prizes – didnt matter what type of machine) always worked to a ratio of 20-30%.
And dont forget our ratio is worked out on our cost price, not the retail price… for example the soft Cartman South Park plush toys we had in skill testers cost us $4 per unit. That means we hoped every $16 that went through the machine would enable a customer to win a prize. Our skill testers werent based on voltage but on a spring system. The tighter the spring, the easier it was to win a prize. Some toys like the Forever Friends range we secured as low as $2 – that meant every $8 should win a prize!
In fact, the only real ‘rigged’ machines are the ones like Stacker and Lighthouse – and they a rigged in a way that the major prize wont pay out until its ready.. so if you think about it this way, the prize is worth $250 – that means the machine will need to make $1000 until its ‘ready’ to pay out the prize.. so as the machine hits the $975ish mark, it will suddenly become easier to win – thats about the only ‘rigged’ machine we had (and I wouldnt call it rigged as its all within the law to do things like this and the minor prizes allow people to win something to feel like they are getting value)
if anything, the machines in Asia seem to be more difficult to win (especially China, never had luck there) as they tend to use those flimsy 3-pronged claw testers that always shake, rather than the voltage or spring based UFO Catcher machines from Sega
Makes sense to me. I have never won on a skill tester ever here.
I remember when I was living in China I went and got four or five in a row at an amusement park in Guangzhou. I felt like a superstar.
Guy wins over 3000 toys, guy wastes over $6000 on toys
Happy ending, he gives them, all to charity?
“I’m not actually interested in the dolls themselves, it’s the process of getting them, it’s pretty exciting.”
Look man you can lie to us, just don’t lie to yourself. You want the fluffy, squishy plush babies.