I Love Crane Games!!

Crane games are everywhere in Korea. They have some really awesome, weird, and funny prizes inside. They cost about the equivalent of 16 cents to play. They're set up like slot machines back home. The claw on the machine itself grabs with a different strength each time and the odds of the claw grabbing the prize you want are posted on the back of the machine. It's not uncommon for a crowd to gather around a person that has been playing a machine for a while, cheering them on and annoying them with advice.


Here is my first prize from a crane game; a hand sewing machine. Like I said, some prizes are weird. Some of the weirder prizes are lighters shaped like various weapons, 80's slap bracelets, and underwear. No joke.


Most larger prizes have a small wire mesh cage on the outside to assist the claw in grabbing it, but what you don't realize is that under the better prizes are rubber weights to keep you from winning. As you can see, this 300 gram weight wasn't nearly enough for my crane skills. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'm kind of the Michael Jordan of crane games.