grrr… I tried one of them today and I picked up a Wall-E plush and it was in perfect grip but then the claw deliberately drops it before it gets to the pick up thing. 
LOL
they make those games to do that always…its just the creators idea.
“The Claw chooses who will go and who will stay…”
I love those claw games. They also go by the name of “UFO machines.” I spent, like, $15 once trying to get a Mario plush toy. I’m convinced it was rigged. =|
A lot of them are, especially the ones you find with expensive items like video games and mp3 players. It’s a feature of the machines. The owner can set the claw to, either randomly or after a certain number of plays, close tightly or not. So it goes from a game of skill to a game of chance.
I have got some toys out of them once, but they were cheepo machines. I got a Homer Simpson plush, a Scuba diving Tweety bird plush, some pig thing, and some little dinosaur thing. 
I think my sister got a bear out of one…i think that was at the state fair.
I think claw machines are rigged. They have to line up prefectly with the object you want to grabb, because the claw has got a weak grasp.
It’s actually pretty easy to line it up, but you have to choose which toy you want, or the one you think will be the easiest to get. The heavier toys usually don’t get picked up, especially if the claw is weak, as TSS said. I’m sure they give the claw a weak grip so it doesn’t pick anything up. The machine that I worked on (or tried to) would pick up the toy ok, but then when it pulled it up to the top, it would bang really hard and drop the toy: RIGGED!
I heard that some of them only let every ten goes win.
I know some tricks for these (I haven’t had much chance to practice them, but I have confidence in them)
1- Know where the machine is and where it’s from: Some are built to fail. Look at the culture of the country and area that the machine is in. For example the machine near a local convinience store may be set up to fail, while one in your favourite movie theater may be designed to only let you win as long as you meet a condition such as keeping the claw out of a certain position or trying a certain number of times. And still a overseas import shopping mall may have ones that are designed just so that you’ll pay the cost of making your prize (possibly with the machines temselves being imported)
2- Tell if the prize is winnable: Some companies shove prizes into machines so that they’re nearly impossible to move either go for a looser one or use anything handy to make a pry to put up the chuite and loosen the prizes “For the sake fairness I shall shove bizzare objects up UFO machine chuits”
3- Focus your efforts: One of the biggest money wasters in these games is not choosing a target. First look for the type you want and the loosest one closest to the the hole and then try to win that one, if you lose then try again at the same one and inch it towards the hole, sooner or later you’ll get it in
4- Pick a good prize: check the quality and appeal of the prize you’re after. It’s better to spend $20 dollars trying to win a nice and appealing prize than spending $10 to try and win a cheap unattractive prize.
Other tips are: you can tell what kind of machine you’re dealing with by looking at the paint job and prizes. One with bright, roadside carnavel-esque graphics and plush toys made with a short fur slightly shiney fabric (it sort of resembles a lint brush) are money grabbing machines set up by the Skinner of the UFO game world. Machines with character goods, soft looking plush toys and brand name prizes are winnable machines (import machines are the best) the two best brands for plush toy and prizes are Sega prize (which makes almost any kind of prize), Banpresto (I’m not sure if the company is outside of the pacific region, but they are makers of all kinds of plush toys and have a blackand white mask on a contrasting background) and Sanrio (It seems they produce their own UFO game prizes)
If you can, try to picture yourself looking through the arm of the claw. It’s easier if you can picture things, UFO catcher is the Visual Spacial Learner’s game (most all the people in animation are visual spacial learners. Video games improve your spacial skills, your ability to perform micro surgery and your plush toy catching abilities)
hm…very intellectual…mini…well put on which ones to use.
Those are some good tips! And they make sense too, since the only times me and brother have been able to win plush toys from those machines was from a toy machine in a movie theater, that had Ice Age toys.
They do dang nabbit. The one with the big prizes definitely more so then just stuffed animal ones. The claw’s pressure can be altered and they’re programmed to either randomly or after so many players grip tightly to allow the chance of a prize win.
I hate those machines. That is why I never tryed them. Hardely anyone gets a toy.
I don’t think I’ve ever played one actually.
Me neither.