Pokemon, Axolotl and a Bob Ross plushie. Here are tips for Fresno’s claw machine arcade
Rob Pollard seems to love his work.
He almost bounces along the of claw machines inside Claw Daddy arcade, which he opened last week at Fashion Fair Mall.
He’s driven by the ambient noise of it all: the cheers of a successful catch and release — and also the defeated groans of watching metal fingers wrap around a small plush toy, only to have it slip away. So close.
“Got it,” Pollard cheers, as a customer victoriously pulls a small, black plushie from a machine.
“That’s Maru!”
More accurately, it’s Badtz-Maru, a character created by the Japanese company Sanrio. He’s a penguin with spiky hair.
Of the plush toys that fill Claw Daddy’s 25 claw machine games, most are inspired by Japanese animation or video games. So while you will find a plush version of Spider-Man, a cartoonish can of Spam or the painter Bob Ross, you will more likely see Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Super Mario Brothers or Kirby.
For players, what’s in the machine is important, Pollard says.
“Sometimes, they’ll come in and head to one machine,” he says, such as the one with cute axolotl plushies. And, at $1-$2 a pop, they’ll play until they win.
The plushies get switched out regularly. Pollard drives back and forth from Los Angeles, his van is loaded up with clear bags filled with toys. Two or three machines get new prizes every day. Six or eight machines get new stuff of Fridays, in anticipation of weekend crowds.
“I want everyone to win,” Pollard says.
So, there are no secrets or tricks at Claw Daddy.
Customers can have staff rearrange the plushies inside the machine to give them a better shot at capturing a prize.
Pollard also readily gives out his tips for winning:
Go for the loose prizes, the ones that are high up or close to prize chute.
Always use a quick double tap. That give players more control over the claw by forcing it to close quickly.
Players can also trade up for better prizes, by collecting smaller plushies and exchanging them for larger ones, or for one of several Funko Pop vinyl figures displayed at a counter in the middle of the arcade.
The arcade also gives a free gift with every $10 worth of credits.
On Tuesday, it was a small cross body fidget purse in the shape of a pineapple.
The arcade’s whole aesthetic — a busy white-and-black wall mural is surrounded by bright shocks of colorful graffiti art — is inspired by Japanese pop culture and the summer trips Pollard took to Japan as a child. His grandparents lived next to an arcade that was above a grocery store.
It had one wall dedicated to claw machine games and Pollard would play until he ran out of money.
Fresno is actually the second city to have a Claw Daddy arcade. Pollard had been working in unscripted reality TV, but the traveling got to be too much, so he opened a spot in in the East L.A./Boyle Heights area that would allow him to could spend more time with his family.
The United State is seeing a trend toward Japanese pop culture and Pollard is looking to expand his company into malls across the state, including in Modesto, where he went to high school. He sees arcades like this as the future of retail spaces.
“You can’t replicate this,” Pollard says, watching as a father wins a Pikachu plushie, which he passes to his toddler son.
“You can’t replicate experience.”
