I’ve never really kept track of what fads are “in” and what’s “out”, but this is one fad that just had me curious. I’d seen it on Twitter and Facebook and I had to find out what it was for myself. You’re probably scratching your head by now. So, what’s the Santa Claw?
Remember the movie Toy Story? Remember those little green aliens? “The claw”. Yep, think of them! The Santa Claw is a giant claw machine. In fact, it’s the world’s largest claw machine. Located in Ohio, this particular machine is connected to.. the internet! That’s right, kids. You can play this at home by visiting http://thesantaclaw.com.
Here’s a little bit of the back story on how this idea came to be. It’s called the Santa Claw because they’ve got all those gifts that never appeared on wish lists and Santa sent them to the claw machine himself. Now you’ve got the chance to win. When you do win, they’ll send it straight to your doorstep. This kid won a giant blue ball.
The Santa Claw is 17x8x12 feet, is made of 2,000 pounds of steel, 1 and 1/2 electric wheel chairs, and 700 feet of wire.
When you play, you can win some of this stuff, but there’s a lot more than just this:
- Colored inflatable balls
- Packing Peanuts
- Pepsi flavored lip balm
- Striped snuggie
- T-shirts
- Leather chaps
- Gnomes
Once you begin playing.. you have to wait. Although it’s a “virtual” claw machine, only one person at a time can have a go at it. At times, I’ve seen the wait to play The Santa Claw just over 7 hours. If you time it right, you can wait in line while you sleep, get up and play. Unfortunatley, you only get one shot at winning a prize before you wait in line again.
While you’re waiting, there’s an option to chat with players around you and customize an avatar. You can choose a boy, girl, pickle, snowman, penguin, or a yeti.
Warning: This game can be very addicting.
Check out some behind the scenes photos of where The Santa Claw is located.
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