We've all played one of those arcade "claw" games where a mechanical lobster claw is rigged to let go of prizes. But have you ever played with the prizes being live lobsters? [The Atlantic]

  • Chentzilla

    Except the machine is never called “lobster claw”, as it looks nothing like one.

  • HOTDAMN

    In Tokyo I played one where the prizes were huge live stag beetles in small plastic habitats.

    Wacky.

  • ebraves

    I saw one of these at a bar/restaurant in Estero, FL.
    Once you managed to catch one the bar would cook it for you. People stood at that game all night long dumping money into it.

    There was something about it that made me a little uncomfortable, hate to think these are still in operation and was not some failed experiment.

  • Dr_Wadd

    In the mid-80s I was only holiday in a rural part of northern France, while there we visited a school fete in a nearby village. One of the sideshow attractions was a hook-a-duck game, only with real ducklings instead of rubber ducks, with the ducklings being the prize.

  • michaelismichael

    I saw something similar in Taiwan (didn’t try it) where the ‘prizes’ were baby turtles, half of whom were dead.

    I went there to experience life in a different culture and I can most definitely say that Taiwan came through in that regard.

  • http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

    Once when I was in Dubai I saw a giant crane game equipped with enormous dumptruck-sized claws (padded with rubber from tire treads) hanging on cables from a big dock gantry and being used to try to pick up pachyderms as prizes.

    Okay, I made that up.  I just wanted to keep the thread going.