Crane Games — Attraction in Thornton

Colorado has all sorts of claw machine stores popping up and crane games is one of the best.

I embarrassingly feel qualified to state this because my middle daughter has developed an extreme affinity (addiction) to the joy of pulling plushies out of piles with three-pronged metallic grabbing devices.

This is crane games second location and they have the experience dialed in.

The staff. Extremely friendly and helpful. They were always willing to help my little ones with fluffing up machines (even if my young ones asked for a few too many fluffs). They also did a great job of keeping track of everyone playing and would notice if people had spent a lot but were winning a little. I witnessed at one point the staff member very kindly insisting that a person accept her assistance.

The space. It’s clean, modern and well kept. It’s lighter that most other claw stores which creates a more inviting vibe.

The swag. They’ve got a great trade up system featuring the lauded Labubu’s. They also allow you to turn in your precious plushies for tokens that can be saved up and used in future visits. Outside of the big prizes the crane machines feature a mix of poke inspired plush, hello kitty cuties, and other random things like unicorns, avocados and more.

If you’re wanting a good way to get your crane game on head to...

Okay this review might be unpopular but I’m going to compare this to other claw machine/crane arcades I have been to around the country. For the positives, the staff is really great and the plushies are really nice. If you struggle (keep reading) the staff will help you but there in lies the problem.

Now the problem is these claw machines are programmed to be very weak. So much so that you need the staff to help you so that you can win. In my opinion the gratification comes from winning on your own. I’ve gone to around 10 of these claw machine arcades and this one has the worst machines. I play claw machines regularly and these were just really hard and it just didn’t seem fair.

If you are wanting to just win a couple plushies for your young kid, that’s great and the staff will guarantee that. But if you want to to have that fulfilling claw machine experience and win on your own then it drops the ball...

I'm notoriously bad at Crane games but wanted to take my 5 year old there after seeing the good reviews. The positive reviews were accurate...staff were very helpful and kind. We spent $10 on 11 tokens and we struggled to get the stuffed animal we wanted, kept failing to grab it. Staff came by and opened it up to move the stuffed animal he wanted to an easier to grab spot, so nice! We left with two animals and the quality is better that the games at the county fairs of my childhood, real plush / sturdier material. Only disappointing thing to note is they didn't have any Pokemon plush when we were there, so they must rotate selection. The ones we got were definitely unique and...