Claw City — Local services in Katy

I’ll say this, the place has a lot of potential to the best claw machine spot in Houston if they fix a few flaws. My partner and I have been to all the other claw machine places in the city and this one stands out for mostly the wrong reasons.

First off, the prices are predatory. At first glance, you can buy from the range of 10$, which gives you 14 tokens, to 200$ which gives you 550 tokens. That’s almost double what the rate (1.4 — 2.75 $/token) is if you spend the minimum. Other places don’t do this, at most I’ve seen it (1.0–1.35). This encourages you to spend as much as possible in one go.

Additionally, the price to play can range up to 5 coins per play for machines containing larger/more popular prizes. This would be fine if there wasn’t such inconsistencies with the machine payout. I get it, claw machines need to pay out for y’all to make money, but the with the variety in the machines at the time, the payout strength is not enough to even pick up some of the prizes, and the payout frequency is not enough given the price per try. I tried 6 times on a Squirtle machine and it was a good grab every time, and the machine wasn’t even due to pay out. 30 tokens (minimum 20$) for a prize that costs them probably 2$ off their supplier.

The prizes on the shelf were also poorly priced. I saw prizes worth 40 plushies in trade it value, and although this is the standard for that size for other claw places, with the frequency of wins, you would need to spend upward 300 dollars per large prize, whereas you could win that for 50-60 dollars at Claw Mania. All for a prize that costs them 20$ from their supplier.

The space itself is the best among the other claw places though. The aesthetic, the size, and the decorations are well thought out. The staff was nice too, they attempted to rearrange plushies on machines that were difficult, but it barely helps and I could see the awkward/embarrassed looks on their faces knowing the payouts are terrible.

100$ spent, 11 plushies won. For reference at a competitor we frequently win 60+ plushies at the same amount spent.

Fix the prices, trade in values, and the payouts and you’ll...

I’d love to give this one lace 5 stars but there are two glaring issues in my opinion. We’ve gone to this location at least 8 times since we found it and certainly it’s probably the better claw arcade around. SOME of the staff is very helpful especially with my son when he the claw isn’t cooperating no matter how hard we try. This is my first issue. It’s obvious the company itself has a “help policy” at least for little kids where they will “reset” the items inside to make it a little easier once some times have occurred. We’ve ran into two employees that won’t help and seem like we are inconveniencing them by just talking to them. In my opinion this takes away from the other great and helpful employees that they do have.

Secondly, we have been present, witnessed, and been a victim of the loose claw effect. My son will grab a toy in the claw. The claw will raise with the toy and once it slams into the base at the very top it jars the toy free almost every time. I was there this weekend and someone else was complaining about that too. Either the claw needs to rise slower so it doesn’t slam into the base or they need to have some buffer or something in place where this doesn’t occur. My 6 year old was in tears because it happened on a plushy 3 times in a row that he wanted, then the employee “reset” the machine and it happened again right in front of the employee. Now this was one of the great employees and she gave him the plushy but I’ve been told by numerous employees this effect happens a lot.

Other than those two glaring issues my son has a blast there when the claws are working well. He’s getting good at it but the claw slams so hard into the base at the top of the machine that anyone that plays here needs to beware that the toy will fall out on more then one occasion. Suggestion is record it several times and show an employee. Hope you...

Horrible, just horrible.

The claws have absolutely no grip, making it extremely hard to even get 1 item. Even after about 5-10 plays the item in the claw couldn’t even get held.

The prizes aren’t even that good (in my opinion) the only thing interesting there are the figurine claws, but those are also extremely hard to win.

You’d drop 100’s of dollars to get 5-7 prizes, and mind they’re all small.

The exchanges are expensive too, it’s already extremely hard to get 1 plushie to exchange, let alone getting 20-40 for an exchange prize? And don’t get me started on the fact that the cheaper exchange prizes are horrible, one plushie for a simple set of stickers or a bracelet, make it make sense.

There’s so many better places with actually good gripped claws.

For exchange you have to do it RIGHT THEN AND THERE, you are unable to save your exchanges in case you want to save up for another more expensive prize.

This place only has such a high rating because they make you give it 5 stars for extra tokens on the wheel. (which get you absolutely nothing either way)

We had spent around $120 on this place and came out with only 5 plushies, and usually with $120 dollars we could get 10+ at a normal retail store or even getting cute plushies like the ones in the claws. We had all our hopes up and grew simply frustrated at the fact that the claws won’t even hold a light plushie even if the plushie was perfectly exposed, easy to grab.

1/5 probably never coming here again!!

Go to Claw Mania instead!! Claws have good grip, actually cute prizes, and not to mention you get to keep coins for...