The crane machine—also known as claw machines, crane games and, in Japan, as “UFO catchers” due to their proclivity for aerial abductions—first gripped the public imagination in the early 1900s. Even ...

Mike Nay bought his first claw machine during the pandemic to pass the time. Once he had the strategy down and arcades reopened, he was winning hundreds of plushies. He learned he could make a profit ...