Japan UFO Catcher

i see a figure i want! feldt!
http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1632/Japan+UFO+Catcher.html#image23614

I would love to play if they had prizes like that but I've never seen any in the city. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough =X

Saw a mobile phone in one the last time I've been to an arcade.
Don't think I see figures in one here before.

I want the microbes! ^_^

WOW, those UFO catchers have a lot of better prizes than what I can find in LA. They are so varied, they even have one with figures or ice cream!

Japan sure has a lot of interesting things, I would play these UFO catchers a lot more if I lived there.

oh btw, Alien VS Predator was alright, though not as good as the Alien and Predator solo series. Alien VS Predator 2 is crap. they should move the series to space instead of fighting it out on Earth and with space marines like in Aliens.

Wow... all the UFO catcher prizes look good. Hell, even the green tea kitkat sounds better than getting some random stuffed animals you normally find here!

knowing me, i would play the ones with the figures until I get 2 of each figure.

Used to be quite a fan of the candy pushers back in my days in the arcade ^^. Only prevailed in a couple of UFO catchers, i think nowadays here it's more about those light bulb stopping games, where a series of light bulbs in a ring flashing by real fast and you have to press the button at the prize bulb.

there is a UFO catcher in my local super market now but as usual they messed with it and it doesn't hold on to anything. But in Vegas in the GameWorks they have a few UFO catchers with some awesome prizes and they didn't mess with them either. I was able to get a few Hello Kitty plushies for myself and my brother's fiance last time i went. UFO catchers would be more popular here but there is more often than not someone who opens up the machine and makes the grabby thingy loose...

What are the chances of someone getting a figure from one of those machine. It would be nice if there was some figure ufo machine in LA

I heard a lot of failures @ UFO catching from Fumika ^_^. So I'm going to say it's going to be difficult to win X_X. Wish I could win some of those prizes. Are they really that hard to get?

already got the Feldt Grace DX Figure the other day.
On UFO CATCHER....
WHY!!!!
WHY ARE UFO CATCHERS IN JAPAN ARE SO AWESOME T_T

Wish they have this at Malaysia. Looks fun.

It's definitely a form of gambling. I wished we had those in my area.

Gloomy bear would make a good gift for the girls for Christmas ^^.

Funny thing is that we have stuff like this in California, but the items tend to be cheap in quality. Cannot complain, though, since I have seen the fair paint jobs on a few of Sega's UFO figurines.

Then again... I now feel compelled to poke the pig. @_@

i want that girl in pink behind haruhi

I want that haruhi sega figu!!!

If only we have more of variety of items for the UFO Catcher here =/

We don't have many machines here and the gifts are lame...

:sob: I wish prizes were this cool in the UK.... we just get fake cuddly toys...

That girl with Lum is Asuka from Negima! I recognised her bells! So cute!!

Good goodies!^^

WTH our Claw machines only have crappy stuffed animals that probably cost 5 cents to make....God damn Japan is beating us in every corner, man was I born in the wrong country.

We have that kind of machine. But I always lose money because of trying to get the prize. It's tempting. LOL Sometimes it shows a PSP prize. It's all real you will lose the money fast. But it's for my nephew anyways, so I must try. XD

OMG I want to go to Japan to play UFO Catcher the UFO Catcher in the uk has rubbish prizes and are cheap teddies.lol.

UFO Catcher around here usually packed with cigarettes or stuffed dolls, boring as hell.

Here, their's only few ufo machines

i want that Feldt one bad. ufo catchers here in the US suck balls

Prizes here are limited to soft-toys. Wanna ask one thing- does Japan really have UFO Catchers with live lobsters as prizes? Saw it in GTO.

AVP really was crap.

I did play them when I went to Japan this past summer...
They are hard as hell I do say...as the arms are pretty loose...
I think I figure out how to get the prize out now...
When I head back to Japan next summer, I will conquer the UFO Catchers of Japan...

UFO catchers here in Canada are way too easy...I mean too easy...
Japan ones are more of a challenge...I wonder if UFO Catchers in other countries are different...

Do want Feldt ;____; Weehhhh.

I've seen an imported UFO catcher in an arcade! It was a SEGA one. Too bad the prizes in there were crap :(

There's a few here or there, but the stuff is not that good, or at least they kinda feel rigged...

Too bad there aren't any in my region

i used to rock at these machines - yes, there is a secret technique, but it's pretty gay when you know what to do

We only get ipod shuffles, cheap mp3's and cheap webcams over here though I've seen one with ds lite's PSP's, and mp4's. My brother has won a Shuffle and I've won headphones that got stuck for like 1 min before falling down. >.<

OMG, those are not pedo bears, it's Rilakkuman!! Q___Q They're so cute <33

Those type of things went bye bye when arcades went downhill in the U.S.

The ones here usually only have stuffed animals. Nothing neat. :(

That Haruhi figure was made by sega!? It looks way nice! :0
I cracked up at all the "pedo" comments xD

No UFO catchers in my region, which is a shame. I usually ask friends in Japan to get me stuff from UFO catchers whenever they have the chance, orz. I especially love the Gloomy Bear prizes~

whoa, and all I got from UFO catchers in Japan was a dozen winnie the pooh stuff toys. ^^;

Pedo Octopus? have to wash my head now because of the dirty thought about fuzzy tentacles.

oh! me saw lacus clyne! me want one! XD

anyways, in our neck of the woods....most of the UFO catchers i see are usually carebears or disney characters....havent had any luck with it though :(

I wish there's an ufo catcher liek that here T_T

i don't have that kind of shop here, lucky you ;P

When I went to Japan I saw some guy actually winning figures. He wasn't picking it up so much as he was knocking it over. So me and my friends ended up just going for the stuffed animals. My friend ended up getting two of them with one try when the back side of the machine (where they stack all of the dolls) wasn't packed tightly enough, and he somehow knocked the whole thing down. Those games are really addicting.

UFO catcher in my palce suck no good stuff...
but I gota try haruhi when i get to Japan.
we have game call stackers lots of good prices like ps3, wii Ipod touch, computers, etc.

>Alien VS Predator stuff. Have not seen the film but hear its crap?
More or less it is crap yes.

"Pedos." LOL

We have them here, but I've never seen anyone play one. Probably cause they're full of crap

Over here, they are full of crappy Plushes. Because of that they aren't very popular :S

And, no I don't consider using them a form of gambling.

There aren't many UFO catchers around in Cali, but I've won a number of things in Japan from them ^^

And AVP was pretty crappy. It was only good for the special effects and action.

we have some here at some of the asian malls but not as exciting as those in Japan ^^;

UFO catchers in the USA are rigged and sucks a great deal. Most cost $1 for one try and inside are just garbage.

UFO catchers rule. Around my area they are common in malls and quite often give out prizes, but the cost outweighs the prize in most cases. The weirdest one I have seen is a game that catches live gold fish in a small net!

Poor Moyashimon plushies have been pedo-fied ;_; I have Oryzae, so cute~

I've seen a few machines around Sydney, but nothing like ice-cream or figures =o

only saw doll ufo machine and candy here!!!^^;

some of the best japanese figures (the more rare sought after ones) come from these machines.... and lotteries. i wish we had better ones here in America. at least in asia, they give you a chance to win. in america, it's plain highway robbery, where it'd take at least 10 bucks to get one even if you are the best player in the world, merely b/c you would have to move the plush close to the hole before tipping it over.

wants haruhi and asuna kagurasaka or felt or zaku or gouf wants all of them!!!!o_0

Good gravy. Truly choice prizes. All we got back here are knock-offs of stuffed toys. And the odd fake Rolex.

No catchers here, let alone with stuff that sweet in them ^^;

ufo catcher in my place is suck... :(

Maybe if the catchers looked nice and actually had worthwhile stuff inside, they would catch on better...Hmmm...business idea coming into mind...@_@

Truly awesome prizes (as expected from japan). I seriously want those relax bears and those microbes *_*

the ones in malaysia has prizes ranging from cheap soft toys to even handphones or gaming consoles. though good luck winning the more expensive prizes. machine seems rigged overall, even for the cheapo soft toy ones ^^;

awww man. those UFO catchers at japan sure beats the crap out of the one here in malaysia.
the prizes are lame and like seth said they're rigged, booo
if only UFO catchers were that good i'd think that it would be a lot more popular.
but there are some shops selling japanese stuff with gret gachapon machines tho

all UFO Catcher in here only has soft toys, mostly disney too & I think the prize not always changing everymonth like in Japan. The soft toys not as nice as japan ufo catcher soft toys too :( sad.

Speaking of Japan UFO Catcher, I got lots of things from there ^_^ managed to get some haruhi puchi figures & gloomy bears plushies when I was there.

Ice cream UFO catcher?! now that's special.........

hrmm? haha japan's gt lots of creative stuff in their ufo's huh? in sg dun really see much creativity although i hav seen all the machines mentioned above xept the 'drop piggy 2 death' bt machines here cost alot as much as 2~3 sg dollars per try!! well hav seen gundam 00 goodies in machines b4 here though

Whoa.

I don't think I can handle UFO catching for food. I'm not good at it so I don't think I can afford to lose or waste money.

Cool information though

lol and i just watched fuko playing with the ufo catcher in one of the episodes in clannad!

eeee.. me wan those moyashimons!
the ice-cream looks yummy..
i didn't noe there's an ice-cream catcher.. @___@

My brother loves playing on them, I was tempted to get him a little one for Christmas. We only have them here during our annual fair.

Those prizes are attractive. Moyashimon plushies!!

The sheer varieties of UFO catchers are amazing. Not to mention the prizes. Wish we have more of these kinds here.

So how do you catch that super big pig o.o

Pink aliens? PAedo bear? Its Gloomy bear and Rilakkuma!

I never tried myself at UFO Catchers...Youll usually find them at fairs filled with cheap popular franchise fake cuddle figures.Didnt feel the need to own a Peekatchu or somethin like that^^
I didnt know that you could win foos or even icecream in the catchers over there!
Id still buy the Sega Prizes through shops tough.I dont think id manage to get anything out of an ufocatcher

UFO catcher's here have cute but, regular gifts.. T_T

We get them at arcades and funfairs over here but they're mostly filled with stuff I don't want. Stuff like winnie the poo, south park and random teddy bear plushes.

I won Sega Haruhi from UFO catcher on my first try @__@
After that I spent 500 yen on something else but didn't win anything.

Whee!

we don't get the cool prizes like in japan. :(

I won two of those moyashimon plushies when I was there

we watched a few ppl try and get that pig and tho it was easy too but when my mate had a go it was lulz.

plus in japan they have a person watching the UFO catchers and they make it so you are able to win. here the ufo weights make it impossible. they even let us cleaned out a ufo catcher @ joyolis :P

The UFO machines in my area(called prize grabbers here) don't have jack in them. Yeah, there might be plush toys in there but not stuff this sweet. I had no idea that Japan had prize grabbers this sweet. I guess this is just another thing to look forward to when I move there! As for the children's game, I would call it gambling; however, we have arcades with tokens and you exchange those for crappy prizes.

UFO catcher in my region = C.R.A.P.
i never get the stuff inside the box....
once i get the stuff inside the box...it's broken down...oh my
i lost my money and energy....damn UFO catcher....

Ahh.. how I miss Japanese UFO catchers - here in the UK its pretty much impossible to ever win anything in our machines ^^;

I remember when we were in a Shinjuku arcade in the Summer, one of the attendants put the toy I wanted right next to the chute so I just had to know it in - that was fab ^_^

have some ufo catchers in my region, and have really good prizes. the latest have i played i get one Wii.

I want the pedo Moyashimon!

Pedo wut? xD

Rillakuma does not approve of this message.. :P

Anyways, in Brazil, you usually can find a couple of UFO catchers in shoppings... but they all have crappy prizes.
They usually fill with generic awful looking stuffed toys...
I've personally never seen someone using an UFO catcher in Brazil.

I remember trying to get something from them in a trip to US, and I also tried in my trip to Japan... got nothing though.

But the ones in Japan are really tempting.
In Brazil, it's just a waste of money. I think sometimes the crappy stuff they shove in UFO catchers are even cheaper than the prize you pay to try to get it.

been to japan tried the catcher ended up spending more than 5000 yens didn't get any prize. what a rip off and the catcher here doesn't have a good prize

These things are just thieves in disguise.I don't ever wanna try my luck on these things...):

coolest thing I've seen in a UFO catcher here was a Nintendo DS. I like that one with the Eva Cat girls and of course, sega haruhi.

Man i've seen many of those around and it is difficult as hell to get the prize. My friend spent over 10,000 yen on a machine before, but he could have probably got it for cheaper if he bought it instead.
Also, the store attendants would position the prizes to make it seem like it can easily fall (but actually doesn't). Of course once in a while you do get lucky.

UFO prizes here range only from stuffed toys to candies, but I do get the stuffed toys I want when I'm determined I have Mirmo and Rima stuffed toys sitting on my desk, I think I went or 3 tries when caught them.

Here n the Philippines, there are some skilled guys who get what they want in one go(almost always), then they sell those toys for an outrageous price

when i was in Uneo, i played the used-pantsu UFO catcher!!! it was outside a sex shop along the market in Uneo. Unfortunately, after 7 tries, i couldn't grab a single one of those used pantsu in the capsules!! :(

We have them in most shopping centres, but they only have either chocolates or really crappy stuffed toys. My little boy loves playing the chocolate one's (he is only 4)

Just want to say...Green Tea Kit Kat FTW. I bought a pack at Mitsuwa once. Brought it home and put it in the freezer. So good. Too bad next time I went there, they didn't stock it anymore and it's hard to find anywhere else. =/

lol at ice cream ufo catcher. it must be a form of gambling since you pay money to try and win something. and usually not everyone wins the first time. many dont win even after paying more than the cost of a single item inside the machine. so it is a form of gambling.

Dunno if it's answerd, but that figure's name is "Asuna Kagurazaka" from the manga/anime "Mahou Sensei Negima"

UFO catcher in HK so super cheap. They arrange everything so that nothing would come by luck alone.
However I have seen an ep of "TV Champion 2" about UFO catcher expert. All I could say they are good, but I'm sure their skills are no use in HK. Since in Japan everything is kinda arrange and refilled so that it is quite possible to get stuff by luck. I have done it before in Japan. All I could say is that they have great exclusive stuff in Japan!

Awesome. I didn't know there was so many different UFO catchers in Japan. Moyashimon catcher is nice. But, I couldn't help laughing when I saw those food catchers. It must be like: "Let's see, what I'll have today for snack. O ma gaaad, green tea Milky Way, I hate this but it can't be helped, I have to eat it now."

I...WANT...TO...GO...TO...JAPAN!!!

Ufo catcher in my country sucks, they arrange so that you "CAN'T" pull them up, and they don't bother to refill it.

personal experience: Once, I've got a double catch.

I've so far managed to never try using a UFO catcher before, but I doubt I'd be able to resist in that place... ^^

One Lum figure please!

Gachapon is more popular than UFO catcher in Thai. A long time ago there are many UFO Catchers from Sega. Because ithe buyer think it's not fair for buyer who want Sonic plush doll to pay a lot of money to catch it so it begin to fade out.

Now there aren't any Sega UFO catcher in Thailand. There are Bandai and Yujin Gashapon instead.

I find the idea of getting food from a UFO catcher a bit strange - how does it shape up pricewise to actually buying the food from a combi store? I'd go for the Ritz crackers though, they taste great. And if they did Nendoroids, I'd almost be in heaven - except the catcher might drop the box and dent it >.<

I've always liked UFO Catcher and their ilks' prizes simply because they're usually really imaginative and unorthodox. At least before they were, I haven't followed them for many moons. One of my favorites was whenever Lotte put out these LCD clock/keychain things that looked like packs of their gum, in like 1997 or 98, I still have it on my desk today, little LCD dolphins jump across it to count the seconds. ^_^

wow i want the haruhi figure

I see gloomybear T____T

all we have here are cheap soft toys .. =.='

Once again, I`m envious of your asian people, you have lots of funny stuff there!!

I've seen a few around here, but they're all full of crap.

Where are those UFOs at? they got good stuff! I went to one in Shibuya last weekend and all they had was crap.

By the way, anyone playing the Jumbo?

The only stuff in UFO catchers where I live are stuffed animals and random toys like a ball or something.

UFO machines are common here, but not THAT common. Usually nothing good in them either...

we've got some UFO catcher machines here but they are not that popular and some machines gives out from snacks to electronics.

UFO catcher items in japan are definite awesome!!!

off topic but danny choo do you have a gaia online profile we can make anime famous from there :p

We have a lot of UFO catchers here, but they don't have good prizes. Last time, I saw one with Pokemon stuffed animals.

A lot of Wal-Marts have Sega UFO Catchers.

UFO Catchers are a rarity in my community. We used to have a couple of machines at our local Wal-Mart, but for one reason or another, they were removed. Of course, all of the prizes were pretty crappy nothing like what was featured in this article.

One time I was in Osaka and there was this UFO catcher game with Special Sega Rei and Asuka Summer Figure set I really wanted to get. I think I spent about 2500 yen, came very close to get Asuka figure but it slipped away... Ever since that day, I stay away from the UFO Catcher games T_T

Holy snap Lum and Moyashimon. Man that's awesome. So waiting on Moyashimon S2.

Singapore's one is not even close... omg. If Singapore's UFO catchers had those prizes, I'll probably play them every week. Too bad I kind of suck at it. Played that block stacking game to get a Nintendo DS, lost $50 in one single day. Never touched an arcade-related machine after that lol.

It's not really a case of them being popular or unpopular over here. I mean, you see them in seaside arcades and bowling alleys and basically any sort of "entertainment area" so they're common enough but not really a sought-after attraction. I think if you said "UFO Catcher" to someone here, they wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about - I don't think *I'd* know what they were called if it wasn't for the odd Japanese videogame I've played that has them in. People just refer to them as "those grabby machine things" or "those rip-off machines where you win some shit cuddly toy".

One of the reasons they never really got established as a fun thing to do over here (and thus didn't get to the stage where they actually had desirable prizes) is that the only people that would really want to win toys from a rigged machine over here are little kids and they can only spend what their parents give them. Not many parents are going to stand by and watch their kids waste money on a dodgy machine where you can win a prize worth about £2 at best.

You get much more modern versions of them in which you have to stack up blocks on a screen. It's very hard to get a high stack going but if you do, you win a Nintendo DS. My friend won after putting in just £1!

UFO catchers around here are only great when Anime Expo comes around. Other than that the UFO catchers available are full of cheap stuff.

oh wow. so awesome, the ones in vancouver have crap prizes. : + they are kinda rare to find. eSpot & the arcade at metro has one or two I think ..but not worth playing overall..

The ones in HK arn't too bad though, I went to some mall where they had a pretty good selection of UFO catchers with okay prizes :D

I was at the Tokyo Ocean Park one time, and I tried and tried to get a Rillakun bear. But you know how those UFO catcher arms are so weak and don't grab-it's a trap! A kind man who worked there saw my total fail and opened up the UFO machine and handed me one. That made my day. Danny, a little FYI-those "Pedobears" you mentioned are actually "Rillakun" bears. BIG difference there.

Oh yeah, green tea and black bean Kit-kat rulez! You gotta taste them to believe it.

UFO catchers...? Strange, but looks neat.

I think the UFO catcher is quite popular over here, I only seen mostly plushies and sweets.

how on earth are you going to catch the Ritz tin!!? ^^;

I scored a plush recently in one of them. I gave it away as a secret santa gift but I only spent $1 on it haha. The limit was supposed to be $20! Schemer....

hey nice place, where is it ?

The only ones we have give out plushies or chocolate

Last time I went to Korea (specifically Pusan), the one thing I have thought to be a fantasy or a joke appeared in front of my eyes... Fish UFO catcher.

Good luck trying to catch the eel.

strangely enough the closest places with ufo catchers here are at local wal marts.

and an arcade all the way across town. but the wal mart 5 minutes away from me has one.

lol @ pink aliens

I love UFO Catchers! I feel a lot of my money goes into those machines when I travel out to Tokyo! When I was there in November I was lucky and won the Rei Ayanami "Aero cat" figure! :)

the UFO catchers in my place is filled with useless crap. and oh yeah, candies. the irony.

Id go crazy for those zakus, zgok, and that gouf...and those awesome kamen riders!!!

Never won anything big playing UFO catchers in Japan... ~_~

I still don't know how people manage to grab a 18 inch tall figure out of these machine with those flimsy grippers!

Great thing about UFO catchers in Japan is that the prizes are at least desirable. I remember the Circus Circus hotels in Las Vegas and Reno - they have many catchers machines but the prizes there are terrible - usually poor quality stuffed animals you hardly want.

I would so fail in any of those catchers. -_-

Oh my, that is a big pig... 0_0
I enjoyed playing the UFO catchers in Japan. My wife is crazy for those things. I believed we spent close to $100 last year just from playing x_x
The nice thing about playing those is that once you played a couple times and if you still didn't wint the prize, you could ask for the employee to position the prize to a spot that you could get right away. I guess that's the consolidation after spending a lot. There is a youtube video that shows some best strategy to win the prize.
If you're not a fan of UFO catchers, some shops in Akiba sells the goodies seperately.

I want that Buruma! <3

I wish we had UFO catchers like that as well. If only...

Someone above mentioned Lobster UFO catchers. I have seen a Lobster UFO catcher in Maine, USA. I took a picture of it, though it's hard to see.

Wow, the quality of some of those figures looks so nice! >.< I wonder how much it would cost me to try to buy elsewhere? I will probably never get to go to Japan, but if I could I'd definitely give a machine a try. If I ever won a figure from it, that figure would hold so much sentimental value to me. ^^ I'd be so excited.

Here in the United States, I see these "Claw Machines" (which is what I hear everyone here call them) at places like Wal-Mart. Not only are the machines very unattractive compared to Japans, the also have the worst prizes. If it cost 1USD to play, the prizes aren't even worth that 1USD in most cases. I've only won once before, cost me 2USD and it's the worst looking teddy bear ever. xD It's also a small prize too since he stands like 5 inches.

In the pink is Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima. Lum, Asuna and host of other figure girls are all part of a release of Shounen Sunday's 50th anniversary. You can find piles of these very figurines in shops like Liberty, Hobby Figure, KBooks, Mandarake and other shops in Akihabara and Nagano for about ¥1000.

UFO Catchers are pretty serious business in Japan - people who are very adept at them can consistently win. They take about 5 - 10 prizes of each kind and haul them to a second hand shop that buys them for about ¥500-¥1000 a piece and resell them for 2-4 times that.

I wanna try all of them....

I wana try the Kit Kat UFO machine. Looks interesting :D but on second thought will it be betetr if I juz buy them xD

Only in Japan, where the UFO catchers have prizes that are placed strategically so that it is POSSIBLE TO WIN

ALL THESE GOODIES!! OH SOO LITTLE MONEY T______T

ON pic 3 i think that girl in the short pink yukata is from negima! ^____^