You Can Find Anything in Claw Machines, even the Most Unlikely of Heroes

Whether you know these plushie-riddled prisons as Claw Machines, UFO Catchers, or "Those Damn Money-Stealing Bastards", you must have noticed that they are absolutely EVERYWHERE, and their contents are often as varied as the day is long. Being a person of the "geeky" persuasion, my eye is usually caught when some of my favorite characters such as the Batman trio above are included. I'm never intrigued enough to gamble my money, but I get at least a moment's joy out of spotting them. It appears I'm also obsessed with taking photos of them with my ancient phone.

Hmm, I was going somewhere with this, wasn't I? Ah, the point emerges: I really do see all kinds of interesting toys in Claw Machines. In the words of the Immortal Milk Daddy, the proof is in the motherfuckin' puddin':

Oh, hi Slimer. It's kind of amazing how Ghostbusters keeps on trucking as a huge household name, and I truly love the fact that a character like Slimer has managed to maintain fairly ubiquitous.

I'm not exactly a fan of Betty Boop, but seeing this stopped me in my tracks all the same. Unfortunately, it appears the poor girl may have hanged herself. :(

As the opening photo (and plain old common sense) would suggest, it's a given that you'll see many a comic character filling Claw Machines, especially if they were part of any sort of recent big-budget adaptations in other media (even ones we'd rather forget.) Still, there was something somewhat novel about seeing Sinestro just chilling with the likes of stuffed teddy bears. Oh, and since we're already on the subject of Green Lantern, check out this final example:

Yeah, yeah, there's a Penguin in there, and that's awesome, but wait just a damn minute! Let's take a closer look at that Green Lantern:

IT'S NICOLAS CAGE!

Of all the...what is this madness? I may be experiencing one of those "hey, that looks like..." moments that tend to be flat out wrong, but this movie-inspired Hal Jordan Green Lantern is much more Nicolas Cage than Ryan Reynolds, wouldn't you say?

Now THAT'S a movie I would've paid to see!