Clawcades: The new Japanese-style arcade sweeping the Twin Cities

Customers shuffled from machine to machine one Friday afternoon, plunking tokens into coin slots and maneuvering a joystick-controlled claws over plush Pokémon and Hello Kitty toys.

Claw or crane machines aren’t anything new — it’s a $2.5 billion industry, per market researchers — but this wasn’t the typical setting of a lone game found at an arcade, bowling alley or grocery store vestibule. There were dozens of lit-up machines lined up next to, and sometimes on top of, each other, piled high with mostly Japanese-branded prizes like the anime Naruto or Sanrio characters.

The Twin Cities has seen a recent influx of claw machine-specific businesses, with at least four such establishments opening in the past year, including two in Maplewood. These “clawcades” are drawing kids and adults alike, capitalizing not only on people’s thirst for entertainment but also the prevalence of Asian pop culture.

Angela Phothisane orchestrated perhaps the first clawcade in the metro at Eden Prairie’s Asia Mall. She expanded what was a handful of games in a corner of the second floor to 26 machines since the mall opened in 2022.

“When you walk into a Japanese-style arcade, you see so many more neon lights,” she said, “and it’s more attractive.”

Grabbit Arcade, located inside Maplewood Mall, tries to replicate Japanese gaming after owner Daniel Heu fell in love with the concept he’d “never experienced” before while vacationing there in 2014.

“[It was] something that I would love to bring to my hometown, my home state,” Heu said.

Heu eventually made good on that goal, opening Grabbit this past February. He sources plushies, figurines and collectibles directly from Japan, with many of the prizes still sporting tags or labels written in Japanese.

When Neko Clawww opened in a Roseville strip mall in mid-October, crowds of patrons crowded the shop, which features a stuffed animal-covered wall to encourage Instagram photos. The arcade featured various deals, like earning a pin or keychain for spending $50 on tokens. One token equates to $1, with machines requiring just one to play.

At Neko, Grabbit and Claw Land in Maplewood, winners can trade in a certain number of plushies to receive a bigger one or other prizes.

These claw machines, arcade owners say, are a higher-quality experience than the average movie theater lobby model. That might be because a common complaint about the machines — that they’re rigged with a set payout count that makes the claw too weak to hold onto a prize most of the time — doesn’t seem to apply.

Heu said he doesn’t use those controls. In fact, employees at these clawcades will, upon request, open up machines and re-arrange the plushies to make winning easier.

Heu can’t estimate how often players win but said “that’s the beauty of it.” It makes those moments more exciting for the big spenders and the passersby alike, he added.

At Grabbit, Heu and his brother-in-law customized some machines with new games that are more skill-based than chance. Some are reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine, picking up a weight with the claw and dropping it onto a latch that shoots open and releases a pin that hopefully pops a balloon for a win. At another machine, players try to catch a ring on a small hook.

Kaolee Thao, a self-described “sucker for the figurines,” said she continues to return to Grabbit for both the prizes and its unique games.

“It challenges you as a player,” said Thao, who won an anime figurine worth about $20 in the balloon-popping game.

ClawZone Park, which opened last month in Bloomington, allows players to become the claw in its human claw machine, where arcade-goers can take a ride on a large crane and drop into a pit filled with prizes. It also has several other claw games and virtual reality experiences. Owner Andy Tan said people come for the entertainment, with the business touting more of an event experience, including birthday party packages.

On an average week, Grabbit cycles through about 250 pounds of inventory and about 7,000 tokens. ClawZone has gone through more than half of a semi-truckload of merchandise, Tan said.

But for clawcade customers, it’s about more than the monetary value of the prize or how much they spent to nab it, Heu said.

“When you win it, you take it home,” he said, “that memory is encapsulated in that prize that you won.”

Caleb Fravel is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Minnesota Star Tribune.