Doris
1/5
I chill at Pacific Mall quite often so I've been to this claw arcade for more times than I can count. I've seen them go through a number of changes throughout this timeframe as the owners of this store just can't seem to stop adding random things (e.g. bars and prongs at the prize chute) to their claw machines even though the Canadian market (as opposed to the supposed "Taiwanese market") doesn't seem to particularly enjoy them (if you read the series of recent reviews). They seem to have recently changed it back to a more likeable setup though but I highly doubt it's because of a change of heart on their part if you catch my drift 😉
Without further ado, here are my thoughts on this claw arcade:
1) In the past summer, they used to have an employee present at the store on the weekends to restock the machines and to reposition the plushies. As such, it was easier to exchange for another plushie of the same type within the same machine if yours had issues. However, they didn't allow you to change to another type of plushie within the same machine even though a lot of the other claw arcades I frequent allow you to exchange to any other plushie, so long as it's from the same machine. Ever since she left though, there's nobody at the store anymore and whenever you try to contact the owners at the phone number they left behind on their machines, all you could hear is radio/dead silence lol.
2) The owners are very physically present though whenever they need to break out their drills, screwdrivers, nails, etc. to add prongs to the prize chute of their claw machines or to change the type of prongs in there. They've changed the types of prongs at least 2 to 3 times and all this served to do was upset as many people as possible. Not only do these prongs get in the way of the plushies falling into the prize chute, they also can potentially puncture/damage the plushies too as I've seen it puncture a hole in a Goku box before. Honestly, the things that come to mind when I see those prongs are Home Depot, Rona, Canadian Tire, etc. rather than Taiwanese claws XD. So I suppose if you do need any help, you can cross your fingers and hope that they would come after a trip to Rona lol XD.
I've actually been to Taipei, Sun Moon Lake, and Taichung before and there are claw arcades there practically everywhere you go! As such, I went to numerous claw arcades while I was there (I mean, how could you not?!? =D) and I didn't encounter a single one that had prongs in the prize chute. Maybe just a small percentage of them have such prongs and I didn't take a large enough sample (despite going to so many already) to be able to encounter any of them? If that is the case, I would say I lucked out lol.
In spite of all of this, there is still some light that shines through the dark clouds lol:
1) They have nice quality Pokemon plushies in their machines (which I won a lot of at a decent rate =D). However, some of the other claw arcades also carry them.
2) They recently removed the prongs from most of the machines and stacked the plushies up higher. Let's see how long this lasts before they change it once again! Lol
3) During the summer, they held a stand at the fair/night market at the mall parking lot and they mostly put out their best plushies (e.g. Lapras, Snorlax, Dragonite, etc.) into the machines. Although these plushies are also available in their machines on regular days, the fact that they chose to put those ones out really generated a lot of interest and buzz in their claw machines. On top of this, whenever you made a purchase of $20 or more during this event, you had a chance to win an extra prize ranging from a keychain to a large plushie by picking out a ping pong ball.
TL;DR - A claw arcade with nice quality Pokemon plushies. However, customer service is practically non-existent here. You might find that you "love the motherland but hate the country" when you come here lol 😉
Take a look at other people's misfortunes when it comes to those notorious prongs:
