How to Make An Easy Claw Machine Toy from Cardboard

Creator: The Q (Watch More on Youtube)

Do you still remember how fun it was every time you went to a game arcade and spent most of the time on the claw machine wanting to win at least one toy before going home?

Although all those machines are made with technology and high profile materials accustomed to modernity, you can also make it your own at home with cardboard, syringe tubes, and other accessories run by hydraulic power that actually works like the ones you are familiar with. 

First, start with the top part of the machine with a sheet of cardboard. As you build the roof, leave four slots to fit two plastic tubes which later becomes the main moving channel for the machine.

Place a sheet of cardboard on top of the tubes and move on to make a stretcher with more popsicle sticks. 

Place the sticks on each other in zig-zag shape as you secure each glitch with dry glue. Once it has gotten into an appropriate length to fit your machine, connect the end with a syringe tube, set it to shrink as the syringe is pulled out. 

Place the stretchers onto the roofing system before you add two more tubes vertically for another stretcher so that the claw can later move upward, downward, left, and right. 

Then, start working on the claw after you finish the third stretcher connected from the moving tubes. On three pieces of cardboard paper, draw three duplicates of claw and cut it out and attach them to another syringe tube with the metal wire as the main joints so that the claw will be wide open once the syringe is pulled out. Finish off the claw by connecting it to the third stretcher on top. 

Here comes the most critical part as you finish the main exterior structure. By using four different colored liquid mixes representing up, down. left and right movements, pump each color into one syringe, and connect it to another syringe with a clear tube so the syringe will be filled once another one was pushed.

Repeat all these steps to create hydraulic power by putting the colored tubes into the main roof leaving the remaining syringes on the outside to become the controllers. 

To finish, assemble all the parts together and start adding more toys into the box with some decoration and enjoy playing with your personal and eco-friendly hydraulic-powered claw machine!