The Arcade
You pay your money and you take your chances.
Now that BW is home again and the Arcade has been revealed I can show this to the rest of the world because I know you’ve been waiting.
To introduce those who haven’t been keeping up, this weekend we turned a few cardboard boxes and a trip to the dollar store into an arcade in the family room:
First, the sign: If your customers can’t find you it’s not good.
After you walk through the entrance you’re greeted with the game room, complete with screens and controllers. You’ll note that this is a 2-player game due to the dual displays. We went all out with this.
Up next, skee-ball. Or, at least there was a ball. The dog ate the ball and to quote the child “It was a Minnie Mouse ball we bought at the dollar store, but that’s okay”. We’ve been using rolled up socks and they work too. 1
The skee ball rules here are beginner friendly: If you get your sock anywhere near a hole you win. This is not the house’s most profitable game.
And the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Claw Machine.
This started out as a Blue Apron box, but when you’re six you can do so much more with it.
There’s lots of parts here so please pay attention:
First, we had the box. Then we cut two holes as you see here - one on the top and one on the front. We did have plastic wrap on the front hole at one point but it wasn’t a good idea as it always fell off so after a while we just went without.
The joystick is two glow sticks tape together and if you look closely you hit the red button that was drawn on the box when you are ready to shoot your shot.
Because she failed robotics in kinderarten she had to have her Dad be the grabber operator. We found the grabber at the Dollar store and it’s teamwork that allowed us to create this together . She operates the joystick and I’m up top ready to go when that big red button gets pushed.
And that my friends is the 2025 tour of her Summer Arcade. Be sure to stay tuned for more cardboard adventures and be sure to like and subscribe!
Keep on winning,
TH and Co.
I tell you, between using socks for skee ball and making emergency stuffed animals out of them I should write a book.