traincrossin

Whoops, I was thinking 20 minutes north of Cincinnati, not Dayton. You could probably get there in 20 minutes if you were speeding though!

From their FAQ I read, they said the claw will be up for a few more weeks. I'm sure if it's still popular enough, maybe they'll extend this...or hopefully bring it back next Holiday Season. As far as prizes go, I read also on their FAQ that the skateboards were donated as they did a huge project for Alien Workshop. The rest of the prizes were stuff they picked up at some form of flea market/swap meet called "Trader's World." Pretty much what he said. A few of the companies they worked for donated some things to The Santa Claw. They wanted the prizes to be kinda cheap and cheesy because they're the kind of things you'd find in an actual claw game. I'm glad that everyone liked the pictures! And that was some great timing Robb Also, I believe that King's Island is about 20 minutes away from Dayton. Patrick "chose his college based on proximity to amusement parks" Jeffers

I like it Coupon, but it seems like there are a lot of left turns.

A couple weeks ago I found out that Real Art Design Group aka Santa Claw HQ was only a 50 minute walk from where I go to college in Ohio! Naturally I had to stop by and see it in person. I emailed them and was able to schedule a tour with Patrice who is in charge of public relations at Real Art Design. After walking through the freezing cold yesterday I got to see the Santa Claw in person. Pictures really do not do this thing justice because it is huge! Everyone at Real Art Design was very nice when I was there and they design some really cool things! I would like to thank Patrice for the tour and everyone else at Real Art Design for the work that they put into The Santa Claw. And now here is a photo trip report of The Santa Claw! Note - to play The Santa Claw, click here: http://www.thesantaclaw.com The first thing you see from the street is The Santa Claw! Seriously, this thing is massive! They have this monitor setup so you can see who is playing while you're outside. Real Art Design Group! See this camera? This is the camera that you see when you're trying to grab some of those balls. It's pretty much a normal claw game but on steroids. The claw! Santa Claw master control! The computer on the left runs the webcams and claw system while the one on the right I think controls the chat. You can see who is currently playing and what everyone chatting is saying. I saw someone ask if anyone was from TPR! The Santa Claw is 17 feet by 8 feet by 12 feet and was created from 2,000 pounds of steel, 700 feet of wire, and 1.5 electric wheelchairs! Here are some people hard at work shipping people their prizes! They're trying to ship things in groups and you can see the deflated balls behind them. Here is the warehouse in the back where they actually built The Santa Claw. There's a treadmill on the left that they're trying to use to clear the chute when they're not there. Real Art Design Group can design pretty much anything! Here are some crafts for Real Mart. And here are some Santa Claw pins! They sent out this token to all of their customers telling them about The Santa Claw before anyone else. Yup, it's big. They say it's the world's largest claw game volume-wise and they sent a request to the Guinness Book of World Records, but they haven't gotten back to them yet. Dear Santa Claw, I love you. There's all sorts of cool stuff here! Last year in appreciation of their customers they let them design a puppet of themselves online and then they would make and send it to you. You can see one of the puppets on the shelf along with a 12 year old silver Mr. Potato Head that hasn't dried ever. Some offices at Real Art Design. I believe this is where a lot of their web developers work. Some concept art of those lovable Santa Claw characters! Back to the claw! Here are some of the awesome prizes you can win like fruit cake or Pepsi flavored lip balm! A lot of people were winning today, it was really cool to see the claw in action! Did you know that the claw is actually made out of wood and just painted black? A welcome break on Friday after a long week of work. Inside the machine! Whenever I think of The Santa Claw I always think of the aliens in Toy Story saying "The claw!" Close-up of the wheel mechanism thingy. You can see they used skate wheels! Which character do you like the best? Everyone at Real Art Design Group played some kind of role in the design and creation of The Santa Claw and everyone was excited about the project! See that camera? That's what people in line see. It's big, it's awesome, it's The Santa Claw! Santa Claw POV! Look, somebody won! You can win a zebra striped Snuggie or packing peanuts! Patrice told me that Robb donated some TPR t-shirts so you could win those too! And that's it from The Santa Claw. Thank you again Real Art Design for building the claw and showing me around!

^^What exactly are those monkeys doing? ^^^ Spongebob Squarepants' Rock Bottom Plunge looks great! What kind of trains are those?

^Just throwing it out there, but animations are not always accurate when the actual ride is built.

Ask them if they expected selfish people to occupy 7 spots and prevent others from getting in line. Hahaha! The claw gods spoke that day and disconnected me. Can't wait to see it up close today!

Hungry Hungry Hippos: The Ride? On a serious note, glad to hear that Gwazi is running a lot smoother now thanks to those beautiful Millennium Flyer trains and rehab!

Those scenic railways seem like a ton of fun! I'm loving all of these Europe parks Big Mike

According to some press reports on Twitter, Gwazi is a lot smoother than it was before! They also say that Gwazi Tiger is open to guests right now. http://twitter.com/#!/BehindThrills/status/28129371176833024 Check out this picture of the new train up close! http://twitpic.com/3rr1o3

Thanks for your gracious donation! It is now sitting comfortably in a box with the rest of my collection

Got back to college today, open my mailbox, and I have a note saying that I have an envelope that can't fit in those tiny boxes. Hmm, I wonder what it could be? Why it's a giant bag of feces from Prince Desmond!!! I actually said "holy crap!" when I poured everything out, now I know why they're called bags of crap! Everything all laid out. Got some maps, brochures, fake tattoos, stickers, pens, mints, CEv7, and even a t-shirt from Knott's! Thank you so much Robb and Elissa for sending this out and for all of the hard work that you put into Theme Park Review!

I'm currently in line 7 times all within 20 minutes of each other. Sometimes having multiple email addresses and Twitter accounts pays off! I got to see them refill the machine, they look so tiny in there! I was also able to get in touch with Real Art Design and i'll be walking over there on Friday for a little bit and get a quick tour around the place. Any questions you want me to ask? Expect a Santa Claw photo trip report!

^Then the question is does WinHack work in Windows 7 and how would I do it?

I'm thinking the yellow might have something to do with the ring? Random guess, i'm not a big comic book guy. ^I'm not sure what crowds are like at Great Adventure, but at Great America it's pretty dead.

I'm working on a micro park for February and here's what I have so far. I'm set on the wooden coaster, but everything else is up in the air. Any suggestions? SCR3.BMP

I tried following the How to Hack like a Winhacker tutorial to make the entrance and exit huts invisible. When I lower the land and then make the dummy track invisible everything (huts, track, and scenery piece) are all still there. I'm guessing that I can't make the dummy track invisible because I have Windows 7, but does anyone know if that's the real problem or if there's another way?

Six Flags Great Adventure posted some new construction pictures of Green Lantern on their Facebook page yesterday. They're finally getting supports and track up! More supports are up! Cranes lifting up some track! Funstruction employees going up!

Wohoo, i'm finally on the board!!! I was worried about that backpack "ducky", but the colors didn't match up. I'm wondering which ducky those people who guessed 7 missed?

^For your enjoyment Yea, they made a t-shirt.

^Don't worry, it's only the first month! It's going to be interesting how these Micro parks turn out over the next few months and how they'll improve with new ideas.

This model just looks incredible! I can't wait to see the final product after all of your effort!

Link

The last 3 times i've gotten in line i've had to leave, but I finally get to play in 36 minutes!

Locked!