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I would certainly like to know if there are Helium members out there who are expert at beating "the claw" in those machines at the shopping malls. They always contain soft toys from the latest movies and of course our kids are drawn to them like Pooh bear to a honey pot! We don't mind giving them a dollar or two to try for one. After all, it's better than forking out the same amount for one of those rides that might only give them a few shakes for their two bucks. I've only ever paid for my son to ride on one of them once - apart from that he's just had a sit on them for a few minutes and had his photo taken. When I was a kid those rides only cost about 20 cents and you seemed to get more value for your money.

But those toys are cute for sure and I'd be happy to give my littel boy some money to get one occasionally. I do, however, resent the money being wasted. The suppliers of the products for those machines must be laughing all the way to the bank. I am convinced the technology is designed to rip off as many kids as possible.

We had never used one of those claw machines till earlier this year when they had toys from the "Happy Feet" movie in them. Our kids had just seen the movie and absolutely loved it (as did their parents also, I might add). One day when I was at the shopping mall on my own I watched a young girl playing for a prize. I was curious as to how often one could expect to get what they were after. When I asked her was she good at it she said she had a reasonable amount of success. She didn't win anything that time and I hoped that me watching her hadn't put her off.

The next time our whole family was there my little boy was keen to get one of the "Mumble" toys from "Happy Feet", so I encouraged my husband to try as I had confidence he would have a better chance of success than my son or myself. Well he did win one quickly - and then he won a "Gloria" toy almost as quickly for our daughter. We certainly felt satisfied we hadn't wasted our money as they were good toys.

However, another time I tried to get my son a toy from "Over the Hedge" when just the two of us were at the shopping mall - but after wasting a couple of dollars and seeing how hopeless I was, I refused to part with any more money. I felt disappointed for him as he just loves that movie. In the end I bought him a complete set of the little beanie toys off ebay for a good price.

Then last Thursday I had him at the mall again for a special outing and we saw some characters from the "Ratatouille"

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