Unleash Hell 31

Although the prizes in gumball machines have changed they still crank out out a prize in a clear plastic shell through the metal trapdoor after that final satisfying click of the knob! Sadly, the prizes now set you back two or three quarters, but thankfully they are still there!

These glass and metal machines would just beckon me to come over and drop every last cent I had in my pocket when I was a kid! I just loved the prizes so much! They weren’t any big deal but to me they were GREAT!

      

The gum ball machines were chock full of all sorts of swell toys, monsters and temporary tattoos etc., that were so popular for the time. When I went for that little twisting crank of palm-sized bliss, I was always drawn to the monster and tattoo filled machines.

I just couldn’t resist a machine and prize! It was like gambling! Ultimately, you would see the prize you really wanted but ended up with your second and third choices until the one faithful day – EUREKA you’d get the chosen prize! It was MONSTERIFFIC!

I still can’t stop myself from dropping a quarter or two every now and then, just to feel that nostalgia buzz that I LOVED so much as a kid, that adrenaline rush you’d feel while waiting for that rare monster prize!

Sadly, there are things missing when I check out the vending machines today. The strange flotsam and jetsam of the 60s, 70s and 80s that you now can’t find anywhere but on eBay are long gone. What I loved most of all, the critters and creepy-crawlies, the aliens and monsters long gone, but check them out here and reminisce with me and know they live on!