Chicken Lays an Egg Machine

A while back when I was doing some posts on old arcade machines, I was looking on the internets for a picture of the "Chicken Laying an Egg" machine. Apparently, that's uncharted territory on the internet because I couldn't find a decent picture to accompany an article. This past Thursday when I was up in Lancaster, PA I stumbled across not one but two of these egg machines! The egg machine is classic instant gratification, plus a good value. You get a show and a prize all for twenty-five cents! First you would insert your quarter, then you stand back and let the chicken do the rest. The plastic chicken would begin to slowly rotate while making her chicken noise ("bok-bok-bok"???) Then the chicken would lay an egg. Well, actually she's already layed about 400 eggs, but one of those eggs would drop and you could reach in and grab it. The plastic egg opened up to reveal a fabulous prize like a ring, or a super ball, or maybe a sticker. But usually it was a ring. Good Times!
These machines used to be all over the place, I guess they aren't sophisticated enough for today's punk kids! The specific machine I remember the most was amongst a bank of coin-op machines infront of the 5 & Dime on the upper level of the Columbia Mall. (I think the store was called McCory's.) For a while, the 5 & Dime Chicken machine had eggs with Hanna-Barbera characters printed on them! Oh...that was better then all the gold in the world to a six year old me! I had my Yogi Bear egg sitting on my dresser for years!

There are several different styles and designs of the chicken machine. One of the coolest ones is a Flintstones version with a plastic Fred Flintstone instead of a chicken. Fred would spin and yell "Yabba-Dabba-Doo" several times and then drop an egg. I guess I missed the episode of THE FLINTSTONES where Fred gained the ability to lay eggs!