Pure imagination and a child’s brilliance creates a cardboard arcade so ingenious you can hardly believe your eyes.
Many of us can wistfully recall those fond memories from childhood of creating forts, spaceships, and houses out of cardboard boxes. Caine Monroy, a nine year old boy from Eastern Los Angeles, took fort-building to the next level, building an elaborate arcade inside his father’s auto parts store – made completely out of cardboard.
Caine spent his summer vacation at his dad’s auto parts shop, creating his arcade piece by piece. Caine’s Arcade features a basketball game, a soccer game with Army men players and goalies, and even a claw machine. Caine invented his own claw machine game using a hook and some string – as you can see in the short film above, he’s even got a track on top to move the claw around.
Staffed by Caine himself, cloaked in his official blue Caine’s Arcade staff t-shirt, anyone can play in his arcade so long as they pay up. You can get four plays for a buck, but if you bump up to $2.00, you get a Fun Pass, which is worth 500 turns at Caine’s arcade. Don’t even think about forging a Fun Pass, because Cain has a method of checking each Fun Pass at his machines.
And when you win a game? Out of the bottom of the machine, as in any arcade, out come tickets for you. For prizes, you get Caine’s old Hot Wheels cars – which he used to play with “when he was little.”
Caine wasn’t getting many customers at his arcade until filmmaker Nirvan Mullick showed up one day to buy a new car door handle for his car. He played in Caine’s Arcade that day, awed by the simple brilliance of Caine’s Arcade. With Caine’s father’s permission, Mullick organized an event on Facebook to bring some customers to Caine’s Arcade, and give Caine the best surprise of his young life. Soon after the event was created, people started joining by the thousands. People from across the United States – and the world – RSVPed to Caine’s Arcade. Soon NBC News was interviewing Caine and his father, and the event wound up on the front page of Reddit, which as Mullick puts it, “is like being on the front page of the Internet.”
On Sunday, October 2, Caine’s father squired him away from the auto parts store for a day of – what else – pizza and arcade games. Unbeknown to Caine, People gathered at Caine’s Arcade, creating bright colorful signs and queuing up to play in Caine’s Arcade. The huge smile on Caine’s face when he sees all the customers waiting to play in his arcade is near indescribable – priceless and endearing. After some cheers and a quick interview, Caine got down to business – selling Fun Passes, making sure the arcade games gave out their tickets, and running his arcade.
The joy for Caine and his family did not stop with a day of customers for his arcade. The film featuring Caine, shown above, directed by Mullick and produced by Interconnected, premiered at DIY Days LA. While at the event, Caine received his first commission to create a custom version of his claw game for $80. Caine’s Arcade was featured on Good Morning America yesterday, and a website started by Mullick and his friends has, so far, raised over $73,000 for Caine’s Scholarship Fund.
Of course, Caine’s Arcade is still open for business, hours and directions found here. Don’t be fooled by imposters – official Caine’s Arcade t-shirts are coming soon. Follow Caine’s Arcade on Twitter for updates.
All pictures courtesy of CainesArcade.com
