Roadside Candy Machines: Sembach

A friend and I stopped in Sembach for the Kerwe, and of course I had to take pictures of all the roadside candy machines. It was rather surprising to see so many candy machines in a town that only has about 1,200 residents and isn't a tourist place, either. I wonder how the market is? Are the sales high on the candy machines?

Next to Portofino Restaurant: Hauptstraße 36

Front view

Details. Boy, did this machine disappoint me!

I have never before bought anything from one of the roadside candy (toy) machines in Germany. This toy machine seemed promising; I thought that there were some pretty rad toys in this one. I was hoping for the mini Swiss Army knife or the car. Imagine my surprise and unhappiness when I got a white piece of rope that at first glance looked like a noose! I was all like, what the heck! Then I realized that it looked like a bracelet, but with something hanging off it. I put it on and that's when I realized it was sort of a rosary; there are knots tied into it and the end trailing off was a cross. To say the least, I was super disappointed and felt that the machine was doing some false advertising when instead it seems to sell religious items. Maybe it's a conspiracy and I can get Dan Brown to write about a secret society that lures kids (ahem, unsuspecting adults, too!) in with super cool toys on the display and instead gives rosary ropes.

Here's a big one! Down the road, on Hauptstrasse too.

Even more options!

You too can own a plastic animal with a prolapsed hind end (Squeeze-Animal, as the machine calls them).

I don't know if I'll ever buy another toy from one of these machines again but now I'm super curious about them; I especially want to know if the actual contents of the machines are nothing like what's actually inside.