But it had all the potential to turn tragic if mum Louise Jeffrey hadn’t been at hand to rescue her son.

The Ballarat family was at the entertainment venue Zagame’s yesterday afternoon, with a group of friends and their children, when Ms Jeffrey was told Noah had climbed into the toy machine through its chute.

“At about 4.30pm my five-year-old, Harrison, came in laughing and said that Noah was in the toy machine,” Ms Jeffrey said.

“I looked up and saw him and ran in to see what was happening.”

Ms Jeffrey said she panicked when she realised her son was in what she called an “airless glass box”.

“(But) he was having a ball playing with the toys and eating the lollies,” she said.

“He threw every single toy out because all the kids were asking him for the toys.”

Ms Jeffrey then approached the venue’s staff to help get her son out.

However, she was told the person responsible for the key to the toy box was in Melbourne and the fire brigade might need to be called to get Noah out.

Ms Jeffrey said she was scared her son, who was inside the machine for 10 minutes, would get hurt if he remained in the box for too long.

“Noah (had started) sweating,” Ms Jeffrey said.

“It was quite hot in there.

“There were fluorescent lights and the wires attached to the (mechanical arm).”

Asking her son not to touch anything, Ms Jeffrey then tried to get Noah to climb out.

“He was a bit scared to climb out,” she said.

“I got him to sit down and wiggle out of the chute while I pulled his feet.”

But Ms Jeffrey said the toy machine was an accident waiting to happen.

“Any little kid could climb in,” she said.

“It is pretty dangerous in there ... it is pretty much an airless glass box.”

Ms Jeffrey said although she could see the lighter side after it was all over, things could have turned out much worse.

“It is good that Noah didn’t panic,” she said.

“He just wanted to get out and play with the toys like the other kids.”

Zagame’s management was not available for comment when contacted last night.

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