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Mold-a-Rama Machines Still Alive and Kicking

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-have-a-lincoln dept.

theodp writes "The Chicago Tribune reports that bubble-topped Mold-a-Rama machines are still delighting folks, cranking out kitschy get-em-while-they're-hot plastic Abe Lincoln busts, triceratops, and charging rhinos. Some vintage figures are commanding over $150 on eBay — a Paul Bunyan figure from a Minnesota machine no longer in operation recently fetched $210."

4 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Milwaukee County Zoo by Paisley+Phrog · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The Milwaukee County Zoo still has many, many Mold-A-Rama machines still in operation, and enough different molds that I'm still able to find the occasional new one. (I have 20 or so in my collection from around the country). My daughter now shares my fascination with them, and loves the whole thing. I just hope that the places that make the parts that keep these things running don't go away any time soon.

    Mold-A-Rama is more than a cheap souvenir, it's a minute-long event. The noise, holding them upside down, the almost-too-hot plastic, the smell...they're a flash to childhood that only costs $1.

  2. Just plastic? by frisket · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Should modify them to mold chocolate...

  3. San Antonio Zoo by dawnzer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They still have the machines at the San Antonio Zoo. I think the smell of hot wax is supposed to offset the animal smells or something. It was a lot of fun getting one of those wax castings as a kid. The best part is watching it get made. You put in your money, then you get to watch the two halves of the metal mold come together and get filled with hot wax. after a couple of minutes, it pops out your wax bear, giraffe, lion, elephant, etc. - still warm. You had to hold it just so to allow it to cool and finish hardening without burning your little fingers. What fun!

    --
    "Oh, say, can you see by the dawnzer lee light," sang Miss Binney
  4. Space Needle by pjwhite · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember watching a Mold-A-Rama make me a yellow Space Needle when my parents took me to the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. I was 5 or 6 years old at the time. My big sister got an orange Space Needle. For some reason this memory is as strong or stronger than actually riding the elevator to the top of the real Space Needle, or any other memory I have of the fair. I remember the smell, the hot plastic that had to cool upside down, and the seemingly interminable wait while the machine did its thing.
    My Space Needle got thown away some years later, and though it would be nice to have one now, it wouldn't be worth $150 to me. $5.00, maybe...