Mold A Rama!

January 21, 2005 2:27 PM

Mold A Rama! Remember those plastic lions, tigers and gorillas? How about an Abraham Lincoln bust or locomotive? You remember those machines where you stuck a quarter in and watched as 250 degree plastic was pumped into a mold and then automotive antifreeze was hosed in to supposedly cool the mold before the animal was pushed into the compartment below for your waiting hands. Remember the burnt plastic smell? Those really hot to-the-touch animals that you wore down your parents until they gave you a quarter animals are not just simply things from your fading memory. Uh uh, new molds are being made even today. Not good enough you say? Then buy your very own vintage Mold A Rama for a mere $9,500!
posted by Juicylicious (43 comments total)

OH MY GOD.

I tell people about these all the time and they never have any idea what I'm talking about. Thanks for these links. I used to get mold-a-ramas from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison all the time as a kid, and the last time I got one was January of 2003 (it was a giraffe of a preposterous orange color). I went again in February, just a month later, and it was GONE. *cries*
posted by u.n. owen at 2:33 PM on January 21, 2005

Ohhhhh, and the ones from the Chicago museums. And those are all still in operation? I need to go to Chicago with fistfuls of quarters. *drool*

If anyone's going to Chicago tourist destinations in the near future I'd be willing to pay some money for these.
posted by u.n. owen at 2:35 PM on January 21, 2005

If anyone's going to Chicago tourist destinations in the near future I'd be willing to pay some money for these.

Which museums? I have a friend coming in from out of town the beginning of February and I can add "visit museum to get u.n. owen Mold A Rama animal" to the to do list easily enough. My email is in my profile if you're serious.
posted by jperkins at 2:40 PM on January 21, 2005

Never seen these before in my life. Interesting.
posted by rushmc at 2:46 PM on January 21, 2005

Those really hot to-the-touch animals that you wore down your pants until they gave you a ...

Or am I the only one who read it like that?
posted by anthill at 2:54 PM on January 21, 2005

Thanks for this - mold-a-rama geekery is an obscure interest of mine. Very cool post, Juicylicious! I had about 15 of these from the L.A. Zoo when I was growing up, I would get one on every trip. I loved watching the machine in action, and loved the smell of the freshly molded critters. Eventually, my hands would seek out the weakest spot on each creation, wherever the plastic was thinnest, and I would crumble the beast from that spot outwards. But that never stopped me from getting another one next time.
posted by jonson at 2:56 PM on January 21, 2005

Oh, and I also liked the twin plastic injection mold holes in the base of each sculpture. I remember being young enough that I was impressed when I figured out why there were holes in the base. Later, that same reasoning was applied to Twinkies.
posted by jonson at 2:59 PM on January 21, 2005

Or am I the only one who read it like that?

Nope, I was about to say the same thing: WTF plastic animals down my pants?

Nice links, never seen these things before in my life.
posted by m0nm0n at 2:59 PM on January 21, 2005

As a result of my deprived childhood, I only owned one Mold A Rama animal. It was a lion that I got at the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota. I called them today and asked if their Mold A Rama was still in business. The lady told me that she "heard" that the machine was in "some room in the basement." I asked her if it still worked and she said "I dunno. I dunno what it even is." Cretin! So, the Como Zoo has a machine that probably doesn't work and is languishing alone in a dark basement waiting for a kid to put a quarter in its slot. That makes me sad.
posted by Juicylicious at 3:03 PM on January 21, 2005

I have 2 sets of dinosaurs from the Field Museum in Chicago. I'd be willing to part with one or both sets if the price were right.
posted by crunchland at 3:33 PM on January 21, 2005

It brings to mind the premier episode of Wonderfalls, where the orange lion from the mold-o-rama came to life and started bossing her around. Anyone have one of those for sale?

(The lion is pictured on that page as the icon for the latest news)
posted by ThePrawn at 3:40 PM on January 21, 2005

I've got a silver-colored camel from the Miami Zoo from 1986. They'd installed the color wheel one click off, so every animal was coming out the wrong color that day...
posted by dmd at 3:46 PM on January 21, 2005

I'm going to chicago at the end of the month. Theoreticaly I can get some of these from the museums if need be.
posted by Lord_Pall at 3:49 PM on January 21, 2005

u.n. owen: I got mine at the same zoo. I think the tiger mold-o-rama was right next to the sign on the wall that read "Beware of Urine Sprays".

I think I loved the name more than the product, but nevertheless loved it all.
posted by mcstayinskool at 3:51 PM on January 21, 2005

I used to have a Lincoln head from the Museum of Science and Industry. It wasn't the cool green seen in the links, though, but a very dull white. This would have been late '70s or early '80s. No idea where my Lincoln head is now, though... sigh. I remember they smelled awful at first and were almost too hot to hold.
posted by Shoeburyness at 3:56 PM on January 21, 2005

Last time I took my kids to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake (oh, ten or so years ago), the old-school Mold A Rama machines were still up and running, and everyone got a gorilla.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:02 PM on January 21, 2005

I'm pretty sure the two machines at the Milwaukee County Zoo are still up and running. It's been a few years since I've been out there, but they were both alive and well last time I went. Sounds like it's about time i go again. Extra bonus: They've got squished penny machines, and I loves me the squished pennies.

Time to raid the laundry money!

u.n. owen: I will be out in Madison next Saturday and was planning to visit the Vilas Zoo (they've got new designs on their squished penny machines). If you want, I can check and see if they've replaced the Mold-A-Rama machine.
posted by aine42 at 4:04 PM on January 21, 2005

ThePrawn, if you click here, it will tell you every zoo that had a lion Mold A Rama. At least one of them (Como Zoo) no longer has a working machine. The other zoos listed may have them. There are also some on Ebay.
posted by Juicylicious at 4:27 PM on January 21, 2005

Holy nostalgia, Batman. I loved those animals! Thanks for the link!
posted by solistrato at 4:42 PM on January 21, 2005

When I was a child, I collected every one I could find in some theme park, I forget which-- King's Domnion in Florida? I loved those things. Imagine my joy when I went to the LA Zoo a couple of months ago and found them there too, with the hot plastic smell and everything. I now have a silver kangaroo (complete with joey) sitting on my office monitor.

Thanks so much for the links. i never even knew what these wonderful machines were called.
posted by zebra_monkey at 4:48 PM on January 21, 2005

The Como Zoo one was the one I remember too. It was in the ape house, or whatever the politically correct term is for the building with all the cages (pre-natural habitat zoos, like the Minnesota Zoo). The building always smelled to high heaven and there was a trench that ran around it in front of all the cages so they could hose them down. And then in that one corner was the mold-a-rama (we called it the plastic-animal machine, if we bothered to call it anything).

I still remember the smell of the plastic (not enough to take away the building stench, but close), and how HOT they were when you first pulled them out. Not to mention the slow, measured way it pushed the two sides of the mold together to make your animal, all while you watched. And I think it printed Como Zoo on the base. I wonder if I don't have some still in my parents' house...
posted by GaelFC at 4:55 PM on January 21, 2005

THanks, Jucylicious. I was actually looking for a talking lion Mold A Rama, though. Preferably one with insight into the future. It was a longshot.

Since you took the time to drop those links, though, I might have to buy one.
posted by ThePrawn at 4:57 PM on January 21, 2005

Wow, this brings back memories of summer vacations in St. Pete, where we'd visit the aquarium and get molded dolphins. I still remember that smell, almost 40 years later.

Thanks for the links!
posted by F Mackenzie at 4:57 PM on January 21, 2005

My Dad used to take his lighter to the moldorama toys faces and melt them for our amusement.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:16 PM on January 21, 2005

When they first come out of the machine, IIRC, you can deform them. I had a green Lincoln bust with a huge dent in the back of his head that I made with my thumb.
posted by goatdog at 5:40 PM on January 21, 2005

This is new to me, too. I'm 31 and I grew up in the South; were these machines specific to a particular time period and particular areas of the US?
posted by zardoz at 6:11 PM on January 21, 2005

zardoz - are you me? I ... verbatim ... almost ... was typing.

Except I'm 30.

The tiger looks familiar, but that could be some strange Showbiz Pizza Ski-Ball prize mental crossover.
posted by socratic at 6:17 PM on January 21, 2005

Similarly, did anybody have those creeply crawler Thingmaker sets as a kid, with the metal molds and the colored liquid that you put in there and then heated up the whole shebang? Those were awesome, and dangerous! Which probably accounts for the dangerousness.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:45 PM on January 21, 2005

I have a plastic green cockatiel from the LA Zoo. I scratched the date on the bottom when I got it---May 13, 1981. I'm glad to hear that these machines are still around. Great post!
posted by nevafeva at 6:48 PM on January 21, 2005

I purchased Mold-o-Rama animals for my kids a couple of years ago at the San Antonio Zoo.
posted by tippiedog at 7:22 PM on January 21, 2005

Holy crap, this is awesome! I remember getting these as a kid in the 80s at one of the Florida zoos, plus every lower-tier theme park (Gatorland, Silver Springs). It felt like some small compensation for the fact that these locations weren't Disney -- which is, of course, where we always wanted to go as children.

I always tried to smooth down the seam flash nice and pretty with my pocketknife, only to melt holes in the critter with my magnifying glass when I got home.
posted by Sangre Azul at 7:43 PM on January 21, 2005

I remember these! My parents would load us all into the station wagon and we'd go up to the Granby Zoo in Granby, Quebec. One year they actually let us ALL get one each. At that point there were 'only' 7 of us...
posted by kamylyon at 7:51 PM on January 21, 2005

u.n. owen: I once got a black gorilla at the Henry Vilas Zoo mold-a-rama. I loved that place. During the summer, I could hear the lions roaring in the morning through my bedroom window.
posted by brheavy at 8:39 PM on January 21, 2005

After years with little reason to visit the OKC Zoo (hometown) I was delighted to let my kids experience the exact same wonder (at the exact same Mold-o-Rama machines!) that I did as a child 30 years ago. If you ever are passing through instead of over OKC, skip the depressing Murrah bombing memorial and stop on by our zoo. It is constantly updated and (IMHO) second only to the San Diego Zoo. PLUS it has Multiple Mold-o-Rama machines, awesome life sized bronze statues of animals for pic opportunities, and a Roaring Lion drinking fountain. (The lion fountain has also been around as long as I have and has been perfectly restored as well-awesome to have pix of myself as a child drinking out of the lion's mouth next to pix of my children doing the same. Thanks for the nostalgia reminder Juicylicious. MMM burnt wax and play-dough: two smells that instantly put me back to childhood.
posted by HyperBlue at 8:42 PM on January 21, 2005 [1 favorite]

As of last year the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago had one of these, in the basement of some building with a food court, if I recall correctly.
posted by rustcellar at 9:27 PM on January 21, 2005

zardoz, probably they were. You and socratic are definitely old enough since you can still find them in some places. I'm 37 and I remember the machine at the San Antonio Zoo very clearly (from around 1975) - but I can't remember seeing one anywhere else. They are ridiculously retro and I would love to see one again.
posted by jimmycurN at 12:08 AM on January 22, 2005

[this is good]
posted by romakimmy at 3:35 AM on January 22, 2005

What HyperBlue said - my Mold-a-Rama memories are from the OKC zoo (and possibly Frontier City as well? It's been 20 years).
posted by mrbill at 6:04 AM on January 22, 2005

neat....

at the Lowry Park Zoo in tampa, they still have about a dozen machines up and running. my kid has four or five flamingos, and manatees and giraffes, etc.

if you're really nostalgic, head on down and get some.
posted by taumeson at 7:01 AM on January 22, 2005

Similarly, did anybody have those creeply crawler Thingmaker sets as a kid, with the metal molds and the colored liquid that you put in there and then heated up the whole shebang? Those were awesome, and dangerous! Which probably accounts for the dangerousness.

I made a good profit in sixth grade making and selling these to my classmates. Got a few burns but no scars.

Loved making the little soldier figures (with embedded wires to pose them) in psychadelic colors.

The main problem in making them these days would be in finding the Goop (actual name) to make them with.
posted by page404 at 8:10 AM on January 22, 2005

Not difficult to find at all.

Now there's a home business just waiting to happen.
posted by u.n. owen at 8:34 AM on January 22, 2005

Boy these are a Republican dream! Not only can you get an elephant there are molds to make you a plastic Eisenhower, a Titan missile and a "bank building"! Hoo boy. While you can get an angel, they need to update the list so you can get a replica of the Ten Commandments.

Similarly, did anybody have those creeply crawler Thingmaker
Yes, I had one and an Incredible Edible^TM as well-- same thing only the goop was edible. I still remember the smell of that thingmaker though-- I probably have some cancerous plastic molecules on the lining of my lungs.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:55 AM on January 22, 2005

There's one of these in the Museum of Science and Industry. They had the steam engine, the tractor and the space shuttle.
However, the space shuttle machine was out of order and had white wax sprayed all over the inside of the machine.
I know it's sick, but I couldn't help but laugh!
posted by Betty Tyranny at 11:47 AM on January 24, 2005