Bring Back Mold-A-Rama Vending Machines!

[TheHatboxGhost]

Lol? :S

What can I say? Humor is subjective and I'm easily amused.

What I delight in is the sheer joy and fun that the buyer obtained and is having from such a simple thing. This machine brings out the kid in most, if not all of us.

[CaptainEO,ATIS]

I would want one of those, they should put at least 2 in each land

[anziodogface]

This thread has brought so many good memories back! I, too, remember getting souvenirs from L.A. Zoo, Marineland, Universal, and the L.A. Museum of Natural History. Oh...the warm smell.... Good times.

[TheHatboxGhost]

In case anyone is interested in following his progress (I know, I am), I just found a guy online who intends to build a DIY version of one of these machines. You can read about it at:

DIY Mold-A-Rama: An Introduction Things I'm doing

Make it steampunk-looking. Oh, please!

[dmtnt55]

I remember when they had these at zoos, I always liked getting an animal when we went there.

[Scary Scott]

I love these machines!
I remember when I was in kindergarten and I went to the Sandiego zoo, and I got one of a gorilla. I still have it in a box in storage. and that smell. Man thats memories.

[lyd]

The LA Zoo still has these machines. The best one too me was the gorilla mold but alas my older brother and his kid took it off of my hands. Need to go back and get some more. The machines are situated all over the park so you have to keep an eye out for them.

[ex-wdi]

Griffith Park had them up by the Observatory parking lot. It's where Arnold arrives from the future in the first Terminator movie. You may be able to see them in the movie background, I dunno...

[dsnygrl13]

These would do well next to every pressed penny machine ;-)

[Waking Beauty]

My memories of getting one of these at the Pittsburgh Zoo as a very small child are vivid, vivid, vivid. My model depicted three monkeys sitting in a row in the classic "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose. The model was hollow and appeared very fragile and easy to break, which I do believe was its fate not long after. As I say, I was a very small child, with small-child sisters and playmates.

Others have mentioned the distinctive smell, and that's what I remember best. Why? Because it terrified me. I've never understood it. It was as if, in a past life, some evil genius wax museum owner dipped me in a wax vat and displayed me as a dummy in his collection or something - I mean terror THAT BAD, but attached to nothing. It was just plain little-child terror, but from a smell. I'd never experienced that before - or for that matter, since.

[TheHatboxGhost]

My memories of getting one of these at the Pittsburgh Zoo as a very small child are vivid, vivid, vivid. My model depicted three monkeys sitting in a row in the classic "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose. The model was hollow and appeared very fragile and easy to break, which I do believe was its fate not long after. As I say, I was a very small child, with small-child sisters and playmates.

Others have mentioned the distinctive smell, and that's what I remember best. Why? Because it terrified me. I've never understood it. It was as if, in a past life, some evil genius wax museum owner dipped me in a wax vat and displayed me as a dummy in his collection or something - I mean terror THAT BAD, but attached to nothing. It was just plain little-child terror, but from a smell. I'd never experienced that before - or for that matter, since.

Actually, the first Mold-A-Rama souvenirs and toys were cast from a wax-like substance that was rather fragile, subject to breaking and, under the wrong conditions (such as being left inside a hot car on a sun-exposed dashboard), prone to losing their shape and even melting. However, the new mold goop is made from polyethylene plastic and holds up considerably better.

You might want to avoid candle factories, however.

[Executioner]

I loved these machines as a kid. Getting them out still warm in your hands and semi pliable still. The smell was pretty distinctive. I remember getting a gorilla, and the 3 monkeys doing the hear/speak/see no evil pose. I think I may have had a dinosaur one of a brontosaurus too.

[TheHatboxGhost]

I remember buying a Mickey Mouse Mold-A-Rama figure at Disneyland. And it's driving me crazy(er) that I can't locate the toy now. I don't recall breaking it, and I know that I wouldn't throw it away. So, I hope that it didn't find its way into The Haunted Garage Sale.

I'm also missing a dolphin figure from Marineland of the Pacific.

[TheHatboxGhost]

After bringing up this topic on MiceChat, I noticed that now there are more Mold-A-Rama figures being offered on eBay.

Although I'm tempted to purchase some from the auction site, it's just not the same. The experience of watching the plastic being molded right before your very eyes, while your nostrils fill with the fumes, cannot be bought online and shipped via parcel post.