Your Ass is Real, Real Old if You Remember Mold-A-Rama Vending Machines

[Tinman]

Mold-A-Rama is a brand name for a type of vending machine that makes blow-molded plastic figurines. Mold-A-Rama machines debuted in late 1962 and grew in prominence at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The machines can still be found operating in dozens of museums and zoos.

I had a small collection of dinosaurs, cars, and animals.

Never saved any. Here's some samples from on line.

 

[BigDaddyBuk]

still have one at our zoo.

 

[kenbgco68]

The birth of 3d printing?

 

[knightmelodic]

I don't want to talk about it.

 

[Tinman]

still have one at our zoo.

Yup, we had on at ours too, also had one at Mid-Town Plaza, down town Rochester. It was the first mall built in the US and they had this wild clock that they made a Mold-a-rama figure of it.

I know they're kind of crude compared to 3d printers, but that all we had back then.

I wouldn't mind reproducing some of the Mold a rama figures on a 3d printer
​

 

[vertigo]

Used to be at the state fair BEGGING parents to let me get one! These machines were all along the midway, and if I'm remembering right only made one or two different "toys". You had to find the machine that made the toy you wanted. Parents would get tired of walking and say- whatever the next one is, that's what you're getting.

Be Praying it was a disney or a dinosaur and not something stupid.


That shit would still be warm when it came out....


Yeah, I'm old

 

[orange roughy]

Big at the Greenfield Village museum in my youth. I went to Memphis about 30 years ago looking for a Elvis mold-a-rama on the tour of Graceland (actually I wasn't gonna spend a nickle on that dude... just wanted a very tacky souvenir). No luck. Wow, it's amazing that this has been on my mind for years, thought I had been fantasizing it.

Great work OP...

 

[Give Me 3ft.]

there was something very similar at

the museum of science and industry in chicago.

i remember the smell of the hot ass plastic & burning myself.

i wonder if they still have it. i forgot what the fuck it made.

 

[Tinman]

Big at the Greenfield Village museum in my youth. I went to Memphis about 30 years ago looking for a Elvis mold-a-rama on the tour of Graceland (actually I wasn't gonna spend a nickle on that dude... just wanted a very tacky souvenir). No luck. Wow, it's amazing that this has been on my mind for years, thought I had been fantasizing it.

Great work OP...

Same here. I couldn't remember what the machine looked like or the name of it, but I remember being in awe at the process of something being made right in front of me, instantly.
Btw, I came across Mold-a-rama by accident on a website about my home town's history.

I also remember the wax/plastic coming out of the machine warm.

Now I wonder if the crap was giving off toxic fumes. It probably had lead in it, everything back then had lead in it.

Tonka trucks were painted metal back in the day with lead paint.

Alcohol has probably killed off 1,000X brain cells than lead exposure.

 

[yaBoi]

damn im old

 

[BigDaddyBuk]

speaking of 3d printing, i just did a few pieces.

shits got a LONG way to go before it becomes viable for anything other than making toys.

 

[kenbgco68]

What model/software did you use?