GROUPON GUIDE TO COLUMBUS

The Fascinating World of Mold-A-Rama

BY: Shannon Grilli |Jul 15, 2019

Is it just us or does it seem like kids' activities just keep getting more and more expensive? A simple outing to the zoo or museum, for example, racks up a price tag that goes way beyond the cost of admission: parking, tickets to special exhibits, expensive snacks and food court lunches, and don't even THINK about setting foot in the gift shop.

Thankfully, at many attractions across the country, the very best souvenir still only costs $2. We're talking, of course, about the Mold-A-Rama.

A full 56 years after the first machine wowed visitors at the Seattle World's Fair, Mold-A-Ramas are still a huge draw for kids (and adults) who love watching the injection molded plastic toys being created right before their eyes. But the souvenir-making machines might never have been born had it not been for one man's frustration over a broken holiday display piece.

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In 1937, a man named Tike Miller was putting out his family's Christmas decorations when he discovered that one of the nativity scene pieces was broken. On a quest to replace the broken figurine, Miller traveled to department store after department store, but couldn't find anyone willing to sell him anything other than a new full set. Instead of giving in to sales pressure, Miller and his wife began making their own plaster nativity pieces in the basement, and, finding success, soon started their own factory, eventually moving from plaster to a newfangled substance known as plastic.

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As business increased, Miller searched for an easier way to crank out his product, leading him to invent a plastic-injection process that helped him produce a line of dinosaur figurines with relative ease. He eventually sold his idea to the Automatic Retailers of America Inc., a company based in Chicago, and worked with them to develop the machine we now know as the Mold-A-Rama.

A post shared by Natalia Wilson (@moonrat42) on Dec 16, 2017 at 7:03pm PST

Today, the machines have gained a cult-following with collectors chasing a nostalgia high (that melted plastic smell!), which makes it all the more surprising that no comprehensive list of surviving Mold-A-Rama machines exists. Chalk it up to business. In 1971, the ARA disbanded and sold off most of its machines—some to independent buyers, but most to two different corporations: Mold-A-Rama, Inc. in Brookfield, IL and Replication Devices, who rebranded their machines as Mold-A-Matic, and operated mainly in the South.

A post shared by Mary D. (@mellendoll) on Oct 17, 2017 at 8:40pm PDT

But while it may be impossible to track down every single machine still in operation, we were able to pull together this partial list of Mold-A-Rama locations to get you started on your collector's journey. And, lucky, for you, we also happen to have deals for quite a few of them. Might there be a colorful plastic-themed road trip in your future?