Last year I was contacted by someone in Tennessee who came across my blog and said she collected Mold-A-Ramas, and would we be willing to trade? I told her we liked the fun of going to the places and getting them ourselves, but that if she paid us back we'd be happy to pick things up in our area of the country and send them to her. We ended up getting her figures from our zoo here in Milwaukee, along with things from Toledo, Detroit, and Chicago. (Someday we will get to the Como Park Zoo and we'll be sure to pick her up some more there.)
She was pleased with the box of Mold-A-Ramas we sent her, and the other day (right around my birthday no less) we got a surprise package from her! Four retired figures from the Knoxville Zoo that we wouldn't be able to get anyway, even if we visited, including a chimp we've never seen before:
How fun is that? That brings our collection on our overstuffed mantle to 139.5. (Quinn insists on the .5 for the small scrap marked "ZOO" from Miami from the one machine that wasn't working when we went.)
On a sad note in Mold-A-Rama land, the Seaquarium down in Florida removed all their machines. I'm glad we went when we did, because those molds are among our favorites and several were unique (including the seahorse which I think is the best one). Apparently the Seaquarium doesn't know the difference between "dated" and "nostalgia" and decided to ditch all their machines after half a century when they recently updated their park. They were the longest running vendor of such machines in the country, and now the Mold-A-Rama/Mold-A-Matics are gone. Sad.The machines we were also hoping to visit in Seattle are gone as well, so we will have to content ourselves with aiming for St Paul and San Antonio someday to fill out our collection. And one day, of course, in my copious amounts of free time (HA), I will make a violin mold for the machine at the store. (But not this weekend. This weened there are real violins to make.)
I am so bummed to hear that the Seaquarium got rid of their machines. I grew up in Miami and got my first ones there. We are currently in the Chicago burbs and are in the process of collecting Mold-A-Ramas with our kids. We were at Brookfield zoo this weekend and picked up an alligator. :)
ReplyDeleteBrookfield Zoo is great for collecting Mold-A-Ramas! They take beautiful care of their machines, and they rotate the figures a few times a year--special things for holidays, dinosaurs, etc. We have more things from there than anywhere else. By the way, if you want the ones at the Willis Tower, you don't have to pay to go all the way up. Once you get past security they'll let you out of the line to go to the gift shop. Happy collecting!
DeleteHello. I didn't know if you were aware that there is a Disney Mold-A-Rama machine at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. It is right inside the main door. You don't have to pay admission to the museum for access to the machine. They have three Disney molds that they are rotating. Right now they have Mickey Mouse. The other two molds are Donald Duck and Goofy.
ReplyDeleteWOW! We did not know! We will put it on our list.
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DeleteWell, we're planning to head down tomorrow as our holiday treat! Thank you so much for the information! We'll just call down periodically to find out about new molds. Thanks again!
DeleteAnd it's only about an hours drive from Milwaukee. I Liked them on Facebook in case they announce any changes to the molds, but I have spoken with them and they may not. I was told that they will probably change them every couple of months, so I think Mickey might be there until the end of July. But I'm not certain of that. Also, the molds are $5 and the machine only takes $5 bills.
DeleteAnyone know where we can buy some of these machines at reasonable prices? friesen@lonetreecreek.com
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