Mold-A-Ramas at the Volo Museum, the Indiana Dinosaur Museum, and a new figure from the Brookfield Zoo

Volo Museum figures!

Going to Moldfest inspired us to check out an updated Mold-A-Rama/Mold-A-Matic map and see what possible day trips we could manage before summer was up. 

We decided first on the Volo Museum, which we knew nothing about except there were cars there. Volo has been on our list of places to collect from for many years, but it's never worked out to fit it in on our way to something else. We finally had to make it a destination all on its own, and wow, that was wild. Exactly the kind of thing we would never have found if it weren't for our Mold-A-Rama collection.

The basic history of the Volo Museum in Volo, Illinois, is that someone owned a chunk of land that he used to open an antique store in a barn, and then found a bunch of old cars on the property that he fixed up which began attracting crowds, so the car restoration business was born, and now the place is essentially a high end classic used car lot. From there, the showrooms started including famous cars from movies and TV on display, and expanded into whatever the owners thought might be cool, so there is a dinosaur area with some live snakes and turtles, a military museum, mini golf, along with a torture museum and some kind of tribute to the Titanic (neither of which we paid to see since they didn't include Mold-A-Ramas). It is eclectic and random and essentially an array of passion projects that includes a carousel. It reminded us of House on the Rock, but with emphasis on cars instead of architecture. It was cheesy and fun and made for an entertaining day. 

The cars are beautiful, regardless of whether you find cars interesting. 

 

 

The price tags on the cars were an amusing touch. At first glance the amount they're asking looks like a steal, but the fine print starts inflating the price dramatically, and all of the cars are expensive, but honestly not as bad as I would have expected considering how rare and interesting they are.

 

There are four showrooms in the car section of the museum, the last couple containing the movie cars, including the land-speeder from Star Wars, the Delorean from Back to the Future, the Ghostbusters car, and even Christine with its red glowing headlights. (I told the kids how I read Christine in high school and didn't find it scary--until I was walking alone in a parking garage one night and some headlights turned on seemingly by themselves and then I decided yes, Stephen King did in fact know how to write a scary book. I've been a fan ever since.) There are also unexpected displays tucked in corners and in hallways like the Batmobile, Pee Wee's bike, and the jukeboxes from Happy Days. (My favorite part of the Blues Brothers car display was they had a clip playing above it that included the section of the car chase filmed in Milwaukee.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Mold-A-Ramas are in the last showroom, and in the Dinosaur park. The ones in the car section of the Volo are originally from Disneyland. They have three, but only two were working. Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan we were able to get from the machines. Goofy we had to buy in the gift shop, and they discounted him a bit because it was the only one left and he was damaged on the bottom. 

 

 

 

These were our first Disney figures, and they were expensive! TEN DOLLARS EACH. That's crazy. I mean, I guess we are crazy because we paid it, and specifically traveled there to pay it, but ten dollars is ridiculous. I'm sure it's because they have to pay Disney a license fee to use those images, but yikes. We would never have started our collection in the first place if they had cost ten dollars a pop. Those original 13 animals we got at our zoo a dozen years ago would have been $130, as opposed to $26. The going rate at most places is currently five dollars, which seems about right to me in 2025. When our own machine is running again, we will probably bump the price up to five.

  

We liked the way they used the surface under the dome of the Disney machines as a display area for little things. It's got us thinking about stuff we could add to our machine one day. Maybe some real violin parts like pegs and bridges to teach people about violins outside our store?

 

 

 

 

From the car area, past the carousel room, fighter jet, and snacks, we moved on to the dinosaur park. 

 

From Avengers, among other things

There were two figures there (a T-Rex and brontosaurus). They were a much more reasonable $5 apiece.

Once we had collected our figures, we simply explored the grounds until we were tired. I think if we had gone to the Volo Museum when our kids were little, we would have spent most of our time in the dinosaur area. Our kids still got into the sand pit to dig, and it's always good looking at snakes and turtles, but the joy of taking adult kids places is the amount of knowledge they bring to share, and the areas they want to spend more time in are more interesting. 

The Volo is laid out as a series of buildings you pass through on your way to the next area. A line on the ground suggests the path you should follow, and there are several places that feel like being tricked into education (especially if you are a small child trying to get to the animatronic band you can hear in the distance). There are covered wagons and vintage speed boats and the history of snow vehicles, but easily the display we spent the most time admiring was the development of the early campers. They were amazing, and our kids were delighted by them and took a ton of photos. The most insane thing inside a camper was the pair of wooden chairs for the front seats along with a full size harp in the back. Fancy dinner music on the road? (If I didn't know of a harp player who travels by camper to perform at various Renaissance Fairs I would dismiss it as unrealistic, but you never know what different people need.)

Wood stove in a camper!

Along the way were sensationalized things in every spare bit of space. You really didn't know what to expect around each corner.

I don't imagine us going again, but it was definitely a memorable day trip.

A few days after the visit to the Volo, we took a whole day to drive out to South Bend, Indiana and back to see the Indiana Dinosaur Museum. We had wanted to stop there on the way home from our cottage in Michigan the week before, but then remembered we had the dog with us. (We called to check, but no dogs allowed.) The dinosaur museum was out of the way, but our kids are always up for a road trip, so we picked a day everyone was free, dropped Domino off at doggy daycare at seven in the morning and headed to South Bend. 

This destination was another sort of passion project attached to a rather unrelated business. The original focus of the site was the South Bend Chocolate Company. But the people making their money from chocolate were interested in paleontology, and now there is a dinosaur museum. You walk into the lobby, and on your right is a cafe where you can buy chocolate products made on site, and an entrance to the museum that includes a guided tour of the factory. On the left is a dinosaur gift shop, and the entrance to a little theater that opens into a dinosaur museum. (They did not offer any chocolate dinosaurs that I could see anywhere, which seems like a missed crossover opportunity.)

Straight out the door at the back of the lobby is the Continental Divide Trail, which took a minute to understand since when I think of the continental divide, I think of the ridge out west that includes the Rocky Mountains. This was a sub-continental divide that was a pretty trail, but a very amusing height marker compared to pretty much every other place we have hiked up before.

Elevation 840 feet! How did we survive?! 

 

The chocolate museum was interesting. It's always fun to go into a factory and see how things are made, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. The dinosaur museum was surprisingly good. The staff was well informed with lots of good up-to-date information to share. We were expecting something hokey, but the displays were based on solid science and we enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

The museum has one Mold-A-Rama available in the lobby, and it's a vintage Sinclair gas station brontosaurus. It's $8 that you pay by buying a token at the desk to use in the machine. It's not as bad as the ten we paid for the Disney figures at the Volo, but eight is still steep.

This figure is a pretty green that's different from anything else in our collection.

We enjoyed lunch at a nice place on the other side of the museum parking lot, and our hike included looking at bison they have there for some reason. We also learned that sometimes baby chicks will pick on one another, which was strange and sad.

A few days after our South Bend trip, we did a comparatively quick drive down to the Brookfield Zoo. They had a wolf figure that was new to us, and we also picked up a few other things that we already had but in new colors.

Howling orange wolf!

 

 

 

 

We have more Mold-A-Ramas from the Brookfield Zoo than anywhere else. It's also arguably the nicest zoo we've ever been to. Always clean, easy to navigate, huge variety, and nice displays. 

 

On this visit we got to enjoy watching dolphins playing with balls underwater, where they would force a ball down into the pool and catch it as it popped back up toward the surface. 

 

There was also this frog with a great face.

When I compare pictures of my kids from our first visit to Brookfield Zoo in 2013 with the most recent visit, it's astonishing to think how much has happened between then and now. 

 

2013, first visit

2025, most recent visit

 

I love that today our Mold-A-Rama collection is more than a mantel of brightly colored souvenirs, but a tangible way of bookmarking some of our travels as a family. I'm grateful Quinn looked at the Mold-A-Rama map when she was six and wanted to collect them all, because it gave us a goofy framework on which to build adventures for years and is still going. We would have traveled as a family regardless, but how nice to have these fun waxy figures to help spark so many memories.

(Part of our 225.1 figure collection! If you need an explanation about the ".1" check out this post from 2014.)

Surveying the Empty Nest

Age 3, the whole wide world and South Shore Park ahead.

I dropped my youngest child off at college this weekend. It was strange and exciting for both of us.

We drove out to La Crosse the day before to spend the night at my brother's house to make the move into the dorm the next morning a little easier. The back of the car was mostly filled with Quinn's new bike that we got her as a graduation present, which we thought might give her a little more freedom to travel in her new town. Aside from the bike, she packed light for such a move: Three IKEA bags filled with bedding, clothes, and everything else. Plus a laundry basket, and big batch of cookies she'd baked to share with her roommate and others on her floor.

We brought the dog, partially because the dog doesn't like to be apart from me, and partially because she would be good company on the drive home. We set up Domino's bed on the sideways front wheel of the bike in the back where she settled in and could see us both and look out the window. The idea of driving Quinn someplace hours away and leaving her there was incredibly weird. I needed to return with someone, so Domino got the job.

My brother, Barrett, teaches at La Crosse, and lives within easy biking distance from the campus. I think it's great that Quinn chose a school that's away from home, but still near family. It's a pretty area, and UWL is incredibly thoughtful and organized. Quinn signed up for more credits than is probably wise, but compared to the IB course-load she recently completed at Rufus King High School, she thought it looked doable, particularly since the classes meet on such a loose schedule compared to what she's used to. I told her to drop something if it gets to be too much, but I think for at least the first semester she can probably handle it.

Move-in was on Saturday morning, so Barrett was free to come with us and help unload the car. We drove behind him as he led the way by bike. Quinn was reassured by how much less traffic there was to navigate compared to the bike rides we've been doing to the farmers market at home. 

Before checking in, we needed to replace Quinn's student ID already. She thinks she may have lost it at orientation back in June. I found this alarming, but Quinn was unfazed. She said she lost her high school ID at least once a year and replacements are no problem. Sure enough, the student office was able to print her up a new one in a matter of minutes. 

From there, we decided to pick up her books since the bookstore was in the same building. I cannot believe how much easier things are compared to when I was in school (before laptops and the internet and I had to use a card catalog at the library and do my papers on a typewriter or in the computer lab... We may as well lump all of my experience in with playing hoop-and-stick at this point). Quinn swiped her ID, immediately got a printout of all the books she needed and where to find them (and if the super easy system was too hard there were at least half a dozen volunteers standing by to help), and when we took the pile of books to the checkout, they swiped her card again and that was it. The texts are rented and far more affordable than buying all the books used to be. (My oldest said at her school the whole process is even easier, because they scan your card and then collect the books for you to take to checkout. But I liked wandering around with Quinn to find the books.)

With books and ID in hand, we went to unload the car. The dorm is in a convenient spot, and Quinn's room was only a few doors down from the entrance. Unloading was easy. The roommate was very nice (and also a sophomore, which Quinn appreciates because it's like having a personal guide to how things work).

I left a note and a little present on her desk that I told Quinn was for later. (It was a mini Boggle game that I added a key chain to, and she figured out what it was the moment she picked up the wrapped package and heard that distinctive rattle.)

Barrett declared Quinn's bike lock insufficient for the amount of bike theft that unfortunately happens on campus, so he directed us to his favorite bike shop (with a sweet pit bull named Wilma in the sunny window) and we picked up something harder to cut. Fingers crossed. I've experienced stolen bikes a few times and I don't want Quinn to go through that. But honestly, as far as crime goes, if that's the worst that happens life is good.

After dropping everything off, we located the different buildings Quinn's classes are in. The biology lecture room turned out to be directly across the hall from Barrett's lab where he has key-card access, which is why it was one of the few buildings we could actually enter on a holiday weekend. We went from there to the student union to grab some lunch to eat outside in the beautiful weather.

Then we took Quinn back to her dorm, I hugged her, and as I watched her from the the parking lot she turned to wave every few steps until she disappeared inside.

I said goodbye to my brother, and told him how much it means to me that he's nearby if Quinn needs something. Then I called Quinn from inside the car because I missed her already, and to ask if a CD I had planned to listen to had accidentally made it into her bags. (It hadn't.) I took a deep breath, and gave the dog a pat in the seat next to me.

It was hard to drive away. 

I think the longest I've ever been apart from Quinn would be about two weeks. Walking past her empty room at home is startling, but I know it will become normal. The first few days of walking past Aden's room each time she leaves for school again is still a hard adjustment. Ian drove her back up to UW Stout the day after I came back from La Crosse. I can't believe there are no kids in the house. I like having them home.

Although I will admit, over the end of the summer break, it was like my kids were trying to make this transition to not having them around easier for us. The house was a wreck. I love Aden's creativity, but the number of projects in process on all the available surfaces was crazy. Quinn and I pulled out a card table for playing Boggle because everyplace else was too cluttered to use, including the table on the deck. We still have not retrieved all the dirty dishes from various rooms of the house, and we are still digging out the kitchen. There is a large bowl of oil the kids were saving for something that I don't know how to get rid of. Aden lost one of her hissing roaches before she left. (That will be a fun surprise if it turns up.) 

Quinn at least did a great job cleaning and organizing her room before she moved out. I had honestly forgotten she had a rug. At least when I walk by her door I feel a bit of delight about the state of the room to balance out the pang of pain that she's not in it.

It helps that Mona is still around. I'm sure we won't see her as often now that her siblings aren't here to hang out with, but she's nice to have along for errands when she's free. Maybe I can convince her to come with me to a movie. And having a baby-sized dog is comforting.

So far this empty nest thing is strange. It's quiet, and my schedule feels oddly empty even though I always have a lot to do. It's hard to adjust to the fact that this is the new way it's going to be. Not just some weekend where the kids are away, but the new baseline for normal.

It's not bad, and in some ways just a return to an old forgotten normal. We're back to me and Ian again. It's been a long time since we planned things for just the two of us. We've spent decades specializing in a divide and conquer approach to parenting, where between the two of us we could handle everything. He's always been in charge of dentist appointments, I do the doctor. He does the laundry and the dishes, I handle the food and clutter. He does yard stuff, I do holiday things. Between the two of us there has always been someone to open the store while the other handles errands and we'd tag team among the many shifting responsibilities that come with raising kids.

But now the kids are out of the daily equation, and it's hard to remember what we did before they came into our lives. It will be fun to rediscover a new/old rhythm. It will be nice to do things like eat out and go places that are simpler for two people instead of five. I suppose we're getting a well-earned break. 

We're in the process of rethinking the house. There is a renovation plan in the works to concentrate our lives on the first floor. My home shop will move to my work building (since the point of having a home shop was to accommodate balancing violin making and caring for kids and that's not relevant now), and that former shop space will become our bedroom. We're turning a small room we've used as a guest space into a bathroom with an accessible shower. The current first floor bathroom will become a laundry room. The entire upstairs will be set up for guests and kids returning on breaks. My problems last year with my knees gave me insight as to what elements of our house will become difficult as we age, so addressing much of that now before issues arise seems smart. Living on one floor also will make the house feel less empty and more manageable.

In anticipation of the renovation, we've started moving things around and getting rid of stuff. Gone are the outgrown bikes and the tiny tennis rackets. The old drill with the dead batteries we can let go of. Paint cans from past room makeovers will be going to the dump. The sand toys should be in the hands of kids again, not in a bucket in our basement. 

The cleaning and reorganizing are good activities that Ian and I can do together as we reshape how we move through our days now. It is fun being just a couple again, (if you don't count the dog at my heels). It's odd cooking for only two, but a lot less pressure to cook at all. Not being tethered to our children's daily schedules frees up ours. We are already planning trips to the cottage, because why even run your own business if you can't choose your days off once in a while? 

With the pockets of unexpected free time that come with not doing as many chores on a relentless loop, I am teaching myself piano, which is meditative and a good distraction from the fact that I have no idea what any of my kids are doing and I'm not used to that. It's hard to unlearn that kind of constant monitoring after decades.

It's wild that Ian and I fell in love in college, made people, and after so many years where the center of all our decision making has been based around our children, that that whole chapter is finished. We raised three children. Their childhoods are over. There are still things to manage for them, such as orthodontist appointments and walking them through filing tax returns, etc. But what an astonishing thing to step back and declare that job essentially done. I think we did okay. I hope we did enough. All of our children are compassionate, curious, and interesting people, and I know the world is better for having them in it. 

Back in June, Quinn and I did a similar drive to La Crosse to the one this past weekend. My daughter and dog and I went out to stay at Barrett's for freshman orientation at UWL, where Quinn signed up for classes, got an (apparently short-lived) ID, and toured the campus. It's just over three hours by car from Milwaukee to La Crosse, and Quinn read to me for most of it. 

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki had been on my to-read pile for a some time, primarily because it had a female luthier character in it, and had been recommended to me by several people for that reason. It's an unlikely melding of genres that includes demons from hell contracting for souls, plus space ships, but also lutherie, violin performance, donuts, and the experience of a trans-woman character. We didn't finish the book on that trip, but we read a little more of it to each other at the cottage, and were determined to finish it on this recent trip. We didn't want to finish it without each other. We got very close on the actual drive, to the point where Quinn even offered to keep reading to me as we walked the dog around the neighborhood before actually approaching her uncle's house, but Barrett happily came bursting out to greet us and we set the book down. 

We went out to dinner and taught Quinn's uncle, aunt, and cousin how to play Wavelength (our latest fun family game) while we waited for our food. We had a great meal, headed back to the house where we helped tune a couple of unusual instruments, and then another walk with the dog. A lovely evening all around, but Quinn and I were also anxious to finally finish our book, and when we said our good nights to everyone and she was settled onto her bed in the guest space, I pulled up a rocking chair and read her the last couple of chapters.

Somehow for me that was the most fitting thing we could have done on this milestone weekend. Yes, it was good to see her dorm and meet her roommate and have lunch on campus together and share a tearful hug goodbye. But to be able to sit near Quinn while she lay in bed listening to my voice, engrossed in a story I was reading, felt full circle. 

I loved reading to my kids. When the books had pictures they would gather close on one of their beds and follow along. When we switched to chapter books, I used to read from the floor in the hallway between the rooms they occupied. We've read many books aloud in the car on road trips. I loved having Quinn read to me. I loved getting to read to her one last time before she was on her own.

When Quinn was three, her dad left for his second deployment to Iraq. Aden and Mona had school, but Quinn didn't yet and was disappointed. I took her shopping for her own school supplies and we set up a desk at the violin store for her to do "school work" while I repaired instruments. We referred to that setup as the "School of One" and Quinn had lots of papers and coloring supplies and she did a lot of map puzzles. To transfer any of those supplies back and forth from home she had a purple backpack.

 

She took that same backpack to college this past weekend. 

  

She's literally carrying her student history with her into this new phase of her education. It's been such an honor to watch her grow up. I hope she has what she needs. 

Moldfest!

 

That's right: Moldfest! 

I know it sounds to the uninitiated like an event that might go along with Mildew-mania or Radon-a-rama, but no, it was the second annual Mold-A-Rama/Mold-A-Matic enthusiasts gathering in Berwyn Illinois where fans of the fun waxy figures can meet and share and trade to help fill out one another's collections. 

We only happened to learn about the existence of the event a little over a week before it took place on Saturday, Aug 9th. I've been struggling to get our machine working after years of neglect, and I finally discovered a Facebook group where collectors meet, and asked for help. A couple of very nice people who own private machines themselves offered advice and answered questions. One of them asked if we were planning to come to Moldfest. Who knew?! We rearranged our vacation plans to include a stop at Moldfest on our way to Michigan, and we loved it.

To have things to possibly trade at Moldfest, we took a trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo, since they had a couple of new figures there anyway that we wanted. 

Our zoo is also in the process of closing its Small Mammals building, which is a shame because it's always been our favorite. It's the only place we've ever seen with a bat mold, so we wanted a couple of extras. Sadly the machine was not prepared to make a few in rapid succession and they devolved! (Which is simply amusing to display, so we're fine with it.)

 

 

The completely new figure from our zoo was the flamingos, and the stegosaurus, penguin, rhino and hippo are repeats in new colors.

 

In general, we've lapsed in our Mold-A-Rama hunting since the few places left we know of that we want to collect from are a bit far. Oklahoma City Zoo, for example, could be an easy weekend trip if not for the dog, and a trip there in summer sounds really hot. Maybe we'll figure it out for spring break?

In preparation for Moldfest we decided to literally dust off our collection of over 200 figures on our mantel and see what we have from where already. 

 

In doing so, we discovered that black Sharpie can fade completely away on that material. We mark the dates and places of where we obtain our Mold-a-Ramas on the bottoms of each figure in either silver or black depending on the color. Silver lasted, black did not. So Quinn went back through my blog posts to determine missing information to remark figures that needed it in silver.  

She also pointed out that I have not been good at documenting any acquisitions since Covid, so I'm going to take a moment now to catch up!

One of the challenges of collecting Mold-A-Ramas is that they come and go from certain locations. Brookfield Zoo is always reliable. But apparently the couple we picked up from The Dells we were smart to get when we did because they are gone again. Driving my oldest daughter back and forth to UW Stout includes passing The Dells, so in April of 2022 after visiting her for Easter on campus, the rest of us stopped at the Kalahari resort/water park to grab this elephant and giraffe.

 

In June of 2022 Mona and I visited our own zoo again to pick up this blue eagle, green otter, and silver seahorse. I don't know why our zoo did the seahorse, but it's my favorite so I'm glad! 

For Mona's birthday in 2022 we spent the day at MOSI in Chicago to visit an official Mold-A-Rama show! I intended to write a post about it, because it was great to see Mold-A-Rama history on display. Unfortunately I had a computer disaster and lost a ton of photos from that year. (Which included such memories as when we first met and adopted our dog, Domino, so I'm still sad about that.) A Mold-A-Rama show post with no photos didn't seem worth doing so it never happened.

At that event we picked up a white angel (which was finally explained to us as being an ornament, so I am not quite as irritated that it doesn't stand up well), green Christmas tree, green monorail (which is odd and always looks like a caterpillar to me at first glance), yellow chicks, blue ships, red Santa, and silver robot.

 

In June of this year, Quinn and I were in Detroit to spend time with my mom to help her recover from surgery, and we had the chance to finally visit Third Man Records at that location. It's ridiculous that we already had the Third Man figure (of one of Jack White's guitars) from Nashville, and didn't have the one from Detroit considering how often we're there. The Detroit Third Man machine makes a yellow truck.

 

Okay, back to Moldfest!

 

What a delight to be among other people with the same goofy obsession. Many people seem confused as to why collecting Mold-A-Ramas is appealing, but we didn't have to explain it to anyone that day in Berwyn. I even got to meet a woman in person from Tennessee that we sent figures to years ago, including a messed up corythosaurus (she likes the goof-ups) from our own machine, to help fill out her collection. Julie's long since surpassed us with over 600 unique figures, and I love knowing things we sent her are in that display.

Admission included a specially marked "Moldfest 2025" figure (choice of non-waving gorilla or piggy bank) and a BBQ buffet lunch. Quinn and I picked up t-shirts, a Moldfest T-Rex, and although there were some figures we didn't have that were available for sale or trade from other collectors, the fun for us is really in getting them ourselves as part of a family travel adventure.

The few figures we brought from our zoo weren't of interest to the kind of hardcore collectors (over 100 and from ten states!) that were in attendance at Moldfest, but we decided they fit in well with the things on the mantel at the cottage where we were ultimately headed.

A couple of days before we went to Moldfest, we were able to connect with a nice guy at a local hydraulic repair business who seemed intrigued by our machine. He took parts of it away to tinker with and use as a teaching tool for an apprentice, and the goal is to have the whole thing working again by spring. If we couldn't find someone in our area, we were prepared to drive our machine for a total rehab down in Florida, but with luck we won't have to do that. On the brief occasions where we've gotten it to work well enough for people use outside our store, it's been such a delight. At this point I just want the machine to be reliable enough that we can put it out on nice weekends, and we want to proceed with getting our own mold ideas made.

 

Aden has been playing with designs for a violin figure. It would be nice if the mold could include a bow, but that may be too complicated. We were able to take a 3D printed prototype to Moldfest where we got advice about how different parts need to be angled to work correctly, and now Aden's starting over with a fresh design that ticks more of the boxes we need before we can approach a mold maker.

 

It would be exciting to actually offer up a violin mold! If it works, we may create a Domino mold next. Maybe a little figure of her perched in her dog bed the way she hangs out in the window. Lots of possibilities, many of which I'm sure would be a hit at a future Moldfest. We'll let you know when we reach that step!

Who's a good little mold model? Yes you are!