Okay, we’re getting our money’s worth out of this one: Andréa submitted it for the Gezeer tag (“Do these machines still exist?”). And the Oy. And as an LOL.
(Not Ewww, oddly enough)
But I’m posting it as a CIDU.
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Comics I Don't Understand 
Mold-a-rama is associated by those of us of a certain age with the production of molded plastic figures. Those of us who went to the ’64 Worlds Fair got a Sinclair Dinosaur made by one of these (or a close representative with an Apatosaurus). This “Mold”-a-Rama focuses on the “mold” a la Alexander Fleming, delivering a piece of bread that is very moldy. The green blob looks at first like it is supposed to be a dinosaur (eye on top left, horn on top right) perhaps reminiscent of Bob and Ray’s Chocolate Wobblies, but it is the shape of sliced toast. green, and with a few flies (that I do not associate with moldy bread).
I went to the Fair twice, and don’t recall this at all.
Of course, that could simply he that my parents were’t going to pay money for mold. They were funny like that sometimes.
It’s simply that the dad thinks the “Mold-a-Rama” will mold an animal (yeah, geezer tag i guess). But instead “Mold-a-Rama” is just a vending machine that sells…. mold.
In other words, it didn’t actually make an animal or make something resembling a moldy piece of bread. It simply sold you … mold.
My favorite was the wax Lincolns at the Chicago Museum of Science
BobMyFormerLibrarianBoss sent me this . . .
Check out this “history” of Mold-A-Rama in Chicago:
Andréa, no link in your message.
Does anyone see the video that I see?
@ carlfink – It appeared for me (but with a short delay), maybe it depends on your connection.
I loved my Sinclair dinosaur.
The oddball TV show Wonderfalls from years ago had a similar machine. When the inanimate figures start talking to the main character, a deformed lion from the machine was the first.
The highlight of the Fair must be the Belgian Waffles.
I noticed Tracie Thoms in a current TV program, and remembered her from Wonderfalls.
When Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida first opened it had machines that for around a dollar would dispense a injection molded animal on a pedestal with the parks name on it.
Sinclair — donosaur and all — is still around. Who knew?
I can remember these machines vaguely. Maybe at Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. They always came out slightly warm and still deformable. I don’t know if the machines still exist or not, but Bill’s title certainly deserves a geezer tag. And maybe an earworm tag, too.
They still have them at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago
. . . except now they’re called Plethorasaurases . . .
I’m about 90% sure I’ve seen one of those machines somewhere here in the Twin Cities within the last eight or ten years — probably at a zoo or at the State Fair. I didn’t try it out. (Since I always choose paper when asked “paper or plastic,” maybe I should be holding out for a paper-molding machine anyway?)
Marshal is right about Busch Gardens in Tampa having them a long time ago, and even as recently as 8 years ago, so I’d assume they still do. The Field Museum in Chicago still has them now.
The smell brings back memories for me, as my parents used to indulge us (pretty sure it was only 25 or 50 cents back then). They’ve gone up to at least a dollar or two these days.
Bill – I have a vague memory of them. Your parents sound like mine. Discounted admission tickets, brought a big picnic lunch, dinner at Brass Rail, and visited all the free attractions?
(Years later I was in Manhattan – one of the first times alone – and I was several members of my House Plan – who were even less acquainted with Manhattan alone (a couple of them at all) and we did not know where to eat affordably – and there it was – a Brass Rail restaurant and I “saved the day” based on my visits to the World Fair.)
Meryl, I’m at a loss about what “I have a vague memory of them. Your parents sound like mine. Discounted admission tickets, brought a big picnic lunch, dinner at Brass Rail, and visited all the free attractions?” refers to.
EDITED TO ADD: Oh, you’re referring to the fact that my parents wouldn’t spend money for mold? That’s just rational behavior, though, isn’t it? I mean… it’s mold.
One thing I taught my kids: it’s fine to spend money, but not to waste money.
(And for the record, I don’t think we ever went on a picnic when I was growing up)
Only picnics we ever went on was a for a few years my dad and his 2 brothers plus families would meet in a park in Queens on the edge of Nassau and the three brothers (the dads) would bring grills and cook. Strangely we went to this park because my mom went there as a girl with her parents – they would drive out from Brooklyn to go to “the country” – which it definitely was not when we went there – or today (we drive past it when we come home from a trip if we go one of the ways we travel.)