Disneyland Toy Factory Mold a Rama Machine
D23 Destination D 2014 at Walt Disney World is “demoing” a really old school plastic injection Disney Toy Factory Mold a Rama Machine.
Basically, you drop in a quarter and watch a Mickey being molded/made right then and there!
Here is it in action at the D23 event …
Or see it in action at a restorer – without the plastic cover and all the different Disney figures you could collect (you had to paint them yourself).
And of course, everything you’d want to know about Mold A Rama’s. (I missed that era that added RAMA to everything. 🙂 ).
30 November 2014
7 Comments
When I was a kid in the 60s my mother worked at a department store here in Kansas City called Gambles. They had one of these machines at the front of the store. Being an avid Disney fan I would have a quarter with me at all times when visiting the store. I had at least 7 different characters, my favorites being Peter Pan and Jiminy Cricket. My mother got to know the vendor that changed the molds so she would let me know when there was a new character. I got to be there as each one was made. And they are paintable. My mother painted them all for me. I spent many hours playing with these suprisingly durable figurines, that is, until my younger brother buried them in the backyard.
Thanks for showing this post. You have taken me WAY BACK. I have often talked about these machines to people that have no idea what I am talking about. Here’s proof they do exist.
(MET: Very cool! Sounds like a pesky younger brother. 🙂 ).
I doubt you could really “paint” them, the ones I have from childhood (from the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village) are a form of hard wax, not plastic. I also have a Sinclair “Dino” the Dinosaur.
I remember them as wax also, but the graphic on the machine does read, “and you can color them too”. The sample gray mouse appears to have some white detailing. Maybe crayon could be used?
(MET: The video at the other site seems to show dozens of figures painted … maybe that’s rare?).
@Met; the dies are simple injection molding dies, and could be used to make plastic parts as well — in a separate machine though. The painted samples are likely made that way to spruce up the machine itself. The coin operated machines I have seen are all wax based toys. The wrapped blue lines on top are cooling hoses, circulating cold water through the dies so the wax hardens fast enough to eject the parts cleanly.
Quite often we would do ‘test shots’ on new tooling in a softer plastic like ABS, and then make production parts in the harder material like glass filled Delrin.
(MET: Interesting – thanks!)
There are several of those old school mold machines at the Como Zoo in St. Paul, MN. They still use the same animal molds from when I was kid.
But you DIDN’T miss the era where everyone added the lower case “i” prefix to everything!
(MET: That era I remember, not as fun as ‘rama.’ 🙂 ).
Or the era where you added “Like” to the beginning of everything.