A week ago I went to the Field Museum in Chicago for the first time with my boyfriend, and by far my favorite part was a little bit of electromechanical history that was tucked into some choice exhibits. What I’m talking about are the handful or so of Mold-A-Rama machines that the museum has, which for $3 spit out your own custom model of a dinosaur, monkey, or other such exhibit on display. These catch your eye for multiple reasons: the long lines, the loud gentle hum of the machine, and the little brightly colored figurines everyone around the museum is carrying. Not only that, but they all seem to be in perfect condition, despite being nearly 50 years old, and used daily.
The way that these machines work, is that after paying a small fee, it will put two metal blocks together to form a mold, and then inject ABS plastic into the gap between the mold to form the shape. Once this process is done, the molding blocks separate, and a cool little spatula scrapes off your injection molded figurine into a little collection bin. This is shown in the video below:
This video is from the famous and sprawling history of time exhibit at the Field museum, which chronicles the evolution on life on Earth in its entirety. It seemed fitting to thus get an injection molded T-rex as a memento of the whole thing. So, if you’re ever in a location with one of the 144 currently existing (thanks Wiki) Mold-A-Rama machines in the US, I would highly encourage you to get one, since it’s just a really cool snapshot of history. I’ve heard there is pretty cool space shuttle one out there too!
This also reminded me of a conversation I recently got to have with the head PM of Microsoft’s Garage in Cambridge, where I learned that he had made a public art installation in which a 3D printer printed out little rooster figurines and dispensed them for free to the public. I would like to think that something like that is the modern influence of the Mold-A-Rama machine, and I hope these continue to stick around for a long time.
