Remember those wacky waxy animals you could watch being made in a space-age machine with a bubble glass top at the Brookfield Zoo? Turns out those machines are still around! I was beside myself when I went to the zoo yesterday with a friend and her two little girls and discovered that Mold-O-Rama is still in existence! A link to my childhood is preserved, and as long as Mold-O-Rama is there, I am a child at heart.
The process that creates those animals is injection molding (which I remember doing in 7th grade Industrial Arts to a less-amazing effect, though my mom still pretends to this day that she adores the napkin holder I made.) You watch the machine's molds close, and then the mold splits, and you see your blue dolphin or orange lion or white polar bear appear, and then the best part: this spatula appears to slide your mold off of the machine and into the receptacle, where you lift the little door and CAUTION! WAX MAY BE HOT! which indeed it is, but you scoop out your animal while risking third-degree burns anyway, because you're so excited to get your little dolphin into your waiting hands!
Brookfield Zoo has changed since the last time I've been there, which has to be over 20 years now. It's all Pottery Barn decorated--the Australian wombat had a tasteful terra cotta pot tipped on its side in his habitat, for example. There's all sorts of interactive crap for kids, too. Heaven forbid you should look at a real Mexican Grey Wolf when you can scoot a little metal wolf on a grooved table which flashes digitized facts as the wolf goes by so you can learn all about its habits, or you know what, let's just scoot the little metal wolf around on the table and skip that pesky, time-wasting learning part! It's funny--nobody really wants to experience things through their little naked eyes; let's look through a giraffe-shaped periscope at the giraffes, or pull down a little flap to spot a leopard instead!
My favorite animals are the Big Cats, of course, distant cousins to my adored Oskee. It was eerie to see the Big Cats doing things my Little Cat does: a snow leopard was licking a paw, the lion was bobbing his head up and down as he napped, and the tiger was pawing at the walls, bored out of his mind. Oskee does all of those things.
It was a gorgeous day outside and I thoroughly enjoyed strolling around the zoo. The world is filled with amazing creatures, whether you look at them straight on or through a little digitized display unit that kids bang around on. ;-)
Profit!
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Hey, remember when I trash picked a Steiff bear? Finally sold him for $100.
Why, if I do this every day, I'd have a career going!
7 years ago
3 comments:
As I recall from MY childhood, those things smelled "funny".
By "funny", I mean bad.
By bad, I mean "moldy".
I never did like those things.
There's nothing like the smell of hot wax scorching the tender flesh of your little 5 yr. old palm! It was exciting!
My girlfrind, her pairents and I just whent to the Millwalkie Zoo, my self for the first tme.
I went with the intention of finding at least one working Mold-O-Rama and found not just one but 13 working Mold-O-Rama's.
There might have been mor in the only exsibit that was not open (the Dino's) but no one in the office could conferm it.
I hope this info helps you keep the kid in you and in any one else that findes it alive and kicking.
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