Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks.
Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link.
But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm in even just reading the comments. That's cybersecurity expert Camille Stewart Gloucester on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Every season is a chance to grow, and the Therapy for Black Girls podcast is here to walk with you.
I'm Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford, and each week we dive into real conversations that help you move with more clarity and confidence. This episode, we're breaking down what really happens to your information online and how to protect yourself with intention. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, everybody. Chuck here on a Saturday. I hope you're enjoying some breakfast cereal and maybe watching cartoons on the telly. But maybe take a pause and listen to this curated episode from February 2018. What is Moldorama? I'm not even going to tell you what Moldorama is if you don't know. It's not gross. It's not something that lives on your walls when it's too humid.
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Chapter 2: What is a Mold-A-Rama and how does it work?
What do I know in my brain by heart? Because they have a little guitar you can take in there. And it was such a small room, and it was in the room with everything else. And I just got weirdly shy. Like, I don't want people to hear me. You got shy. Jack White made you shy, huh? Yeah, I didn't want to do it in front of people.
Like, if there was literally no one in there, I would have cut 10 records. Oh, I got you. You should have stuck your head out and been like, can you all just leave for a little while? Just trust me. Wow.
But anyway, this reminds me of those days gone by where you could cut your own record or, you know, they had these really cool machines at fairs and things that they just, I mean, now I guess you can still get your picture taken and printed digitally. Or the Penny Smasher that's still around, too. I see that compared to this a lot. Yeah, those are cool.
Not really, but still, it's an app comparison. I will just say I'm surprised that my brother doesn't have a Molderama in his basement. So I am too because there's a guy who collects these things called Moldville, and I saw videos of his collection. Did you see this? Yeah. It's like a warehouse full of mint-conditioned Molderama machines. This guy must be richer than an astronaut.
It's got so many of these machines. And you're right about it evoking the memories of a bygone era. But what's crazy, Chuck, is that these things are still in use today. You can find them all over the country. Yeah. And they're still working. And this is what's amazing to me. They are the original machines that were made for about a seven-year period during the 1960s.
Every mold-a-rama machine that you might encounter... including 10 at the Toledo Zoo, by the way. That's awesome. Were built in the 60s and have been operational ever since. Should we talk about the history? Well, first let me ask you this. Did you ever use a molderama when you were a kid? No. Oh, you didn't? No, and I'm dying now to go do one as an adult. So they're still around.
They're still around. They're still around. I actually, I got one. There's this thing in Toledo called, well, actually it's in Maumee, which is a suburb of Toledo, but it's called Children's Wonderland. And it's like this amazing 3D Christmas walkthrough diorama, basically, that just nothing can put you in the Christmas spirit as a kid better than Children's Wonderland.
And at the end of this, there was a mold-a-rama machine that, And it made a gold, smelly, plasticky angel. It was kind of boring, a boring Christmas angel. But it was mine, and I was so glad to have it. And I have no idea what happened to it. I'm sure it broke pretty quickly. But I was like, holy cow, I've had one of these before. I had no idea what it was called, that it was mold-a-rama.
But I looked it up, and I actually found the angel. Well, I think that's the cool thing about these as a kid is it's not putting your quarter in a gumball machine and seeing all those things and one of them falls out. Right. This is made just for you right in front of your face. Yep. Pretty cool. All right. So now can we go back in time? Yeah, yeah. I'm done. I'm done nostalgizing. All right.
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Chapter 3: What was the historical significance of Mold-A-Rama machines?
I don't know if maybe they sunk a bunch of money into these machines and it just didn't quite make it or what. But he was very successful. He had a line of plastic toys that kids would buy by the fistful at like the local Five and Dime or novelty store or something like that. And he had lines of like dinosaurs, I think toy soldiers.
But the one that really put his company on the map as far as kids were concerned were called Earth Invaders. Yeah. Also known as Miller Aliens. And there was a line of tons of them. But the one that is still today the most prized of all was the Purple People Eater. Oh, yeah. And it actually inspired that song from the 50s, which I didn't realize that song was quite that old.
But the song about the one-eyed, one-eared, flying purple people eater, that was based on Tyke Miller's creation from the 50s. I think it was the other way around. I don't think so. I think the song was based on the figure. It says here the purple people eater was inspired by the hit song. Oh, I read that as the opposite. Thanks. Good catch, Chuck.
I think that's the case, because that song was a big hit, and there were all manner of purple people eater souvenirs and things. Gotcha. It was a big business back then. Thank you for that one. No problem. We would have gotten some email from like three people on that. Tyke's great-grandson. Yeah. Little Tyke.
So in 59 or 60, they went bankrupt, and it was right around this time where he said, all right, I've got this idea. for an actual vending machine that could make these things on demand. And he was successful. He licensed this thing, actually, to what would eventually become AmeriMark, which everyone knows that company is still around.
At the time, they were called the Automatic Retailers of America. And he developed these machines with them. And in 1962, at the Seattle World's Fair, they premiered there doing little space needles and monorails. And Buddhas. And Buddhas for like 50 cents, which is about four bucks today. So it was not a little cheap thing. It's not like sticking a dime in a machine today.
Yeah.
Right. No, they were definitely expensive. But they were a huge hit at that Seattle World's Fair. That was what, 1962? Yep. So in 1964, at the New York World's Fair, they blew up. They went from a couple of machines in Seattle, I guess three machines in Seattle, to as many as 150 machines. at the New York World's Fair from 1964 to 1965.
And even more than just having that many more machines, they also had branded machines, right? So like if you were a company like Sinclair Oil or Disney, and you wanted to just kind of give people an extra little amazing experience, you could license and brand your own mold-a-rama and They had plenty of those at the World's Fair. Some pretty cool ones, too.
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Chapter 4: How did Mold-A-Rama machines evolve over the years?
And then these things also, because they put off these terrible fumes, they're kept outside. So they've been sitting in the elements for 50-plus years, and they still work. They're pretty well-built machines for sure. I think they've got some now that they have been able to move indoors. Yeah, from using a different type of plastic, I think. Yeah, it's crazy that these things had to be outside.
Yeah, and they still are. Most of them are. A lot of them have like kind of built-in little canopies over them or something like that. But if you look at the canopies, you can tell they're kind of new. They've been outside basically for 50 years. I'm so going to be on the lookout for these now.
Yeah.
So there is a website, Chuck, called Waymarking, W-A-Y-M-A-R-K-I-N-G.com. They have a comprehensive list of every single moldorama in use today in the United States. And they have like actual like longitude and latitude coordinates if you wanted to, I guess, geocache your way to them. Well, what I want is an app that will text me when I'm within 500 feet of one. Oh, that's a good idea.
There's a $10 app. And by $10 app, I mean you would make $10. Yeah. Although people are crazy for these things still, as we'll see. They're not in Atlanta, right? Not that I saw, no. But again, there's a bunch in Toledo. I found the machine that I almost certainly got my angel from. Oh, wow.
They keep it in storage at Tam O'Shanner, which is an ice skating rink in, I guess, a Scottish ice skating rink? I don't know. In Maumee, which is where they have Children's Wonderland. But I saw a picture of it, and now it looks like the most recent thing it makes is polar bears. And your DNA is on that machine still? In the form of a wad of gum. All right. Well, let's take another break.
We'll come back and talk a little bit about some of these fun figures and the people that are still trying to keep this tradition alive.
I'm Stephen Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com for your nearest Total Wines or BevMo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older.
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman'sCutBourbon.com.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges faced by Mold-A-Rama machines?
And it was this big machine that apparently he invented to put out in parking lots at like grocery stores. And it would take up about two parking spaces. And customers would come in and put in their used aluminum cans. And then the golden goat would weigh it and then give them some money in return. And then it would compact those cans.
And then later on, that aluminum would be sold as scrap for recycling. The thing is, this was years before the green movement was ever even thought of. That's how ahead of his time this guy was. And I don't think the golden goat ever made him a lot of money, but it's a pretty cool invention that this guy had. He was like one of those great Midwestern tinkerer inventor guys. Yeah. Hats off to him.
God bless all those people. Yep. So there you go. Nativity figures. Plastic. If you want to know more about Molderama, man, you can fall down a rabbit hole just looking at pictures of them on the Internet. So why don't you go do that? Take some time for yourself. Why do you always have to work, work, work? Since I said that, it's time for Listener Mail.
I'm going to call this just kind of a quick shout-out. We don't do these a lot because we get a lot of shout-out requests, but this one was adorable because it's a little kid. So this is from Jenny. She's the mom. She says, how about a shout-out for my son Jake? He listens to every episode more than once. He's got me and many others into the show, and we love it.
So young Jake is out there spreading the word, and we appreciate that, Jake. And you love the show so much. You named, well, not quite yet, but Jake says he wants to get a puppy and call it Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And he says this, most of the time he will be called Chuck, but when he does something wrong, I'll be like, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, why did you do that? Yeah.
Well, Jake, we have a really big surprise for you. If you will go to your back door, I think you're going to find something pretty special out there. No. I'm just kidding. No, we're just kidding, Jake. There's not a puppy at your back door unless your mom, Jenny, heard this beforehand and is the best mom in the world. Yeah. But your mom is the best mom in the world.
Yeah, that was pretty cool of her to write in and let us know. So way to go, Jake, for listening to us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you, Jake. Thank you, Jenny. We count, literally count on people like you to spread the word, so we appreciate it. Good luck with your eventual puppy, too, named Charles W. Chuck Bryant. When he's bad.
If you want to tell us about your cute kid, we want to hear about him or her. You can send us an email to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.
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