Over the past three or four years, I've made it my personal mission to bring back Mold-A-Rama's machines to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Remember them? They were those gigantic retro relics from a better past that would spit out wax mold figurines of various zoo creatures. They were amazing. Not only were they molded before your very eyes, giving you a fun, memorable collectible that would last forever if you didn't leave it in a hot car, but their strong smell alerted all the other kids at the zoo to how cool you were and helped cover up the stench of the pachyderm exhibit.
I took the mission to bring back the Mold-A-Ramas very seriously. In fact, I even pressed Mayor Mick and Councilman Ed on the issue during our mayoral candidate Q&As back in 2014. This was Mayor Mick's response.
Yeah, Mayor Cornett totally dodged the question and popped the Monkey Ship member berries. It sunk during the great zoo flood of 1984. There were no survivors.
Councilman Shadid took our question a bit more seriously:
Score one for Ed Shadid! Apparently he did very well! Thanks to our question, he went into action and pressed zoo leadership to bring back Mold-A-Rama. It worked.
Via NewsOK.com...
The Oklahoma City Zoo is bringing back a guest favorite this year with the return of Mold-A-Matics, machines that make wax animals before your eyes.
The zoo removed the machines about eight years ago and there was a mild uproar from visitors who enjoyed collecting elephants, giraffes and lions, among others.
The zoo will have eight machines on its grounds with each dispensing a different animal. The machines have the look of the 1960's and 1970's. And there's a good reason for that. They are that old, though each has been restored and modernized to collect dollar bills. The machines made their debut at the 1964 World's Fair.
Wait a second. Mold-A-Matics? I thought they were called Mold-A-Ramas? Is this some sort of cheap, Chinese knock off, or is the Mold-A-Matic the Carl's Jr. to Mold-A-Rama's Hardee's? I guess I'll have a new question to ask our mayoral candidates in 2018.
Either way, we'd like to thank Ed Shadid, The Oklahoma City Zoo and ourselves for bringing the Mold-A-Whatever machines back to the zoo. It's the first step in making the Oklahoma City Zoo great again. I can't wait to collect them all.
