Our first encounter with Mold-A-Ramas, affectionately known as MARs, happened at the Lincoln Park Zoo, in the Primate House. We are used to seeing souvenir penny machines everywhere, and we saw some of those too, but this was different.
A child looking for two dollars alerted us to the machine, and we were puzzled by it. Wondering aloud, an adult there with his girlfriend said "It's the best thing ever!" and he did not seem to be sarcastic at all.
The machine has a mold, and for two dollars it will send liquid into the mold and it will harden into a blow-molded plastic figurine. Our helper told us that there was also one at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Well, we had to try it. Maria put in two dollars and got a green gorilla. We could smell the hot plastic, and feel that it was still warm when it came out. It was pretty cool.
Our next encounter was at the Skydeck. As we were leaving we found two more MARs. I opted for the blue Abraham Lincoln, though I could have gotten a model of the Willis Tower as well. That is my main souvenir of the trip. I have not had the gorilla and Lincoln duel each other, because Maria took the gorilla to her classroom, but still, they could.
While this may not seem like much of a Chicago thing, it was a part of our trip. Also, it appears that there are only two companies making them, one of which is in Illinois (the other is is Florida) so that this was the first time we have seen the machines is not a coincidence.
They do have quite a following, with web sites listing where people find them and what they have. The mold and the colors can be changed out, and people will update that when Christmas figures come in, or zoo animals change to dinosaurs. It's pretty fun.
I will be keeping an eye out for more; we have a lot of places we want to go.
http://mold-a-rama.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MoldARamaLocations
http://www.moldamania.com/current-locations
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