These plastic Mold-A-Rama animals are about to go extinct

Richard Chin, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Oct 28, 2025

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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Paul’s Como Park Zoo announced some unhappy news Thursday morning that triggered a social media outpouring of nostalgia-tinged sadness.

It wasn’t the death of a beloved animal or the closing of a popular exhibit.

The bad news: The Mold-A-Rama machines are going to be removed.

The zoo’s four coin-operated automated plastic toy factories, the only public Mold-A-Rama machines in the state, have been a longtime fixture at the zoo, cranking out warm, freshly molded plastic gorillas, lions, sea lions and polar bears for generations of children.

But Mold-A-Rama Inc., the Chicago area company that owns and operates the machines, has decided to discontinue running the 60-year-old devices at the zoo.

Paul Jones, Mold-A-Rama Inc. president, said the Como Zoo Mold-A-Ramas pull in the fewest customers of the approximately 60 machines his company operates in places like the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

“It’s my smallest account, by far,” Jones said of the Como Zoo machines.

Jones said his plan is to move the vintage machines, which are no longer being manufactured, to an attraction that draws more visitors. He would not say where they are going.

“It’s strictly a business decision,” he said.

“I think they want to bring them down south,” said Matt Reinartz, marketing and public relations manager for the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory.

Reinartz said he expects the four machines, which currently charge $5 per freshly molded toy, to be removed sometime between Nov. 3 and Nov. 7.

“It is sad to see them go. It’s a part of Como’s history,” Reinartz said. “When I found out about this, my heart sank. This is a piece of my childhood.”

He wasn’t the only one sad to see the Mold-A-Ramas go.

When the zoo announced on Facebook Thursday morning that the last chance to get a Como Zoo Mold-A-Rama is just a few days away, nearly 3,000 people posted a reaction by mid afternoon Thursday.

“A lot of the crying faces,” Reinartz said of the emoji postings.

Typical of the more than 400 comments: “Wow, a part of my childhood is going away.” “The memory of the smell of the burning plastic when walking into the Como Zoo buildings will always stay with me.” “Nothing like the smell of fresh molded plastic — IYKYK."

“I’ve never seen our Facebook page light up as fast as when we made this announcement,” Reinartz said. “The nostalgia factor is over the moon.”

Reinartz said the zoo has also been getting lots of phone calls from people asking where to find the machines to get a souvenir while they still can.

Mold-A-Rama machines could once be found in dime stores, movie theaters, train stations, the Minnesota State Fair and many other tourist attractions.

But over the years these 3-D printers of the baby boomer generation have gradually disappeared.

After the Como Park Mold-A-Ramas are gone, the nearest location of a Mold-A-Rama machine will be at the Milwaukee County Zoo, Jones said.

“We’ll miss the Mold-A-Ramas. They’ve been molding memories for decades,” Reinartz said. But on the bright side, “It’s less plastic. That’s one positive thing.”

And, he added, the squished penny machines aren’t going anywhere.