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<\/p>\nThe waxy scent that drifts up the escalators at the Los Angeles Central Library is immediately familiar to anyone who remembers the Mold-A-Rama.<\/p>\n
The novelty vending machines mold souvenir sculptures \u2014 a train car, a gorilla, a bust of Abraham Lincoln \u2014 in under a minute, filling a two-sided mold with hot plastic, then hollowing it out with compressed air.<\/p>\n
Christina Rice, the senior librarian who oversees the Los Angeles Public Library\u2019s photo collection, made it her personal quest to find and install one in the Central Library after a patron asked for pictures of machines at sites across the city, which disappeared in 2006 after their operator exited the market and sold them to private collectors.<\/p>\n
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The Mold-a-Central fills a two-sided mold with hot plastic, which is then filled with compressed air, to make a sphinx souvenir.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
At first, Rice wasn\u2019t sure what he was talking about, but when it clicked, \u201cit was such a strong visceral response,\u201d she said. \u201cI loved these machines when we would go to the zoo. It was a must-have every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the last mold she purchased was a black panther from the Los Angeles Zoo, shortly after she graduated high school. Other L.A. souvenirs included a replica bandshell from the Hollywood Bowl and a tiny pagoda from the Chinese Theatre.<\/p>\n
Rice saw an opportunity in the retro tech to get new people into the library or encourage existing patrons to explore other departments or collections.<\/p>\n
It was a hunch that took her six years to see to fruition, but the library\u2019s very own \u201cMold-a-Central\u201d now sits in the alcove of the lower fourth floor. Visitors can trade $5 for a small black sphinx, a replica of sculptor Lee Lawrie\u2019s Belgian black marble and bronze sphinxes that flank the north staircase on the library\u2019s second floor. Pittsburgh sculptor Brian McGuire<\/a> custom designed the mold and is also working on a replica of the 1926 Central Library building.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a hit. Visitors who\u2019ve been drawn by nostalgia or curiosity to see it \u2014 and smell it \u2014 for themselves have molded over 3,000 sphinxes so far. During the library\u2019s Centennial Festival in July, the machine had a consistent wait, churning out 255 figures in a single day. J.H. \u201cTike\u201d Miller, the Illinois inventor of the Mold-A-Rama, was inspired by a broken figurine in his nativity scene<\/a>. Department stores only sold them in sets, so he and his wife Shirley began making individual figures for sale in the late 1930s.<\/p>\n The Mold-a-Central makes sphinx souvenirs modeled after the black marble and bronze sphinxes that flank the north staircase on the library\u2019s second floor. <\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Olivia Gill, left, Ryan Gill and Thomas Gill use the Mold-A-Central. The souvenirs cost $5.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In the 1950s, Miller began making figurines \u2014 often of dinosaurs and space aliens \u2014 using plastic injection molding. When his company went bankrupt<\/a> in 1959, Miller licensed<\/a> the technology to Aramark, then known as Automatic Retailers of America Inc. It spun off a separate division for the venture and worked with Miller to produce the first Mold-A-Rama machines.<\/p>\n The concept debuted at the 1962 Seattle World\u2019s Fair<\/a>, with figures including the Space Needle and Alweg Monorail, then rolled out in several test markets, including Southern California. The Los Angeles Times described Mold-A-Ramas as \u201ca diabolical cross between a jukebox and a pinball machine\u201d that cost $3,600 apiece, or about $39,500 today. <\/p>\n After a bigger splash at the New York World\u2019s Fair in 1964, Mold-A-Ramas proliferated across the U.S., popping up in zoos, museums and anywhere tourists might exchange a coin for a toy.<\/p>\n Though Mold-A-Rama President Ben A. O\u2019Dorisio predicted a future in which they\u2019d eventually sell household goods and even apparel, high maintenance costs led Aramark to dissolve its Mold-A-Rama division<\/a> and sell its machines just a few years later.<\/p>\n Today, most operational machines are concentrated in the Midwest and the South, split between two companies that have amicably divided their territories: Illinois-based Mold-A-Rama Inc.<\/a> and Unique Souvenirs Inc. in Florida, which operates machines branded Mold-a-Matic.<\/p>\n Unique Souvenirs owner Tim Striggow bought the family business<\/a> from his grandfather, Eldin Irwin, who purchased several machines from Aramark and other operators starting in the late \u201860s and traveled with them to fairs and carnivals. It was Striggow\u2019s uncle who operated \u2014 and removed \u2014 L.A.\u2019s machines.<\/p>\n The Mold-a-Central has been popular, with more than 3,000 sphinxes made.<\/p>\n (Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Striggow sold Jack White two machines for his Third Man Records stores in Nashville and Detroit, and supplied the library with its machine. It cost $32,000 and is expected to pay itself through souvenir revenues within a couple years. As Mold-A-Rama and Mold-a-Matic are both trademarks, the library\u2019s machine is called Mold-a-Central for the Central Library and features new graphics by Studios Number One, Shepard and Amanda Fairey\u2019s design studio.<\/p>\n Though new to the library, the Mold-a-Central is still a vintage machine, and Rice knew that before she could persuade the library to invest in one she\u2019d have to find someone who could service it. She asked Gary Hall, general manager of Angels Flight, L.A.\u2019s 124-year-old funicular, who suggested one of its mechanics, Hirschel Riley.<\/p>\n \u201cHirschel agreed immediately, and I think it\u2019s safe to say he has fallen in love with our Mold-a-Central machine,\u201d Rice said. \u201cWhen we first got the machine and opened it up, my head nearly exploded and I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew, but for Hirschel, it\u2019s been a piece of cake compared to [Angels Flight].\u201d<\/p>\n Though the library offers 3D printing \u2014 a far more modern sculpting method \u2014 at its Octavia Lab, Rice finds even teenagers are interested in slide projectors and older technology during her photo collection tours, proving there\u2019s still space for the analog in today\u2019s digital world. She hopes Mold-a-Central will inspire a \u201cwhole slew\u201d of similar vintage machines to return to L.A.<\/p>\n They are out there. Quentin Tarantino told Variety<\/a> he had a production designer track one down for an opening shot of \u201cOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywood\u201d at the Chinese Theatre before he rewrote the script. After changing course, he stored it in his garage.<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786371250_917_.jpeg\")
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