(no subject)

[phosfate]

So I sent off for a red Wax Lion, like the one from Wonderfalls. He arrived yesterday. I can see why the producers were so enamored of him*. He has a sweet, intelligent face, and looks like he could talk if he really wanted to. He reminds me of the understudy Lion in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that had a boycrush crush on Aslan: "Did you hear that? He said 'us lions!'"

This Lion starts talking to me, he's going into a double-boiler, STAT.

The wax isn't quite wax and isn't quite plastic, with a slightly soapy texture. The TV version is more opaque, no surprise since he's CGI a lot of the time. This one is thin and takes on a glow if there's any backlighting nearby.

There is also a rare, insanely expensive Wonderfalls promo lion, with smooshed face, that was sent out to TV critics when the series started. He's cast in resin, and may or may not be solid.


*Background: Wonderfalls Lion comes from something called a Mold-A-Rama machine. They were common in the 1960s. You put in your quarter (or however much it was), and the machine would produce a brand-fresh, injection-molded waxy/plasticy figure while you waited. The pieces are thin and somewhat fragile, but they have a Marx plastic molded toys aesthetic that you don't see often nowadays, except in those tiny bags of fluorescent dinosaurs and green army men. There are still working machines around, reportedly the LA Zoo, the Brookfield Zoo, et al. Animals and dinosaurs seem to be the most common subjects, but you'll also find train engines, astronauts, etc.

Should you not have access to a machine, Mold-A-Rama figures turn up on eBay a lot, prices ranging from pretty much nothing to OH DEAR JESUS. Colors are in the smallest Crayola box range.

I find myself fascinated by the whole business in the same way I was when I first encountered a pressed penny machine. "Such wonders exist? Why was I not informed?"

Comments

Mold-A-Rama

[danakate.livejournal.com]

I think I know what you mean by a Mold-A-Rama machine. I have very vague memories of seeing and using one when I was a very small child in Oklahoma. We traveled around a lot, so perhaps it wasn't in Oklahoma. In any case, I remember a red rhino. I also remember the smell. There was definitely a peculiar melted plastic smell to the things that I'd probably recognize today if I went near one of those machines today.

Re: Mold-A-Rama

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I have read of The Smell. Also, they were supposed to be freshly warm when they came out of the machine?

Re: Mold-A-Rama

[danakate.livejournal.com]

I want to say yes but I don't know if my memory is true or I'm just...projecting really hard. I really don't remember much at all. I think I know what one looks like, but again, memory is strange.

Re: Mold-A-Rama

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Here's a rhino, but he's sort of bronzy:

http://www.rickkoch.net/rkoch2378.JPG

Re: Mold-A-Rama

[danakate.livejournal.com]

Those look to be the things I remember. I have a distinct memory of this really red red and this weird teal green thing.

[snacky]

Dear Ann,

You won't be hearing my voice, don't worry.

You will be finding many love-filled post-it notes scattered around the house. Also, please do some dusting.

Your friend,
Wax Lion

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I dusted last year, you anal-retentive bastard!

[mindset]

I have a white Mold-A-Rama Space Shuttle I got from the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry about 8 years ago. Last I was there, they had at least 3 or 4 different machines, each producing a different object (train engine, something else I don't recall). There was also, I believe, a dolphin Mold-A-Rama at the Shedd Aquarium. No idea if it still exists.

Yes, the thingies do come out warm (in fact, the machine says not to open until the warning light goes out), and smell vaguely like melted crayons and something else. IIRC it cost me about a dollar, possibly two.

They also have penny-pressers at the MSI and other locations around Chicago. Useless but fun. :)

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

Yep. They still have them in Chicago (http://mcdermot3.home.mindspring.com/Moldarama/Moldarama2.html). This other (long) list hasn't been updated in three years, but it's still fun (in a geeky way) to look at the pictures (http://www.moldaramaville.com/).

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

A machine that would turn ordinary household objects into exciting action figures would be a great party game.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

It already exists, and it's called "duct tape."

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

I remember those Mold-A-Rama machines. When I was a kid, we'd come into Houston downtown and go to the top of the old Humble Oil Building because at the top was an observation deck. They had one of those machines there - it molded an oil-drop man, Humble's icon. I had that one and another, a dinosaur from Sinclair Oil. Of course, now both of those companies are long since gone. I am old.

They are right about the smell. It was a bit like melted crayons.

All that aside, I never saw Wonderfalls and don't have a clue about it. I hear it was a Fox show, that explains much.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

It was cancelled after 4 episodes, though there are many more in the boxed set.

You would like it, I think.

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

What was it about?

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Jaye lives in Niagra Falls, and works at a gift shop called Wonderfalls. She is not what you'd call a people person, and so not particularly happy working retail, but a girl -- even an ivy league graduate -- has gotta eat. One day, a lady buys a lion out of the Mold-A-Rama machine, but it comes out smushed. Lady tries to get her money back. Lion (!) tells Jaye not to give it to her. That's the first five minutes.

crantz says to tell you: "Random objects tell a girl to do things. Sometimes it ends well"

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

A year r two years ago, they ran 13 episodes (http://www.logoonline.com/shows/dyn/wonderfalls/series.jhtml) of it on Logo.

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

Curiouser and curiouser.

Oh, and speaking of something totally different...have you seen this yet?

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

I saw the ad for 'em. Love it!

[smuu.livejournal.com]

I LOVED that show. Jaye is one of my favourite heroines of all time, period. I'm so glad Bryan Fuller finally has his hit in Heroes, 'cause he really deserves it. Talented guy.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I don't have any anymore, but I had a few of those from the LA zoo as a kid, and saw the machines still there the last time I went, which was like nine years ago.

Bruce has a dolphin from the Chicago zoo.

wax lion

[webcr.livejournal.com]

How/where did you send off for this at/to? I'd like to get one for my wife.

Re: wax lion

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Do an eBay search for "mold-a-rama." The yellow lions seem to be more common, but the red ones turn up as well.

There's also a really rare, Wonderfalls-specific smushfaced lion made of resin that was done as a promotional item. If you can find one, prepare to pay the earth for it.