by NASA’s space shuttle returned to orbit this fall after a 15-month hiatus — and this time, it was bright blue.
The new space shuttle orbiters have been on the rise for decades, with the first orbiters being achieved in 1981, but this time they’re launching from Chicago.
“Mold-A-Rama: Molded for the Future” exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), tells the story of the beloved retro machines, which make plastic figurines right before your eyes. For over 60 years, Mold -A-Rama machines have housed hundreds of collectible plastic innovations, giving guests a glimpse into mass production,” read a release about the exhibit.
Now entering its second year on display, the MSI gallery has recently added to the space shuttle, replacing a model of the Washington Capitol building in September. But the exhibit is just the latest “mission” for the space shuttle model, which was introduced the same year NASA’s space shuttle took off for the first time.
Related: NASA space shuttles: Where are they now?
“Creating the space shuttle using a two-piece mold is a pretty difficult thing,” said Paul Jones, whose father founded the company Mold-A-Rama, Inc. in 1971. now, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “There was a lot of discussion between Eldon Irwin and my father Bill Jones about how to split the shuttle.”
Irwin designed the “space shuttle over Earth” model, and chose to split the orbiter down the middle. As the story goes, he made the model with the intention of placing machines at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 launch, but ran out of time. Instead, the “space shuttle over the Earth” debuted at a visitor center in Florida along the state turnpike.
The model is called the “space shuttle above Earth” because the winged orbiter is positioned at an angle on top of a hemisphere base with cloud and continent data. In addition to capturing the general shape of the spacecraft, the model also includes the shuttle’s front windows, payload bay door seam lines and even the “United States of America” markings along its sides.
The Mold-A-Rama machine makes the shuttle just like any other model, including animals, famous buildings, aircraft, trains and trademark characters like Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Universal Studios’ Frankenstein’s monster. After entering the fee (at MSI, it’s $5), the machine comes to life, using hydraulics to push the two sides of the mold together before injecting the hot plastic. After holding the mold together under pressure long enough to set the plastic, the two sides separate and an arm extends to push the finished space toy into a slot for the user to collect.
The whole process takes about a minute to complete.
“The space shuttle above the Earth model is a great design and with a little imagination you can get a physical representation of the shuttle orbiting the planet,” said Brad MacKinnon, a Michigan-based Mold-A-Rama collector who has traveled around the country to the world. add to his collection of over 580 Mold-A-Rama toys. “This model in particular is a fun way to get kids thinking about space travel.”
Irwin’s company, now run by his grandson under the Mold-A-Matic brand, operates machines throughout Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Ohio (Jones’ Mold-A-Rama machines are in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas) . Unfortunately, neither company has clear records of where the Irwin space shuttle was available or in what colors it was offered and when.
“It’s easier to move or change a mold or a machine than to change the color of the machine’s plastic,” Jones said. “The history of the models is not recorded and because it was run in different places and many colors it would be very difficult to date.”
Jones estimates that there are about a dozen metal models of Irwin’s designs. His company acquired one set (now in use by MSI), Mold-A-Matic still has some and some were sold to private collectors. Shuttles produced from the molds are known to exist in a full spectrum of colors, from black and white to multiple shades of red, orange, yellow, blue, green and violet, as well as silver, bronze and gold.
Before MSI, the space shuttle above the Earth model was cast in bright red plastic at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan from February to June 2022.
Irwin also designed a model with a shuttle coupled to its external tank and solid rocket booster while Jones designed one that still set a record for the largest model. The latter is distinguished by having plastic injected from its base, so as to include the orbiter’s landing gear.
Other Mold-A-Rama space-themed models included Mercury and Gemini capsules, an Apollo lunar module, an astronaut and a Titan IIIC rocket. Despite NASA retiring its shuttle fleet in 2011, Mold-A-Rama continues its offering, albeit with less demand than before.
“A space shuttle model tends to sell well. It’s never dominated a sales pitch – at least not for us,” Jones said. “Sales seem to be slow and the shuttles are no longer flying.”
Still, Jones sees a future for Mold-A-Rama’s space-themed models.
“If we were to start any new space project it would probably be the SpaceX Dragon,” he said, noting that MSI added one of the spacecraft to its collection a year ago.
Click through to collect space to watch the Mold-A-Rama machine in action making a space shuttle over a plastic model of Earth.
Continue collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collect SPACE. Copyright 2023 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
