Leaderboard

https://www.thespruce.com/buying-blow-mold-yard-decorations-2736398

I just read this story and wanted to share. I hope this is ok to post.

Wow that is a crazy price by today's standard... Even the shipping was reasonable.

Yes, I have both the 100 count and 50 count minis and they are great, I have heard the 300 count strings work but don't last very long. I have now over 7,000 holiday time mini led bulbs and have only had one small issue. Best bang for your $$ in my opinion

With series bulbs the bulb voltage is chosen so that if you multiply the voltage by the number of bulbs it will add up to line voltage or approximately 120V. 43 X 3 is 129. If you replace all of them with 2.5V bulbs it will give you 107.5. This means you will be running them at a higher voltage than they were designed for. It just means the life of the bulb will be much shorter. I would not replace all of the bulbs at once. If you replace just one bulb it will mean that all of the other bulbs will only get a slight increase in operating voltage. It's much easier to replace just the one bulb and expect it to have a shorter life.

I make replacement noses If you end up buying them

Finally hit 20k this year. I have probably 4k inside with trees, leg lamp and village. I'll get the backside of the house tomorrow. Goal for next year is 25k. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

bought two sets for $50, got them, found out they only work on iPhone gen 5 or newer, sell was going to refund, said he had 37 boxes he did not know what to do with. I sail make me a good price he did bought a used iPhone for $50 lights for $370 included shipping right there are no other items,only some high priced color wash lights. and they took some features away in the software, but over all I am happy with them, we have about 400 feet of fence on front, they work great on it, and the hosue too hope to post pics when I have time

Dont forget Di electric grease...

Every year I try to add to my Christmas display. For 2019 I built a "Star Wars" Christmas Theme for my display. Darth Vader riding his sleigh with 2 Taun Tauns, BB8, Yoda, and a snowspeeder wrapping christmas lights around a AT-AT's legs.

We figured out the programming thing. Thanks for all the help and advice we got here. We went from knowing nothing about LOR a few weeks ago to getting ready to flip the switch on Friday. We have some other sequences done, but this was our first. 32 channels.

A 1955 newspaper picture with some of the Christmas items Spielbauer offered for the holiday. Note the Sculptoris choir boy and girl on the table we rarely see those anywhere. Mel

You are correct, Spielbauer was a distributor. Mel

Mold Craft produced 6 reindeer teams between their openeing in 1947 and their factory fire and eventual sell out to Heller in 1963. Heller coincidentally burnt too in late 1965 or early 1966. In the time Mold Craft was around there were really 2 "eras" of the company. In the early days (1947 to mid 50s) D*ck Wiken was head sculptor. 5 of the 6 Mold Craft deer teams were produces in this time. After he left to start his own company Sculptoris Inc. in the mid 50s, Mold Craft stopped selling items produced from his sculpts. This may have been for legal reasons or simply to offer a new catalogue of products. Regardless, after he left the only Mold Craft deer team that was produced is the most commen one (the one stamped 1958 and internally lit.) For that deer team a waving Santa was produced that could be ordered in standing or half body varieties. This deer team was marketed as "Junior Size Deer Team" even though Mold Craft only produced one size of team after Wiken left. There were 2 different "Junior Size" teams created BEFORE Wiken left, and the similar names create confusion. Since this set isn't part of the mystery and only makes things more confusing, we'll leave it out from now on. I want to focus on the 5 sets made before Wiken's departure from the company. They are as follows: White Junior Size Deer Team Brown Junior Size Deer Team No. 42-5 Life Size Deer Team No. 42-8 Life Size Deer Team (more on these in a minute) King Size Deer Team Now we have concrete evidence of the Santa's the two Junior Size teams came with. The white "Junior Size" team came with a small santa with a flat hat (see image 1.) This is the only Santa recorded being sold with this team. The brown Junior Size team came with a 6'3 waving Santa with toy bag, named "Santa Collosis". Unlike the other teams where Santa was in the sleigh, this santa was designed to stand beside the sleigh (which was full of gifts.) See the ad (image 2, sorry for the small pixel size) This is the only Santa recorded being sold with this set. The Life Size teams are where things get choppy. There were two Life Size deer teams. One involved deer with round, short faces. The other featured long faces, with little white dots on their backs. One of these was No. 42-5 and one was No. 42-8, but I havent found any catalog image that puts a certain number with a certain set. For this reason I will call them "Short Faced" and "Long Faced" Life Size sets. These sets both were sold with 3 Santas over the years. At one point, the "Short Faced" set was sold with a santa with his left arm in the air and his right arm accross his stomach (see image 3). The "Long Faced" set was sold with a Santa with his right arm in the air and his left arm off to his side, not molded into his body or accross his stomach (see image 4.) While having a similar hand position as "Santa Collosis", this Santa's left hand isn't accross his stomach, whereas the left hand of "Santa Collosis" was. Now somewhere along the line these sets both started being sold with a full body, over 6 ft. tall santa with real fiberglass beard (see image 5.) This santa is very clearly none of the Santas in images 1-4. So that's it for the Life Size teams right? Nope. Somewhere along the like a THIRD santa was sold with the two life size sets. This is a 6ft Santa with bag and is very clearly different from the other 5 Santa's we've discussed so far (see image 6.) The "King Size" team was sold with either a half body or full body (up to the buyer) "Santa Collosis" (see image 7) that was sold with the brown "Junior Size" team as well. With the large size of the deer in the "King Size" team it made sense and was to scale to have him in the sleigh instead of beside it like with the brown Junior team. But if you looked at the bottom of the ad for the third Santa sold with the "Life Size" sets, you'll see this Santa was sold with the King Size set as well. So it's no mystery how many Santas were made for use in sleigh teams by Mold Craft. Wiken-era Mold Craft made 6 Santas for its 5 sleigh teams and sold 10 combinations. Here they are: White Junior Set (flat hat Santa) Brown Junior Set (Santa Colossis) "Short Faced" Life Size Set (Left Arm Up Santa) "Short Faced" Life Size Set (Strung Fiberglass Beard Santa) "Short Faced" Life Sized Set (6ft Bag Santa) "Long Faced" Life Size set (Right Arm up Santa) "Long Faced" Life Size Set (Strung Fiberglass Beard Santa) "Long Faced" Life Sized Set (6ft Bag Santa) King Sized Set (Santa Collosis) King Sized Set (6ft Bag Santa) The mystery is the timeline. In terms of the Life Sized set, which came first? Each style's unique Santas, the strung fiberglass beard Santa or the 6ft one with the bag? Which came first with the King Size set? Santa Collosis or the 6ft Bag Santa?

Those molds are COOL and WEAPONS!!!!LOVE IT!! Thanks to the true hero,and true VET!! Thank you for your service!!!!!!!!

Yes it is. Mel

Had my yearly Clark Griswold moment this weekend. My main outlet out front I use wasnt working. Thought I popped a breaker. Nope. Reset the GFCI...nope. brought out my voltage tester. Had power on the line in for a while. Tested again no power at all. I was putting my leg lamp up a day later and it hit me. That outlet is controlled by a switch by the front door. Found out my 4 year old son had been flipping the switches. Needless to say that switch now has a piece of tape on it. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Get a stack of $$$$$ and tons of extra time lol. But for reals, Start by reading what you can find, and look for tutorials on YouTube. Maybe explain a bit what you already know, and what type of display you are trying to build, and we can help with more specific answers.

Mold-Craft did make both Rudolph and the antlered life size reindeer that were painted white. The faun colored Rudolph was their #52-SB and the faun colored antlered deer was their #52-A they also had antlered deer with a white flashing bulb nose #52-AB. The white painted Rudolph was their #52-SBW and the white painted antlered deer was their #52-AW. They also had the white antlered deer with a white flashing bulb nose available. The price was same for either color, the antlered deer with the white flashing bulb nose was $3 more then the antlered deer without the lighted nose. I do not have any information at this time for a white life size set but I do think that they must have sold them as a set also considering there was no difference in the price for the colors. As a side note, Mold-Craft referred to the "brown" colored reindeer as being faun colored in their brochure. Mold-Craft also made the Junior Reindeer in white. The white junior reindeer was #22-AW they also had this one with a white flashing bulb nose #22-ABW. The white painted Junior Rudolph was their #22-SBW. The faun colored Junior antlered reindeer was #22-A. The faun colored junior Rudolph was their #22-SB. The price was the same for either color of the junior reindeer. Mel

I put LED flame bulbs in them. I think it gives them a cool look. 656E83CD-2A5D-4C5E-BC21-03919C5BAC73.MOV

That is a stunning effect! Looks awesome!

Those are COOL!! LOVE the effect of the flame light!!

An honorable profession for anyone who takes pride in their work. I was only in the trade for about 15 years, we bought a business in 1974 to supplement the income but by 1977 the business was giving us a comfortable income and I left the electrical trade and spent the rest of my working years with the business. We retired in 1999 and have enjoyed retirement and blow molds continuously since then. At this time our blow mold collection consists of over 1000 with very few duplicates and my real interest these days is researching the history of the blow molds and the makers of them. Mel

Hey Donna, me also, the prices are NUTS!! I have thought of selling off the 200 molds we have,but it's our passion lol, dont let the price gouging keep you enjoying what you like:)

Hi Donna, I'm around at least for a while again. The snowman looks familiar but I can not find it in my files yet (if it is in the files). I know what you mean by nobody bothers to respond, that is why I left. People would ask for information and I would do what I could to help and then they didn't even acknowledge that they got thee information so I gave up on it. Mel

You can get plastic welding rods in various colors. Amazon has tons of them Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Does anyone have a picture of this mold in a catalog? Thanks!

I don't recognize it but the style reminds me of Drainage Products. It also has a bit of a TPI look. Obviously these are just guesses. I haven't ever seen a carrot mouth before. It's odd! TED

Your wish is the Chinese suppliers command but not in a corn bulb style. Here is a chip-on-board 110V, 500 lumen, white, E12 LED bulb. The killer is if you only want one for $1.56, the $2 shipping charge gets in the way but the shipping charge is the same if you order 10 at $14.77. That's about the same as you would pay a domestic seller for the corn bulbs. Delivery time is fairly quick compared to the ones with free shipping. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dimmable-COB-LED-GY6-35-G4-G8-G9-E10-E11-E12-E14-E17-BA15d-Lamp-bulb-Warm-White/172943361657?hash=item28443a4679:m:mUpk51-tpcrk6MJWLyjBdMg

I have my roof lights on and the palm tree was lit the other night, mostly because I forgot to unplug it after setup testing. I'll leave the roof on and turn the rest on after Thanksgiving. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

This is the tread last year. The main problem was and is the brightness of the C7 bulbs is not that great.

been working on this about 6 months off and on, more off than on. Now got to figure out how to move it. has wooden gears, about 12 rpm

I think I saw that ad or one for the same Santa. I certainly would not give that much for one in that condition. I think the most I would pay for that is 20 bucks. The only reason I'd go that high on one in that condition is because those are harder to find down here in the South. A lot of people who aren't familiar with blowmolds think that they are all worth a fortune. They don't get that most of them are common and only a few are worth a lot. Here's an example for you. A very common GF camel for $110 with the description stating that it's rare. https://memphis.craigslist.org/clt/d/memphis-camel-blow-mold-for-nativity/7012518304.html TED P.S. That's a Santa not a snowman!

Good point about thieves. I'm going to display it inside with the molds.

Menards SKU 2961616. $30. 30" it says

Per the press release from ABC, The Great Christmas Light Fight has been renewed for the next two years! Here is a sneak peek of this year's season. Any PlanetChristmas folks on it this year?

I agree totally it’s a hobby. I do it for the joy of seeing kids faces and the happiness my family gets from it. If I think it cost to much I pass on it.

For that price it would be cheaper to go online and buy an authentic 60s Union or Empire soldier. And that's even with Ebay's scam prices.

My wife love these hallmark Christmas movies we watched a new one Saturday and it had a lot of blow mold in back ground. The movie is called two turtle doves. Union gingerbread ( inside bakery), penguins, nutcracker, GFP huge C7 bulbs and candy canes. I think about half Christmas hallmark movie have blow molds in background.

One of our local secondary on-air channels cycles through the many years of Home Improvement . Nearly every time one of the Christmas programs airs you can see a variety of blow molds on the roof and at the front door. I would never have noticed that until I came to this site!

It's that time ,time to get off my butt, and think of what to do ..Hopefully add another mega tree this year, will have over 110 molds out. What is everyone else doing?

What? been working on Christmas 3 weeks😀😀

Hey @Chuck I am on quite a few other forums and one thing that I love about them is the way the front page is. Is there any way you could toss the idea up about having a page that lists the most recent thread that has been used? Half the time I get on PC, I don't have a specific reason, I just want to learn. If it was listed on chronological order, I could just see the most recently active posts and go into those specific threads. I have attached an image of an example.

I been using vampire plugs and SPT-1W wire for many years I had good luck with them. The wire is good up to 7amps I try to keep any one cord less than 5 amps = 600W. Below pictures are some of the cords I have made up and the parts needed to make more cords up. I would recommend trying it out. I use Action lighting for my plugs and holiday lights express for SPT-1W wire. If you want to try it out on small scale/cost go to action lighting order 100ft of wire and some in-line plugs. And see if you like the results. The choir stand uses one wire 40’ long with 24 in-line plugs.

'Simply having a wonderful Christmastime' by Paul McCartney makes me hurry to turn it off. Somehow it always comes on in the grocery store when I'm shopping and I wish I had ear plugs.

Picked this up over the weekend I was amazed at how heavy it was. He came with his original shovel but the guy threw in an extra since it was getting brittle I’m very happy to add him to my collection! I actually feel better having the holiday innovations model since the Poloron one is kind of brittle due to age!

Cool picture. Wonder why they cant make stuff like that anymore.

New to blow molds, lucked upon a set of Grand venture sleigh and 4 reindeer in an attic a few months ago , had always wanted a set. And now Im hooked....drove an hour to pick up a nativity set yesterday, but really slim pickings in my area. Then My father sends me a text with pics of all sorts of brand new General Foams at a store! There all new old stock, but at full retail and then some. Brand new in box flying reindeer $100, I saw a 20% off all lawn ornaments sign and considered it to add to the display...but ...asked clerk if blow molds were included, she looked at me like I was asking for her first born,,, and proceeded to tell me "ooh No". Last pic is my little set up going up..