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Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket!
What if I told you to picture a vintage blow mold, would you comment below the very first idea that popped into your mind. I'm going to wager that it would either be something vintage Christmas (maybe Santa or a giant candle) or Halloween (maybe a black cat or a witch.) Maybe even something marked Empire plastics, or something other than the two companies I'm talking about today. Hard to find are the really well-made thick blow molds pre-2000's by companies who made them. Today's yard art and garden decor has taken on a whole new lighter plastic and sometimes the eggs blow clear across the lawn. I understand and support the whole "eco friendly" movement, but still, it's not fun at all to chase them all the time.
I'm pretty certain that the Easter Egg was not the first thing on your mind. However, easily overlooked and underthought as a glorious blow mold. It's hard to imagine that the garden decor and vintage yard art "big eggs" of decades ago were made so well.
These examples, are indeed, blow molded. So. let's dig deeper. These eggs above came from a late 1980's estate and are marked General Foam Plastics Company, Norfolk, Virginia, yet they are not actually foam at all. They are hard plastic with distinct molding lines. Heavy for an egg if you will. The small ones are about 8" long and the large ones about 12" long. The company is still in business and has been producing fantastic plastic and blow molds since 1957! The good news about these decorations is they will implant and stay put in your yard. Easy to clean and durable, they have lasted almost 40 years now.
Now these smaller eggs look exactly like the egg molds used in Norfolk, but they are marked Grand Venture (circa 1998) and are actually a line from Falcon Plastics of Washington, Pennsylvania. The larger eggs definitely stand out versus their competitors, as they have a bunny on the egg! Falcon made a crap ton of holiday blow molds however this "division" of the company was short-lived lasting only ten years. Well, technically speaking--there is some confusion as to this matter.
There is , I'm happy to report, still at the time of this writing, a Falcon Plastics on Wylie Avenue in Washington, PA, which I'm assuming is the main central hub for the six or so molding factories they still do own across the nation, (and their website at the time of this writing boast they have been in business since 1975). The words "blow molding" can also be found on their sites.
That leave two theories. First, according to the website "Blow-Molded" these particular style holiday molds seem to have disappeared after 2005. This could mean the company is correct, but the actual molds of the holiday lines were sold or parted off to another plastics manufacturer who at least, acquired some of the molds. The second theory is that it's an altogether different company with the same name in the same town, who was around the same time, yet, I don't believe in such coincidences, do you?
The one thing that's great to see on the Blow-Molded site is the fact they have digitized the actual blow molded catalogs from this company and the one above of Christmas, Halloween, and of course the Easter Egg molds as for the nifty eggs above. I'll link these great eggs below for you to visit their site and relish in the glory of the blow molds!
This acquisition style information is not that unusual. Often times due to the market growth and either demand or lack thereof for said plastics, it wasn't uncommon for one manufacturer to merge or acquire another. This holds true with molding machinery dies and presses and the molds. The molds must have been the diamond in the rough. If someone was facing financial crisis, the most economically sound thing to do was to call a competitor to sell out what you could. In this case, I assume maybe it was no longer profitable for the Grand Venture line of Falcon Plastics to continue, so it may have used some decision making.
What's interesting is to think if the company was only around ten years, how many eggs marked Grand Venture are still in existence in people's attics or basements? Does your grandma have these on her lawn? If so snatch one up and look at the markings!
The backstamp of the Grand Venture line of blow molds. Source: RetroChalet , Etsy
How many have ended up in landfills? Too many, probably, to count. That's why I'm offing my eggs to someone who can appreciate them.
So, tell me, what fond memories of blow molds do you hold? Do you have any in your home or decor now? What is your favorite all time blow mold?
Further Reading:
You can see them on Blow-Molded.com here.
Happy Collecting!
Cindy
Editor and Owner of Melmac Central
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