Thousands of Memories Still Glowing: Inside Nick’s Lifelong Blow Mold Obsession

He bought his first blow molds for $1 each as a kid. Today his collection numbers in the thousands. The Hoarding for the Holidays collector talks restoration, television, auctions and why the old Poloron and Beco pieces still matter.

By Curtiss Wayne Andrews

There was a time when vintage blow molds weren’t vintage.

They weren’t “collectibles,” either.

They were Christmas decorations.

They sat outside houses.

They got rained on.

Snow piled against them.

Kids knocked them over.

Parents shoved them into garages sometime after New Year’s Day, where they waited patiently for another Christmas.

And if you happened upon a few old ones at a flea market?

Apparently, you could buy them for a dollar apiece.

Nick remembers those days.

Very well.

Because that’s essentially how his collection started.

From a $1 Flea-Market Find to Thousands of Blow Molds

While putting together The Glow That Won’t Go Out: The Complete Collector’s Guide to Vintage Holiday Blow Molds, I wanted to capture something that’s difficult to communicate unless you’ve spent time around serious collectors:

This hobby can get completely out of hand.

I mean that affectionately.

One Santa becomes two.

Then you need a snowman.

Then you discover that Empire made six versions of something you thought was one version.

Then somebody mentions Poloron.

Eventually, you’re standing in a building surrounded by several thousand pieces of molded Christmas plastic and explaining that, technically, you don’t have a problem because some of them still need repairs.

Nick understands.

Readers of The Glow That Won’t Go Out may remember him from the section about Hoarding for the Holidays. In the program’s first episode, A Real Life Elf, he appears surrounded by an extraordinary collection of vintage holiday decorations.

There’s also a smaller detail I mentioned in the book that collectors probably appreciated.

Nick wore the hobby.

Literally.

His gray shirt read:

“Plug In Those Vintage Blow Molds and Light Up Your Christmas.”

It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate wardrobe choice when you’re being filmed in the middle of a blow mold collection. Want that shirt or one like it? Click here.

But the brief appearance in my book left me wanting to know more.

How does someone accumulate a collection numbering in the thousands?

What’s it like letting a television crew into that world?

And perhaps most importantly, how do you keep all that aging plastic alive?

So I went back to Nick.

Here’s our conversation.

A Conversation With Nick of Saint Nick’s Display

How did you first get started collecting blow molds?

Nick: I first got started collecting blow molds when I was about six or seven. I was going around to the local flea market and happened to see a vendor selling some for a buck each.

Yes, only one dollar.

At the time I saw them and was amazed by the size of them. I didn’t even realize they lit up until I got them home.

My collection consists of several thousand decorations. Not all are used due to needing repairs, but I try to put out what I can each year.

My favorites have to be anything made by Poloron or Beco—the original OG blow mold companies from the 1960s.

Let’s Stop at “One Dollar” for a Moment

There are younger collectors reading this who may need a minute.

One dollar.

Today, collectors can spend considerable money chasing desirable vintage pieces.

Nick’s childhood introduction to the hobby happened in another universe.

He wasn’t studying sold listings on his phone.

He wasn’t competing against twenty-seven other people who had received the same Marketplace notification.

He was a kid at a flea market who saw some enormous plastic Christmas decorations and thought they looked cool.

Then he brought them home and discovered something even better.

They lit up.

That’s the kind of experience that creates a collector.

And it points to something I kept returning to while writing The Glow That Won’t Go Out.

For many collectors, this isn’t fundamentally about monetary value.

It’s about memory.

A particular Santa can transport someone back to their grandparents’ lawn.

A snowman can look exactly like the one that stood beside the driveway every December.

You aren’t merely collecting plastic.

Sometimes you’re buying your way back into Christmas when you were seven years old.

Nick just happened to start doing it while he actually was seven years old.

When HGTV Comes Calling

Nick’s collection eventually became large enough to attract attention beyond the blow mold community.

He appeared in Hoarding for the Holidays, where viewers got to see both his indoor and outdoor Christmas displays.

But the invitation didn’t initially inspire excitement.

It inspired suspicion.

How did Hoarding for the Holidays discover you?

St. Nick's Display from Hoarding for the Holidays

Nick: I was found for the show Hoarding for the Holidays through my display page on Facebook, Saint Nick’s Display.

They randomly sent me a message one day in the spring, which I originally thought was a spam message and almost ignored.

I can say, having dealt with other shows that were less than stellar to me, I was extremely impressed by HGTV and Exit 4 and all the crew for how professional and kind they all were to me.

It felt like being with friends during the filming.

They were so helpful and even let me tell them how I liked things done.

I couldn’t have been happier with how they filmed us and treated not only me but all my family and friends. They are A-plus people, and I’d work with them again.

Were you happy with the final show?

Nick: I was extremely happy with the final product.

It showed my indoor display and my outdoor display.

And even the mucky places I’d go for Christmas decorations!

That last part matters.

Because every serious collector knows the beautiful display is only half the story.

Nobody photographs the crawlspace.

Nobody makes an Instagram Reel celebrating the moment you climb over fourteen storage totes because you’re convinced the missing light plate is in the box against the back wall.

Nobody sees you standing in mud negotiating over a faded Santa that appears to have spent the previous decade beneath somebody’s porch.

Television usually wants the spectacle.

Nick appreciated that this production captured more of the actual world surrounding the spectacle—and treated the people in it respectfully.

Keeping Thousands of Blow Molds Alive

Having several thousand vintage decorations creates another issue:

Several thousand vintage decorations eventually become several thousand aging vintage decorations.

Paint fades.

Surfaces weather.

Plastic gets damaged.

Parts disappear.

That’s how Nick became interested in restoration.

What got you started restoring blow molds?

Nick: I got into blow mold repairs simply because mine started to peel and get weathered over time.

Having had some of mine for years at that point, they needed a refresh.

I did many different things and ended up finding that airbrushing was the closest I could get them to original.

At first, like all artists, you make mistakes with types of paints and materials. But time helps, and you learn to grow and become better at it.

There’s an important word in that answer:

Artist.

Good restoration isn’t simply covering faded plastic with paint.

You’re trying to preserve the visual character of something manufactured decades ago.

Color.

Opacity.

Edges.

Overspray.

The peculiar look created by mass-production techniques.

Make something too perfect and it can stop looking vintage.

Make the wrong repair and you can create a problem worse than the one you started with.

Light blue painted Santa Claus on train blow mold, vintage.

Which brings us to Nick’s most important restoration advice.

Please Don’t “Fix” It Until You Know How to Fix It

What’s your biggest recommendation for someone considering restoration?

Nick: For those looking to get blow molds restored or fixed, I can only recommend making sure they use the right products and hopefully not DIY it in a way that will entirely ruin the plastic or alter an antique in a way that can never be fixed.

This is worth emphasizing.

Old plastic isn’t a practice canvas.

Before attacking a valuable vintage piece with paint, solvent, adhesive, heat or some restoration hack you saw in a 37-second video, find out what you’re dealing with.

Sometimes the smartest restoration decision is:

Don’t touch it yet.

Research the manufacturer.

Identify the material.

Talk to experienced restorers.

Practice techniques on something expendable.

Determine whether a repair is reversible.

The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to make a 60-year-old blow mold look like it rolled out of the factory yesterday.

The objective is to help it survive.

That’s a recurring theme throughout The Glow That Won’t Go Out:

Preservation beats perfection.

display of airbrushed blow mold Christmas carollers

Then There’s the Jones House Auction

For collectors, online marketplaces have transformed the hunt.

But there’s something an online listing can’t replicate:

Standing in a room full of people who immediately understand why you’re excited about an old piece of glowing plastic.

Nick has been attending the Jones auction for more than a decade.

What is the Jones House Auction experience like?

Nick: I have been going to the Jones auction since its creation over a decade ago.

About the time I was in high school, it first started to be a blow mold auction. It was extremely cheap at the time before the trends happened.

It’s very cool to be so local to that auction. I’m only about 25 minutes away.

I would recommend going if you enjoy the social aspect of being around other like-minded collector people.

That last sentence may explain why physical collector events continue to matter.

You can buy something online.

You can research it online.

You can discuss it online.

But collecting has always had a social component.

Swap meets.

Flea markets.

Auctions.

Estate sales.

Christmas displays.

People leaning over a table saying:

“I’ve been looking for one of these for fifteen years.”

That’s the culture surrounding the objects.

And sometimes that’s more memorable than whatever you brought home.

What Changed?

Nick’s collecting life spans an interesting period in the hobby.

He remembers the $1 flea-market blow mold.

He remembers auctions before prices began climbing.

Now he lives in a world where vintage Christmas has become its own collecting category and previously overlooked decorations can inspire serious competition.

But there’s an irony here.

The increased attention that makes certain pieces harder and more expensive to acquire is also helping ensure they’re preserved.

People are identifying manufacturers.

Documenting variations.

Creating replacement parts.

Learning restoration techniques.

Sharing old catalogs.

Recording histories.

And introducing new collectors to names such as Empire, General Foam, Union Products, Poloron and Beco.

The objects aren’t anonymous lawn decorations anymore.

They’re artifacts of American Christmas.

That’s a large part of why I wrote The Glow That Won’t Go Out.

Several Thousand Reasons the Glow Won’t Go Out

Look again at the photograph of Nick standing in his collection.

Don’t look at him at first.

Look behind him.

Santa.

Snowmen.

Angels.

Reindeer.

Characters.

Rows upon rows of plastic faces.

Every one came from somewhere.

Somebody originally bought each one.

Somebody put it outside.

Some kid saw it glowing through a window.

Eventually it was packed away.

Years passed.

Families moved.

Decorating styles changed.

Somehow, it survived.

And eventually one of those pieces wound up with a collector like Nick.

That’s why the title The Glow That Won’t Go Out means more to me than the literal light inside these decorations.

The glow is the memory attached to them.

Nick bought his first ones when he was six or seven.

All these years later, he’s still restoring them, displaying them, hunting for them and surrounding himself with thousands of them every Christmas.

The collection got considerably larger.

The kid who was amazed to discover those $1 flea-market decorations actually lit up?

I’m not sure he ever completely left.

And maybe that’s the whole point.

Rainbow airbrushed blow mold snowman and painted Santa & snowman blow molds, courtesy of Nick.

Discover More Stories From the Blow Mold Community

Nick and Hoarding for the Holidays are featured in The Glow That Won’t Go Out: The Complete Collector’s Guide to Vintage Holiday Blow Molds by Curtiss Wayne Andrews.

The book explores the manufacturers, history, identification, restoration and collecting culture behind the glowing plastic decorations that became fixtures of the American Christmas landscape.

But just as importantly, it’s about the people who refuse to let that glow disappear.

Why the Santa’s Best Taz Blow Mold Has Become One of the Hottest Finds in Collecting

Every collector has one.

The blow mold you keep hoping will be sitting behind a folding table at an estate sale. The one you search for on Marketplace even though you know perfectly well you searched for it yesterday. The one that makes you slow the car down when you spot a suspiciously familiar plastic silhouette sticking out of somebody’s garage. In my book, The Glow That Won’t Go Out, I highlight collector Brandon’s Indiana Jones-like pursuit of an elusive angel teddy bear blow mold.

Right now, one of those pieces is the Santa’s Best Tasmanian Devil Christmas blow mold.

I recently talked with blow mold collector and dealer Ed (@sickeddie) on Instagram, and when I asked him what collectors are really hunting for these days, his answer caught my attention.

Taz.

According to Ed, the Santa’s Best Tasmanian Devil is one of the most sought-after blow molds right now — and finding a good one is becoming increasingly difficult.

It makes sense.

Because Taz isn’t simply another Christmas blow mold.

He’s a wonderfully strange artifact from the moment when traditional illuminated lawn decorations collided headfirst with 1990s pop culture.

And somehow, it worked.

When Christmas Blow Molds Met the Cartoon Licensing Boom

To understand why a glowing Tasmanian Devil ever ended up standing next to plastic Santas and Nativity sets, you have to go back to the final great era of traditional blow molds.

Santa’s Best arrived in the early 1990s and became one of the recognizable names in holiday décor. Along with companies collectors know well — Empire, General Foam, Union Products and others — Santa’s Best helped keep the molded-plastic Christmas tradition alive as American decorating tastes began changing.

But by the 1990s, there was a problem.

How many different ways could you sell America another Santa?

Manufacturers needed something new.

The answer was sitting inside Saturday morning cartoons, mall stores and seemingly every T-shirt rack in America:

licensed characters.

Warner Bros. characters were everywhere during the 1990s, and few benefited from that explosion more than the Tasmanian Devil.

Taz was perfect for the era.

He was loud. He was ridiculous. He destroyed everything in his path. He looked great on a T-shirt.

His popularity had grown far beyond his original Looney Tunes appearances, aided by television syndication and Taz-Mania, which debuted in 1991.

By the end of the decade, putting Taz on merchandise wasn’t unusual.

Putting him on a giant illuminated plastic Christmas decoration?

That was inspired.

Enter the Santa’s Best Taz Blow Mold

Around 2000, Santa’s Best turned the Tasmanian Devil into something wonderfully absurd: a Christmas lawn decoration.

And not just any lawn decoration.

The large Taz stands roughly 40 inches tall, depending on how he’s measured and positioned, complete with his unmistakable face, Santa-themed styling and removable antlers.

There was also a smaller 18-inch Santa’s Best Taz, giving collectors another version to hunt down.

The large version is the showstopper.

This isn’t Taz politely standing at attention like a choir boy.

It’s Taz.

He looks as if Christmas happened to him rather than the other way around.

That’s part of what makes the piece so appealing today. Traditional blow molds often relied on familiar holiday imagery — Santas, candles, snowmen, angels, reindeer and Nativity figures.

Taz came from another universe entirely.

Put him in a lineup of vintage Christmas blow molds and your eyes immediately go to him.

Why Taz Is So Hard to Find

Here is where the story gets interesting for collectors.

Santa’s Best wasn’t making Taz during the enormous postwar boom in plastic Christmas decorations. He arrived near the end of the classic blow-mold era.

Santa’s Best ceased producing blow molds in 2003.

That means Taz never had decades of continuous production behind him.

Compare that with some classic Santa or snowman designs that were produced in enormous quantities, sometimes through multiple manufacturers and tooling changes.

Taz had a much smaller window.

Then add another problem:

kids loved him.

A traditional plastic candle might get carefully packed away every January. A giant Tasmanian Devil was a character. He was handled. Moved around. Played with. Dragged through garages.

And then there are those antlers.

Collectors searching for a large Taz today frequently encounter examples with missing or damaged accessories. The attachment areas can be vulnerable, and finding one with its original components intact can make a big difference in desirability.

The fact that replacement Taz noses and antlers are manufactured today tells you something about how seriously collectors take restoring these figures.

Nobody starts manufacturing specialty replacement parts for something nobody wants. Are you looking for a blow mold replacement part? If so, blowmolds.com and blowmoldstore.com are reputable places to shop.

The Blow Mold That Captures an Entire Era

There’s another reason I think Taz has become such an interesting collectible.

He represents the moment when two different kinds of nostalgia overlap.

For traditional blow mold collectors, he represents the final years of the classic illuminated plastic yard decoration.

For someone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, he represents something completely different.

Looney Tunes shirts.

Warner Bros. stores.

Saturday morning cartoons.

Shopping malls.

Character merchandise.

Christmas catalogs.

Big-box stores stacked with seasonal decorations.

Taz sits right in the middle of all of it.

He’s not quite mid-century Christmas.

He’s not modern Christmas either.

He’s late-20th-century American Christmas preserved in plastic.

And that period is rapidly becoming collectible in its own right.

Then the Inflatable Arrived

Of course, there was another storm brewing on America’s front lawns.

The inflatable.

During the early 2000s, inflatable decorations offered retailers a massive logistical advantage over traditional blow molds.

A four-foot rigid plastic character takes up a lot of shelf space.

Deflate a similarly sized inflatable and you can put it in a box.

That matters when you’re Walmart, Target, Home Depot or any other retailer trying to fit an entire seasonal department into a finite amount of warehouse and shelf space.

The economics changed.

Consumers changed.

And one by one, many of the classic blow molds disappeared.

Santa’s Best ended blow mold production in 2003.

What had seemed like an ordinary mass-market Christmas decoration suddenly had a finite supply.

Twenty-plus years later, collectors are fighting over the survivors.

What Should You Look for When Buying a Taz?

If you stumble across one at an estate sale, flea market or Marketplace pickup, don’t just look at the paint.

Look at the whole piece.

Check the plastic carefully for cracks, particularly around areas where accessories attach. Examine the antlers and nose. Look for repairs. Check whether the original light assembly is present and inspect the cord before attempting to illuminate it.

Paint condition matters, but don’t automatically dismiss a piece with some fading or paint loss.

These were outdoor Christmas decorations.

They lived outside.

Sunlight, freezing temperatures, moisture, garages, attics and twenty-plus Christmas seasons leave evidence.

Personally, I’d rather see an honest survivor with some wear than a heavily altered example masquerading as mint.

And if accessories are missing, restoration may still be possible. An entire cottage industry has developed around keeping vintage blow molds alive, and replacement components are now available for Taz — including noses and reproduction antlers. At blowmoldstore.com you’ll find replacement parts for Taz specifically, among others of course.

That’s another sign that this isn’t merely an old decoration anymore.

It’s a collectible worth saving.

What Is a Santa’s Best Taz Worth?

This is where collectors need to be careful.

Online asking prices are not the same thing as actual market value.

At the time of writing, examples of the smaller Taz can appear in the low hundreds, while sellers sometimes ask considerably more for scarce large examples. Ed showed me an eBay listing for what appears to be a pristine Taz going for almost $900! Condition, size, original accessories, working illumination, paint quality and local availability can all dramatically affect what someone is willing to pay.

The 40-inch Taz is the one I’d be watching especially closely.

A complete example with strong paint, original antlers, nose and working light assembly is a very different collectible from a cracked body missing half its accessories.

So don’t buy based solely on somebody writing RARE!!! in an online listing.

Do your homework.

That’s half the fun anyway.

From Big-Box Novelty to Blow Mold Grail

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Taz becoming a collector favorite.

He wasn’t designed to become an heirloom.

He was seasonal merchandise.

A licensed character molded out of plastic, painted in bright colors, wired with a light bulb and sold to families who wanted something funny on the lawn at Christmas.

Nobody buying one around the turn of the millennium was thinking:

“I should preserve this carefully. Collectors are going to lose their minds over it someday.”

And that’s precisely why pieces like this become collectible.

Most weren’t preserved.

Some cracked.

Some faded.

Some lost their antlers.

Some went into dumpsters when families moved.

Some probably disappeared during Saturday morning garage cleanouts for five bucks apiece.

And a few survived.

Now collectors like Ed are searching for them.

That’s what makes this hobby endlessly fascinating. Sometimes the most interesting piece isn’t the decoration everyone knew would become valuable.

It’s the ridiculous plastic Tasmanian Devil somebody bought for the front yard more than two decades ago.

And somewhere out there, one is probably still sitting in an attic.

Waiting for somebody to figure out what they have.

Want to Learn More About Vintage Blow Molds?

The Glow That Won’t Go Out: The Complete Collector’s Guide to Vintage Holiday Blow Molds explores the manufacturers, history, identification clues, collecting strategies, restoration techniques and stories behind the glowing plastic decorations that once filled American neighborhoods.

From Empire and General Foam to Union Products, Santa’s Best and the pieces collectors are still chasing today, it’s a celebration of a Christmas tradition that nearly disappeared — but never stopped glowing.

The glow isn’t gone. You just have to know where to look.

By Curtiss Wayne Andrews