Holiday Innovations was a New Jersey based company founded in 1988 that specialized in producing holiday blow molds. The company was a subsidiary of Plastic Toy & Novelty, later known as PTN Industries.
History[]
After Poloron Products went out of business in 1982, most of their holiday blow molds would be purchased by the Plastic Toy and Novelty company who created the Holiday Innovations brand to market them in 1988.
Holiday Innovations produced many of the classic Poloron designs including the Choir Boy and Girl, Whispering Santa, and the Giant Snowman. The company also brought back the ever popular Giant Animated Santa and Snowman as well as an animated version of the later Poloron sleigh. Unfortunately these would only last a year on the market before being reverted to non-animated versions which Empire would also produce.
The company eventually became well known for their cheaper production techniques which likely resulted in their downfall. For instance, while Poloron used high quality metal motors on their animated pieces, HI used cheaper plastic versions that broke easily. Their paint quality often suffered as well with sloppy overspray often being present.
Holiday Innovations would continue to produce their molds until 1991, when they subsequently went out of business and sold their remaining molds to Empire Plastics. Empire would continue to produce a number of the classic Poloron molds as did General Foam Plastics who acquired them in 2001.
Identification[]
Many of Holiday Innovations blow molds are very similar to their Poloron counterparts, however there are several factors that can be used to identify a HI made blow mold:
- Markings. Many of HI’s molds did not remove the original Poloron stamp, such as the case with the Giant Snowman. Oftentimes however the original stamp was blurred or replaced with a Holiday Innovations or “PTN” stamp.
- Paint. The paint schemes of HI’s molds were usually very different from their Poloron counterparts. The colours were normally brighter and more vibrant than the previously more muted colours. The final produced molds usually differed from what was shown in the catalogs. For instance, what was golden in the catalog would be bright yellow on produced versions. Sloppy overspray is also a common sight on many of HI’s molds.
- Fading. Because of their poor paint quality, many HI molds can be found in a faded state from years of sun exposure, with the color Red turning to orange and other colours having a noticeable change in hue that is common across most faded examples of HI molds.
- Quality. As mentioned above, HI often used cheaper components than Poloron such as plastic motors for the animated pieces. The mold quality also differed, with HI’s molds being lighter and less thick than Poloron’s.