Head Elves

Matt: Co-Owner

Matt is the founder of Undreamt3d and PPE for NE.  A longtime creative maker and development engineer, Matt is also a newer member of the ever-growing world of Blow Mold enthusiasts.  Early in 2020, as the US was starting to react to the emerging Covid crisis and looking anywhere and everywhere for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medical workers, Matt paused his Undreamt3d production line to engage, coordinate, and lead a massive effort to bring together makers from all over the Omaha metro area, creating the organization PPE for NE in the process. As a result of these efforts, over 8,000 PPE face shields were created and delivered to area hospitals and medical facilities, all free of charge, to provide the needed lifesaving equipment these healthcare professionals could not find anywhere else.  

This volunteer effort consumed countless hours over many months, all while Matt continued to maintain his unrelated full-time job, while also losing considerable sleep helping his wife in caring for their newborn child and other two sons.  It was quite the effort overall, for which Matt was ultimately recognized by ServeNebraska as the 2020 Disaster Innovation Volunteer of the year.  When other supply chains returned to normal in the fall, Matt transitioned PPE for NE into the Made New Makerspace umbrella, a registered 501(c)(3), and turned his attention back to Undreamt3d to launch the BlowMoldStore, which he and Eric had planned to do much earlier in 2020 before the necessary work of PPE for NE took precedent.  A few months later than anticipated and now on the cusp of the Christmas season, Matt retooled and refocused most of the design and manufacturing facility to churn out Perfect Fit blow mold related designs and replicas to help make everyone’s Christmas a bit brighter. 

So if sometimes it seems that it takes a while for a certain new product you’re waiting for to become available, we do greatly appreciate your patience. Just know it is partially because there’s plenty going on behind the scenes, including charitable work of some sort, and trust that the level of expertise and skill used to engineer these exacting replicas is worth the wait.

 

 

Eric: Co-Owner

Eric is an aspiring Griswoldian, collector of blow molds galore, and co-founder of the BlowMoldStore.  He has been a lifelong Christmas decorator, innocently (and ignorantly) putting holes in his parent’s siding with finishing nails decades ago to first display extra strings of lights that weren’t needed on the indoor Christmas tree.  In the mid 2000s, he acquired 6 moving boxes full of multi-color mini light strings (over 13,000 lights) and somehow didn’t blow any fuses or start any fires that year when the roof and siding were soon covered with rows of Christmas lights.  Ever since then, his wife affectionately calls him Clark whenever acquiring more lights or decorations.  A few years later, his father-in-law donated an Empire Dancing Santa to the mix and the joy of Blow Molds had begun. 

Problems really began (well, storage problems) when a local blow mold maven, the Mr. Christmas of Nebraska, decided to sell his collection.  After multiple return trips to the massive sale and meeting other collectors in the process, Eric was up to almost 80 blow molds. Over the years since, he’s added hundreds more and there’s no room to be found anywhere (his wife is assured he’s not the only one to have that problem).  Last year’s outdoor display contained over 320 of them covering his and his neighbor’s lawns and he’s well north of 400 now. 

One of the concerning trends in acquiring blow molds from the wild was that they often were missing important pieces, whether antlers, noses, buttons, or other interesting parts.  With his own tinkering and technical background, Eric began to research what it would take to recreate many of these pieces that the since-defunct companies no longer made.  With a set of four Grand Venture reindeer yet only 3 antlers, there was a definite need to find another antler, and one that was an exacting replica, properly made without unnecessary blemishes like the ones offered elsewhere at the time.  During some interesting conversations with a longtime colleague and friend who was beginning his own journey of exterior decoration exploration in a desire to festively impress his growing young family, the collaborative effort of replicating the Grand Venture reindeer antler was born.  Soon after, the Perfect Fit replacement antlers were being used in displays around the country. 

Encouraged by all the rave reviews from fellow blow mold collectors around the country, and after an unforeseen yet very worthy delay due to the lifesaving efforts of the PPE for NE program, the BlowMoldStore was born to create only the best replacement parts for collectors who truly want an original look and feel to their parts. Of course we started with those parts Eric needed most for his own collection, although we’ve since moved on to many of the items fellow collectors have requested; and trust me, we have a bunch!  The next couple years will be fun as we continue to release more Perfect Fit replacement parts and pieces and help restore and expand collections all over the world. 

Eric is also engaged in the non-profit space, leading a large local charitable organization these past few years, along with volunteer service through his home church and other faith-based organizations.  Recently, Eric and his family boarded a rebel transport from Orlando that was captured by the First Order, however we are pleased to report he was rescued before being shipped off to the spice mines of Kessel or some such place.