moved from Ford Ave. P.O. Box 370 Milltown, New Jersey to 65 Brunswick Ave., Edison, New Jersey. The Holiday Innovations product line was drastically cut for this year due to severe start up difficulties their first year in business, but remained strong with several “new” decorations added to their line all of which again were produced from Poloron blow-molds. All of the vacuum-formed figures available the previous year were discontinued.
Holiday Innovations brand products can easily be identified by a lone PTN stamp, but usually are devoid of any other information such as an item number or branding. Occasionally the original Poloron Products stamp is said to remain, making proper identification extremely difficult. Aside from the PTN stamp, the paint schemes are the best identifier. Plastic Toy & Novelty used different coloring than Poloron Products did and sparingly as well. Many areas originally intended for painting on the molds were left unpainted by Plastic Toy & Novelty.
Unfortunately, the beginning of a new era became the end of an era in 1991 with the demise of Plastic Toy & Novelty despite their best efforts. The currently known reasons for failure all stem from poor quality standards. The paint was incorrectly applied, most likely due to a lack of properly heating the plastic for molecule bonding resulting in poor adhesion. When removed from their boxes, the paint would be flaking, mechanical parts and motor housings were susceptible to breaking being cheaply made of hard plastic and some electrical components were exposed to weather and poorly mounted.
Finally, the entire inventory of Poloron blow-molds was sold to the Empire Seasonal Division of Carolina Enterprises, Inc. Many items were continued on by Empire as seen beginning in their 1992 catalog, but many more were not and have yet to be produced again. The Poloron blow-molds were again sold when Empire filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000 and sold off its entire seasonal division and North Carolina manufacturing facility to General Foam Plastics. Currently the status of many of these blow-molds is unknown, as General Foam Plastics has yet to reveal their full blow-mold inventory.
© Kevin Provost 2009
