2nd Nov new lamp launch

[Noz]

A completely new lamp is being launched on the 2nd Nov. 

Can't link the picture sorry. Won't let me.

But looks die cast, and possibly looking at the curvature it might be taking an astro bottle. 

And first 100 out the window. Now a lottery of all the orders placed on the same day. Seems irrelevant to still call it first 100 when it isn't. 

What are your thoughts on what it might be? 

[Susan]

I've used my Fireflow01 a couple of times and I didn't find it over heated. Maybe that issue with over heating is in the different one, the more enclosed one. The fireflow has a glass tube design. 

[Noz]

My platinum is definitely etched. Just checked. Not a sticker.

[MonsoonStorm]

hrm, I just realised that they sell spare caps...

I guess I could always get a spare cap next time I place an order and keep the first 100 one boxed up if I wanted to use it.

[Paul]

I must be totally wrong on that then, I remember it being a convincing clear sticker. Going to have to check on mine tomorrow to prove myself wrong also. 

Noz said:

My platinum is definitely etched. Just checked. Not a sticker.

[Arne]

I quess since it's not original mathmos it's worthless to most of you but I do offer a conversion from a standart Astro to Rgb including remote control...sold 11 so far and none of them failed...add a standart dimmer to it and you can adjust heat and have it running for days nonstop with no issues whatsoever...mathmos will most likely never release an rgb lamp as they dont have the rights since magma tower patented it and still hold the patent even though they dont sell rgb lamps as far as I know.

[MonsoonStorm]

huh... I didn't know that...  that kinda sucks.

I don't think I have any colourways that would work with RGB atm, I tend to gravitate towards dark liquids.  Having said that my violet/turquoise astro has gone completely clear which is weird...  I have a violet/orange sitting on the other side of my monitor that has had the exact same runtime and is actually exposed to occasional direct sunlight and the liquid has held it's colour perfectly.  No idea why one is affected and not the other, but it's really quite frustrating! Violet/Turquoise is one of my favourites.

[Arne]

I have had this phenomenon as well. A lamp that sat in a corner with no exposure to sunlight went clear and other didnt. the only explaination I have so far is that uv goes through walls and I had a house on the other side of the road reflecting sunlight onto the wall half of the day and direct sunlight on the wall for the rest of the day so the exposure to uv was kinda permanently.

Not sure if this really is the reason for the color fading but it's the only thing that I came up with having only rudimentary knowledge of physics.

[Susan]

We've had Mathmos fluids go clear as well, even when stored totally in the dark, although when we wanted a liquid to fade from a bottle  it didn't. We purchased an Astro blue fluid, pink wax, it was a really dark fluid, we couldn't see the wax in the bottle when working. So we left the bottle in a west facing window for a full year, it didn't fade it at all. Mind you, that window has a special coating to the glass, four seasons glass stopping UV, so that won't have helped I guess. But I did leave the bottle on the patio table out side in full summer sun for a few weeks as well. We've found it tends to be the fluids from the 90's that have faded from our bottles. It's not a problem for us, we prefer clear fluids. 

[Arne]

The reason I'm pretty certain about this is that the pcb layout of the smart actually supports full rgb capibility but the components are missing. It has only 2 transistors installed while there is room/solder pads for three and also the solder pads for the leds are marked red green and blue. I would've loved to try and make it rgb but wasnt able to completly reverse engineer the whole circuit and was afraight of killing it. there are several components missing for full rgb and I could not figure all the resistor values. I made a thread for it on here with pictures of the board, so if you have better knowledge of electronics have a look, maybe you can figure it out. the components are cheap.

MonsoonStorm said:

huh... I didn't know that...  that kinda sucks.

I don't think I have any colourways that would work with RGB atm, I tend to gravitate towards dark liquids.  Having said that my violet/turquoise astro has gone completely clear which is weird...  I have a violet/orange sitting on the other side of my monitor that has had the exact same runtime and is actually exposed to occasional direct sunlight and the liquid has held it's colour perfectly.  No idea why one is affected and not the other, but it's really quite frustrating! Violet/Turquoise is one of my favourites.

[MonsoonStorm]

I'm actually tempted to buy a new orange/violet and try swapping the liquid in the older bottles. The turquoise it's taking on that yellowish tinge that white lava tends to get over time, and the violet liquid hid that as well as adding more depth/contrast to the wax.

When my violet/orange wax heats up though it turns a translucent colour with flecks (which I actually really like). This could be really interesting in clear liquid, although I'm a little concerned that it would lose some of it's contrast/depth...  That old orange/violet is another of my favourites due to the way it has aged, the flecks give it more of a real "magma" feel, it's quite beautiful.

Susan said:

We've had Mathmos fluids go clear as well, even when stored totally in the dark, although when we wanted a liquid to fade from a bottle  it didn't. We purchased an Astro blue fluid, pink wax, it was a really dark fluid, we couldn't see the wax in the bottle when working. So we left the bottle in a west facing window for a full year, it didn't fade it at all. Mind you, that window has a special coating to the glass, four seasons glass stopping UV, so that won't have helped I guess. But I did leave the bottle on the patio table out side in full summer sun for a few weeks as well. We've found it tends to be the fluids from the 90's that have faded from our bottles. It's not a problem for us, we prefer clear fluids. 

[MonsoonStorm]

Back on topic!

Looking at the short video on instagram, I don't think it is candle powered.  The yellow light appears to be from a "spotlight" as it moves behind the lamp on the wall.  As it passes, the inside of the base (except for one spot) goes dark.  There is no fluctuation in the yellow light on that one section of the base so it doesn't appear to be a natural flame.

If I go full on "what would be cool and possibly outlandish" theory... it would be cool if it's like half lava lamp, half projector?  The exterior of the base closest to the camera doesn't change in colour at all, which seems to imply that the yellow is being projected from within.  The green wax however does take on a more yellow hue as the light passes whilst again there is minimal change/reflection on the exterior chrome stand...

It could be kind of like the smart astro, but using a different mechanism to avoid the trademark issues? some moving part within is moving  to create a sweeping colour change effect that extends to the exterior?

Having said that... the fluidity of the wax does remind me of the intensity of the candle powered lamps, however, again as someone pointed out, as the bottle appears curved it would imply a whole new bottle design for that specific candle lamp, which seems highly unlikely.

Of course it could just be a new base style and some artistic lighting purely used for the video!

My hope is for a larger Neo with some kind of funky stuff going on in the base... A girl can dream, right?

EDIT:  The colourway of the wax appears to be Blue/Yellow, which is only available in telstar and candle bottles.  If their "no new colourways" blurb is to be believed then that narrows things down to either a neo-style candle (with a weird bottle), or a new style base with a telstar bottle.  HOWEVER! The yellow *could* be due to very yellow lighting shining on to Blue/Green, which is available in every bottle style.

I'll shut up now lol

[Susan]

At best it's a clear wax with the colouration being given via a colour changing LED. At worst, another normal lava lamp with a different base and cap design with only standard type bottles available again.