i got my first glitter wizard today!! a few questions

[Kaity Sullivan]

so i totally scored my first glitter wizard on ebay for $15.50!! i'm so excited, i've been wanting one for a while but i could always only find them on the kinda expensive side so i was glad to have snagged it for so cheap! its in really good condition too. it says 33W on the cap.

so i had a few questions. the lamp is purple and i'm wondering about the color light that it puts out? is it more of a pinky purple color or true purple? i know its always hard to know the true color when you just see a picture. and also in the pic the seller had, i couldnt tell for sure or not, but it seemed like the globe was missing a little bit of fluid, that or they were holding it on a tilt because in another pic it seemed full. but either way i'm wondering why it is that a lot of the wizards seem to be missing fluid sometimes? are they leaking or whats the deal with that? 

also ive seen on a thread before someone mentioning putting pieces of plastic in the base so the pinholes shine colors instead of the bulb light, how does one go about this? any modding techniques for wizards ya'll can give me? are there any problems i should look out for with the wizard? ive seen some people mentioning glitter/flow problems. 

any info is greatly appreciated!! glad to finally say i own an original lava lite!!

[Carol]

yep.  I also put a 25 watt in because it was getting hot but i put the 40 watter back in!!!

[Brad]

all of my glitter wizards have a solvent-like smell under the cap.

[Kaity Sullivan]

it really stinks!

[Carol]

I need a blue wizzie now!!!!  There was a super nice condition one up for grabs on ebay.  Bidding was pretty low.  Still in my ballpark.  Went to work and vowed I would bid on my break as the auction was about to end.  I totally got caught up in work and forgot!!!  When I saw it ended for 40 some odd dollars I almost cried.....oh well, I keep scouring the pages.  There is a blue but the seller must be on crack!!  He want like 80 bucks and there is a huge deep scratch in the base along with other scruffs and scratches.  I wouldn't spend that on a damaged lamp.  Who even knows what shape the globe is in if the base is in that condition.  Buyer BEWARE!!!

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

The 1960s Lava formula was indeed changed because it contained a carcinogen (carbon tetrachloride), though in miniscule amounts.

The Wizards have a rubber plug in the bottle to keep the fumes from getting out, though on some globes, you can still faintly smell them. They WILL leak if they can-- the UK, French, Italian etc. lamps will also occasionally give off a faint smell, and the UK even had a rumor in the 80s that lava lamps were banned or discontinued because they gave off dangerous fumes. There's a photo floating around showing Wizard globes leaving the filling machine in the Lava factory, and an employee is checking fill levels using a metal Wizard cap with a round measuring area cut on one side-- and he's wearing goggles and a big respirator!

The last solvent-filled glitter made by Lava was the short-lived cylindrical Firefly, which encased the globe in a plastic outer casing with holo-foil to produce a hazy sparkle effect. The fact that the Firefly used a very small bottle and enclosed it in such a way that access to the globe's cap was difficult wasn't without good reason!

The liquids in "solvent" or "fast" glitters vary, but they're generally chlorinated solvents. The most common are ones like perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene. The UK's Crestworth made the Living Jewel lamps with used, the catalogs claimed, a 'comparatively safe' solvent, 'many times safer than that used in home stain-removing (dry cleaning) kits,' called trichlorotrifluoroethane.

In my experience, Wizard liquids vary slightly in color, especially the green, blue and purple. There are also some rare variants, such as single- or multi-colored glitter, and one with multi-colored 'dust' glitter (I have one of these, and one has to look closely to see the colors.)

[Keith]

1960's or 1990's?

Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

The 1960s Lava formula was indeed changed because it contained a carcinogen (carbon tetrachloride), though in miniscule amounts.

The Wizards have a rubber plug in the bottle to keep the fumes from getting out, though on some globes, you can still faintly smell them. They WILL leak if they can-- the UK, French, Italian etc. lamps will also occasionally give off a faint smell, and the UK even had a rumor in the 80s that lava lamps were banned or discontinued because they gave off dangerous fumes. There's a photo floating around showing Wizard globes leaving the filling machine in the Lava factory, and an employee is checking fill levels using a metal Wizard cap with a round measuring area cut on one side-- and he's wearing goggles and a big respirator!

The last solvent-filled glitter made by Lava was the short-lived cylindrical Firefly, which encased the globe in a plastic outer casing with holo-foil to produce a hazy sparkle effect. The fact that the Firefly used a very small bottle and enclosed it in such a way that access to the globe's cap was difficult wasn't without good reason!

The liquids in "solvent" or "fast" glitters vary, but they're generally chlorinated solvents. The most common are ones like perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene. The UK's Crestworth made the Living Jewel lamps with used, the catalogs claimed, a 'comparatively safe' solvent, 'many times safer than that used in home stain-removing (dry cleaning) kits,' called trichlorotrifluoroethane.

In my experience, Wizard liquids vary slightly in color, especially the green, blue and purple. There are also some rare variants, such as single- or multi-colored glitter, and one with multi-colored 'dust' glitter (I have one of these, and one has to look closely to see the colors.)