Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

And here it is:

At first I thought..."Well there's a mathmos jet for $28.99 delivered...already wired for the US...in METAL?" Turns out what I thought was the bottom of the lip on the base of a jet was in fact the corporate logo for Washington Mutual.

I know people are going to think I'm...a bit off, but I have fallen in love with this lamp. To me, the proportions are just about perfect, and I love how...

...wait. I just went off about this recently, in another thread.

"...They look MUCH better to me, in all regards! Look how well the lid and base seem to be integrated with the globe...smooth, uninterrupted lines! So sleek! The base looks more sturdy to me, also. Some people might say the design is too simple, but I say the base and lid are there simply to enhance what's in the globe, not distract from it. I still want to see a slightly taller viewing window (same overall lamp height, but shorter lid and base), but that is such a small aesthetic thing. I doubt I'll be able to find the EXACT size ratios, in the exact right proportions that I'm looking for without a lot of custom modding."

Well it turns out I DID find it, and there it is!

I just bought one of these, but I think the chances that I'd find another one are slim to none. I did a google search, and found where someone on this board gave one to their mother as a gift. I didn't look to see who it was or anything (and I won't), but I know that others of these have surfaced from time to time.

Does anyone have a line on one that I might purchase or trade for? I want about 50 of these. :( Good luck with that, right? LOL!! I want to mod them into every possible configuration.

I also want to know who made this. Was it just something WaMu paid to have built, or was this made by a company that made them for other people also?

I know the houses for glitter thing is a little weird, but I think it's hilarious considering what WaMu did to the American housing market. Washington Mutual, for those who didn't remember, was the biggest bank failure in history, and the second largest bankruptcy in history. That dates this lamp to before 2008, and that post I found was archived from the old board and posted in 2006...so I know it's from before 2006.

I know I've picked a hopeless object to obsess over, but...maybe not? Maybe there are more of these around than I would imagine? I've seen lava lamps that have WaMu on them (like a clear/green rocket that I found), but they are much smaller, made of plastic, and look like "buy in lots of 1,000" from China kinda fare. This thing looks like showroom quality. In fact, to me it looks like it was built to be bolted to the floor of a submarine. I can't believe that was only $9 to ship!

Can anybody help me learn more about this lamp?


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I've always believed that the beauty in the collectible is in the eye of the beholder. Whether the lamp is American made, China made, Mathmos or any other, if you like the look and it fits in your scheme, then you're GOLDEN. I actually like that glitter lamp as well. My only thing, if it were mine, I would get fingernail polish remover and remove the WaMu logo, but thats just me. I like how the glitter resembles houses. By the way, I have the 50 you want, but I'm going to keep them. LOL   Great Find, Mark 

I've never seen one with house glitter like this. The shape reminds me of a Mathmos Jet a little bit and also of the old Fantasia glitters from the 70s. 

Here's my Fantasia glitter (they are really stunning to look at, but a little plain, design-wise):

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/fantasia-glitter-lamp?context=user

I agree with Matt - eye of the beholder. Whatever floats your boat! One of my favorite lamps is the Carlisle and they are pretty simple looking, but I love them. :)

And, at about $10 a piece, may be too much for what Mark wants. 10,000 bones for some glitters.

yeah, but he can sell what he doesn't need on ebay for the next 40 years lol

Mattmos said:

And, at about $10 a piece, may be too much for what Mark wants. 10,000 bones for some glitters.

@Matt - Yes, you are right, of course. :p It just kinda struck me as an odd thing to decide to collect. I may not ever find another one, and I want to put some lava in one! If I could just find FOUR...LOL!! I would leave one like it is, I would paint one black and keep the glitter, and the other two would be various shades of lava. The only other thing I can think of doing is keeping the oil and glitter in a bottle (to be replaced later), and replace it with a kit. I could just swap them out once in a while. I really don't want to have to do that though. :(

@Erin - The fantasia is definitely the one that I liked the best before I saw the WaMu lamp, even more than the jet because it lacked that recessed area that the jet's base had. And as I was saying, I LIKE the plain a lot! To me it doesn't detract from the impact of what's going on in the globe. And yeah! That goes for the Carlisle as well! I'm not a huge fan of wizard-shaped lamps, but that one is nice. :)

@Keith - LOL!! Snap.

Those don't LOOK like lot of 1000 from china fare, though, at least to me. :p

I have one of these, bought at a thrift store. I decided to take the creatively house-shaped glitters literally and figuratively, and built it into a three-foot-tall LEGO house/tower, which has other lights in the top, an illuminated flower garden, and a chimney that carries the considerable heat and uses it to spin a vane.

No idea where these were sold, or if. I suspect they were promo giveaways; it was a standard import glitter with custom glitters and a logo. Mine is also WaMu.

I'd need to see one of those Chinese ones right next to the WaMu lamp (I haven't even seen the WaMu lamp in person, either), but the WaMu lamp, in spite of the visual similarities to the Chinese lamps, to me looks much more sturdy and well-made. To me it looks much more like something that was designed to go on the counter of a branch...as an advertisement, not so much as a giveaway. To me it looks like it's designed to spark an interaction like this:

Customer -"Wow, look at that!"

Clerk - "That's to advertise our new mortgage plan! Let me tell you ALL ABOUT it!"

...but that's just me. I'm still kinda new to this, and like I said, my lamp has not even arrived yet. I haven't seen it or held it in person. :p It just LOOKS to me to be very sturdy, and well-made.

Also...I hope I haven't come across as some kind of lava snob. If at any time I gave the impression that my opinion was better than yours, I apologize...that's not what I'm about at all. I'm just struggling to determine exactly what I like, and why.

But that is, hands down, my favorite motion-type lamp design that I've ever seen (so far. :p). If I can get slightly cheaper-looking ones with those same proportions, that's way better than nothing.

...but 1,000 of them? :(

I love the enthusiasm of new lava/glitter lamp collectors. :) It's so cool! We all have our likes and dislikes and no one really gets bothered by it. A lot of people here like Icons (the ceramic Lava Lites) and I don't care for them at all. To each their own. Nice that there's something for everyone, eh? :)

Exactly!!

Erin said:

I love the enthusiasm of new lava/glitter lamp collectors. :) It's so cool! We all have our likes and dislikes and no one really gets bothered by it. A lot of people here like Icons (the ceramic Lava Lites) and I don't care for them at all. To each their own. Nice that there's something for everyone, eh? :)

Wow! I would love to see pictures of that! Sounds awesome. :p

If you ever decided to sell that lamp...

Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

I have one of these, bought at a thrift store. I decided to take the creatively house-shaped glitters literally and figuratively, and built it into a three-foot-tall LEGO house/tower, which has other lights in the top, an illuminated flower garden, and a chimney that carries the considerable heat and uses it to spin a vane.

No idea where these were sold, or if. I suspect they were promo giveaways; it was a standard import glitter with custom glitters and a logo. Mine is also WaMu.

The seller FINALLY mailed this to me today. I paid within one minute of sale close, but he waited over 7 days to mail it to me, and didn't respond to my message about it. Whatever, it's in the mail now. :) I can't wait! I'm honestly more excited about this than anything else I've ever bid on, strange as that may seem.

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