Dating Mathmos lamps

[Sedated]

Hi.

New to this forum, so Hi everyone :)

Theres probably a section on the site to answer this or even a previous post but as I'm new I'm having a bit of trouble finding my way around . So apologies in advance.

Ive owned a Mathmos Telstar since around 1998..ish and I love it. Recently Ive aquired 2 Matmos Astro babies from eBay. I bought them with the idea of replacing the bottle in my telstar, as the liquid has faded clear. Also I was gonna pick the best bits and make one good Astro baby up out of the 2 and resell the left over with the clear liquid bottle.

Now I've cleaned them up Ive decided to keep both!

One has a embossed base and a stickerd cap, A black lead and plug with a raised black plastic base.


The Other  has a Printed Base, no sticker on cap (Althought I could have at one time?) a White lead and plug with a raised black plastic base . Also the champher/flat bit at the bottom of the base is slightly smaller than the other Astro baby.

Has anyone any idea of dates for these lamps or a link I can look at?

Cheers Sedated
 

[Modulo '70]

Oh no you’re definitely not. I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with the dates of production for every product you could ever imagine.

lampfancy said:

Incidentally I think the dates on the lamps shown at the beginning of the thread are probably fairly accurate, I think the bases with the embossed logo were around mid-late 90s, I have an Astro-baby with the embossed logo which is stamped ’97, I think the switch to the printed logo came in around ’98 -’99 - the product brochures from around this time seem to back this up, think this was also around the time they switched to using white rather than black up-stand bases aswell



Glad I’m not the only oddball interested in this stuff!

[Sedated]

Wow! This is a blast from the past.

I really appreciate  the replies, thanks everyone.

Still got the lamps although as usual the liquid is pretty clear nowadays.

:)

[Peter Panussi]

Interesting topic. I checked my 14 AstroBabies, and here are the results:

Embossed logo, black cord: 7/97, 11/97, 2/98, 6/98, 6/98.

Printed logo, black cord: 9/98, 10/98, 11/98, 12/98.

Printed logo, white cord: 9/99, 8/00, 8/00, 9/00, 11/00.

Sad I don't have any Crestworth Babies...

 

[bob]

Am in usa so my knowledge on mathmos stinks but on the web page we are on , check lava library, it has tons of info , also maybe you post some pics and or video ! Would love to see the lamps 

[Modulo '70]

That is so cool. Thanks for this guidance.

Peter Panussi said:

Interesting topic. I checked my 14 AstroBabies, and here are the results:

Embossed logo, black cord: 7/97, 11/97, 2/98, 6/98, 6/98.

Printed logo, black cord: 9/98, 10/98, 11/98, 12/98.

Printed logo, white cord: 9/99, 8/00, 8/00, 9/00, 11/00.

Sad I don't have any Crestworth Babies...

 

[Arne]

I never checked the prints inside the bases but I noticed the dates on the red circular stickers found on lunar and comet often show the same dates so I dont think they are accurate as of day of production even though they show specific dates...I think I had several bases showing october 3rd 1996. To roughly estimate the production date experience and knowlegde about different base styles is the only way to do so. I know the astro bases of the late crestworth era had a bakelite bottom part and were chromed and didnt feature a logo, then the early mathmos astros had a bakelite bottom, embossed logo and werent chromed anymore, then they had the plastic bottom parts with the little feet on them and printed logo and there were some slight other changes over the years but no way to get a precise date as far as I know.

[Arne]

looking at peters post seems I'm wrong and they do feature accurate dates, I just never noticed :)

[ImMelting]

I have two astros. one with the older brushed aluminum base from around 2010 and a current polished base.

Both have the same date printed inside the plastic bases: September 2000...

[lampfancy]

I mentioned before, all my Astros from various ‘eras’ between 2000-2017, are all stamped 9/2000 - would be interesting to hear if anyone has a white based Astro NOT stamped 9/2000



Makes me wonder what’s going on with this - did they simply have a massive reserve of plastic bases that took them years to get through? Did their date stamp get stuck and no-one has noticed in all these years??



Strange.

[T Sabo]

Very informative thread. I just landed an embossed base but the cap is not printed.

[jonny p]

I got white based asteo dated from 96 98 alot times there use the same bases though years later but most with have a stamp on the base. The embossed ones are from 90s later 90s these changed to the red logo base and cap just plain. Even the new ones not much changed but there isn't a stamp in them now I don't think so. I will take some pics the astro bases have changed I think there 5 diffrent ones the first being the embossed base that flat then they added the feet base in white the black bases red stamp base ses base 2000s models have got ring shield to help bottle stay level before the bottle changed to lip bottles. Hope thus helps abit

[T Sabo]

i guess the printed cap is the first issue...? It must have come along with the embossed base