How to read manufacturing code on Lava Lite brand lava lamps?

[Michael Kersey]

Hello,

I have begun to purchase Lava Lite brand lava lamps on eBay, but am still confused on how to read the manufacturing codes on the lid (cap) of these lamps. For example, one I just received has a code of a large 12 followed in smaller letters/numbers of 971039LV and underneath that is 1021CMSDT.

My guess is that it was made in 1997 but not sure what the rest of the code means or stands for. Anyone that can eliminate my ignorance on this code, I would greatly appreciate your input!

Thanks,

Mike

[Gwen Williams]

the 12 is your color, then the year (97) followed by the 24 hour time code (1039) then we move on to the bottom numbers are the actual day of production (10/21)  so in this case your clear/green globe was produced at 10:39 am on October 21st of 1997

[Michael Kersey]

Thank you very much for the info! I'm pretty new to this, so is there a list somewhere for the colors? I assume that the 12 actually means clear liquid/green wax? This is good info (for me) to have when looking for older lamps.

[Michael Kersey]

I forgot to ask. What does the "LV" and "CMSDT" in the code stand for?

[Gwen Williams]

those random letters are the production line itself all this is also in the Lava Library tab plus a ton more, give it a look-see  http://oozinggoo.ning.com/page/lava-library

[Michael Kersey]

Thank you very much for your assistance. I guess I should have searched around on the site first, but didn't have the time or knowledge of everything here!