Schylling Acquires Lava Brand - Lava Lite Company Sold

[Erin]

For some reason, the creator of the original thread deleted it, so I'm going to repost.

"The Lava brand has found a new home, although one that’s already somewhat familiar. Schylling, a toy and gift designer, manufacturer and distributor, has acquired Lava’s brand assets from parent Lifespan Brands.

At the same time, Lifespan Brands has announced that, after seven-and-a-half years with the company, Clay Farnsworth, president and CEO, will retire this month. Farnsworth has had a long career in the home products sector including sales and executive stints with companies such as Health-O-Meter and Taylor."

More here: https://www.homeworldbusiness.com/schylling-acquires-lava-brand/

[kero48]

Keith, funny on the lurker comment

[Cowmatian]

I don't know how I missed this. I was just on the LL website and noticed. It's sad that the employees are being let go. Susan got all of my cloudy lamp issues sorted out, and was very nice. Like Erin, I'm also wondering about her history at LL. Anyway I'm hoping this means mathmos is coming soon to the US, or better yet LL will bring back well made lamps. 

[Jage]

She just replaced a grande cap for me and I some how ended up with a whole new grande globe.  She said I could have it.  Not worth sending back. 

kero48 said:

Wow and terrible. I have been working with susan recently on my cloudy globes and denise. Susan just emailed me today that they are replacing a walmart purchased grande, the base and cap as the bottle arrived clear, the base and cap are all dented up etc.

I am really not happy to hear about what's going on. I might have to buy one last grande while the people are there that take care of us.

I have to call her tomorrow and see how she's doing

The big question is, what return / replacement policy will this new company have? They surely are not going to send out tons of replacement grande bottles like lava lamp does now when you get a cloudy one. I saw to everyone who wants something get it NOW!!!!!

I wouldn't be surprised if grandes are eventually retired due to the lack of quality control on bottoms and bases, ets.

[Mr MaGoo]

WOW, that is sweet, lucked out there!

[k-nano]

I know this discussion is old, but I want to resurrect it. What this brand does is of high interest to me because I am the inventor of the ferrofluid lava lamp (patent and everything) and it does appear that Schylling may have bought Lifespan Brands IP simply to use it as packaging for products like slime and this. These not surprisingly are dud products. I have had discussions with the CEO of both Mathmos, Lifespan Brands (pre-Schylling), the current CEO of Schylling as well as the founder of Schylling. Clay expressed absolute genuine disinterest in the potential possibility of adding a ferrofluid lava lamp to the product line. Cressida initially seemed interested but also seemed to not understand the ferrofluid display market and eventually went silent. Schylling's original founder said it looked interesting and forwarded me to the CEO who initially said he would look at it when he has time, but that I should stop violating his IP. I was not violating any IP nor had I ever or will ever. I responded to that effect and he basically said good luck doing business I'm not interested. The irony of all this is that I have been in business selling this product myself successfully and have quite clearly proven that the market wants it. I'm inclined to believe every one of these people are fools. The lava lamp will survive despite this. I don't know what's going to eventually happen, but I am all for truly innovating the lava lamp. I see some members are finally cracking the code to making their own traditional lava lamps and in my opinion that was a long time coming. The chemistry is not that complicated. I'm also not surprised that it quickly resulted in threatening comments. I think this community is capable of connecting the dots. 

[BaBa-Gooey]

I am new to Lava Lamp collecting and I can say Schylling lava lamps are poorly made trash.  I quickly bought ten of them, over the course of a few months, late last year when I began collecting.  One arrived in the mail with bulb glass shattered and dispersed around the globe (I cut my finger removing it) and the painted base was all scratched up.  Another I bought at Spencers was pure junk.  You could run the metallic finish off the base with your finger! (pic attached).  Both of those were replaced.  The replacement base was sent by Schylling with a bulb screwed in the socket!  Of course it was broken.  I had to use pliers to remove it.  

8 of the 10 new lamps that I own run very hot, so hot that after an hour all the wan stays at the top until they are turned off and cooled.  I had to buy dimmers for almost all of them just to get them to run properly.  Set me back around $150.

It is a shame this once great brand has been ruined by incompetence and cost cutting.  I will only be buying bad lamps, dumping them, and making my own goo to refurbish them.  

Schylling sucks.  See attached pics.

[Johnny]

different name same poor quality bin food, ive been a member on and of here for donkey years and its been a main topic over and over with your lamps, i feel sorry that you guys have to put up with it, clearly the companys who make the lamps are in it for the money and nowt else, but to me its just chucking ya money down the drain and bin food.

They need to find a company that actuly cares about the product and customers instead of rebranding a bad product as they say you cant polish a turd! :-(

[k-nano]

I think the topic of quality control is a little more complex than them not caring at all. Believe me, I'm not trying to make excuses for them as I have my own gripes. I think the investors may be short sighted as they tend to be. Short term gains in lieu of long term is a common problem with investors. The expiration of the original patent and the subsequent Chinese knock offs seems to have been a huge catalyst in their problems. There was also changes in environmental regulations that led to the need to make product formulation changes. The retail industry in general has been suffering due to inability to compete with Amazon. There's some evidence they embarked on some lawsuits that didn't end ideally for them. I think all these things played a part in the continuing collapse in quality of the product. Add the fact that they became a fairly large corporate company clogged with the inefficiencies and fear of risk that comes with being a fairly large corporate company as well as apparently 80% market share and it all starts to make sense. They lacked incentive to have the best quality product. In my opinion, at this point the best incentive to start caring about the quality of the product more is the possibility that they won't have anything if they don't.  

[BaBa-Gooey]

"They lacked incentive to have the best quality product."

That comment sums it up.  That is why the brand sucks royally and they have done virtually nothing since taking over the company.  They could have turned it around into a great company, like their British counterparts.  My guess is the U.S. brand will flail in the tar pits like a dinosaur until it is completely dead.  Maybe then someone will buy the brand and turn it around.  The current owners do not seem interested in improving the quality of their shit brand.  They should change the name to Schittylling.