Thanks for all the info here

I wanted to get a nice Lava Lamp for my desk. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. I read half a dozen threads on this site and put together a plan to buy a Mathmos Heritage Black Matt Pink Goo Astro Lamp. It is currently being shipped to my mailer proxy.

I documented the journey here:

http://oculusdrifter.blogspot.com/2014/06/mathmos-astro-lamp-for-us...

This may help others in the future who want any Mathmos featured on their site. I will update the blog entry as shipping & delivery unfolds.

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Permalink Reply by Keith on June 5, 2014 at 10:41am

Great info and documentation!! This could work for UK ebay purchases that only ship domestically also. And Welcome to OG!

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Permalink Reply by Critter on June 5, 2014 at 1:13pm

Please let us know if this works out. I tried to use this service a few months ago and they said they would not forward ship a fluid filled item of any type. If it works for you I will sign back up again.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Foreman on June 5, 2014 at 1:21pm

hmmm. I was looking at the international shipping restrictions for the UK:

Prohibited: Liquids over 1 litre. That is .264172 gallons.

I'm guessing an astro lamp has more than that.

Well, I knew I was taking a risk. They will probably reject it when they get it. Then I have to deal with returning it remotely.

I changed the vendor name and description to obfuscate it a bit. I called it a lamp and said the vendor was Lighting. I'll buy a used one off ebay if I have to but my choices are very limited.

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Permalink Reply by ChuckM on June 5, 2014 at 9:19pm

Wow! Good luck with this. It is the perfect storm of restrictions... bad licensing deal combined with silly shipping restriction. I was able to buy a blue and a gold Heritage and have them shipped to my hotel in London on a business trip a couple months back as well as an extra bottle for my telstar. I just ordered the black and a regular silver as well as the top and bottom for an Astrobaby (since I have the extra bottle) for another business trip. I am now feeling that much more lucky that I even have the two I managed to bring back. One thing you might consider is ordering just the top and bottom of an Astro to your proxy... the bottles from 52oz lava lites usually fit. I can confirm one old century and one brand new premier bottle do fit. I do have an Aristocrat that doesn't quite fit right but it is an anomaly. If you have a good flow or use glitter then you are good to go. Anyway... at least you can bring them in luggage!

I wonder if an Astrobaby would be under the liquid limit?

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Permalink Reply by Sean Foreman on June 6, 2014 at 6:52am

They approved the package and I paid for shipping. {crosses fingers}

This is not cheap. The cost of shipping with their handling fee was $68.

But... if it works I'm happy.

Cost breakdown:

Lamp: 70 pounds

3 Replacement bulbs: 12 pounds

shipping: 35 pounds

handling: 5 pounds

ukaddress signup fee: 5 pounds

Total = 127 pounds = $214

If/When I receive the package I will provide a final update.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Foreman on June 9, 2014 at 7:33pm

My Mathmos Astro arrived today in perfect shape via ukaddress.com.

I updated my blog with unpacking photos:

http://oculusdrifter.blogspot.com/2014/06/mathmos-astro-lamp-for-us...

I obviously can't guarantee this will work for others but I encountered no snags in getting it.

It looks great on my desk. Thanks to everyone again for the info on this site. It was extremely helpful.

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Permalink Reply by ChuckM on June 9, 2014 at 7:40pm

Congrats! If, by chance, it doesn't flow, you may consider redoing for 110v and using a standard 40w reflector. That happened to me with the black/plum lava but it may be specific to that lava. I had used US versions of the standard bulbs and it just didn't budge.

By the way... XBMC? I used that on my classic xbox until I switched to Plex... Now use a dedicated Mede8er. Sonos? Got that all over! Must be a phenotype!

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Permalink Reply by Sean Foreman on June 9, 2014 at 8:05pm

I bought an up converter and 3 replacement bulbs. It seems to be flowing fine. Still getting warmed up.

I have xbmc running on a linux distro for the main room and as a windows app on all the pcs in the house. My only beef is the imdb scraper has fallen into disrepair. Maybe at some point I will rewrite their imdb scraper. I have my own imdb scraper written in java for organizing everything. I then have it create shortcuts and files so that xbmc will recognize it.