Lava Lite

[Kempton]

I was looking through the old forum and found this post. It has furthered my opinion that Lava Lite will be great forever. Just give it a read. The CEO of lava lite wrote it. http://oozinggoo.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?b-gb/m-1195315797/

[Gooboy]

BS!!

Instead of sticking to their guns and weathering the market, finding new distributors, they took the cheap and

easy way out and sold their soul to China.

As a result of cheap manufacturing, their product quality has taken a nose-dive, but they can fix it, if they feel so

motivated.

Their lava lamps are garbage!! Good only for dumping and GooKitting!!

[WeeboTech]

There's no need for bannings if people are civil and stick to the subject matter without attacking the members.

Frankly, this is a heated debate over and over and it seems like it's not even worth continued discussion.

Religious wars (spirited debates) over Mathmos vs Lava vs USA production vs China production go no where here.

The only direction satisfaction or dissatisfaction can have any effect is to the point of origin.

Communicate with the Manufacturer.

 

After re-reading Kemptons hyperlink to the older post. I'm wondering.

Is TIm Haggerty still involved with the same company?

Is it the same company?

 

Jim said:

I sense this thread will not end well.  I will set the over/under on bannings due to this thread at five.

 

In my best Michael Buffer voice... Let's get ready to rumble!!!!!

[Gooboy]

No, you are right, this is redundant ;)

Jim said:

There are at least a half dozen other threads seemingly dedicated to bitching about Lava Lite quality. Did we need another one? Really? Its just folks parroting the same tired refrain. We get it.

[WeeboTech]

Agreed.

As I mention bring it to the attention of the manufacture. It serves little purpose here. 

Returning bad product to the manufacture (even if over and over again) makes the biggest statement. 

 

Jim said:

There are at least a half dozen other threads seemingly dedicated to bitching about Lava Lite quality. Did we need another one? Really? Its just folks parroting the same tired refrain. We get it.

[WeeboTech]

Thanks and since that is the case, this discussion doesn't seem to have merit to the original post any more.

Dr. WHAT?! said:

 

As far as I know Haggerty is in no way affiliated with LL anymore.

[LampHead]

Vegas has the line at 6...LOL

Jim said:

I sense this thread will not end well.  I will set the over/under on bannings due to this thread at five.

 

In my best Michael Buffer voice... Let's get ready to rumble!!!!!

[LampHead]

The company has been sold off a few times since Tim H had the reigns. It was basically left for dead and the quality did suffer but the current owners are trying to do what they can. What most people bitch about is quality and how they are willing to pay big money (Mathmos prices) for good quality lamps again yet Ebay is loaded with US made high quality lamps that dont sell for $ 10 so I dont buy what most people claim. People are for the most part cheap and will not pay over $ 20 for lamps so I wouldnt expect to see the quality rise at the current prices...you get what you pay for. The last US made 32oz lamps sold for $50-60 new and that was in 2002. Blah blah blah I will pay more for better quality but the sales numbers did not support that claim.

WeeboTech said:

After re-reading Kemptons hyperlink to the older post. I'm wondering.

Is TIm Haggerty still involved with the same company?

Is it the same company?

 

[WeeboTech]

Very interesting, That has been my findings too.

People want the lowest cost, 

As I've moved onto the other side of this in the seller's arena, I've seen people balk at mint vintage lamps too. 

So even if you have the quality and vintage/antique value, people want it cheap.

 

LampHead said:

The company has been sold off a few times since Tim H had the reigns. It was basically left for dead and the quality did suffer but the current owners are trying to do what they can. What most people bitch about is quality and how they are willing to pay big money (Mathmos prices) for good quality lamps again yet Ebay is loaded with US made high quality lamps that dont sell for $ 10 so I dont buy what most people claim. People are for the most part cheap and will not pay over $ 20 for lamps so I wouldnt expect to see the quality rise at the current prices...you get what you pay for. The last US made 32oz lamps sold for $50-60 new and that was in 2002. Blah blah blah I will pay more for better quality but the sales numbers did not support that claim.

WeeboTech said:

After re-reading Kemptons hyperlink to the older post. I'm wondering.

Is TIm Haggerty still involved with the same company?

Is it the same company?

 

[Gooboy]

Yeah, that is about what I paid for my US made 52oz blue/white LL back in the early 90's and thought that it was

alot of money ;)

LampHead said:

The company has been sold off a few times since Tim H had the reigns. It was basically left for dead and the quality did suffer but the current owners are trying to do what they can. What most people bitch about is quality and how they are willing to pay big money (Mathmos prices) for good quality lamps again yet Ebay is loaded with US made high quality lamps that dont sell for $ 10 so I dont buy what most people claim. People are for the most part cheap and will not pay over $ 20 for lamps so I wouldnt expect to see the quality rise at the current prices...you get what you pay for. The last US made 32oz lamps sold for $50-60 new and that was in 2002. Blah blah blah I will pay more for better quality but the sales numbers did not support that claim.

WeeboTech said:

After re-reading Kemptons hyperlink to the older post. I'm wondering.

Is TIm Haggerty still involved with the same company?

Is it the same company?

 

[Kempton]

Sorry for bringing this back up. I just thought the post was interesting. It explains some.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

That is, I think, the issue: The average American public demands low prices, or they won't buy the product. Thus, if you the manufacturer don't, can't or won't cut costs, by hook or by crook (including cheapening the quality of the product) the public won't buy it and you go out of business. With our current low economy, also, many can't afford decorative items unless they're dirt-cheap. Long story short: as much as we collectors hate what has happened, it's what Lava had to do to stay afloat. REMEMBER: 99.999% of the people who make up the lava lamp-buying market are not collectors! They're John & Jane Q. Public who demand the least expensive product, regardless of quality.

 

MY issues are with the company claiming the formula has not changed, but I have two theories on this:

One-- What if Lava has DEMANDED that their product cost less than the knockoffs, some of which we already know are manufactured by the same factory; the reason Lava Lites don't flow as well as the knockoffs is because of the requirement that they cost less than the knockoffs.

Two-- What if the same thing has happened... and the Chinese manufacturers have assured Lava Lite in Illinois that they did not change the formula? What if the Lava Lite people really DO think it hasn't changed?

 

As for the buying public I mentioned, cheapness overrides ALL other factors in buying anything. And by now, they expect that these items won't be the best quality; it's run-of-the-mill now to be junky. If it lights up and maybe blobs a little bit, it's a lava lamp *shrug* Who cares if it's junky? 12-year-old Susie will grow out of her 'pink phase' in a year and you'll put it on Craigslist with the rest of her pink stuff. Jerry always gets drunk at your dorm parties and knocks stuff over; good thing that lamp only cost five bucks, it'll be going in the trash after Jerry slams into it. You'll buy it for your "60s party", use it once, and sell it off at the garage sale next month for a dollar. The days when these were expected to be beautiful and were treated as semi-permanent fixtures of your decor are gone; home decor is expected to be cheap and easily replaced.

 

I do believe Lava Lite can raise their quality, and their re-hiring one of their Chicago chemists and sending him to China to look at the products is a big step. Lava people came here - JUST TO TALK TO US, the niche market! - and several of us ran them off with torches and pitchforks. Smooth moves, people. Real smooth. I have a feeling, of the few who did that, several of them just like to stir up trouble and several were of the "I'm dying for the day that Lava goes kaput and Mathmos takes over" camp. Fine, fine, but please take your screaming and yelling elsewhere, away from us collectors who like civil discussion. I posted a thread about a fantasy I had: Assuming we're five years in the future and Lava Lite is producing great products again, what collector edition lamps would you like to see? And I got several nasty replies, including people demanding that I "stop deluding myself" and "get with reality" and people who told me "I know you said 'no nasty comments', but I couldn't help myself--" --and when I told said people, 'fine, you've had your say, don't do it again-- why, they'd do it two or three more times!!

 

...maybe I should restart that collector editions discussion now that we've got mods like Weeb and Astro who're really on top of things?

[WeeboTech]

Jonas, if you wanted to start a topic and own the thread, we can work it out where your say goes within the thread and the mods will assist by pruning comments.

 

I own all types of lava lamps so I don't have a bias towards one manufacture or another.

I don't delude myself as to current quality standards.

I'm all for a discussion of the type mentioned. For any manufacture.

Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

 

...maybe I should restart that collector editions discussion now that we've got mods like Weeb and Astro who're really on top of things?