Ask me about Lava Lite. Top 5 unanswered questions go to Lava Lite for answers

[Autumn]

As do most of my good ideas, this one came to me after waking up in the morning. As most of you know I have been talking with Dale, the CEO of Lava Lite in an attempt to bring the collecting community and Lava Lite on to the same page. I am going to be answering questions about Lava Lite today. Anything I don't know the answer to I will put on a list and the top 5 questions will be presented to Lava Lite.

Ready? Go!

~edit~

Here are the top 5 questions and answers.

The top 5 unanswered questions.

#1. Formula, formula, formula. Will the exact formula from the 90's be used? What exactly is going on, and what happened to make things so bad?

#2. Will new lamp designs be more bold? The past 10 years worth of lamp designs have been bland, can we spice it up a bit?

#3. New base finishes in 32/52oz lamps? Copper? Chrome? (Personal note: I'd love chrome)

#4. New grande colors? We want more color options

#5. This will be my question. You mentioned that small batches will be possible when production starts in the USA factory. Will it be possible to request custom lamps, as well as send in globes for refills on lamps such as the consorts and giants?

"

#1. 

This is the big question. This was our big question and our problem to solve.

The formula was not the problem. Not following the procedure is where the problems have existed. The formula is the exact formula used in the 1990's. The process of making the formula has to be followed precisely every time.The proper heating of the wax/formula to an exact temperature is a long slow process. This is followed by a slow cool down. Every time, every batch.The problems occur when heating too quickly/and or cooled too quickly. Our two key people spent weeks at a time supervising the process. We also have an independent engineer/quality person in China. This was incredibly frustrating on our end initially. It was very simple to us.  "Just follow the formula." The real issue proved to be the process was being rushed. Less Time= Less Labor. Factories can do many things to their cut costs. Not many products exist where the end user can detect any change in quality. Our product quality is totally visible. Our team communicates with our factories every night by Skype. When they aren't present they are watching the manufacturing on Skype. We watch them like a hawk. 

#2. 

You will see many new designs and products that I would consider bold. The Clearview is the first of many being released this year. The process of creating products is painstaking and costly. From concept to release takes roughly a year. Next years design work has already begun. Having a constant flow of new interesting and exciting products are critical to our success. 

Questions #3-#5 are all good questions that primarily relate to marketing and product development, now and in the future. 

New attractive products are the lifeblood of any good consumer product company. New sizes, finishes and colors are currently in the works or in development. My personal favorite size is the Grande. The Grande could be the ideal product to initially manufacture in the USA for the following reasons: Ability to be nimble to changes, smaller batch sizes, ease of adding new colors, inventory management, upscaled finishes with smaller limited quantities and reduced lead times for products to enter the market. Initially US made product will be more costly. The larger sizes are not as price sensitive as our current line. Custom lamps would be very costly and probably not feasible.

Refilling globes would be possible and would need to be further explored. I can't provide specific timing to many of LL's current projects. These are works in progress. I assure you that our very experienced team are pros at handling any challenge. There is never a dull moment at LL. 

"

[Dr. WHAT?!]

I agree with you 100% Charles and as long as there are civilized conversations here and not comments that are just getting repeated over and over again (everyone hates beating a dead horse) then there's no reason why this would not work out to everyone's advantage, for both us gooheads and LavaLite, Inc. The fact that Dale is reaching out to us is amazing considering the crap they dealt with a year ago from certain ex OG members/moderators. I really tried to go out of my way to make their first time here a pleasurable one, but unfortunately at that time we had a horrible moderation team, who did nothing but ban everyone who did not stand by there side with their LL bashing. Anyway now that there's a new amazing mod team (shameless plug lol) this time around will be much much different. We may actually get something accomplished here this time. Kudos to our Autumn! ;)

Charles said:

Actually if they did things right this board *could* be one of their best friends as far as getting the word out on new products but we are justifiably skeptic and gun shy, having burned so many times before....

[Charles]

...nothing about the formula?

[Tim Gill]

Right hears my question:

In the 90's Lava Lite (Lava World) was all about bold statements and crazy design - e.g. the colossus, the electric series, icon series, phycodelic swerls, hazes, midnight's and the list goes on etc.

You say your planning on going back to these designs but if you re-design lamps (as is happening) will there be the same flare as the 90's or more stylised design. If so then could this be in direct competition with Mathmos. It could mean that all lava lamps look very similar and no big difference between them.

[Gwen Williams]

Will there be something along the lines of a rocket soon, I really love them so.  And  is there a possibility or something oin copper or chrome, ore realy any metal other than stainless?

[Dr. WHAT?!]

They did make rockets again lol but it was nothing worth buying though since it came with a 8 oz globe. I think I bought one from kmart for $3.99, and it just sits in the box. And they did do a chrome series, these were okay, but again the 20 oz sized lamps aren't all that appealing. In this pic the 3 bases in the middle are the black chrome, chrome and copper versions they released. They just need to make these in a much larger size.

Gwen Williams said:

Will there be something along the lines of a rocket soon, I really love them so.  And  is there a possibility or something oin copper or chrome, ore realy any metal other than stainless?

[Autumn]

Dale sent me a quick message about the tours. At some point, tours will be possible. He also said he will look in to the formula change after 9-11 to see if it happened. 

Okay now as for the questions he did not answer, but I know the answer to.

Wave machines are on hold right now due to costs. Sorry Dr. What?! it just isnt that simple. Not many stores will carry an expensive product these days. You have to look at it from a business perspective and take the emotion out of the equation. Give it time though, they aren't dead.

Same goes for the colossus, a solution for the inability to find the old bulbs is in the works.

Charles, making OG friends with Lava Lite is what my goal is right now. Dale wants to establish a positive feeling for each other. Not only is it healthy for our site, its healthy for his business.

It was very easy to make a top 5 list due to Dale answering so many questions before he was supposed to. :p

The answers will be out whenever Dale can write up an email. He is very busy right now, so I will not rush him.

The top 5 unanswered questions.

#1. Formula, formula, formula. Will the exact formula from the 90's be used? What exactly is going on, and what happened to make things so bad?

#2. Will new lamp designs be more bold? The past 10 years worth of lamp designs have been bland, can we spice it up a bit?

#3. New base finishes in 32/52oz lamps? Copper? Chrome? (Personal note: I'd love chrome)

#4. New grande colors? We want more color options

#5. This will be my question. You mentioned that small batches will be possible when production starts in the USA factory. Will it be possible to request custom lamps, as well as send in globes for refills on lamps such as the consorts and giants?

No more questions for now. I may do this again in the future though. If you would like for me to do this again, send me a private message and let me know.

[Gwen Williams]

That does not answer what they will be doing in the future, just what they tried and failed at in the past Dr. WHAT?!

Dr. WHAT?! said:

They did make rockets again lol but it was nothing worth buying though since it came with a 8 oz globe. I think I bought one from kmart for $3.99, and it just sits in the box. And they did do a chrome series, these were okay, but again the 20 oz sized lamps aren't all that appealing. In this pic the 3 bases in the middle are the black chrome, chrome and copper versions they released. They just need to make these in a much larger size.

Gwen Williams said:

Will there be something along the lines of a rocket soon, I really love them so.  And  is there a possibility or something oin copper or chrome, ore realy any metal other than stainless?

[Dr. WHAT?!]

no it doesn't but it gives them the idea what we want to see as a collectors. The chrome series was a good idea and the bases are not that bad, you can even put a 32 oz on them, but it just was over shadowed by small globe size and poor formula. The rocket was a 8 oz. lamp not quite a special lamp either. Make them bigger and more unique. Bring on the grande starship.

Gwen Williams said:

That does not answer what they will be doing in the future, just what they tried and failed at in the past Dr. WHAT?!

Dr. WHAT?! said:

They did make rockets again lol but it was nothing worth buying though since it came with a 8 oz globe. I think I bought one from kmart for $3.99, and it just sits in the box. And they did do a chrome series, these were okay, but again the 20 oz sized lamps aren't all that appealing. In this pic the 3 bases in the middle are the black chrome, chrome and copper versions they released. They just need to make these in a much larger size.

Gwen Williams said:

Will there be something along the lines of a rocket soon, I really love them so.  And  is there a possibility or something oin copper or chrome, ore realy any metal other than stainless?

[Charles]

We already know that the formula has changed. One of the haggerty's said so, and we have 8-9 years of crap to back that up.

I know that nobody wants any viciousness or hyper negativity, but I see where the anger comes from when people vent their frustrations at LL.

ANY denial that the formula has changed is to deny reality and condemns the purchaser to experience at best clearer versions of the junk we have gotten from them for so long.


Talking about bold new containers and colors means nothing without reverting back to the original formula that served them well for 30 plus years. I just hope if they can't/won't change back to the original formula they at least be honest about it and save us all a lot of grief. We have been burned time and time again and it has nothing to do with packaging or shipping problems.

[Autumn]

Let me tell you something you may not be aware of, in fact I don't think most people are aware of this. Dale has only been CEO of Lava Lite for a little over 2 years. What have we seen in the past 2 years? Quality improvements. These things take time. Dale tried to make it work in China, but the quality control problems were too severe.  There is a reason why manufacturing is coming back home to the USA. Quality control.

The formula was changed without authorization. The factories did this to cut costs. To understand why they could do this you need to understand how business works in China. I will let Dale personally explain this further because it is question #1.

Charles said:

We already know that the formula has changed. One of the haggerty's said so, and we have 8-9 years of crap to back that up.

I know that nobody wants any viciousness or hyper negativity, but I see where the anger comes from when people vent their frustrations at LL.

ANY denial that the formula has changed is to deny reality and condemns the purchaser to experience at best clearer versions of the junk we have gotten from them for so long.


Talking about bold new containers and colors means nothing without reverting back to the original formula that served them well for 30 plus years. I just hope if they can't/won't change back to the original formula they at least be honest about it and save us all a lot of grief. We have been burned time and time again and it has nothing to do with packaging or shipping problems.

[Charles]

Haggerty himself said that THEY (not the Chinese) changed the formula. So we know that whatever is being used now is not an unintended deviation.


BTW those new designs in another thread, when will they hit the stores and what stores will get them first? All I have seen atTarget for the last two years is two flavors of the 20oz .

[Autumn]

Like I said before, I will let Dale answer this. I do not have the answers. I can only repeat what has been told to me, I don't work for Lava Lite.

If all you ever see at Target are 20oz lamps you missed the designer series last year. The new lamps will be at Target in July.

Charles said:

Haggerty himself said that THEY (not the Chinese) changed the formula. So we know that whatever is being used now is not an unintended deviation.


BTW those new designs in another thread, when will they hit the stores and what stores will get them first? All I have seen atTarget for the last two years is two flavors of the 20oz .