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

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.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by WeeboTech on June 25, 2012 at 7:45am

and a partridge in a lava tree.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on June 26, 2012 at 11:34am

I may be mistaken, but I am almost positive the 52oz plasmas were not a new for 2012. I remember seeing them in Spencers mid-last year. On a humorous unrelated note, these lamps pack a punch. I was resting my arm on the metal shelf fixture when I reached over to touch the lamp and I got a little shock. No reflection of the product of course... just plasma lamps 101 ;)

Autumn said:

3 32oz clearviews. 3 12oz clearviews. 2 batman lamps. Ice lamp. Tornado glitter. 3 52oz neons. 3 20oz neons. Two zebra print lamps. 32oz aquarium. 52oz plasma lamp.

Steven said:

It just feels like there is a major lack of drive as far as production goes. Its been a very very long time since there was a huge release of large lamps. Recently when they announced their releaseof of products it contained 3 new 20oz. Both batman lamps and a white in green. So its just frustrating. I'm willing to wait for good quality products.
I thought it was noble of them to recall the neon lamps. Haggarty did the opposite. There was a time when they had a huge batch of defected 52oz red in clear and decided to selling th em which costs many sellers tons of money. It made us look bad and angerd many customers. This is a good way to rebuild a reputation with everyone and bring many people back.

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Permalink Reply by Steven on June 26, 2012 at 4:05pm

Are the clearview lamps exclusive to Target?

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Permalink Reply by Anson Cheung on July 1, 2012 at 8:26am

Ship to Hong Kong. That is all.

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Permalink Reply by Erin on July 1, 2012 at 8:27am

Yes, they are. The package label says so.

Steven said:

Are the clearview lamps exclusive to Target?

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Permalink Reply by HughesWaveMotionMachinesLLC on July 16, 2012 at 5:24am

The problem with the waves is the cost. The vessel itself for a Giant Pacifica costs well over that to fabricate. In fact it is the most expensive part of the vessel. The oil used costs over $40 a gallon now and some of the chemicals used in them have a huge shipping surcharge attached to them. Then there is the cost of having injection molds made, patents, unit shipping costs, ect. The amount of interest is not worth the cost to them as it is more of a niche product than the lamps. Material and labor costs are not what they were in the 90s and neither is the demand.

Dr. WHAT?! said:

Jimbo the starship wasn't launched due to it not passing with underwriter laboratory's tests. Nothing about its stability, they a have strict rules here in the US, another reason why we dont see the grande plasma here in the US and only in the UK. They dont have nearly as many guidelines/rules when it comes to electrical devices as the US does. But I would love to see this fixed and actually released to the public, so ask him Autumn.

Also about grandes, find out why they haven't done anything different with those? the same color combos for the past 10 years is so boring. We need new color combos, different colored bases (starship is a good example of a different base) for these liek the days of the giants.

Also push the wave machine more on him, I dont think he realizes what bringing back the wave would do for LL as a company, it could be their saving grace. He's concern about the cost? lol I'm pretty sure people would pay $50-$100 for these.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. WHAT?! on July 16, 2012 at 7:54am

Phreaktor Im not talking about ones that are HUGE like your custom ones or an Atlantis that would cost big cash, I'm talking regular normal sized waves. Can you explain how come, about 5 years ago, you were able to walk into any mall and buy these cheap china waves for $19.99 at any Discovery Channel stores? And I'm talking about these CHEAP CHINA WAVE the listing is wrong btw these were not made in the 90's. And look the price this is fetching! how is there not a demand for these and how come they can't be produced at reasonable prices? Shit I think a wave machine would be about the only thing a china factory can't screw up on lol.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Gill on July 16, 2012 at 11:55am

Your right - yes the giant waves will be costly (similar to the situation with the collouses). I am sure that there are factories in china that can make them really easily and cheaply in fact it wouldn't surprise me if they were being produced now!!

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Permalink Reply by HughesWaveMotionMachinesLLC on July 16, 2012 at 1:49pm

The item in the auction, the Discovery Store Tranquil Tide Machine, was available at that price because it was being mass produced at that time. Currently, the only "wave machine" in production is made in China and is just a toy/novelty item. You can buy 1000 of them for $3000 and they are incredibly low quality with nearly nonexistent true wave action. There are several chemicals in the Lava formula which I have almost cracked with the help of a chemical engineer.

One of the first formula chemicals has a $27.00 Hazard surcharge for each bottle, and they are only sold in 1 liter containers. The old Lava vessels were made from custom extruded rectangular acrylic. No one produces this shape of material en masse. Cell cast sheet is extremely labor intensive so that is out the door. As for the round tube later models, the 16" models had injection molded end caps for the blank side and the air trap side. Developing this type of mold costs thousands of dollars depending upon the complexity. The bases were molded as well. There is another fairly costly chemical that is used to treat the inside of the vessel.

I'm not saying it's impossible to make it cost effective, but just because waves fetch a huge price tag does not mean the demand is large enough to warrant full scale production at today's costs. One of the original chemicals is even outlawed for its original purpose now, but can be had to the tune of $137.00 per gallon.

They seem to be so popular now not because so many people want them, but because there are so few respectable units on the market. Supply versus demand is dictating value. I only know this because I have been grooming the market for three years now. Pretty much every Google result is my marketing. Personally, it's a great thing for me that they are not releasing them again. I am working on an 18" model as well.

Dr. WHAT?! said:

Phreaktor Im not talking about ones that are HUGE like your custom ones or an Atlantis that would cost big cash, I'm talking regular normal sized waves. Can you explain how come, about 5 years ago, you were able to walk into any mall and buy these cheap china waves for $19.99 at any Discovery Channel stores? And I'm talking about these CHEAP CHINA WAVE the listing is wrong btw these were not made in the 90's. And look the price this is fetching! how is there not a demand for these and how come they can't be produced at reasonable prices? Shit I think a wave machine would be about the only thing a china factory can't screw up on lol.

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Permalink Reply by Jonas Clark-Elliott on August 9, 2012 at 10:09am

Here's hoping you do bring back these lovely decor items. Spencer Gifts is full of liquid- and light-based novelty devices, but no Waves...?? There absolutely need to be such devices, and I think they could become popular again.