Lava World has been sold!

[Randal]

Talked to my favorite on-line retailer today about a possible release of new products and they informmed me that Lava World has been sold and placed under new ownership. Lava World is now called Lava Lite. The raunchy news is that the manufacturing will stay in China. So if this is good news or bad news we will just have to wait and see. The retailers unfortunantly will see a delay in their shipments for at least a week. We will wait and see.

[MattMJB0188]

Good, I hope they go out of businees. NO lava lamps made would be better then the China lamps.

[Bumpkin]

I just hope that the NEW owners of LW will make better lava lites. I also hope that LW will come back to to U.S.A.

Bumpkin

[Randal]

Haggerty enterprises pretty much killed their own company. People want Lava Lamps and if you look at what their marketing team was putting into action I think it speaks for itself.

SteveSF summed it up. The novelty stuff was a total waste. For example: those stupid faux hair lamps. They can't get rid of them. The battery operated stuff also didn't go well but the only thing that sells well is their plasma line.

2nd example: new lava colors. Haggerty Enterprises has been sticking with the same exact 52oz lava lamps for what I beleive over 2 years now. They finally released the Black chrome lava lamp last November along with the Rainbow lamp. But those only go so far. The Spencers store that I work for has a termendous ammount of purchases for Lava Lamps. The best sellers are White in Pink, Lime green in clear, and Pink in Purple along with the newly released White base and cap Black in clear. People are constantly looking for these lamps on-line but guess what.......Haggerty Enterprises at no point in time offerd these colors to their retailers within the last 2 years. Instead they stuck with their colors and created stagnant sales.

The same can be said about the Grandes. Within the last 2 years has anyone seen any new colors for Grande lamps? Why not make new colors. How about a white in blue, white in purple, or even something off the wall like Red lava in Blue liquid. My favorite on-line retailer did ask Haggerty Enterprises if they were planning to release any new colors for the grande's and they said "These are our best selling colors for the Grandes and "maybe" within the next year or two we will make new colors." So if Haggerty Enterprises's marketing team had their way we would still be looking at the same exact Grande colors for allmost 2 more years.

One last one that I can think of is that they never make enough of their best sellers. They relied too much on the 20oz Chrome lamps and unfortunantly their fate by then had allready been sealed. But the new company needs to be given an opportunuty to establish itself. Maybe everyone should send an email to the new company saying that we want lava lamps and not the same crap that we have been seeing for the past 2 years.

[MattMJB0188]

True, but if the new owners were among our ranks then I would imagine production would resume back in Chicago again.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Astrobaby, if you DO send them a letter, please remember a few things:

The market currently WON'T bear the huge variety they had in the late 90s. They'll have to start slowly. They won't be bringing back the Starships, gold-base lamps, Wizards, Safaris, Elec-Tricks and the counless colors all at once.

They probably aren't interested in bringing back all our vintage favorites or doing lots of cool custom ideas. They might consider doing some special editions, but collectors are a very, very small niche market for them.

So be friendly as usual, but don't go overboard. They can only do so much, and many of the "Wouldn't it be cool if they made a..." ideas aren't really practical, as much as they would be very cool.

[medicated goo]

www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-lava-lamp-lava-world-talon-...

chicagotribune.com
Chicago lava lamp maker acquired
By James P. Miller

Tribune staff reporter

Just... wow, man.

In what has to rank as one of Monday's grooviest bits of financial news, the Chicago private-equity firm Talon Merchant Capital disclosed that it has acquired the company that produces the iconic 1960's fixture often known as the "Lava Lamp."

Perhaps wanting to keep things mellow, Talon didn't provide any details of its purchase of the operating and intellectual-property assets of Lava World International Inc. Lava World is the maker of the the kitschy lamp which -- with its psychedelically oozing crimson blobs -- burst into prominence during the Flower Power era.

Prior to the sale, Lava World had been part of family-owned Haggerty Enterprises of Elmhurst.

The lamp has changed hands before. British inventor, and active nudist, Edwin Craven Walker is credited with developing the design.

When he displayed what he called the "Astro" lamp at a trade show in Germany in 1965, two American entrepreneurs bought the U.S. rights and began to produce what they called the "Lava Lite" in the Chicago area.

As the social unrest and drug culture of the 1960s era gained momentum, so did sales of the lamp with the hypnotic waxy globules.

With the arrival of the Disco Age, however, Lava Lite sales dropped off, and in 1976 a Chicago novelties entrepreneur, the late Lawrence Haggerty, acquired the rights.

Haggerty Enterprises has continued manufacturing the lamps, and over the years gained a reputation as a fierce protector of the brand, suing knockoff makers and trade-mark infringers.

The company has often insisted publicly, as it does on its website, that "a 'lava lamp' does not exist," and that the product should be referred to as a "Lava brand motion lamp." But "Lava brand motion lamp" hasn't caught on with American consumers.

Although the lava lamp is thought to be enjoying something of a renaissance, it's not clear how its maker has been faring.

Talon, which calls itself a provider of capital to middle-market consumer product companies "during periods of growth, restructuring and change," immediately changed the company's name to Lava Lite LLC and installed its own representative as head of the company -- but it didn't offer any guidance on the privately held producer's revenues or profitability.

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribun

[www.6-ft-under.com]

Ummmm....dare I ask how big is this "giant"????? Any pictures to share?

[Bumpkin]

yes thank you for the update.

Bumpkin

[MattMJB0188]

Well reading all that inspired me to write this new company an e-mail. I wrote:

Hi my name is Matt Bartolomei. I reside in Northwest, IN. I have been a fan of the Lava Lite Lamp for over a decade now. I just recently learned of your plans to take over Lava World. I don't know if you were aware but ever since the year 2003 they went downhill because they moved their production to China. When the lamp were manufactured in Chicago, IL they sold millions throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. There are hundreds of Lava Lamp collectors and we all want one thing. We want production resumed back in Chicago where it belongs. Your company has the power to do that now. We want lamps with quality and we want to pay $49.99 per lamp.


I have refused to buy products from your current line because of the manufacturing in China. I have emailed Tim Haggerty numerous times but he feeds me the same garbage. They switched over to China for economic problems. Maybe your company will realize that if you bring back the Lamp to its rightful home your business will make so much money. People would rather pay a high price for something and have it last a lifetime instead of pay $20 for something and throw it away the next day. I know the American Formula used in the 1990s is still available. I'm not asking your company to return all the lamps they use to have out, but I am asking for them to at least consider resuming production back in Chicago.

Please do not respond to me if you plan on telling me how well you think the company is doing selling in China and how great those lamps are and how the quality is there because I know its not and hundreds of other people no its not. But I gladly appreciate your time to read my concern. Thanks and may your company please return the true meaning to the words "Lava Lite."
Thanks,
Matt Bartolomei.

[Mark Goo]

Cool. Thanks Dr. for scanning this.
MG

[Mark Goo]

HAGGERLY, TIMOTHY (T.J. HAGGERTY/C.E.O), (Zip code: 53177) $2000 to BUSH-CHENEY '04 (PRIMARY) INC. on 09/10/03

Basically it tells me what I already knew. Tim Haggerty isn't ashamed to ship American jobs to china, and he supported Bush-Cheney in 2004 (after four years of their questionable record.)

MG

[Mark Goo]

Great idea. Did you ever do this?
Maybe you could set it up like a petition and get all 400 GooHeads to sign it....
MG