Wishbook Web is back!

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Someone asked me recently: which old catalogs hava Lava Lites etc. in them? Half the fun is hunting for yourself, as you see all sorts of other vintage eye candy in these catalogs. Wishbook Web has catalogs from 1988 all the way back to 1933!

For those who want to do their own searching, DO NOT read further. Go to Wishbook Web and happy hunting! For those who really can't wait, I'll hunt and post, but you'll still have to go find the pages yourself. If you really must skip a step, scroll down...
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...here are JUST the dates and page numbers, for those who don't want a complete spoiler. These are Lava Lites, psychedelic lighting, and rain lamps. So you never know which you'll find at these locations. For those who absolutely must know what's where, see next post.

1970 JCPenney Christmas catalog, page 161

1971 Sears Christmas catalog, pages 334-335

1975 Sears Christmas catalog, pages 354-355

1975 Wards Christmas catalog, pages 174-175

1976 JCPenney Christmas catalog, pages 230-231

1979 Sears Christmas catalog, pages 385-388

1981 Wards Christmas catalog, page 314

1988 Sears Christmas catalog, page 543

If you want to go hunting for treasure, don't read further. Next post will be a list of what's on which pages. And remember that not all of the above is Lava Lite, there's rain lamps, psychedelic lighting and decor, blacklights and posters, etc.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Okay, read NO FURTHER if you want to do the hunting yourself. If you're looking for specific items, I'll post what's there down in this entry.


1970 JCPenney, page 161: Psychedelic light box, Poly-Optics plastic fiber-optic lamps, Visual Effects Inc. Op-Lamp psychedelic motion lamp (black-and-white "Starburst" pattern)

1971 Seara, page 334: Lite-Box psychedelic light box, color organ, Poly-Optics incl. rare chandelier and Plexiglas sculpture lamp, Lava Lites (orange Crestworth-style coach, orange and green Starlight Aristocrats, red Mediterranean)
Page 335: B/W only. Prices for all of above, plus more Poly-Optics Plexiglas sculptures and fiber-optics.

1975 Sears, page 354: Poly-Optics, platic faux stained glass, Lava Lites (orange Aladdin and Aristocrat, and red Med. "Do you love the lusty Mediterranean look?" - I can't make this stuff up. LOL @ "genuine" wrought iron)
Page 355: Color organs, and random blinkers, strobe, fluorescent blacklight, Op-Lamp (full-color "Spiral" pattern) and Op-Lamp brand internally-lit disco ball.

1975 Wards, page 174: Rain lamps by Johnson or Cheyenne, fluorescent blacklights and posters (incl. Tweety Bird), strobe, Balafire magnetic light bulbs in soda/beer can bases, internally-lit disco ball, color organs/blinkers.
Page 175: Fiber optics and similar (Stellar-Optics, Fantasia glass fiber, probably-Poly-Optics acrylic praying hands), Lava Lites (Century, new-Enchatress Planter with unusual flowers. This makes it VERY clear that the 80s "new" colors were changes in name only, as these orange/yellow and green/blue are very clearly red/yellow and white/blue)

1976 JCPenney, page 230: Blacklight Posters (incl. "Keep On Keepin' On", knockoff of R. Crumb's "Keep On Truckin" - even HAS a truck pictured, almost too bizarre), "paint your own" blacklight posters, internally-lit disco ball, blacklights, faux stained glass bar lamps.
Page 231: Color organs/blinkers (six models plus clock blinker with three settins, red-blue-both), star-effect strobe and standard strobe, Balafire magnetic effect bulbs in beer/soda can bases.

1979 Sears, page 385: Johnson Industries rain lamps (four sizes plus rare centerpiece options: tree, colored grapes, spinning Dutch windmill)
Page 386: Color organs, blinkers (incl. cool spherical ones), internally-lit disco ball, mirror (disco) balls with motors, strobes
Page 387: Prices for pahe 386 plus mirrored disco-themed pictures, infinity mirror lights, pinball machine blackplates (plain, and mirrored with blinking lights), blacklights (incandescent and fluorescent) and blacklight posters
Page 388: Bar lamps incl. blinkers and faux "neon" plastic signs, faux stained glass, bar mirrors, Balafire bulbs in beer can bases, Lava Lite (Artistocrat - orange/yellow [red lava] and green/blue {dark green]) and Caribbean (chrome) Wave Machine. WOW, Sears was big in my birth year!

1981 Wards, page 314: Bar lamps, strobe, Visual Effects Op-Lamp (full-color "Zebra" pattern), blinking red light, internally-lit disco ball, glass fiber lamp (possibly Cuda Products "Galaxy"), blacklight, Lava Lite (Carlisle - still, in 1981? Orange/yellow [red lava] and green/blue [light green])

1988 Sears, page 543: Lava Lite (red/yellow Enchantress) and Wave Machine (Adriatic, black). By the late 90s, I remember Sears was selling red/yellow Aristocrats.

I may have missed some things!

[Kris]

This is so COOOL!

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Go see the Hippielight pages! If Wishbook Web has a lot, Hippielight has three times the eye candy! See if you can find:
Gold AND Silver Capris
The rare Lava-produced Liqua Light (NONE known to exist so far)
Chrome Wave Machines in both 16" and 18" sizes
Very red-copper Coachlight
Yellow lava/Orange mist Elegant-type Enchantress
Very late Elegant-type with ordinary green/blue
Rare lime lava/green liquid later-style Enchantress
And, if you look closely... a very rare (one known to exist) GemLamp, similar to the Crestworth Glitterlite table lamps but using a Confetti GemLite

The dates here prove that The Wave Machine was available as early as 1969! This is completely new to me!