Carramar lava lamps

[John]

Hi team. My name is John & I've purchased a few lava lamps online & picked up a blue volcano lamp. I thought it looked cool & like the previous owner I originally had no idea what it was. Fortunately there's one listed on eBay with a good description & a Google search led me here. I'm in New Zealand so using a 120 volt bulb was not an option & it took awhile to find a bulb that will work in this lamp. Eventually finding the GE Lighting "Light Bulb Lustre 25W Clear E27 Edison Screw" bulb fits & works well. I'd be keen to know more about these vintage lava lamps - how many colours was made available & how many of these lamps was made? Now that I've got a blue lamp it's motivated me to look for more. Alas it's clearly going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find another & it's shear luck I have one at all.

[George]

The Carramar Volcano Lava lamps did come out in various colours in three models, There's the 3 legged one that has the pop riveted base, 3 legged base with screwed in base and the final version the 5 legged model. There was a 4 legged version found in photos but I do not have one personally.

Red/Clear

Yellow/Clear

Green/Clear

Blue/Purple Clear

Orange/Clear

There might be some others which I believe were custom filled. The above are the original colours. 

Hope this helps.

[John]

That's great, am I right in thinking the pop riveted base the first generation?

[George]

Yes it is the first model.

[John]

Thanks, there's another blue lamp on eBay Australia at the moment & I know it's been there for quite some time. If it was working well & a different colour I'd bid. Originally was thinking about selling mine & make some quick cash. But now that I'm here I'd rather add to the tiny collection I have right now.

[John]

Well despite some furious bidding in the last seconds that fell seriously short of my maximum bid. I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to have a second Carramar lava lamp in the collection. If the other bidder is from here, sorry mate I'll take good care of it & I guess the gloves are off now. Should be able to take some really good pictures of the yellow & blue lamps together. Apparently the yellow hasn't been used much & comes with an original bulb. Nice.

[John]

There's a bloke over on the goo website with a Carramar lamp with five legs which are part of the one piece base & they're calling it a Volcano. Am I right in thinking that this particular lamp is actually a Carramar Rocket & not a Volcano?

[Bohdan]

I once saw a 5 leg one piece base design and is was called Volcano they all seem to have that rocket look to them. Most of the one piece design base came as 4 legs.

[John]

This is where it gets confusing as I've done a Google image search for "Carramar Rocket lava lamp" & "Carramar Rocket" & the only lamps pictured are (I think) all Volcanoes. Now there is also a five leg Volcano of which I have seen pictured & it does look like a third generation Volcano with an extra leg. I do recall George saying that Carramar made a few custom Volcano lamps so I wouldn't be surprised if that's how the fifth leg came about. Would love to know the difference between the Volcano & Rocket lava lamp.

[Joel]

Hey mate, I can confirm the 'crown' style base has 5 legs as I own one, not sure why people think theres only four legs haha. My pics are on here and the goo for all to see :) And yes they were called Volcanos!

[John]

Thanks Joel that would make sense from the pictures I've been looking at & thanks for posting them.

[George]

Sorry about the confusion, just a bad habit calling them rockets.

We call them Rockets, Starships and Volcano's , but yes they are Volcano's not rockets , they just look like rockets so we use the rocket term a lot. They were originally called Volcano Lamps and not Lava lamps probably cos of a patent and licensing issue with Lava lite owning the name. There is a 3, 4 (may not have been released to the public) and the final 5 legged version. 

Can't find the photos I had from when the company was liquidated, there was photos of the factory, equipment and lamps, quite sad as the factory went to auction along with all the lamps and equipment.

5 Legged Base - Looks like a crown

Pulled from the net, 5 legged but does look like a 4 as confirmed by Joel.

[ElectricAstro]

Photos of the old Carramar lava lamp factory ...

http://60slights.ning.com/photo/carramar-old-photos-from-4