Lava Lite lava lamps

[Bohdan]

What will become of LL. Will they finally come back to the USA as sellers of quality lamps or will they try to get by with China made lamps . Will they be labled as Made in the USA which means all will be made here Base-electrics-globe and formula or will the box have to be labled as Assembled in the USA with parts from China. Will they finally get the act together and get the factory back up and running in time for there sales late next year. So far for 2012 there lamps will be made in China and with Mathmos coming on-line soon to the USA with very nice shipping costs it seems LL is trying very hard to begin sales here first and hopefully beat Mathmos opening day.

Will LL finally dump the crappy 20z and 12z lamps for good and begin there run with 32z and 52z and the Grandes that will be what they should have been many yrs ago. Or will it be another trick for members to get hooked on and buy there lamps with bad results. There lamps for 2012 are as it once was however the liquid is clear but the flow is as it was blob after blob which I believe will follow into 2013. Will they once again tell us that there Formula is better then it was in 1999 and they have made a great lamp once more. If so then there lamps at Spencers will cost at least $49.99 and how many will be buying them since for many yrs they have sold for that magic $20.00s. How many people outside the World of Lava sites will be back to buy them since many have bought there Cloudy non working lamps over the Yrs.

Mathmos will have a tough time selling lamps here in the USA because over the yrs the people who have bought LL lamps got one very bad taste for Lava lamps. This is another reason why Mathmos will be taking very slow steps to sell there lamps here.

Even now sales for Creative Motion is down big time and Hot Rocks left the market because of very poor sales thanks to LL.

LL will make more $$$ selling Detecto Scales in the USA since they have bought the name then Lava lamps.

2013 will be LL make or break Year it all depends on how many returns they will have if there products like before fail.

What other opinions do we have about the World of LL.

[Bohdan]

Another opinion for there lamps will be the formula will change as to the liquid becoming better as I have seen in there late 2011 52z model runs. I have bought a few of them and they do run very well as to the liquid is clear and has remained clear for the last 3 months. They have made a change to the wax it is not as soft and there are no more white dye imbedded into it. The have also increased the wax and liquid content and  by doing this the lava has a different flow to them at times they will snake up at times . However they still have that blob-blob flow to them  but not as much as it use to be. I hope they do not make this newer formula cheaper since it is now the best run they have had in a very long time. The one on the left is one of the last new ones I bought from them.

 

[Bohdan]

I also picked up this Blue/White version and it even had a little more wax inside it. Now this one from LL seems to snake up even more at times. So this may be what they will have in there newer ones later this year hopefully . I still believe that there lamps will be Assembled in the USA since in order for them to sell as cheap as possible they will need to hire only a hand full of people to put them together. Just by having a factory here in USA and having an assembly line and use parts from China to make it happen will be a start for them. If they ever will have the means to have the globes made here and the lava made here and then use an assembly line like they once had to fill them and cap them and have the boxes with lables made here as cheap as possible and then to test them to make sure all is well. Now that is Another Story for Next Year.

 

 

[Bohdan]

So far all is very quite with LL lamps in the Kmarts-Walmarts and even Spencers now. A few of the Kmarts around me have many lamps still on the shelfs for sale and they are not moving at all. The last time they had a sale on there lamps many were returned for poor operations so what was sold came back and many stores lost in this sale. I wonder how many of the above stores will once again try to sell LL lamps knowing that they may have a ton of returns with a great loss in profits. It looks like Spencers will once again sell there lamps knowing that many were returned last time and had to be shipped back to LL for there refunds. If there new lamps work this time then perhaps they will make a very slow comeback into this lava market. But how many people will once again rebuy there lamps knowing what happened the last time they bought them or will they just past them by in the Shops.

[Bohdan]

I also wonder what will be LLs warranty with there lamps since they had the 30day warranty on there crappy lamps. I remember looking at there warranty and it also said to run the lamps for a few weeks so they would clear up when cloudy. By the time you realized the lamp still had a problem the warranty was over .

Will they offer the same warranty as Mathmos has for a Year that way if the lamp fails like with a bad coil or vase that no longer flows you will be able to get a replacement. If they start to make nice working lamps once more then by offering a years warranty will go a long way into selling there lamps since people will now be able to buy with confidence.

If LL will still offer the 30 warranty then this will tell me they are hoping for the warranty to run out before the person realizes there lamp has begun to fail.

I have also seen a few companies that are back in the USA manufacturing there items with MADE IN THE USA WITH IMPORTED PRODUCTS. This has become a new way to sell a Made in USA Item that is assembled with made in another country parts.

[ElectricAstro]

The 30 day warranty Bohdan made me laugh. They do that here with cheap vacuum cleaners, that go bang after the 30th day :P

[Bohdan]

Yes the 30day Warranty will be a big factor for LL. If they cannot give the customer a decent Warranty and will once again only offer the 30day Warranty then perhaps there newly made formula with there lamps will not be as it should.

For now Mathmos is tops in the Warranty area since they are 100% behind there product and there 1 yr Warranty says it all.

[James]

Well from what I read through the grape vine they should be pulling out of China as some high ranking official that use to work there is now back taking control of everything. They see the problems with China and have acknowledged the fact they are crap now. in 2013 they said they are going to "fix" the problem and hope to bring some new product that we are going to like and some of the older product like the midnight centuries and stuff. Lets keep our fingers crossed!

[Bohdan]

Went to Spencers today to see what they have added. They now carry the Dark Knight 20z verions. I saw one running  and it was clear however the flow is the same as all the other 20z lamps 1 blob up and down. They should have made this version into a 52z model not a Crappy 20z.

They also had many Neon 52z lamps with there Black base/cap setup. They were in a Green and Yellow and Purple wax with clear liquid however once again the flow was BAD and the Liquid very cloudy on the 2 models in Green and Yellow that were on there Dispaly. They had been on for 4 hours and the Yellow version just sat there on the bottom with one big blob. The sales person told me that it will move once in a while. They had quite a few of the Neons that had arrived to be sold to the unsuspected buyers. There were also quite a few of there original 52z lamps in new condition that had just arrived and they were much better to see them flow.

It seems the Neons have a terrible new formula that is there worse ever to date.

LL for now and into the future will still have very poorly made lamps for sale as to retain that $29.00 lamp value.

As for the Clearviews I found out today that many Target stores will not carry them and for the ones that do it will be the 20z versions with a select few stores that will have the 32z.  Many Target stores still have the crappy 12z and 20z lamps from last yr that are still sitting on there back shelfs. They may add a few to there old stock to see if this will help with there sales .

[Bohdan]

Whats funny is that in 2009 and then in 2011 and now in 2012 LL keeps sending people to China to fix a problem. They keep telling Lava members that all will be great once more with there formula and then they release there Neons which are still bad and now the Clearviews in 32z and 20z with there same formula as before in a hit or miss as people buy there lamps and a few do run very well. The only way LL will ever make it happen is if they finally start charging a lot more money for there new formula lamps to be great again. However for now we will still see there $21.00 to $24.99 lamps because its all about the flow of Money.  Will LL ever have Custom/Special lamps for collectors perhaps not because once again they will need to get a run of lamps done and then hope they will sell for that $69.99 range. With the market as it is today it seems only Mathmos has the hold on the high end lamps with its following.

This is what LL should be making for people to buy with its colors as they once did when LW released a few White-Blue and Black base models but have a well made vase to go with it. Hopefully we will finally see there new Century released late this Year and if they are smart it will have a better vase in it.

 

 

 

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

Sadly it comes down to having to keep prices low or 99.99999% of their customer base (i.e. not collectors) won't buy them. Mathmos is gonna have a tough time, they made top-notch lamps and must charge top prices. But I'm holding out hope for LL.

[Bohdan]

I wonder has LL reached the point of no return. 

[ElectricAstro]

I wonder what they will have new for 2014? I am thinking some new "Clear"Views?