Popcorn Plastic Archive

They're usually called popcorn plastic, EVA lamps, sponge lamps, or melted plastic pellet lamps. I've also seen them called sparkle lamps, but as you can imagine that makes them near impossible to find under that name.

EVA stands for ethylene vinyl acetate which is a type of thermoplastic!!

These lamps were/are often in the shapes of animals, characters, or objects like footballs or cars, and were then usually airbrushed to add color detailing. Often these were manufactured as halloween decorations, so you'll find a ton of skulls, witches, pumpkins and ghosts if you search around for them!

They rarely have any branding on them, appear to have largely been cheaply made (think the quality of carnival or arcade prizes) and their bases were often a coiled spring stand. There is a metal rimmed hole on the bottom or back of most lamps where a bulb on a wire could be inserted. More often than not, they also have a switch on the wire to turn on/off the light

They appear to have originated sometime in the 60's and went out of popularity by the end of the 2000's.

I've seen out of stock listings for lamps like these as recently as 6 years ago, however (aside from being sold on the Rhode Island Novelty website at the time) there is absolutely no branding information provided on the boxes of the lamps themselves.

If I find current retailers that still manufacture these lamps I will definitely share it here!

I have a feeling that due to the relative fragility of these pieces, many haven't survived and were seen as cheap or unappealing enough to just toss rather than make an effort to restore them, so it's possible that not a ton survive, and as far as I can tell there have been no efforts to archive or preserve a history of them, which frankly bums me out so I'm going to do my best to celebrate them here :-]