Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

[Big Thud Joe]

This was more of a passing thought, what would the possibility of all the looner communities getting together, and crowd funding to buy out Intex. Then when taken over, to change their product line to include more 42 inch beach balls. 36 inches are just a little too small and 48 inches do get somewhat unwieldy. Somehow I think I'm dreaming, but yeah, what do others think. Just putting it out there.

[heaviest]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Is that the only objective? Getting more 42 inch beach balls?

I want a single-chamber version of the french fry float. I'll propose it as a cost savings. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Also, bring back the double suntanner.

I'll be product durability tester. We could have lots of job openings for durability testers, lol.

[Djballbounce]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Sign me up! I'd love to have that on my resume haha

[PBK]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

I'd be totally down for them re-introducing the 48" beachballs with the classic color pattern.

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

A few summers ago, they had a 42 inch ball that was white with translucent panels, but I kind of noted beach balls as a starting point. Just seems to be so many looners who have a variety of likes, and thought they may be a market for such.

When a thought bubble hits reality, I myself would have to be realistic and say the chances of something like this would be difficult to initiate, as all of us, whether it be rings, balls, hammers, mattresses, and floats will want to use phthalate plastics.

For it to be economically viable, one would have to keep the marketing of such an operation to both non-looner consumers, as well as looners. As phthalates are now illegal in many regions, this will be a prohibitive stumbling blocks for any means of effective delivery of any product.

But maybe they might be a large enough looner community to support the viability, then in this case such plasticizers could be used as the end user will then be exclusively looners.

[heaviest]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

will want to use phthalate plastics...now illegal in many regions

I'm not familiar with the materials. I understand phthalates made the vinyl more flexible (soft?), but are phthalates also why we no longer have opaque, shiny vinyl, or did that just go out of style?

[fairskies15]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Perhaps I'm just daydreaming, but I'd love for Intex to bring back their gray dolphin they discontinued two, maybe three years ago. The vinyl, with its beautiful artwork, is so soft and lovely even when tightly inflated.

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

I'm not familiar with the materials. I understand phthalates made the vinyl more flexible (soft?), but are phthalates also why we no longer have opaque, shiny vinyl, or did that just go out of style?

You noted two interesting points there, yes, correct, phthalates did make the vinyl much softer and stretchier, but this is a completely separate point to the opaque shiny matter.

I feel the shiny glass finish that used to be on many inflatables giving way to frosted / matte surfaces is more of a style thing, and maybe, and most probably more of a materialistic strangthening aspect as well.

I know when browsing the inflatable swim sections at Big W, K Mart and Target over the last three to four summers, many of the items feel like they are made of the kind of canvas that would be used for tarpaulins or tents. It's hard, stiff, and just straight out bloody awful.

The last good buy I had was the summer of 2020/2021 when K Mart had a inflatable swim set. It basically was two large inflatable tubes, about 150cm tall and about 30 cm wide.

It was kind of strange, as there was much discussion on here about folk buying the Shosu roller cylinders for quite expensive prices. When opening one of these KMart swin sets, the tubes were almost the same size, used relatively thin shiny PVC, and from memory were about AU$12.99 a pack.

After buying a pack, experiencing how nice they felt, I finished up purchasing another 12 packs. These are really nice and never fail. This is something that Intex could do if they had the right people to advise them on their product line.

Do get out and travel abit, so one of these is always in my travel pack, they inflate relatively quick with a good hand pump, and are absolutely bliss to get into bed with when naked. But having said that, I'd be curious if these used phthalates, definitely would make for a more immersive experience.

[PVC Vinyl Enthusiast]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Speaking of phthalate plasticisers, which make the vinyl/PVC sensually smooth, soft, rubbery and tactile: high molecular weight phthalates, such as DINP or DIDP, are still permissible in non-food applications. It is an effective PVC plasticiser- I love the soft and pliable PVC raincoats sold by British PVC raincoat manufacturer, PVC-U-Like.

I see no reason why DINP or DIDP cannot be used to soften PVC inflatables intended for use by adults. It is far, far superior to substitutes like epoxidised linseed oil (ELO, ESBO). In this 'post-phalate era', (about 3 years ago) I bought a PVC double inflatable sofa direct from the manufacturer on Alibaba. I was disappointed with the quality: it lacked the lovely softness of the 'Bubble Inflatables' era of bubble furniture (the early 2000s). It also strongly reeked of rancid linseed oil- almost indistinguishable from the odour of an oil painting after the linseed oil has 'cured', or the odour of linseed oil-treated wood. Upon doing some research, I discovered that ELO and ESBO are used as phthalate substitutes. ELO and ESBO do a rubbish job of softening PVC, and their odour is objectionable.

As I say, high molecular weight phthalates like DINP are still allowed in many PVC articles; if DINP can be used to make adult's PVC raincoats soft and supple, then I see no reason why it can't be used likewise in adult's PVC inflatables.

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Enthusiast, interesting pointers, I'm currently looking into getting a custom job with a Chinese sourcing place down in Melbourne Australia, but the JinPing Covid City Shutdowns are making me a little reluctant to go a head a present.

I'm wanting to get a life size spiderman like character made and am going to specify them using phthalates. So just to confirm, you noted that DINP or DIDP are the superior plasticizers; are these still modern day substitutes, or are these the original phthalates used back in the 80s? If not, would anyone know what were the plasticizers used back then?

[PVC Vinyl Enthusiast]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

Hi, Big Thud;

I think the high molecular weight phthalate, DINP, is more of a recent development, but according to the owner of the UK-based PVC fetishwear and raincoat company, PVC-U-Like (PUL), DINP has (I quote) superior PVC-softening qualities. Because DINP is a phthalate with a higher molecular weight, it is considered to not have the supposed health risks associated with the low molecular weight phthalates.

I have copied-and-pasted some useful information from the Rainwear Central Forum:

Quote:

"The EU have what is called the REACH document. Contained in that document are over 250 chemicals which the EU have deemed potential health hazards and have restricted their use in manufactured products.

For many years from the 50's to the 80's a plasticiser called DEHP or DOP was used to soften PVC sheeting. It was very effective and cheap and did give PVC that soft rubbery feeling we love. Unfortuanetly DOP is listed on the REACH doc as having potential carcinogenic and endocrine potential so it was banned from Kids toys and placed on the REACH doc as a precaution. The fact is that the amount of DOP you would have to be exposed to to cause any effect is almost impossible to achieve and the body is very good at eliminating any DOP in your body through urine. In fact the majority of Blood bags made worldwide are still made using DEHP because of its superior plasticing qualities.

More recently there has been the development of DINP which is a superior Plasticiser, but due to its high molecular weight has been demonstrated to be safe to Humans. At PUL we have been using DINP for many years now. However in China there is no restriction on DOP and because its cheap its use is widespread and I'm afraid to say it but in China sometimes profit overides safety.

(Unquote).

So, Big Thud, referring to the last paragraph above (quote: "However in China there is no restriction on DOP and because its cheap its use is widespread and I'm afraid to say it but in China sometimes profit overides safety" unquote), it looks like you could potentially ask the China-based manufacturer to use DEHP or DOP in your Custom-Made inflatable. In all honesty, I'd happily come into contact with PVC rainwear or inflatables that have been softened with low molecular weight phthalates like DEHP or DOP. I believe the supposed health risks are exaggerated and taken out of perspective (what happens in a laboratory to the poor little rats/mice/Guinea pigs under the controlled and exacting scientific conditions does not neccessarily mean the same occurs in us humans in the real world).

Failing that, it looks like that DINP is a good alternative. The PVC products (raincoats, bedding, total enclosure inflatable body suit) I've purchased from PUL are all softened with DINP, and I am very pleased with their softness.

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

WOW!, thanks so much for that invaluable information. I'll certainly will be placing this into my brief when proposing the project. It's taken me a wile to save up, but am going to get 50 units made. I'm not a popper, but I love my inflates pressured to being bone hard and stiff, and eventually this will inevitably compromise a seam or two, but with your info, and some of the notes other looners have noted about reverse seams and double welding, I'm pretty sure one is almost on top of the money for getting an 80s like inflatable remade.

An ebay seller had 27 life size spidermans for sale back in 2017, I cleaned him out. They were very, very old new stock, the PVC felt so beautiful. Unfortunately, I think they were stored in a garage that must of been flooded. Flooded with water that may have been conteminated with oil or something, because the seams are all rather quite brittle. After inflation, one will be okay for a day or two then some sort of a pinhole will form. Not sure if this is because the inflates were exposed to oily water, or whether that is just a thing of DOP based PVC from being so soft, it just melts from stretching; where then it just rips.

However which way, I'll get some samples made and try them out, if seam vulnerability is a side effect of DEHP / DOP, then I may specify DIMP.

[Big Thud Joe]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

So one more question, if I were to send a brief to a manufacturer and specified using the DOP plastisizer, would it be a mix of DIMP and DOP, or would it be purely DOP? Would I have to specify for them to use 100% DOP in the requested custom product?

[bbhumper]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

I like the 36 inch beach balls along with the 42 inch it seems I can put more pressure and grind on them especially the 36 but the 48 I pop the seams to easy at times and they stretch out a bit to much..

[7balloon]

Re: Looner communities crowd fund to buy out Intex?

the Nerd level of this conversation has possibly restored my faith in humanity.


person 1. : Hi I fuck balloons and am part of a website that talks about balloons.

person 2: really? what do you talk about?

Person 1: Literally everthing. Here's a bit of recent conversation of a hot topic.

"I think the high molecular weight phthalate, DINP, is more of a recent development, but according to the owner of the UK-based PVC fetishwear and raincoat company, PVC-U-Like (PUL), DINP has (I quote) superior PVC-softening qualities. Because DINP is a phthalate with a higher molecular weight, it is considered to not have the supposed health risks associated with the low molecular weight phthalates"

Yeah. I mean ya gotta feal that in your bones. There is an incredibly sexy couple out there somewhere in Russia? Estonia? I'm not sure. She's wicked smart. A nurse.

I don't know anything about him except that she likes him. And so he must be someone I'd like.

They used to play with balloons to entertain me. Now they are making fantasy balloons. And by fantasy, I literally mean they are making balloons I used to fantasize existed.

Giant long neck balloons that were soft and yet stretched and did all the things I so wanted to see a balloon do. And things I never thought of. I so want to get that boob balloon. It's beyond crazy and literally straight out of my dreams. I'm not going to get one yet because I am still freaking out that it exists and is sold by the same woman that knows that the only reason to make that balloon is to fuck it.

Sorry, but that's my mental hangup.

Back to the topic. That's my thing. The people talking have their own thing that I can never understand. it's all science and engineering.

Which is awesome!!!!!

yet we are all here and get to participate and listen in and talk to each other. And the one thing this community has in common?

BALLOONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!