A bolt of pink inspiration struck Don Featherstone one bleak day in 1957 in Leominster, Massachusetts. The result was the creation of the world's first plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments. Don Featherstone in one stroke of genius accomplished more than any other single person for both the plastics industry and popular culture. Imagine the drabness of a world without plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments.

The original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments were manufactured continuously from 1957 through 2005 by Union Products in Leominster, Massachusetts. In 2005 Union Products went out of business.

In May 2007, the copyright and molds for the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo were purchased by HMC International LLC in Westmoreland, New York, a division of Faster-Form Corporation. As of mid-2009 Faster-Form finally began to remanufacture the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments under the Faster-Form label. The reissued items still bore the signature of Don Featherstone as well as the Union Products Leominster imprint. The most recent incarnation of this era was packaged in a blue corrugated cardboard box with cutouts for the flamingoes. Box labeling was Union Products, a division of Faster-Form. During the HMC-Faster-Form era, the production and distribution of the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo was random and very limited, making the product very difficult to obtain.

In November 2007, president and owner of HMC International LLC, John C. Waszkiewicz III, died suddenly at the age of 54. This put the future of HMC-Faster-Form in a tenuous condition. In 2010, Cado Products Inc., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, purchased the intellectual property rights and molds for the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo from Faster-Form, as well as more than 200 other blow and injection molds used by the former Union Products.

Reliable information has been received that Cado has redesigned the flamingo package to be more of a tropical theme rather than the plain blue Faster-Form box. Plans indicate that the Don Featherstone and Union Products imprints will still be present. Labeling will be Union Products, a division of Cado Manufacturing. Cado appears to be very enthusiastic about the entire Union Products line, and the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo in particular. The stated intention is to obtain a much wider distribution and make the flamingo readily available. Apparently flamingo sales have already been increasing.

Accept no substitutes. Go for the gusto. Purchase only the original Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament.

Donald Featherstone January 25, 1936 - June 22, 2015.

For the creation of the plastic pink flamingo, Don Featherstone has won the coveted Ig Nobel Prize .

Check Don Featherstone's book The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass.

Visit the Cado Company web site. View the Union Products Division of Cado Sell Sheet.

Don Featherstone plastic pink flamingoes are available from the plastic pink flamingo and get flocked .