BOSTON -- The company that manufactured the iconic pink plastic flamingo lawn ornaments for close to 50 years filed for bankruptcy last week.

Leominster-based Union Products Inc., which sold its copyrights and molds to New York-based HMC International last year, listed $2.06 million in debt and zero assets in court papers.

Donald Featherstone, who first designed the lawn ornaments in 1957 and was the company's president until 2000, told the Boston Herald that he was surprised to hear about the bankruptcy. He said the company owes him close to $500,000.

The molds are based on flamingos Featherstone sculpted from clay, working from photos of the graceful birds in National Geographic.

The ornaments hit the market in the late 1950s when the color pink was in vogue, and America's exploding population of suburbanites sought to add flair to their lawns.

But the birds also came to symbolize bad taste, and some residential developments even banned flamingo ornaments from lawns. The bird also became a target of pranksters, some of whom swiped the ornaments from front yards, took them on the road, and then sent photos to their owners showing the kidnapped birds in front of sights like the Grand Canyon.

The flamingos typically sell at $10 to $20 for boxed sets of two -- one standing nearly 3 feet high with its head held proudly erect, the other bending over as if munching on grass. Their legs consist of spindly metal rods that can be planted in the ground. The Featherstone originals have their creator's signature etched into the bird's plastic rear end.

HMC paid $263,748 for the rights and molds, according to court documents.

Union Products president and majority owner Dennis L. Plante said in 2006 that the plastics industry has hit hard times because of the cost of electricity and resin, a petroleum-based product that is a key manufacturing ingredient.