Welcome to our Black Cat and Standard feature where we are pleased to showcase many of the excellent fireworks from these ranges, filmed and photographed by UKFR at one of their product demonstration evenings.

The evening was a tremendous success, demonstrating almost the entire Black Cat, Standard, dual (items which carry both the BC and Standard branding) and Gold Collection ranges.

It is important first of all that we explain that the evening was a product demo and not a review evening. The main difference is that with a product demo, the emphasis is on showcasing the products and not firing individual items for review. This means that many of the items are fired in multiples (otherwise it would have taken all night to get through these massive ranges!).

In most cases where items were fired singly, or where the individual effects can be determined, we have already added a full review of that item to the review section of the site with pictures, video and our opinion. The purpose of this feature is to publish the rest of the material gained from the evening - although in some cases several items are being fired together, the pictures and video will give you an excellent idea of how each range performs. In some cases the resulting barrages look stunning, and give a great indication of how multiple items from this range would look fired together.

There was a very good structure to the evening, thanks to excellent organisation by the Black Cat rep and the professional firer, so barrages are grouped together by product type as you will see on the following pages.

We hope you enjoy previewing these fireworks as much as we enjoyed filming and photographing them for you.

Because of the amount of material that accompanies this feature (over 500 images and 200Mb of video), we have split it into sections relating to each firework range. Use the menu bar at the top and bottom of each page (the yellow bar) to access the Intro and Help section (this page), the Black Cat range, the Standard range, the Dual range (items which appear in both the Black Cat and the Standard ranges) and the new Gold Collection range.

Each firework type or barrage is presented as an individual report so that you can quickly access whichever fireworks you want to preview. Here is an example:

This is the name of the firework as described in the manufacturer's catalogue. Quite often it will refer to the general firework type such as "24 shot series" which includes several different items.
This is the retail price for an individual item or a pack (if sold as a pack).
The barrage price relates to the retail cost of all the items shown in the video clip. We have included this so that you can get a better idea of how much it would cost to replicate the exact effects shown in each clip. It will also help you to decide for yourself the value for money of each product. For example, if a video clip shows three cakes costing £14.99 each, then the retail price would be £14.99 and the barrage price would be 3 x £14.99 = £44.97. Please note that this should be taken only as an approximation as in some cases it was hard to determine the exact number of fireworks being fired.
In this part we will give you any important or relevant information. For example, any information you need to know about the firework or the video clip, any technical issues (eg. if for that particular firework we concentrated more on the photos than the video) and so on. We have avoided including an actual review of the items, because our aim with this feature, as with the evening itself, is to allow you to make up your mind from the video clips.
Set up shots are pictures of the fireworks before firing. Please note that many of the items were waterproofed and staked, but the pictures are included for interest. These are "thumbnail" images and you can click on these to see the full sized image.
Long exposure shots from the digital stills camera show the fireworks in action in shots of four to eight seconds each. These pictures are excellent for seeing the effects each firework contained and some of the images are really stunning - you'll enjoy them even if you have no interest in this range.
Video stills are still frames taken from the on-line video clips. We have included these so that readers who do not wish to download the full video clips can see action from the video in high quality.
Downloadable video clips will allow you to see the fireworks for yourself! See below if you need help with the video clips.
Use this to jump to the top of the page so that you can pick another section to view from the menu bar. The menu options are also repeated at the bottom of each page.

Each firework type or barrage is supported by a video clip. Windows Media clips, which offer a great compromise between quality and file size, are offered with each firework report and these are recommended for most readers. We recommend that you use Windows Media Player version 9 or above to view them.

For broadband users, we have also included (where justified) higher quality AVI clips. These are in full 720x576 resolution and require the DivX codec to play. Please see the DivX website for the free DivX package. Most readers should be able to install the free DivX codec and view the clips in your standard player (such as Windows Media player) but the package also includes a standalone player if you have technical problems.

All the video clips are compressed with ZIP to save file space and your download times. You will need to save each clip to your computer then unzip it to play it. Please use your browser's "save target as" option rather than trying to play them direct from our server, thank you.

File sizes quoted for the clips are approximate and included so that non-broadband users can make a decision on whether to download a clip or not.

I would like to say a big thank you to Vernon at Black Cat for his kind cooperation that made this feature possible so that we could showcase these products to our members. I would also like to say a big thanks to Raj at Newsbox Fireworks in Essex for his help in arranging our attendance at this event.

To return to the UKFR home page click here.