|
The Firework Emporium shop in Ipswich, Suffolk looked
as good as it did on our previous visit a year before,
offering a wide selection of fireworks with clear
descriptions. One thing we noted in our first visit
was the number of different brands in stock, a good
sign as it means the retailer has not concentrated
on just one single range. This trend has continued
and in fact it looked like there were even more brands
available this time around. Kimbolton, Devco, Men
Shun, Lidu, Jumping Jack, Benwell, Millennium, Minster,
Planet Fireworks and An Ping fireworks were on display,
quite a choice as you can see!
Like kids in a candy shop, PeteB and Gerry "expand
their
shopping lists" to include everything on show.
After a very welcome cup of coffee
(and there is a newsagents opposite if you're peckish
after a long drive) it was time for the serious business
of shopping for some pyro, modifying our shopping
lists as appropriate (that means in most cases doubling
it). Wide grins and much pointing followed as we darted
from cabinet to cabinet. Then it was down to work,
inspecting and photographing the fireworks which would
be fired in the evening, so we could review them too.
A picture tells a thousand words so
you can click on any image below to see a bigger version,
and take a tour around the shop and its stock with
us...
 |
 |
The outside of the shop, with its new "Firework
Emporium" sign (it lights up too!).
|
|
The "Fireworks Open"
neon sign. Attracts UKFR members like one of
those blue strip lights in the butcher's attracts
flies!
|
 |
|
 |
|
The other window, and in case you missed the
first one, there's another "Fireworks Open"
neon sign here too, just to make sure. I think
this shop sells fireworks and it's open!
|
|
The rocket cabinet and a selection
of nice munitions from half a dozen different
brands. The Orb as usual stands out thanks to
its reflective casing, and the triple break
Godfather looks good too.
|
|
|
 |
|
Talking shop, in this shot we can see Sean
Breddy from Kimbolton (second left) then to
his right is Mr Shah the man from Devco, and
far right is Mr Chawla, also from Devco. The
guys from Devco were in fact really helpful
and chatty about their products.
|
|
Warren answers the phone (or
dog and bone as it's known that close London)
and guess what? Yep, it's a UKFR member ordering
some fireworks. I had a quick chat too before
they needed the line for the credit card machine.
|
|
|
 |
|
It was very good to see that Firework Emporium
had continued their policy of describing each
firework on display. This time around the cards
were all nicely printed with the key information
on each firework, and a "low noise"
sticker where appropriate.
|
|
A selection of cakes, here from
three different brands: Devco, Kimbolton and
Lidu. Missile Of Stars (voted "Funniest
Firework" in the UK Firework Awards 2003)
stands out as always thanks to its brightly
coloured pointy bits.
|
|
|
 |
|
A 500 shot cake, New York - this is a fired
unit and gives an interesting view of the innards.
|
|
One of FE's "Combo Packs"
which is basically a collection of single items
put together into a pack to save you money,
you'll note however that it contains a number
of really good items, so you're getting quality
in addition to a saving. No cheap padding here.
|
|
|
Candle Corner and the amusingly named "Orgasmatron".
 |
|
Another Combo Pack and another selection of
good fireworks. I can see at least half a dozen
Best Buy or Recommended fireworks here.
|
|
With the demise of airbombs,
manufacturers have brought out some less noisy
single or double shot candles. These caught
our eye mainly due to the attractive, colourful
labelling. The brand is a new one too - Jumping
Jack Flash (Cosmic group).
|
|
|
 |
|
Devco's Twin Mines. This firework goes for
the double mine effect slightly differently
than most, by having the mines side by side.
|
|
Our first look at one of Kimbolton's
new fountains, Fearsome Triclops. We had high
hopes for this purely because of the brand.
See our review sections for a full review of
this with video.
|
|
|
 |
|
More Kimbolton fireworks, this time the Goliath
pack. It would be very interesting to see how
these compared to their established Best Buy
Medusa rockets.
|
|
Space Patrol from Cosmic, a pack
of small garden rockets (the safety lighter
pack is almost bigger than the actual rockets).
|
|
|
 |
|
Hurray! A signal rocket (ie a big bang). Enjoy
them while you can but please use them responsibly!
|
|
This pack caught our eye too,
brilliant colourful packaging and also a new
name for us - Benwell Fireworks. They're garden
rockets and pretty big so these should be good
performers.
|
|
|
 |
|
More from the new label Jumping Jack, a cake
called Summertime Blues.
|
|
And another, Freedom Rings which
is reviewed in the cake section. I thought this
range looked very presentable with nice colouring
and useful descriptions on the labels.
|
|
|
This part of the shop displayed the various packs
and boxes.
 |
|
A pokey cake if ever there was one, Lost Paradise.
This firework doesn't give you time to stop
for breath!
|
|
First look at another new Kimbolton
item and like Fearsome Triclops this is going
for some interesting packaging. This is essentially
a fan cake, with angled candles inside but to
emphasise this they have brought the sides in
flush with the innards.
|
|
|
 |
|
View of this from the front. We managed to
miss this in action even with three cameras
because the two sides of effects were so widely
dispersed (next time we'll film it from some
distance away).
|
|
Probably one of the nicest labels
in the showroom, Night Theatre from Devco. This
is reviewed in the cakes section if you want
to see if the effects lived up to the artwork.
|
|
|
 |
|
Strange label but nice colouring, a cake called
Warship.
|
|
Another Devco firework and another
stunner of a label, Gigantic Bird. See the cakes
review section to see this in action (it was
very nice).
|
|
|
 |
|
Two Kimbolton cakes that have contested the
Best Buy accolade, RGS and COR. Red Glistening
stars has taken the crown thanks to its more
persistent red effects (see reviews and video
of both in the cakes section).
|
|
Another favourite since its first
review, Silver Tiger Tail which as the name
suggests produces silver effects (bright silver
comets in this case).
|
|
|
 |
|
Stampede from Planet Fireworks. Very nice firework
in action and very nice label too, showing a
stampede of horses.
|
|
Crackling Coconut trees with
its unusual clear wrapping so you can see down
the tubes. This was FE's best selling firework
on the review night.
|
|
|
Men Shun's "Diablo" candle pot, with satanic
label
and pointy top.
 |
|
Devco's highly unusual looking "Sea Mine"
which I think looks really great. You take the
lid off and light it (instructions are on the
side as you can see).
|
|
Nice picture of Men Shun's stunning
(and popular) Invincible Armada fan cake which
proved on both review nights that a good fan
cake can look awesome. Here you can see the
fanned tubes and different bores.
|
|
|
 |
|
Lidu's Assorted Reports which creates a chorus
of screeching but amusingly, no reports! This
is still a wolf in sheep's clothing and Lidu
have recently tarted up the label so it now
looks better than the one pictured here.
|
|
The view down Men Shun's Diablo,
six big bore candles and enough space to park
a bus in, but it does make a nice umbrella stand
afterwards.
|
|
|
 |
|
After all that firework fondling, it's time
to calm down with a swig of Luv-Er-Lee Jub-I-Lee.
|
|
The "Magnetic Blinky"
presentation. These are really good LED badges
that flicker different colours, so once Warren
turned a few on we were like magpies!!
|
|
|
Well we could have easily spent all
day in the shop or all day on the phone to UKFR members
ringing through an order, but further work beckoned...
like the previous year FE were taking the bold step
of firing most of their range in front of a public
audience, so it was off to the nearby firing site
to see the setting up.
|
