UK FIREWORK REVIEW NEWSLETTER

No.17 [19/11/00]

A BUMPER post Guy Fawkes newsletter including:

- Details of OUR Nov 5th fireworks.
- NEW second opinions including a SLATING of the best buy Neutron Pulse.
- Other information and opinions.

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NOV 5TH AT FIREWORK REVIEW HQ:

What a night! Well, it was Nov 4th to be exact but the impending storm worried us so much we brought our main display forward from Sunday to Saturday - a good move as it turned out.

This year I [Pyro Pete] was not up to my usual review antics but was throwing a display for some friends. It's always great to show off to an audience and with a huge farmer's field behind, it meant I could wheel out some rather big items without worrying about people's roofs, greenhouses or cars!

The only drawback being as a firer, I did not see an awful lot of the fireworks this year, certainly not enough for a review. But, here's my second opinions or "first impressions":

Proton Bomb double airbomb [JME] - Test fired in the garden, this brought a response from Pete B and the missus. In technical terms it means this was LOUD. Yummy! I used the others in my main display. I think everyone was deaf afterwards.

Medusa rocket pack [Kimbolton] - STUNNING, simply one of the best value rockets I have seen at £8.49 for five. This type of rocket has got to be as good as £15 display rockets - perhaps not as big but certainly more consistent. We fired in excess of 30 of these and they were all loud and potent. Even a naff one won't have wasted much money. But it does beg the question, what the hell are the £10+ rockets up to? Our impressions - and yours - are that it's increasingly difficult to justify spending huge amounts of money on big rockets.

Achilles pack [Kimbolton] - See above. Superb. However we tried two packs and not one single rocket out of ten screeched as described by Kimbolton or in their own trade video! This is a "mixed effect" pack so it's pot luck if you'll get a screecher but we were hoping for at least one. Despite this, bloody good. Well worth £10 for 5.

Other Kimbolton rocket packs (not Hercules) - Mixed reception. The black tube "star" rockets were colourful but a little limp after the excesses of the Medusa. Some of the bigger ones were nice but nothing to persuade us to part from the Medusa pack (cheapskates!).

Vulcan 90 shot cake - Nice barrage of colour. Otherwise quiet.

Black Cat SIB No.1 - Superb, a great mix (reviewed already on the site).

Blockbuster candle - Still my favourite candle. Big bang launch and nice height. Varied effects from good to excellent.

Kraken (19 shot Kimbolton) - Noisy launch but a quiet "wriggly effect" just as predicted. This had a long hang time and carried quite a way downwind. Audience liked it.

19 shot Kimbolton "Brown paper" - A bigger version of the standard 19 shot, used in professional displays (only a set number make the transition from cat 4 to cat 3). I didn't see any of it, but the audience were going on about it afterwards "ooh, nice silver and green effects". It didn't look pretty on the ground before firing but it seemed to have worked well in the air.

2oz rockets (Kimbolton) - Mixed bag. As with any range, some good and some average. Proves our point about cheaper rockets though.

Crackling comets (Vulcan) - A nice crackling bit [Er thanks Pete that's as useful comment as a soaking wet firework!]

Bonanza (comet effect) - Wow! I liked this one. Gold comets crackling (nothing happened after that) but a nice noise on the way up. I think Bonanza candles have shrunk because of the legislation. In 1997 these broke to the most beautiful violet "flowers" and all the audience including me thought "Bloody hell, that's gorgeous" but in recent years there's been no double effects.

Red Comets / Silver Spirals (Black Cat) - 16 shot cakes, fired together, I can't remember them neither can the audience.

Bomb Blast Missiles (Millennium) - Er, I fired 3 at the same time. Lots of screech bangs. Not a lot of colour so make sure you fire something pretty before or after. Apart from that, superb, mind you these deposit a lot (300 in my case) of plastic shells ALL OVER THE PLACE and they defy the wind! Luckily 299 must have landed in the neighbour's garden because I only found one when I cleared up, heheh....

Millennium Giant cones - I used two gold crackling cones, these start slow and build up to a great height, look superb in a garden. Watch the hot sparks coming down though (rumours that the sparks from this set off half my finale at the beginning are GREATLY exaggerated!).

Glittering Gemstones - Some annoying gits (you know who you are) bought the entire stock of Aurora from our Fujiyama Fireworks so we were left with the smaller Gemstones - still superb, lasted long enough for me to nip out into the field, let something big off, and nip back, THEN light the finale. This and the Aurora make a great "cover" firework because it keeps the audience's attention for over a minute while you do other things (like get in the car and leg it if you've just blown up your other half's favourite garden ornament!).

Overall impressions: We liked Kimbolton, which formed the backbone of our display. It's pretty obvious you pay a bit more for some of their stuff but they're nearly all well packaged and shrink wrapped in cellophane making storage a doddle, and we have not had any reliability problems (with the exception of the double airbombs). Supplemented with a scattering of other brands, and any good deal you can get (such as the Black Cat SIB 1 at less than trade price from ASDA) and we've all got it made for great displays! I didn't get to try a lot of Bright Star or Red Dragon, and I missed out on Triple H Bomb too this year (yes, I let you all buy the whole lot from us!) which has really p*ssed me off because your feedback confirms this is one of the best cakes for £15 and some of you have even let off two together and report that it's "awesome"!

This year I condensed 20 minutes of display into just 5 minutes. Yes, just FIVE minutes. I fired cakes and candles two or three at a time, overlapped, with simultaneous rocket barrages. The effect was incredible and overwhelmed many of the audience who simply had not seen this level of activity in a garden display. We have always said that shorter is better, and this is one of the hardest points to get across on our websites. We frequently get questions like "Can you suggest a pack that will last 30 minutes for £100" - trying to tell people to instead go for an intense 4-5 minute display is difficult.

Many amateur firers equate value with duration and this simply is not the case. An intense, near-professional short display will go down better - and be remembered more - than a long drawn out half and hour "light one thing then retire" style show.

Our first home display in 1997 lasted over an hour and became terminally boring as I lit one thing at a time and ran off. Gary Parr was the first to show what can be done with a few hundred pounds worth of category three cakes and candles fired over a few minutes. You'd easily think you were watching a professional display. This year we went to the other extreme and fired a similar amount in one-tenth the time. Wow! For New Year I plan to fire and even SHORTER display (4 minutes) and really sock it to the audience.

What are YOUR views on duration Vs. cost? Do YOU think £500 of fireworks let off in 5 minutes is value for money? Let us know your views so we can share them with other readers. Thanks to those who have already written to us. We'll be using a summary of these in a future newsletter and this will help people embarking on a New Year display.

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WHAT'S NEW ON THE WEB SITE - 2ND OPINIONS

There's no greater test of a site's promises of impartiality than when a "best buy" is slagged off by readers. True to our word, we are genuine enthusiasts and our aim is to give you FACTUAL information about fireworks, not to just hype things up.

So, we were a little concerned to get a few THUMBS DOWN for the Neutron Pulse rocket, a "best buy". You've had your say and we've printed it - see the updated review in the rocket section.

As a result of YOUR feedback, we've taken this rocket off the best buy list. Thanks for your comments and remember - if you've tried this or ANY OTHER firework, don't just sit there, hit REPLY and tell us about it! We'll share your comments - good or bad - with other readers.

It's through this open process of debate that each year we whittle away all the dross in the firework world and end up with the "dream team" of all the best fireworks for your displays.

Let's look in detail at your comments on this one:

P Yates [who wins our award for "Firework Babe 2000", she's so cool] "I have never been one to go along with the crowd, but it seems that like everyone else, I thought that the Neutron Pulse was rubbish ! On the other hand we all loved the Triple H Bomb, Millennium giant cone and the not so pretty but very loud Bomb blast missile, the jury is still out on the Blockbuster but all the rest went down (up actually) very well"

Craig "What can I say about this, absolutely useless! Small red stars then some silver glitter which criss crossed about twice not filling the sky at all! I couldn't understand it! A trail blazer offered better performance! What a waste of money!"

Nick Williamson: "When deciding on a finale rocket I had a look at your best buy section. The review of the Neutron Pulse was very encouraging and so I went for that. Unfortunately I have to say that I was extremely disappointed. It simply did not live up to its billing - the audience reaction told the story with a selection of groans, sighs and "is that its?!" We did get a double effect (initially red which turned into smallish silver flares) but the impression was that it had been a bit of a dud - perhaps we got the bad one in the batch."

Ian Stewart: "I've just opened up your web pages and seen the reports on the Neutron Pulse. I actually
agree with your "Best Buy" judgement. This was a superb rocket. I sent up two in the middle of a large family firework "get together", one after the other. Both were exactly as your pictures on the web page. The first burst was not, as you state limp. It had a reasonable burst size, then just as your own review states a magic piece of tracers splitting twice over. The large family group gave them a resounding applause. As they did with the Plasma Blast Rocket, which in my opinion was slightly better (bigger willow effect at the second burst) than the Neutrons."

PYRO PETE SAYS: Firstly, thanks for your feedback. We don't shy away from bad comments even if we've bought loads of these to sell through Fujiyama Fireworks and now we can't give them away!! Secondly, looking at the video of this rocket, I have to stand by the "best buy" rating for the SPECIFIC firework we tested. This was filmed from two angles and we made the two AVI's and video grabs available on-line. I'm sure you'll agree the rocket on the video is superb. Sadly, it seems we must have been lucky. Your feedback clearly shows that some Neutron Pulses are superb, others are not. The overall impression (including phone comments not printed here) is that the Neutron Pulse is very much a hit or miss rocket. Some excel, many don't. As a result of your comments, we have REMOVED this from the best buy rating. We do NOT wish to endorse a rocket which may or may not be good, we only support CONSISTENTLY good fireworks. As always, if it was not for YOUR feedback we could not have reached this conclusion. Thanks again for your comments!

And on big rockets in general:

Paul Stills writes: "... after spending around £450 on my display, I found a couple of important lessons, one of which is do not buy big rockets (£15 each) as I had two and they were both absolutely **it, total waste of money, " ..... and "best buy has to be Cosmic STARSHELLS, these were fantastic value for money costing £10 for five, each of which had four shots,which went high in the air with a very loud bang and very pretty and wide spread of coloured stars, then ending the show with a black cat SIB no.3 followed by my favourite, the black cat SIB no.1 - the only problem is that this is now my second real display and each time it costs more and more " - thanks Paul.

OTHER READER COMMENT (no holds barred so hold on to your fireworks!):

GOLDEN LION SKY MONKEY WITH EXPLODING COCONUTS: "The crowd favourite of the night however was an inoffensive looking cake with a cracking name - "Sky Monkey with exploding coconuts". This is a
Chinese import which cost about £8 from the local Sainsburys. It had a good combination of light, screamers, substantial bangs and went on for what seemed like ages. By the time it had finished the whole audience were laughing and it got a round of applause and a cheer. I will definitely stock up on a couple of these for next year!" Nick W. Thanks Nick, this one is by Golden Lion (Cosmic) and I'm annoyed to find when I popped down to Sainsbury's they did not have any left. Pah!

VULCAN GARDEN SIB: "Even with the huge amount of time between each "set" it struggled past a minute!
Compared to the Black Cat no.2 box a friend of mine brought along to the party ( I had one last year) the Vulcan was pathetic" - Nick Emberson (by e-mail) - anyone else tried this one? We've had good feedback on it, was Nick's a one-off?

Adam M writes: "The Bright Star 24/36 shot cakes were also very impressive, I can see why a stake was supplied with them, the lifting charges sounded like airbombs! Millennium's EE-BEE-GEE-BEE was a scorcher (no pun intended). Our supplier also threw in a Super-Blitznall for free! Holy cow, this is LOUD. It knocked Millennium's Air Thunder into cocked hat and was easily as loud as a 3" salute. My non-pyro mate's only words were 'Wow.' I noticed however that the blitznall supplied was different to the one on your website. My version had the stick attached to the motor, which was protruding from the bottom".

Alex S writes: "Favourite fireworks = Triple H-Bomb, Bomb Blast Missile, Millennium Cone... The weather was crap. Fortunately the wind held off but the rain was not so kind. Thanks to the techniques of waterproofing your display shown on your site we did not have one failure. I used foil to stop cross firing, I also used the setting up procedure to eliminate delays in firing. What a difference this makes to a display!" - Thanks Alex, we've always tried to encourage better technique as this can have as dramatic an effect improving the display as the fireworks themselves.

Adam H writes: ".... Bomb blast [missiles] was fun.... " and "I bought a Pack of Cosmic's Megas from a Newsagent... Wow! For a cat 3 Airbomb I think it must be one of if not the Loudest I have heard". [our review states cat 2, which it was at the time! - Pete]

Craig writes: "Screech Rockets - the Sonic FX [Bright Star] gave a louder whistle but the Sky Screamers [Red Dragon] gave a very slightly louder bang. The Sonics seemed nowhere near as loud as they did last year! Some just popped instead of banged.
Star Gazer Packs [Bright Star] - quite good for the price, bang and then nice small and colourful starburst.
Space Explorer Pack [Bright Star]- same as star gazers but £2 more and similar starburst with colour change.
Trail Blazer Pack [Bright Star] - Not bad, a different effect in each rocket was the good thing, a couple filled the sky more than the other two. Nice effects and larger starburst than the ones above.
Hell Raiser Pack [Bright Star] - I enjoyed these, each bang was very loud as I expected.
Comet Rocket Packs [Millennium] - As you already know, very good effect for the price and some filled the sky more than others, the crackling one in particular.
Hercules Rocket Pack [Kimbolton] - I enjoyed these a lot. I think just a tiny bit louder than the hell raiser but honestly not all that much in it. Very, very good!
Space Trekker Pack [Millennium] - These were very nice rockets, some lovely bright coloured starbursts.
2oz Zinc [Kimbolton] - Ridiculous for the price! I found a space trekker rocket gave the same effect as one of these or better! Also the bang didn't live up to it!
Apollo 1 Voyager [Millennium, AKA the "1000"] - no good for the price, even a comet gave a similar performance to one of these! Didn't like it at all! [can you remember which effect it was? - Pete]
Crown Jewels [Bright Star] - lovely golden effect, not all that sky filling but extremely pretty! A nice rocket!
Giant Maroon Rocket [Kimbolton] - I loved it! The bang was incredible and car alarms were going off some distance away! Really cool rocket and a spectacular finale!
Thunderkings [Black Cat] - one of my favourite cakes, red and green stars and really loud bangs! Brilliant!
Dragon Pearls [Black Cat] - Lovely cake, a nice combination of stars, bangs, whistles and crackles. Nice and pretty.
Return of Hale Bopp [Black Cat] - a nice cake with loud whistles and red starbursts. Nice and loud and value for money.
Atomic [Kimbolton] - just like thunderking and just as brilliant!
Thundering Space Spiders [Kimbolton] - this was fast and brilliant. Spinning silver shells and as loud as thunderking and atomic I thought!
Whistling Jets [Kimbolton] - better than I thought it would be! Looked like silver spinning catherine wheels. Nice loud whistles and worth the money.
Crackling Thunder [Bright Star] - a cool crackle then loud bang. I liked this one!
Firefly [Kimbolton] - quite good, pretty with weird effect, not the best cake but worth getting [another good example of how unique effects can be very hit or miss with people - Pete].
Singing Birds [Vulcan] - 70 shots certainly shot up quick, great rapid fire action and quite loud whistles. Nice to have for free! [from www.nov5th.com]
Glitterblitz [Standard] - silver shells with nice loud bangs, expected it to be a little louder as atomic and thunderking weren't that far behind it for making loud noise, Again really good to have for free!
Triple H Bomb - very nice breaks filled the sky. Nice and loud and saturated. I thought it was great.
Double Thunder Kimbolton Air Bombs - not too good because nearly all of them only banged once! Only about 3 banged twice out of 12! Quite loud though, I'll buy single ones in future. [anyone else tried these? - Pete]
Bright Star Single Air Bombs - spinning orange shell and good bang for the price! Louder than Kimbolton and cheaper!
Plasma Blast Air Bombs [Bright Star] - pink and green shell one after the other which both banged really loud!
Proton Bombs [Bright Star] - very good and two very loud bangs one after the other which really did live up to expectations.
Stealth Bombers [Bright Star] - same as proton bombs but the second shell whistled quite loudly and gave the same two huge bangs.
Aurora Borealis [Kimbolton] - better than splendid flowers, whistle start and whistle finish with some really pretty colours! The crackling was sensational and long lasting. The best fountain I've lit by far!
Spinning Banshees [Kimbolton] - I like these! I can understand what you meant by the lack of sparks but the whistles were very loud in each one especially the large!
Earthquake Mine [Bright Star] - nice pretty fountain start before and eruption of crackling with bang. Worth the money.
Thunder Dragon Mine [don't know the make] - not even as good as the earthquake mine and £4 more. Not at all good value.

Wow - thanks Craig this is exactly the kind of feedback our readers need.

Ian Stewart continues from his Neutron Pulse comments: " This could not be said of the Bright Star "Fighting Machine" three legged rocket. Very disappointing with a very small burst in a not too bright green colour and very little in the way of tracers or willow effect. For the size of head I expected a lot more and
this was probably my only waste of money this year." - Ian, NO ONE has been interested in this rocket and that surprises me. A tripod rocket is such a gimmick it SHOULD sell well; we sold ZERO of these rockets on our website even after knocking some money off. We're thinking of starting a "failures of Guy Fawkes" museum, hehe....

He continues "I also had a couple of Crown Jewels, one a "dud", very small burst and no brocade, the second one though was lovely with a full sky burst and willow tree effect." - Mmm, I'm sure a few of you are thinking back to Neutron Pulse and wondering if Bright Star has a reliability problem with big rockets - Pete

"In fact, this year was an all Bright Star show, I lit up around £250 worth, mostly cakes and multi shot barrages and fountains. One surprise though, and this was my wife's choice [NEVER discount the missus's choice Ian, 9 times out of 10 they're right - pah!]. I am not a fan of wheels, but my wife liked the look of the Quasar Wheel, a large (1ft) wheel with four "motors" wired onto a wooden backing. This was actually quite entertaining, with different effects as the fountains burned down. There was crackling, silver stars and small coloured fountain ball effects. It ranked high in the marks."

"One mention must go to the "Atomic Warlord" 112 Shot Barrage. This had everything, air bombs, fountain balls, willow bursts and a very interesting effect of a spinning, mid air burst, in silver. I was so engrossed that I forgot to time it when it had finished ! It was pricey, but well worth the cost. Whistles, loud cheers and applause from all round !" - Thanks for the great feedback I'm sure this will be a lot of help to many people.

V Chan writes: "Keep selling Proton bombs, there're excellent and devastating (and not bad
value!)".

"Kimbolton's Air bombs (double shot), only about half or less banged twice, most just banged once. Loud." - [Mmm, one of mine went "BANG.... phut." Anyone else tried these?This is a rare blot in KF's books and I'm sure the Rev Lancaster would be fuming if he thought one of his most basic fireworks was not performing. But, I have witnessed this with my own eyes, and I would not buy KF double airbombs again (for me or for Fujiyama)] - Pete

"Red Dragon's Thunder lightning, these were a surprise, but excellent for a very good and good value roman candle. Bangs are loudish." - Yes Pete B was impressed with these too - Pete.

"Small screech rockets- Great fun and cheap."

Nick Beck writes: "My display went very well on November 4th, including many excellent fireworks... not least "Bomb Blast Missiles", "Blockbuster" candles and "Glittering Gemstones". The Millennium Air Thunder rockets were also excellent value, echoing round the neighbourhood.

My Kimbolton Titan Rocket pack certainly offered value for money at £25.99 for 10 rockets, however the advertised bangs did not materialise. The smaller rockets that looked like Hercules turned out to be star effects (although this was to be expected having read the labels). The two black rockets were somewhat embarrassing, producing fine gold stars with a "phut" noise. [Yes we agree Nick, we tried them on Nov 4th too and were not overly impressed. The bigger heads did bang but the black tubes had some very limp effects. We were expecting a bang start and this did not happen. I'm a bit confused why this effect was stuffed in a maroon like head because this narrows the angle of effect, terminally in this case. We won't be pushing this pack now but will be concentrating on the superb Medusa, paradoxically KF's cheapest pack - Pete]

"The star of the evening however was definitely Golden Lion's "Frightened Ducks with Abundant Wind" ... The noise was unlike any other whistling firework, and certainly duck-like! Visual effects were engaging also. This firework was a talking point long after the display had finished. I'm sorry I don't have another to set off at New Year! I wonder if other Golden Lion fireworks are up to this standard." [Yes, they are! - Pete]

"The £1.99 Sky Screamer packs from Red Dragon (10 rockets) were amazing value!"

Thanks Nick, your opinion is greatly valued.

John writes: "I had great fun with a Mother of Thunder cake!!!!!! Not so much can be said for my girlfriends neighbours though!!!!" - Thanks John, this cake certainly won't ease any neighbourhood tensions!

Anthony Perkins, a veteran of many message boards, says:

"Here is a test review of United Fireworks Predator selection box of fireworks retail £25.00. The company is an offshoot of Diamond Fireworks UK based at Radcliffe,Bury in manchester and trades from the same place and this is one of their offerings on trial; The box has 7 garden fountains,2x9 shot display fountains,3 small wheels ridiculously labelled as DISPLAY FIREWORK WHEEL,4x8shot Garden Roman candles, 3xGarden Mines and 5xsingle shot starburst display roman candles and 2 single shot airbombs. I started off with the small cone fountain,but this was quite weak n weedy,it did nothing more than splutter lava like a volcano and did nothing to impress me visually. Now the whistle fountain-this didn't promise either with just a flame and loud but good whistle,still not good. The Sticky End fountain did three coloured effects(and quite a lot of smoke too),but the two Lions Den box fountains were an improvement,producing a rainbow of colours and spluttering crackles,and the largest fountains,strangely named Quick Bite! were the best of the fountains giving a nice big cascade of colours and crackles. The mines were a bit of an afterthought;each started with a brilliant white fountain but the stars weren't highly coloured,disappointing! the tremor airbombs give a good pokey bang but not as loud as I would have liked. The Wolf Attack Starburst Roman Candles each produced an aerial shell which rose to a good height but the heights of four of them were a bit dangerous and broke rather low,4 of them broke dangerously low to the ground but the brocade candle did burst at a safe height. The two Deadly Encounter 9-shot barrages were quite loud and spectacular;one produced gold brocade bursts with loud bangs,the other produced coloured stars that changed to fish which wriggled and swam in all directions,superb! The four roman candles were poor with little in the way of colour in the stars but one of them produced quite good crackling comets which rose way above house height. The wheels were all small and inexplicably labelled as DISPLAY FIREWORK WHEEL but I don't think they would have been useful at that distance of 25metres;the first one was a disaster,it failed to spin at all,but the other two DID spin but I don't think any of the wheels would have looked good at 25m being so small as they were. This box is NOT worth £25.00 and is a bit of a poor buy,I won't buy it again!"

AND "Here is a test review of Sohni Esco's Oriental Typhoon Display Wheel. It is 13in diameter in an octagon shape,which would make you think that there are 8 sections which create colour and would make you think it is going to last a long time,but beware,appearances CAN be deceptive! It actually only has four sections that ignite and create a circle of spinning fire at good speed and only makes this last just under 1 minute,which is not half bad really! I set up a 3 metre pole in the garden,removed the wheel from it's cardboard carton and nailed the wheel to it,ensuring it can spin freely without hinderance but at the same time ensuring it won't spin off either,then I removed the orange paper fuse cover,lit it and scarpered to 25 metres for safety to watch. The fuse fizzed into the firework and then two of the sections ignited and the wheel spun round in two bright colours for a fair few seconds,then a brief slowdown and pause while the fuse lit another section,which ignited and spun round in another bright colour,then after that it stopped and ignited for the final time,this time ending with a not-so-bright or as flattering gold spray to end. I personally would have liked to have seen all 8 sections equipped with colours to make it more exciting,but still I would rate it an ideal candidate for the no-bangs display but it is bit expensive at £10.99 retail. I personally wouldn't rely on this wheel too much for serious displaying,but if you want something a bit noisier,more fun and of much better value,go for Sohni Esco's Reverse Dragon Display Wheel at £12.99 retail,it whistles and howls loudly 6 times and changes direction while it spins,this one is SUPERB and is highly recommended!" - Thanks Anthony but we should stress, as a firer you're not obliged to run off to 25m!

AND "Here is a test review of Golden Lion's £3.00 budget range 19-Shot Cake cheapies, their aptly named Lion With Crackling Tail and Tiger With Big Bite 19-Shot Cakes. I laid a flat wooden board on the ground to prevent them tipping due to shot recoil,then I placed the Tiger With Big Bite Cake onto the board,lit the short stubby side fuse and stepped back to 25 metres. After the fuse fizzed into the firework and a pregnant pause as it got going, the firework burst into life throwing 19 brightly coloured stars up to the heavens one-at-a-time ending in nice and loud pokey flash reports,a good result. Afterwards, I placed the Lion With Crackling Tail Cake onto the board,lit the short stubby side fuse and scarpered to 25 metres away. After the fuse fizzed into the firework and a pregnant pause as it got going, it burst into life throwing 19 golden crackling tails to the sky one-at-a-time, a reasonable result,however I would have liked to seen the crackling comets rising with a rasping,buzzing noise to emulate a growling lion,or each of the crackling comets bursting to rasping and buzzing noises at the peak of their flight to make it more realistic and more like a lion,that said it is quite good value for money nonetheless and suitable for a no-bangs display for young children. The other cake also did well;the consistancy of it's rather good(and loud) bangs and colours of its stars makes it a good candidate for the noise freaks among us,also very good-value-for-money. For smaller displays I can definately say yes to these,but I can't recommend them for large displays due to their size."

HE CONTINUES: "This firework [medium 19 shot Midnight Thunder] from the Red Dragon stable in Ditton Priors,Shropshire is a great little noise maker as far as value for money and noise value is concerned,at only £2.99 retail! I set up a flat wooden board to stand it on to avoid the risk of tipping over through recoil from the shots,lit the easy-to-light fuse tip at the side and scarpered to 25 metres to view this safely. After the fuse fizzed into the firework,and a pregnant pause,all 19-shots(one-at-a-time) shot up to the heavens each producing a nice,loud and pokey flash report giving a decent burntime. All-in-all a good performer and one I would be likely to use again in a display. If you want a good low-priced noise maker and want a good-value noisemaker in your display without having to shell out for a Black Cat thunderking or other expensive noise cakes,choose this one! Highly recommended for it's noise and price!"

AND "Cosmic's Moon Missile 64-shot cake is excellent,for £3.99 it is one of the cheapest and best value-for-money pure-noise display cakes going,the overall effect(as described in the current Cosmic brochure)"loud whistle effect tails rising to loud bangs at the peak of their flight"but the question currently on everyone's lips is"does it deliver and is the performance good?". Well,as this test shows it certainly did and turned in an equally good performance,so that puts paid to the old quandry of"cheap isn't always good value-for-money". I unwrapped it's cellophane,then placed it outside in the garden on a flat wooden board placed on flat ground to prevent tipping over due to possible recoil and lit the short and stubby side fuse at arms' length and stepped back to the recommended 25 metres distance quickly. After a brief moment of silence as the firework fuse ignited,loud brilliant whistling tails took to the sky one after the other ending in nice and loud flash reports in a blaze of noise lasting 60 seconds,quite good. However the shots were a bit on the small side,but this did not diminish what was(and is)a credible performance all the same. A good performer and highly recommended."

AND "I have tested a completely new version of Black Cat's Crackling Golden Palms Cake;this one is taller and a bit wider than the previous versions that have dwarfed shop display cabinets over the past few years,and is clear enough evidence of the new ownership with its label marked with Black Cat Firework Ltd,Huddersfield,England HD4 7AD,the good quality labelling and the bigger sized shot bore of it's shots seems to indicate a better performing product than the previous Crackling Gold Palms 19 Shot Cake previously sold by their Burton-Upon-Trent works. I hastily unwrapped the well wrapped cellophane packaging that covers and protects the firework(and it's fuse),placed it upright on a flat wooden board to avoid tipping over due to possible recoil from the power of it's shots,lit the short stubby side fuse at arms length,scarpered quickly to 25 metres and watched,then with noisy launches that sounded like a shotgun(one at a time),19 vivid golden stars shot to a good height which then burst to large bursts of golden crackling stars looking a bit like palm-tree branches,overall,a pretty-good performance and a big improvement over an otherwise mediocre firework,if this is just the beginning of the trend of better performing products from Black Cat,then long may it continue! A capable offering and one of Black Cat's best"

AND [SKY MONKEY] "This one from Golden Lion really takes the biscuit;144-shots,Wow! of whistles to flash reports non-stop for a good few minutes. I unwrapped the cellophane round the sides,placed it on a flat surface,lit it and stood back,it literally amazed me;funny wobbly sounding whistles flying over great distances ending in bangs(this is definately one to stand well back 25 metres from,some of them were a bit wobbly in flight and got rather close to me and were active to great distances),but the staying power of this firework was in it's duration,144 shots in 4.5 minutes was quite something,despite the small shots this is definately recommended for it's sheer duration,power,noise and burn time,all-in-all a great firework!"

Anthony, if all our readers took the time and trouble you do, we'd have one of the best publicly available FREE firework sources on the planet. Thanks for your comments.



Remember - if you haven't already written to us with YOUR opinions, please do so!


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REVIEW FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

We're sitting on a load of Blue Moon and Shellscape reviews and will upload these as time allows. We must comment though, on a very encouraging break from the norm from Shellscape. Several of their cakes are QUICK FUSED at the end, this means you have the usual "25" or "16" shots or whatever, but the last two or three go off at once, creating a great ending. Well done, this is the kind of progress we like to see in the 21st century! Reviews to follow.


Well, that's all folks. I've still got loads of news and reviews but if I take up any more of your inbox you may reach firework saturation point!
Until next time,

Regards,

Pyro Pete - UK Firework Review
www.firework-review.org.uk

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