"How I Spent My 4th of July"  (2004 edition) 

Written by fireworks lovers around the U. S. A. 
Compiled by Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

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This text file is provided to you for your own reading only. Please do not publish or distribute this text, including sending it by e-mail or uploading it to any web site. The copyright to each story belongs to the person who wrote that story. Thank you for your cooperation.
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The order of the stories is completely random.
 
Some of these stories may contain language which is not suitable for children. Please do not let children read this collection of stories. 

The opinions about the performances of fireworks on the market which appear in these stories are strictly the opinions of the authors of the stories! Nothing in any of these stories should be necessarily considered an endorsement of any product, service, person, business or organization. 

Readers are cautioned that fireworks on the commercial market may not necessarily perform the same when purchased the following year, even if the name and number of the item is the same. 

Readers of this material are cautioned that this information is for the entertainment of the reader only, and it does not constitute instructions or directions of any technique or method, either generally or specifically.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this. If you are one of the people wrote one of these stories, I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with other fireworks enthusiasts like yourself. 

Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

Now, on to the stories.......

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Friday night started with me being bored, so I decided to go to Phantom in Boardman, OH for a few select items. I wanted FT candles, Warhead Launchers and Thundersticks. TS were banned, so one down two to go. I got to Phantom and there was a 45-minute line just to check in. Then there was another line to get in the door. Screw that. I went to Phantom in Youngstown, which is ten minutes away. I'm glad I did. They were out of FT candles, bummer, but I ended up getting my Warhead Launchers. The part that really cheered me up was when this really nice kid behind the counter and I started talking and realized that we both have a good knowledge of fireworks. He hooked me up with Grucci tubes and Blue Wave tubes 3-for-1. Phantom may not have released a Grucci coupon this year, but I got the deal anyway. That made my day. I only planned on spending about $30 for the items on my list but I spent over $100 b/c of the tube deal. Long story short, going to Phantom this close to the Fourth is a bad idea unless you bump into someone who knows how to hook up a fellow pyro enthusiast. 
Saturday was a long, hot, humid day. I spent the day getting ready for that night's show and for Sunday's show. Saturday night's show was cool. It clocked in at around 20 minutes with me using _ of my stash. I did it for people I didn't know real well, and it was cool hearing the ohhs and ahhs from them. After the show they even started chanting my name. Things like that are why I do my shows and spend the money. It was a unique experience. The best part of Saturday's show was my girlfriend helping me light. My buddy who was supposed to help didn't show, so my girl picked up the slack. She had a blast and now knows why I love setting off shows every year.
Sunday the Fourth was for me and my friends. We spent the day lounging around the pool followed by a BBQ. I already had everything set-up for that night, so it was all about relaxing and enjoying the day. Darkness rolled around and we started the show at 9:45. The show started slow as we were waiting for one friend to get done with work at 10 and get to my house. He was there by 10:05 and the real show began. One thing I recommend is having a push button torch to light with. It was a windy night since there were storms coming in and without the torch I would have been screwed. We lit stuff off until about 11 when the finale was lit. It was simply amazing. 2 500g cakes and 2 flights of 12 double and triple break shells made for a great finale. I even heard cheers from a few houses up on the hill behind the field we were firing in. After cleaning up all the empties we finished off the night with a quick swim to cool off and drank a few Coronas while talking about what everyone liked about the show.
Monday started in with me getting the post Fourth blues. The Fourth came and went way too quick as it does every year. I still have a few things to light off during the rest of the summer, so that helps. Plus, I'm already planning next years show. 364 days and countingÉ
I had a ton of cakes and shells this year. That was it...no rockets, candles, fountains, etc. I've listed the best and worst that I had. Some stuff was good but not worth mentioning, so I didn't. Most of my stuff was from Phantom and Wholesale Fireworks.

THE GOOD
Molotov Cocktail (very loud breaks) - Rain of Fire set off at the same time as Emerald City (outstanding combo) - Golden Pyro-Fusion (very pretty) - Mineshell Mayhem (always excellent) - Swarming Skeeters (wows from crowd...flying fish was popular w/ crowd) - Wild West (nice volleys) - Triton's Tempest (see Swarming Skeeters) - Gold Dust 500g (EXCELLENT!!!) - Blue Wave & Red Round Dahlia (great loud lift, huge breaks) - Orion 2 & 3 Break Shells (filled the sky, nice breaks with lots of color i.e. vibrant purples and effects, Orion Shells turned out to be well worth the $$$)

THE BAD
-Loco Locusts (just plain sucked, looked like 19 artificial satellites) - Raptor (used to be good, they changed it because it sucks now) - Warhead Launchers (they were cool to watch when they went up straight, I almost got taken out a few times by ones that went sideways, DANGEROUS!!!) - 500g Fandango, Spectacular, Independence Spirit, Fantail Fantastico (not impressive)

Hope this helps people with future purchases. As long as things don't get changed next year. Fingers crossed

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I own a place up in Lake Tahoe (Rubicon Bay)Êso I go up there often and every year on the 4th. Every year we get to light off whatever we want including things that are illegal in California. But this year I was just starting with some small stuff like moon travelers and out of nowhere some dickhead renter yelled " stop lighting off bottle rockets or i'll call the cops" (boy was i pissed). So after awhile people on other beaches were lighting off whatever they wanted andÊthe a-hole that told us to stop wasn't telling them to. So suddenly someone on our beach starting lighting off a mortar and and noone was yelling at them so I got so f-ing angry and lit off big noisy bottle rockets, firecrackers and roman candles. The a-hole came at me so angry and was like "Get off the beach". So then everyone (about 100 people)Êwere so pissed off this guy that they couldn't convince him to let me light off my stuff that everyone just left and came back at 12:00 and we had the greatest/strangest show ever. 

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This 4th was great until someone in my comunity called the cops on use Because of the noise (the cop didnt care really he stayed for aboutÊ30 minutes and helped me light some of ÊtheÊfireworks and bascially joined the party LOLÊbut said we had to stop or at least take aÊlittleÊbreak from the Loud stuff! he asked me if i stole the fireworks from the near by Zambelli Firework display on the lake,the officer was amazed by the power of the loyal to none repeater!Êthe cop had to leave and looked pretty pissed off because he got a call for an accident that he had to report to, i gave him a couple boxes of Mortar shells and a couple cakes to take with him for when he gets off duty becauseÊhe could have been an a$$whole andÊshup down my party because it it isÊ"illegal" toÊlight ariel items inÊFlorida when any wayÊi started shopping for my fireworks in early june At Skyking fireworks and phanthom Fireworks in Cocoa Florida...ÊI Ended up spending a little over $1,000 this year Ê(wasnt Planing that but iÊlike a kid in a candy store when it comes to fireworks) Sky king offers great dealsÊon theirÊfireworks they have Buy one get one deals, buy one get 1 forÊ.99 (basically everthing they carry), and Êbuy one getÊ2 free...ÊThis Years Excalibur kit was better then Ever! these things were coming out the tube with such an explosion the breaks were HUGE and High ( like a 3" Display Shell).. the Colossus kits gave a GREAT BANG for the money ($50Êfor 12 CanisterÊtype shells) the only thing i didt like was that the mortar casing is Plastic and when they exploded it rains little plastic pieces down EVERY where! The Black Cat Shells where a Great kit the case only cost me $150.00.. My Brother picked up a Couple packs of Blackcat Gold Series AS-1 and As-2 ShellsÊConsumer Shells dont get any better then these kits and the excaliburs... also the BlackCat B.A.R Kits where Good.... if you only buy 1 500g Cake get the Loyal to none Itz deffintly the best of the best...the list of otherÊfireworks that i purchased are below (if ever in the Cocoa beach orÊDaytona Beach Area check out Skyking and Phanthom fireworks Showroom! 

4ÊExcalibur Kits
9ÊSuper Spaceman Colossus kits
3 Ninja Kits
2 whistling jake kits
2 Loyal to None 500Gram Cake
6ÊHappy 36 Shot
2 Land of the free cake
Wild Wild West cake
Kings anger Cake
What dat doo cake
4 gross whistling bottle rockets
5Êgross Reg bottle Rockets
12 (1 case) of Black Cat Special Select Artillery Shells 
Nerves of Steel Cake
sexy sisters cake
shogun warfare cake
command and conquar cake
space fleet cake
metallic Scorpion cake
metallic crocodile cake
2 Bump BearÊcakes
16 Cuckoo Fountains
3 10 Shot black cake Golden Willows
2 Trays Blackcat Ring Rockets
2 Bricks Jumping jacks
3 packsÊbomber planes
2 packs 2-color space Ship
Kirin Cake
2 Solar assignments cakes

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My cousin and I have been shooting off fireworks over the lake for the past four years on the fourth, but this year we decided to take things up a notch. We started with your buyer's guide which was awesome. It helped us figure out exactly what kind of show we wanted to put on. I found Victory Fireworks in your mall and started comparing prices and these guys were awesome. We wound up ordering about $900 worth of stuff and with the shipping (460 lbs) our total cost was $1072. I've always been partial to mortars because I feel like you get more bang for the buck so we went with Beihai, Pyro King and Brothers. We ordered some Power Shells, Sky Dominator, Rambo Kids, and Best of Brothers. All of the mortars were exceptional but I have to say the Rambo Kids were killer. We also bought some cakes to help ease our load during the show. We bought Powder Buster, Baja Bomber, Independence Spirit, Beelzebub, and Hydrogen Bomb. After the shipment came in we got inspired to start building mortar racks. We finally found a source for HDPE and bought 120 feet worth of tubing. We made five racks with sixteen tubes each 4 X 4 that we kept reloading during the show with sixteen mortars tied together by 90 seconds of safety fuse. We then found a friend that works in a paper plant that was able to make us some cardboard tubes for our finale. She made us 110 tubes 13 inches long that were 3/8 of an inch thick. So with these we built four racks of 24 tubes for 96 mortars in our finale. We made some music to go with the show, and despite a little rain and a few wet fuses that were a pain we started things off with Boston's version of the Star Spangled Banner. It got things rocking when we blew some red comets off at the rockets red glare. From that point we tried our best to keep at least two of the racks firing for the next twenty minutes. We did pause a few times to shoot some cakes, we lit the Independence Spirit off in the middle of Toby Keith's 'Put a boot in you're a$$' and it was a big hit. If you use it, make sure no one is near the sides because it comes fast and low. We also lit two Baja Bombers during the show and they were a big hit, especially when the parachutes were in the air. Thanks for the advice Bob. We slowed things down at the end with a mortar every now and then during Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful. Then for the finale we lit them up with the end of 1812 Overture for 90 seconds of thunder. We had the 96 mortars fused together along with two Hydrogen Bombs with Sticky Match. We had trouble with the Sticky Matching missing two of the racks and had to light them manually. But those two cakes were awesome! I wasn't expecting what we got but at least three times, those two cakes completely lit the sky. Maybe Bob can add a footnote to this and tell me what that effect is called. It looked like five things went up, then split into five more, then those 25 little balls all exploded at once. All in all we had a great time and a great show. We are going to get started soon building more mortar racks so we don't have to reload next year. We are already planning. 

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You wouldn't believe Ray's show, it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Every device was placed perfectly, wired in order, and sunk into the sand a little bit. It was just as much a work of art as it was a kick-ass fireworks show. For about 8-10 minutes straight, it reminded me of a very heavy Grand Finale. (Very Heavy, non-stop, for 8-10 minutes) We were all saying oh my god, over and over. It was wild. I wish I had done a video of it!

My 4th was awesome. I lit off pre-wired sets for 3 hours. There were people all around with cakes and Mortar shells. About 50 yards away a friend of mine bought $5k worth of big stuff. He sunk 4 steel 4" pipes into the sand and dropped 4" shells into them all night long. They looked great when I would light 5-10 Super Rockets at the same time. 

My show had cakes, roman candles, 2" shells in a rack of 12, and about 30 rockets in each set. 5-20 were Super Rockets. I did 3 sets and it worked out great. Towards the end I lit 2 gigantic 3" cakes at the same time. (These were 25 shots each, all 3" shells, $225 and $250 each) That was probably the best part of the show. I also had M-100's, Roman Candles, and all sorts of other stuff. I wired 12 roman candles up together. 

I had some fuse problems at one point. I had to go light the set from the other end. One problem that may have been happening is that when I went from fuse to sticky match to fuse the sticky match didn't ignite the fuse at the end?

I liked the effect of lighting 4 regular sized cakes off at the same time. When I lit 2 Heavy weights at the exact same time, it was amazing. 

We didn't see any cops until they drove by at Midnight with their lights on. They were sweeping the beach telling everyone to put out the bonfires and that the beach is closing.

Everything lit and went off just fine.

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In the past couple of years, I have always tried to put on a decent consumer fireworks show. Not too much of any one item, and always ending in something big. Bigger than the folks at the other end of street anyway. After our New Yearâs Eve celebration, I wanted to learn more about fireworks safety and how to improve my show without breaking my kids piggy bank open (again). It was in February in which I discovered the great information on FireworksLand.com and forums on PyroUniverse.com. I Was Hooked!! Even bought fifty feet of nicrome wire on Ebay hoping to use it someday. Stayed pretty close to the forum throughout the spring picking up little tidbits here and there. 

Midway through June, I solicited the neighbors to combine finances for our fireworks. I had a budget even before I knew where or what we were going to purchase. The guys on the forum were very helpful with what was good this year, -and what was not. I found a retailer that was down the interstate but off the beaten path with great products and great prices. I was happy with our shopping trip, and couldnât wait to begin scripting the show. 

I built a couple of racks for roman candles and a three-tube mortar for the Excalibur & Merlin shells. The cakes were going to be lit individually by my buddy, and planned on using them in between mortar shots. Last thing to complete was a simple electronic launcher. No problem, a quick trip to Radio Shack and ten bucks later I had a battery pack with 20ft leads. 

At the July 4th block party -actually on the 3rd- everyone was making comments of how big the show better be, especially after raising all that money. I was confident and all ready to go now for our big show. It was starting to get dark when other people around us began launching their cheap stuff. I was amused at how quickly some of them finished. We began to let the kids light sparklers, firecrackers and satellites. Older kids held roman candles and one of the guys lit a couple of parachutes then some shells. 

To start the big show, we set off a small roll of a thousand firecrackers. The folks at the other end of the street thought that was our finale and their crowd began clapping and laughing. Hehe. Thatâs when I sent up the first Excalibur shell and our crowd started clapping and laughing. Then a cake followed by two more shells. Then another cake followed by three shells. We continued that pattern until the Excalibur shells were gone and began using the Merlin double breaks. Very impressive to see six bursts in the air. The candle racks were awesome with a ton of light and movement. Our finale started with a Loyal to None 500g cake and a bunch of Merlin shells. Total show was about a half an hour long and we got a standing ovation from our crowd. Sure was nice having the knowledge from fireworksland.com and pyrouniverse.com. We cannot wait until our fireworks celebration on labor day.

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Hey, this 4th of July was my first firework show, because I am only 11. I spent $250.00 total, at both Kellner's fireworks of Harrisville, PA and Phantom of Erie, PA. At Kellner's I purchased a $23.50 shell kit called "Shell Shock". At Phantom I bought Triton's Tempest, Emerald City, Garden in Spring, Red, White and Boom!, Arctic Blast, Blue Ringed Willows, Mighty Cobra, and Sea Sparrow Missiles for repeaters, Moondance for fountains, 1 of each of the Grucci tubes(yesÊI had them all)for a finale, some 20 shot roman candles,2 wheels,and some cheapo Wolf Pack #5 tubes. I fused everything together with regular visco on a 12 foot 2"x8". When I started my show, everything worked great until the finale. My Manhattan Crown Brocade tube exploded, and put out the finale. There was an embarassing time lapse when I had to run up and re-lite the finale. After the show, I played with some bottle rockets and firecrackers that I got free. Overall, my show was a good first show. Very pleasing to the eye, I even attracted some neighborhood folks. Nobody was hurt. It's only getting bigger and better. Here are my reviews of my items:
Blue Ringed Willows-*****ÊÊTotally awesome! Huge, colorful blue breaks. This one was my meal ticket. Trriton's Tempest-**** This one was pretty good, but it is a mine cake. Basically, it shoots purple, then blue, then green mines over and over again. But then again, how many consumer mines are there? Arctic Blast-** This one starts out as a weak fountain, then moves on to 19 shots of white spinners that last about half a second. Oh, well... Emerald City-**** For a small cake, this one packs a punch! Nice gold and green chrysanthemums. Red, White and BOOM!-***** Small cake, big effects! Nice, loud red, white and blue chrysanthemums with light crackle. Sea Sparrow Missiles-*** Basically, it's a 91-shot Saturn Battery with red, yellow and green sparks. Garden in Spring-*** A classic cake that starts out with a small fountain and shoots out 7 skyrocket-like breaks. Not so how, but the little kids love it. Mighty Cobra-**** Loud crackle! 19 shots of pure crackle. A loud item. Moondance fountain-***** Now I'm not really a fountain person, but they were $2.99 so I picked some up. Awesome purple and blue spray with gold pearls and crackle! They're also under the names "Cool- you gotta say it right" and "Purple Rain". Pick some up! Grucci tubes-**** Great, loud tubes that fire 2" shells. And they're still 1.4G! They all have great altitude and rare breaks, but I espescially liked the Empire Gold Willow. 120 second wheel-*** A good wheel that lasts 2 minutes. It sprays red, blue and gold sparks, then surprisingly blows up with a loud report at the end of its performance. Wolf Pack #5 shells-*** A box of 4 tubes that give skyrocket-like breaks and white spinners. 20 shot Magical candle-** They are long lasting, but they only shoot red and green pearls and half the 12 pack are duds.(usually) 

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had a very good time this year. Last years effort was not on time and under-budget. So I planned ahead this year. 

In the state of Oregon where we live, most class C stuff is banned. They only allow ground fireworks like fountains and novelties. Nothing that flies or reports. The state fire marshalâs office will grant a permit if you meet certain qualifications for all federally approved consumer materials. The process seemed easy enough. The main challenge was finding an acceptable site for fireworks. The best location that I could think of was a large open field, but since most open fields around here are on school or public park property that wasnât going to work. I made a few calls to the parks department and they shut us down cold. Oh well, so much for the legal route! 

So we planned for our show to be done at my mom's house in Eugene, Oregon. She agreed as long as I spoke to the neighbors before gave them all heart attacks. 

I ordered the majority of my materials online as I have done in the past. There is a great website that will ship anything to Oregon. All I have to do is pick it up at the shipping depot right here in Portland. 

I ordered:

1 case of large cake assortments, 2 assortments (about 20 cakes from small to 200 gram and 2 relodable mortar kits in each asst.!! ö awesome!!) 

1 case of blue thunder roman candles, 144 candles 

2 rocket assortments, over 390 rockets and bottle rockets 

4 500-gram cakes

1 500-gram Z-shaped cake

lots of miscellaneous items

This came to just under $400 and with shipping about $550. It arrived about 7 days after I ordered it in early June. In late June, fireworks go on sale in Washington state, which is a 20-minute drive from my house. Washington state allows all consumer fireworks except rockets on a stick, and firecrackers. Most major cities in western Washington state (Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia) have banned fireworks completely, and the ban has spread to many towns on the eastern side of the state as well. But Vancouver is still holding out. ÊThere is a certain part of Vancouver just off of I-5 that is fireworks nirvana!! So I make it a point to get to Vancouver to check out the deals and get things for my display. I went up on the 1st and did some shopping. I picked up some mortar kits, a couple of small cakes and a ton of aerial spinners. 

And then we headed down to Eugene, which is approximately 100 miles south of Portland. We had to take 2 cars because I had so much stuff!! I was a little nerve-racking to be illegally transporting banned fireworks across the state. We arrived without incident. 

I spent most of the 4th preparing for the show. No electronic firing system or choreography, but I did spend a lot of time making one of my signature pieces; the Roman Candle Cake. They are quite simple to make and typically work very well. You just duct tape a large number of roman candles together, link all of the fuses together to a single fuse, and there you go. Youâve got a very large, very fast, very powerful cake. This year I used about 40, 8-shot candles which means that each of those cakes had 320 shots! Obviously, the better the roman candle the better the cake. I usually cut lengths of visco fuse and connect each piece of visco to the candleâs fuse. This is a tedious and time-consuming process, so I tried something else this year. If you have any kind of fireworks composition lying around (black powder, flash, stars, whatever burns) try piling some of it on top of the roman candles. Cover it with some thin tape, stick a fuse in there somewhere and boom your done. It takes about 2 minutes instead of 45 minutes. Save your time for the Bar-B-Q. Once those were done, we carefully arranged all of the fireworks in boxes, trying to sort of generally put them in some sort of firing order. We unraveled all of the mortar fuses for quick loading and placed them in small boxes. Nothing worse than fumbling with those tangled fuses in the dark when youâve got an anxious crowd waiting! We placed all of the ground blooms, novelties and buzz bombs in small boxes for quick and easy access. We then carted all of the packed boxes out to the trunk of the car. The 500-gram cakes were too big and the large skyrockets were too many to put in the trunk so they went into the backseat. We left the bottle rockets and some larger pop rockets out for daytime use.Ê 

And then we wait for dark!

Everything worked great! We had a lot of fun. There were always at least 3 of us lighting stuff at a time. My older brother set up a microphone to record audio and my little brother was up on the roof with the camcorder getting it all on tape. My brother brought some sparkler bombs (man I miss those!) that he had been keeping for the past couple of years. We set off a few car alarms! I really liked the quad mortars that I had. Iâve seen other quads that have really pathetic breaks or didnât go very high. These were simply awesome!! Iâm glad we tried them. Iâll probably order a case for new years! All the cakes were great, with the exception of the report cakes. These were advertised to have very loud reports. They didnât. They werenât even as loud as the roman candles! Now I know that they were probably overloaded the first year they came out but come on guys, these were weak! All the aerial spinners were fun, one even went into the crowd! I think we woke them up for good with that one! The mortars were awesome; the cakes were great, with lots of variety and some really big breaks! All of the rockets were good, not a dud in the batch, the roman candle cakes were awesome, and the 500-gram cakes were impressive especially Circle of Dreams by United Pyro. That piece is a great show!! The 158 shot Z-shaped 500-gram Platinum Pro cake by United Pyro definitely was the highlight. If you donât know what Iâm talking about when I say Z-shaped just trust me and get one!! Theyâre a little on the spendy side but you wonât regret it!! 

Everything went off without a single fire started, a single finger singed, or a single visit from law enforcement! At around 11 p.m. a huge firetruck slowly rumbled through our neighborhood. The firefighters saw the huge mess that we had made in the street and they just smiled and waved! Made you feel proud to be an American! Can't wait till next year!Ê 

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this fourth of july was pretty cool. i live in connecticut which is a "safe and sane" state, and even the fountains can have no more than 100 grams. we went to a tnt fireworks stand that was run by a church group so it was all tax free. i spent $50 and got 2 candles, 2 fiery echo fountains, a carnival fountain, and the family fun pack assortement. the family fun pack was really nice because it had a lot of really big items in it. we also got 2 jumbo 20 rocket fountains, which, for those of you who dont know are aÊfountain that you stick in the ground like a rocket. they were by far the star performers of the show. they went higher than most of the other items and had 2 stages, i was red and green sparks, and then it went to crackling. the only bad thing about these was that you have to stick them in the ground, and we havent had rain in weeks, so the grass kept catching on fire.ÊÊoverall a! pretty good show, next year i will get a lot more because i will have a job and lots of money. hoping to get the tnt big bang assortment!

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 Mine was incredible. Much better than I thought it was going to be. I had sooo much fun. Everybody loved the fireworks and everyone was cheering with excitement. It was amazing. It was just as Brian described, the whole beach was lighting stuff offÊand these were big devices. You looked down the beach bothÊways and all you could see for miles was the sky filled with colorful blasts. It was constant for about two hours or so, from 9:30 to about 11:30. The sheriffs department wouldÊactually drive by,Êalong the water side from time to time but didn't even slow down, even when huge booms were going off all around them. One of the times they drove by, they were coming up andÊI had justÊlit Bomb Squad near their pathÊand as they passed right by it, the clusters at the end began to off like 5 feet away from them. I got a little chuckle out of it.ÊI actually had a chance to talk to one the sheriffs on the way in and he told me that once it turns night time everyone starts lighting big stuff and there is nothing they can do about it. I walked away from him with a big grin on my face because at that point I knew the coast was clear. I wheeled my very large storage bin down to the beach and immediately began lighting stuff off, like the salute shells and Neighbor Annoyer and it wasn't even dark yet. 

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First I would like to tell you a little about me my name is Cole I am 14 and live in Minnesota and I love fireworks. This year I had my best 4th ever. Well it all started of in may when I went to Wisconsin to fireworks debot to get my first Êpart ofÊmy display, when i arrived i was so existed because of not being their for so long. First of i boughtÊ2 CannonÊ#100 tubes (palm with crackle). Then i went to look at shell kits i found the perfect one M100 Military Artillrery. ItÊhad 8 singles, 8 doubles, and 8 cylinders. then i bought 1 900# Warehouse Assortment. (Every thing was buy one get one for 99.) fast forward to the fourth we started atÊsixÊo'clock. first we did some fire cracker and bottle rockets, When it reached 9 we got the good stuff out we that lasted to till 11 then we were done ÊÊÊÊÊÊ 

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Christmas in July. That is how I feel about the 4th of July and fireworks. My kids have December 24th as a night with little sleep to awake early for the festivities, for me it is July 3rd. Nothing like an 8:00am wakeup call from a 1,000 strip of firecracker.

My day was filled with preparing for my sons birthday party with a lot of parachutes, firecrackers, and titanium salutes thrown in. It was supposed to rain and thunderstorm all day and evening but at least it held off for the party (that was my wife's concern, mine was will it rain after dark). 

Well just before dark the clouds opened up and down came the rain. I had about a 15 minute period of no rain so I did get to fire a few cakes on the 4th. The 5th came without any rain and I got to set off the rest of my fireworks. Had about 20 people over and the enjoyed the small show. About 15 cakes, 12 roman candles, 30 2" and 1 3/4" shells, not much but had a good time.

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th 

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Let me give you a quick re-cap on what my 4th of July was like. First let me step back a month into time, I was in Vegas visiting one of my good friends when I saw the sign for Phantom Fireworks in Pahrump. Now for the past years the only kind of consumer fireworks displays I have seen are the Safe and Sane assortments I parents bought. Now that I am an adult, those fireworks just do not cut it anymore. So off I went to Phantom, boy let me tell you, it was such an amazing site to walk into the warehouse and see all the amazing fireworks!! It all looks good enough to eat, wrapped in very vibrant bright colored paper. I must of developed some temporary insanity because I ended up leaving with $50 worth of fireworks. I could barely fit all of them in my car!

Back to my 4th experience. My good buddy was nice enough to throw a party at his beach house, which drew a good party. There were about 50 of my good and newly made friends all having a great time during the day hours. Once the night fell over the Ocean, the real Carnival began. We moved the party to the front of the house to find out that a 5 square block of street was totally covered with people lighting off fireworks. It looked like a war zone. This is before I even started to pull out my Phantom Arsenal. 

I started the show out slow with some assorted bottle rockets, but quickly found out the natives were getting wrestles and I need to quickly step up the pace, so I went for some of the smaller cakes. I few 15 shots here, some sparks and crackles there. Once I started to really get going with some of the bigger Phantom cakes, people from all around really started to gather around. I setup 3 Grucci Mortars and launched them off while I has some really nice ground level fountains/aerials going in the foreground. This just about got the crowed in a frenzy. I could not believe how amazing these Phantom fireworks were. I concluded the show with 2 500 gram New York Salute Finale and when it was all said and done. I looked around to see my 50 friends turn into 150 + people from block and blocks over all watching my display.

For a first timer into the art with fireworks shows, I was very happy to see so many happy faces. That's my story, just wanted to share with you the amazing time I had with the Phantom fireworks. I didn't have 1 single dud in the bunch!! That is quality.

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Well it was another good forth...I did have a wire malfunction and did not get to shoot off my 5 position finale front which consisted of waterfall fantasy and time trap...I later fused them up and sent 3 Time trap up at one time..I have never seen such a curtain of gold sparks ever..It was amazing..the Waterfall fantasy cakes were also good....I set of fa trailer with 50 cakes linked with visco that went for 12-14 minutes...I mixed 200gm and 500 gm..One Bad Mother is still great,,Cannon 500 gm cakes Max performance and Rapid fire was good...Crossfire by Brothers was excellent...this seemed to be the year of the falling leave and popcorn effect with several of these effects present in neighboring shows...I had no safety issues ,no cake tipovers or malfunctions..the quality of the products continues to improve,,those Brothers Time traps ..I cannot say enough good things about those..shotgun wedding was good also....Bob's descriptions are very accurate and if you read them carefully you will find some great tips...hope everyone had a safe 4th

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i was over at my friends house for the 4th... i took off from doing professional shows... they were pissed cause im a lead technician now...nobody takes the 4th ofÊhaha... anyway my friend has like 5 houses on his block and everyone was at the party... we usually set off our stuff out in the road so thats what we did... i lit off  black cat mats, but i blow torch the whole mat at once.. i got it on video it works good.. but anyway yeah we had everything the M80's blockbusters and even big big blockbusters... i hadÊtwo devices that contained 5 ounces of flash each they were insane... one is on video and some guy complained his house shook... you should see the blast..... the mortars we got around here.... it seems like everyone had giant mortars this year.. they were high priced but they were awesome.. my friend had 3 inch they went so dammm high and spread like 4 inch... i had 4 inch and 6 inch.... the 4 inch came from pyrosamm out by you and the 6 inch i got from my fireworks company that i shoot from... of course they dont know that though... someone called the police on us for blocking the road with tubes and cakes and thats how the cop saw me and 2 friends about to light a 6 in. 4 in and 3 inch at the same time... we all pulled our shells out of the pipe and ran... i hurled my 6 inch over 2 fences into someone elses yard.. hahhaha i panicked... i didnt know someone at the party knew him and it was cool... he just said unblock the road and wait 10mins after i leave and thats what we did... we waited 20 minutesÊanyway.. believe it or not someone on the next block over destroyed us with aerial shells... they were lighting (3) 6 inch and (1) 8 inch at the same time.. they had so many they lit them before it got really dark and continued till 11:30ish... i have no idea were they got there stuff but im gonna stop over to them and have a chat... i just couldnt believe how many 6 inch shells they lit.. at least 50 of every inch 4,6, and a few 8 inch... not to mentionÊ4Ê(3 inch) titanium salutes at once.. all the cakes i got worked great too... the neighbor annoyer and flower thunder are very popular... someone commented that either flower thunder or shimmering crackling gold was there favorite.. those salutes was my favorite.. i lit 24 of them one after the other... talk about a good neighborhood...

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Well we had an overall pretty good 4th of July. We started the day with a few little things like whistiling bottle rockets and some thunderkings, we lit those for a while until we ran out. One of the neighbors then lit a titanium salute, and there i went wanting to beat him, so i came out with a titanium salute, my brother lit it and as soon as it let out the huge explosion i look down and theres a cop driving right in front of us, i was like "damn its over were busted," but he just kept driving and he did nothing about it. So then we waited a while for it to start getting dark and i started shooting up multiple salutes at once. Damn these salutes are the best thing you can ever have on the 4th. So after we lit a few of these salutes we just lit some fountains and some sparklers and some roman candles, nothing to big. Then my neighor started with the salutes again and thats when i decided i was gonna have to finish him off, so i went and lit like 4 at one time, damn that was an amazing barrage ofÊexplosions every alarm in the block was going crazy.ÊSoon after the local show at theÊhigh school began,Êand like many of my neighbors agreed they really got down this year, that was like the best show i had ever seen in my life. It was like 25 minutes but it was amazing. So afterÊthe show is over we keep lighting alot of firecrackers and rockets and sparklers and stuff.ÊWe lit a few more salutes here and thereÊbut they get old after youÊlight like 20 of them. Our Grand Finale wasÊ5 titanium salutes and 5 magnum atillery shells,Êwe were able to get everything to go off almost at the same time so itÊcame out pretty good.ÊIt was the best finale i could ever do, it may not be much butÊhere inÊCALI where you can only light safe and sane it was a good finale. I was satisfied with how it went, butÊwhat made my night was when one of the neighbors brothers passedÊby he stopped and saidÊ"hey man good show you put on for us tonight, i hope to see you next year." that was prettyÊmuch the icing on the cake, so thats it anotherÊ4th of July gone, another short 365 days for a fewÊhours of fun once again.Ê

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How I long for the days of my youth, and the gleeful procurement of fireworks, my first and enduring passion. From my early teens until we moved to Arizona, my favorite holiday was always the 4th of July. I'd say it even beat Christmas. Both holidays had their own advantages, but the 4th was much more enjoyable. 

On the 4th of July when I was eleven years old, my dad purchased a fireworks assortment tray from a department store. He asked me if I wanted to light some of the fireworks, under his supervision. Since then, things have never been the same. 

I grew up in central Indiana, in the small town of Shelbyville. In Indiana, some fireworks are legal. Ground spinners, fountains, wheels, and other fairly docile fireworks are allowed, but firecrackers, rockets, artillery shells, and repeating aerial cakes are not. However, these illegal fireworks were readily available from "out-of-state" fireworks dealers. My friends took advantage of this situation to obtain "the good stuff," but I tended to stick to what was legal. 

When I was 13, I remember getting a fireworks catalog in the mail. It was the first time I had ever seen such a catalog, and I was spellbound by its' contents. I would look through the catalog with all the wonderment of a five-year-old in a candy store, drooling over the photos of fountains, aerial spinners, multi-shot cakes and huge celebration rolls of firecrackers. The names were cheesy and poorly translated, and the descriptions were always over-the-top; "War Between World - Multi-shooting war of colors and reports!" " Air Defence Fireworks - 100 shots of crackling glitter! A finale piece! Must see!" Matter of fact, I still have that catalog. It is tattered from years of handling, but still retains its charm. 

There was something utterly relaxing and satisfying about being able to touch a match or the glowing end of a punk stick to a fuse and cause a tower of flame to emerge and spin and hiss and scream and crackle all at once with the fury of a small thunderstorm. It was enigmatic to see fireworks perform, but they did perform and they were amazing. That was all that mattered. 

Around this time of year, the tension starts to build, the kind of tension that can not be released by conventional means. No, this tension can only be released by the crackling barrage of a Ground Blaster, the frantic buzzing of a Jumping Jack, or the piercing scream of a Piccolo Pete. 

With what little money I made by mowing grass for people, and a meager allowance supplemented by my parents, I managed to amass quite an arsenal of explosives each year. I'd begin purchasing the items in May. Usually my first purchase was an assortment of fireworks from a department or grocery store. I remember quite well there were several vacant buildings that I would keep my eye on, as they were often the target of the seasonal fireworks stores, open just before Memorial Day through the end of July. I'd be there a few days after they opened, money in hand, ready to start building up the stockpile. My favorites were the loud and unpredictable ones; Piccolo Petes, Ground Blasters, Magic Whips, Jumping Jacks, and Crackering (sic) Balls. Two Stage Chrysanthemums were great, because after spinning on the ground for several seconds they'd unexpectedly shoot up into the air twenty-five feet in a blast of green sparks. Safe and Sane? Yeah, right! 

Jumping Wheels were another favorite, only because they could be disassembled and the drive tubes could be taped to skewer sticks to make little high-flying rockets. My friends and I loved taking small fireworks apart and modifying them to do things that they weren't necessarily meant to do. We tried a few times to glue fountain tubes onto sticks to create little rockets, with pitiful results. We also played around with Jumping Jacks. We liked to tape them together, usually in sets of four with spark holes carefully aligned, because it made their performance more interesting. We tried gluing wings onto them several times to create aerial spinners, but could never set the wing angle-to-spark angle correctly. They ended up stuck on the ground, spewing sparks. We liked combining them with other fireworks, too (like taping them to Magic Whips) to make things interesing. 

Once the big day finally rolled around, I'd invariably be up at 7 AM after a night of very light sleep, out on the street corner lighting off smoke bombs and Jumping Jacks. Sometimes my friends and I would go to the huge parking lot along Washington Street (usually free of cars), just a block away from our houses, to light off some of the small fireworks, or we'd go down to Sunset Park and throw lit bottle rockets into the river shallows, admiring their depth-charge-like performance. It was a day full of pyro delight . 

It seemed like forever before the sun set. Then the big stuff would come out. For a few years, all the neighbors from around the block would come down with their kids to see the Class C show that I put on. The last year I lived there, they brought all their own fireworks down to the corner for me to set off. That last year's show lasted nearly 4 hours. 

I remember the 5th of July as the most depressing day of the year. The excitement was completely gone. We'd light off a few fireworks that we had left over, but the excitement just wasn't there. My friends and I would go on "Fireworks Patrol." We'd look for spent rockets, flying spinners, and other illegal items to bring back to my house and examine. 

I remember those years quite well. I miss them, and fireworks in general, quite a bit. Here in Arizona, it's understandable that all fireworks are illegal. Even sparklers and smoke bombs have been deemed unsafe due to the extreme risk of wildfire caused by the dry climate. Tucson receives, on average, a yearly total rainfall of 7-8 inches, minuscule compared to well over the 35 or so inches Indiana gets each year. The Class-3 Misdemeanor charge and $1000 fine associated with the mere possession of fireworks is enough to keep even the most die-hard consumer pyro in line. 

I still get my fireworks fix once in a while by traveling out of state. America is an amazing place to live, and I love my country, but without consumer fireworks, Independence Day isn't what it used to be. 

Fireworks were my first passion, and to this day, I still love them. 

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I purchased about $500.00 worth of fireworks from my usual source, Victory Fireworks in Wisconsin. I also live in Wisconsin and am fortunate to have neighbors who all love fireworks. Notable items were a couple of 500-gram cakes--Angler's Ambition and Oktoberfest (which I highly recommend). I had a friend continually lighting off mortar shells from a large Pyro King collection I bought while I handled the cakes. I finished off with a finale comprised of 10 City Crasher cakes all fused together with different length fuses (about an inch apart) which gave an intense 250-shot barrage. Each cake has a built in 10-shot finale so you can imagine how 10 cakes looked. Lots of oohs and aahs for that one! Great show this year--best I have ever done!

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Hey Bob, my 4th of July was pretty good. Behind my house, there is a park, where tons of people light off fireworks every year. I live in Maryland, so most people only have ground based stuff, unless they go to pennsylvania. This year it was totally different though. There was barely any ground based, mostly aerials. People were lighting rockets of all sizes, which were reaching incredible heights. Then, towards the end of the night, someone lit these HUGE shells. i have no clue what they were, but just coming out of the tubes, there was a hugh 'lump'. They went so high, and when they broke, they looked like professional stuff. The reports were really loud, and made about 8 car alarms go off in my street. The only downside was I really didn't get to light anything, but i think if I was lighting stuff, I'd of missed the best ones. Hope your 4th was as good as mine was! Happy Independence Day!

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Here is some background info. before I tell what happened this 4th. I am 16 and live in NJ and usually go to my grandparents house for the 4th which is 15 minutes away. They have 3 acres and we never really have trouble with the neighbors/cops. This year my grandparents said they didn't want to get in trouble with the cops so they didn't haveÊa party. So here I was left with about $400 worth of fireworks and nowhere to go. I tried to sell as much as I could since I had bought about 12 gross of bottle rockets, tons of firecrackers, and lots of other stuff to sell but that didn't go too well since no one was really interested this year. 

I kept thinking the 4th was many weeks away so I didn't really think about anything or plan till the last minute then the 4th snuck up on me and I still had all these fireworks and had only sold about $20 worth. I planned on going to my friends house where I had gone last year during the day. Last year we just lit stuff off all day without any cops so I figured this would be my only shot to light stuff off. 

My 4th of July festivities started on the 3rd when I went to see the Red Bank fireworks which is the biggest show in the state and is shot from a barge on the river. My parents decided to take our boat to see them. As we were going towards where we were going to watch from, I could see this one house doing tons of nice shells and repeaters one after another, then I looked on the other side and saw a party my friend was at and there were tons of rockets and roman candles going off. I had only brought a few things onto the boat and didn't want to light much off since there were police boats everywhere. All I could manage was to light off a few M-90's and throw them into the water. We watched the fireworks which were pretty cool but I wasn't that excited since it's just not the same as lighting off your own stuff. 

Well, the big day came and I got up around 10 and called my friend. His mom said he was out on his wave runner so I just kept trying back and he kept going in and out. I ended up not getting a hold of him till around 230 when I was at my grandparents visiting my grandpa who had just returned from the hospital. I put a few fireworks in the trunk just in case. My cousin and my aunt were there and said how they would miss all my fireworks this year and how they had hoped I will do it next year. I told my little cousin I would get out something to light for him. I brought out a 10 ball roman candle and lit it for him, then we all left. I got back to my house and packed up a box and a backpack full of fireworks to bring to my friends house. I got dropped off and meanwhile, my friends mom was in the drivewayÊand it was pretty funny to see the look on her face when I came up the driveway carrying all those fireworks. I walked out back to find my friends family sitting in his backyard and my friend on his dock. I told him I brought "tons" of fireworks and he was pretty happy about that. We went into his room and put everything in his dresser and made a "fake stash" in case the cops came. That morning, his mom had given him a 36 pack of M-100 rockets to add to our collection. 

We went outside to find that his neighbors had been drinking since 9 am and once they got ahold of some roman candles they began shooting them at eachother and doing stupid things. My friend also gave them his M-100 rockets to play around with which was very annoying since they had a high pitch whistle. We just lit off a bunch of rockets and roman candles and some 48 shot color pearls while we were killing time. The town across the river from my friends house was to do a show at around 9:15 so we were waiting for that so we could light anything. To kill some time, we walked to the beach which took about 5 minutes. We walked around talking to people then came back. When we got back my friend said that we should go back to the beach to hang out with this girl and watch the fireworks then come back and light stuff off. I tried to put up a fight but he wouldn't listen. I managed to bargain with him and we lit of some of my double break shells and some repeaters before we left. When I was lighting my shells it was the best feeling ever. Before I lit them I would hear some firecrackers or bottle rockets being lit off then I just lit up the block with my shells and then it sounded like a warzone with everyone lighting off stuff. This great feeling was cut short and we then left. We went down to the beach and watched the fireworks from really close up which was actually pretty cool. Burning parts of the fireworks were coming down all over the place and hitting people and a large spinner-like thing came down and lit right near the ground which sprayed sparks all over people. After the show we hung out till like 10:30 at the beach and I convinced my friend to go back to his house. When we got back I brought out the rest of my Brothers Golden Goal double break shells which were pretty nice and we finished off all of those. We did a few of my dragon 8oz rockets also. At this time it was about 11:50 and my friends mom came out since she heard all of the shells and said we had to come in. We said to give us 10 more minutes and she agreed. I brought out my 100 shot magical barrage which was horrible.. We also did one of my single shot tubes which was a beautiful comet. We then did my 16 shot cruise missile which I figured would just be like a saturn missile but louder. This thing was pretty damn loud and had some pretty cool effects. My friends mom came out since she heard this and said no more. I had one more thing outside which was my 36 shot happy so we did that and then went in. We went through all of that when the neighborhood was silent and the cops never came. After all of this I decided to walk home which took about 15 minutes and to see if I could hear anything else going off. To my disappointment, everything was silent. 

This was a pretty good 4th of July, although it would have been 10 times better if we had not gone to the beach. I still have easily over $300 worth of stuff so I'm going to try and just keep a few nice items and sell the rest and start from scratch. Next year I am definately going to buy bigger items. I will probably spend around $500 but not have all the little crappy stuff that I will never have time to use. I will be buying some 500g's, large tube items, and definately an Excalibur. 

Pretty long story, hopefully I will have some exciting stories for next year. I hope everyone had an awesome 4th! 

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O.K., I went to buy my fireworks at a St. Charles fireworks stand, I know, the fireworks that are indoors are better, but these fireworks on an outdoor stand were cheaper, had better deals, and were on sale. So anyway, we (My mom, my cousin Jacob, and I) came home from buying the fireworks and waited until the sun "went down" to shoot off fireworks. So when it turned dark, and after we shot off about half the bag of fireworks, I had another pack of these "Flying Colour Butterfly Rockets" and (but my dad said that we have to shoot them off one at a time) Jake (short for Jacob) said that we should get some duct tape and tape the rockets together so they would fly and shoot off together and it would be like a grand finale. So we talked and I just kept asking him questions about how we were going to shoot them off without some of the rockets (these were not bottle rockets) shooting off too late or too soon and the rest of the rocket! s being left behind in the mean run and exploding in our faces, and he said "we'll light them all at once", then I said "O.K., let's do it!". So we lit them somewhat all at once and they lifted up a little, then they went down towards the fence were my cousin ran for safety and they (the fireworks) were lit and sparking and Jacob was kind of at an angle bending over and covering his head as if it were a tornado, and I said why don't you just run away from the fireworks, and he said "because I don't know which direction they are going to explode in!". So then my dad cam e out side and said "Jake, John!!!, come here I want to talk to you!). So we went inside and said "what" and my dad said what did I tell you? We said "to shoot one off at a time." And my dad said "and what did I hear out there?), we said "fireworks not being shot off one at at a time", and my dad said "if I hear it again, no more fireworks." 

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I've been a fireworks freak since I was a very small child ( I'm 59 )....most states I've lived in, fireworks have been illegal ( except N.M. )...but I some how always manage to have my display for the 4th. & New Years & every & any other excuse I can find...I'm going to check into the clubs you have listed...thanks... 

I was reading some of your various sites......I used to get fireworks catalogues in the early 50's from the back of comic books....they would show photos of rockets, candles, cones, crackers, ect. all laid out in a pattern...I would look & wish I lived in a state where I could order them.... 

I read your page on M80's & Cherry Bombs.......IÊwent through Êhundreds of them as a kid...used to get them in Georgia as we drove up the east coast from Florida.....I never heard them called M80's as a kid,...we called them & they were sold as Salutes....looked like a silver M80...I'd buy both Cherry Bombs & Salutes in boxes that contained 72 pieces packed in sawdust..another favorite of mine which I haven't heard mentioned in years, were Bingle Bombs....looked like a silver Cherry Bomb with out the fuse....they went off on contact with any hard surface....they were sold like the Salutes & Cherry Bombs, but didn't seem as powerful.... 

My great grandfather owned the oldest pharmacy in New York state ( it's now in a museum village )....my grandfather told me that one Fourth his father (my great grandfather) made a 3' high "firecracker" out of wood...painted it red, used a piece of rope as a fuse & put it in his pharmacy window ( pharmacies in those days sold all sorts of things, like those of today,Êincluding fireworks ) He got so tired of so many people come in wanting to buy the thing, thatÊhe finallyÊtook it out of the window &Êsaid it had sold...just a bit ofÊfireworks triviaÊfrom the 19th. century.... 

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*My fourth of july was one of my best yet. I have had many many memorable times on the fourth since I was a child and this year was no exception. About a month a ago our craving for fireworks began (well actually no since I had been waiting in anticipation all year!!) so we took a trip to the closest Phantom showroom to us. They have such an awesome collection as many of you know and almost all of the items we picked out were great. So we get there and i pull out the list i had been compiling from the website, grinning in anticipation (he-he). Of course as soon as we get there my friend (who is a bigger pyro than me if you believe it) goes rite to the #900 tubes and says "oh we are getting these!!!" haha I hadnt really considered them before but when i saw them i was like damn.. so of course we got those at the end... but before that we went around picking up stuff from my list... some of the ones i was anticipating getting from the descriptions i had seen on the site were Apache Firedance (longest lasting fountain they make) Barbarian Blast (nice 25 shot repeater) Raptor, Enduring Freedom Fountains, 90 shot gatling cannon, NY harbor show fountains, 61 shot whistle whirl comets, Grucci High performance display 500 gram cakes... for mortars i was going to go with the Phantomizer triple pack but then i saw that they had some Goliath mortar packs (made by World-Class Fireworks) that looked much more impressive, so we got those and some cherry bomb mortar packs too. we also got a couple 300 shot Crackling missile bases that looked nice. We got a bunch more other medium large stuff, including a couple Bada Bing Bada Boom 500 gram cakes, War Birds 7 shot (looked really heavy duty with the wooden base), some Grucci #200 and #300 tubes, many others. Then we got into the smaller stuff... some crackling Wolf Pack candles, American Military candles, Wolf Pack firecrackers (couple bricks and a copule larger mats), ground blooms, jumping jacks, couple diff kinds of bottle rockets (including Wolf Pack jumbo bottle rockets and 3 stage whistling bottle rockets) Im not too into the bigger rockets as i think that mortars do a better job are more reliable and theres not a big stick coming down at you. Anyway yeah lots more smaller stuff and sparklers for the kids, some pinwheels and some assortments for other people and to sell. We also came on the last day of Phantoms 2 for 1 sale, so we got double everything and free assortments and other stuff with our considerably large order. We loaded up everything in boxes and stuck em in the car (barely) for the trip home, felling great about all the great stuff we got, but also feeling the tension of having to wait a month to set em off.... hehe Anyway of course we had to try some stuff out.. Something i liked from early on was the Warhead Launcher, a little pointed canister you stick to a nail in a piece of wood and it twirls real fast and launches off screaming like a bat out of hell, ending with a good report with a little color. These things were little powerhouses. of course we tried out all the little stuff, firecrackers rockets etc etc... we really liked the jumbo wolf pack bottle rockets they are powerfull, I will get more next year. Some of the Phantom ground blooms we got were not really that great, many not even spinning. Anyway when the fourth rolled around I was ready. We had a good spot, same one I used last year except I had much more studf this year. We planned out 3 launch sites so 3 of us could keep the show going constantly. Nothing fancy, just went ahead and screwed the mortar tubes from all the kits to boards and had fire extinguishers by each site, in a triangle in this large court. All of the neighbors loved what we did last year, so we couldnt wait to blow em away this time. We started out small, lighting tons of firecrackers to wake everyone up and all the planes and jumping jacks and stuff, smaller fountains. Then my buddy put a shell up and really got everyones attention. So we started in with everything else and it quickly became a war zone. Not only that, but it seemed as soon as we got started everyone else in the surrounding neighborhood went bananas! There were never this many fireworks before this year! Every piece of the sky was covered, and MANY loud bombs could be heard all over the place, like larger display shells and blockbusters. So we kept it up, moving on to bigger and bigger stuff. I loved the Goliath mortar kit, great shells. The cherry bomb one was great too. Most of the cakes were great too, loved the War Birds, Raptor, 300 shot crackling missile base (wow, this one just started shooting the shots off fast as hell like a machine gun, I am getting tons next year), whistle whirl comets were awesome, barbarian blast, etc etc. I also loved the Grucci ny harbor show fountain, really good and long lasting, Enduring freedom fountain, awesome, and the Grucci High performance display cake was amazing, nice bright colors, well worth it. In fact all of the grucci stuff was probably the best, the standalone tubes were awesome too. The Beyond 2000 #900 tube was siiick, really powerful. Anyway, the show lasted a good 2 hours, but it all seemed to go too quickly hehe. Lucky for me, on the 17th we are having another huge backyard party and I saved a nice lot of stuff to shoot off for that. hehe See you next year!!!!

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Well heres my story for 2004 people. I started researching my buys this year in early may..to get a good idea of what I wanted to buy. I made a trip to the Indian Reservation to see what was avail this year as well..bought some water dynamite and moon travelers to get me by until the real season got under way. While I was in Whistler on vacation I was lucky enough to bring a computer and did rersearch. One of my online fireworks aquaintences directed me to the www.pyrouniverse.com forums. I learned from there what the hot items of 2004 were. Within a few days of me comming home I started my Shopping at the Reservations. I ended up spending over $500 this year. My purchases included 3 nice assortments (one had all black cat and the other had a mix of Cannon brand,Shogun,and a few Brothers Items,and the other was a smaller assortment of all Grizzly items,it had all the #500 tubes,and some nice cakes and 3 gross of bottle rockets..one whistling the others regular). My other pur! chases were an Excaliber kit(best shell kit I have ever had BY FAR) one pro mag kit and one 3rd generation kit. I also purchased 3 500g cakes. The 500g's were Blonde Joke by Brothers,Megatron 1 by black cat and then RoboShot by Brothers. I HIGHLY reccomend Roboshot..although its only 15 shots its REALLY nice and all of the shots are large..it was GREAT. Blonde joke was so so and Megatron was a steal at $25(good for a 500g cake non wholesale in WA) and it performed great. I also purchased a n1000 noisy salute shell,some crackers,roman candles, a box of 6 sammy shot mini tubes,and a rocket assortment. OK enough of the boring stuff. My 4th started very lazily. I woke up at 1 pm(had a long night of drinking the night before) and almost immediatly got a call from a friend..his little bro wanted to go and shoot off some fireworks and he wanted to know if I could supply the fireworks. Im not a greedy guy so I had no problem. I grabbed a few items really fast, a box of 6 crackling ! dragon artilery shells,2 packs of dixi whistler bottle rockets,a 100 string of venom titanium fire crackers and a sammy shot mini salute tube. I put them in my car waited for them to arrive and we were off. I took them to my usual "hidden"(im in a safe and sane county..has to be hidden lol) firework spots. We got there did the 5 minute hike and we were there. Well evidently in the 7 months since I had been there they had cut all the trees down,taken all the sand out and started to build a housing developement there(this sucks..it was a good fireworks setting off spot not to mention a good chill spot..just for well..chilling out). LUCKILY we caught it in the early stages so although the trees were gone it was still all dirt..but since the trees were gone and the neighborhood was visible I was a bit nervous (since about 1/2 of my stash was in the trunk of my car and if we got in trouble with the cops and they searched my car..well you get the idea) but I was like..what the hec! k I'll keep a lookout and call my friends cellphone if the cops come..and I have nothing on me so I should be ok..for all they know I was jst supervising. They set the shells off..they were loud..and the crackling was loud and in tact as well. The crackers were nice..and the sammy shot was loud as usual..dunno how they keep making it through customs. Then we left and I went back home. My friend Phil was ready to go. My brother and his friend Zeke came and we louded up my moms suv(couldn't fit it all in my Integra) and we were off. We drove to fox island(un incorperated pierce county..on the edge of kitsap county) and got set up. My bro and his friend zeke went and picked up some Heineken for me and Budweiser and Bud light for them. My friend and I set off small shells,crackers,rockets,bottle rockets,etc untill the tide came in so far that we left. Then my bro got back,we moved the stuff to a better area of the beach,and we just set off some more items and drank untill it got! 
dark. The n1000 noisy salute shell was LOUD..loudest item I have ever set off. Someone across the water from us about 1000 feet away set off a 2 inch home made ground salute and I felt it from there..it was AWESOME. Night came and I started setting off excalibers...they were greart and got the attention of my competition. As it got darker I set off my #500 and #200 and #5 tubes..also great..LOUD lifts. I set off my 500g cakes..very nice. My Roboshot 500g got a VERY good responce. I was pretty knackered from the beer and decided that I better not set anymore fireworks off. We left with part of the pro mag,the 3rd generation,1 and a half of the assortments(i set off most of the grizzly one) and most everything else. I set off all the excalibers,500g cakes,400shot grizzly missle battery(I highly reccomend this item) and a few other things. It was a good 4th. Only thing I will do different next year is change my location to a different beach,buy more 500g cakes,invest in some r! acks,learn to fuse and maybe buy whole sale a bit next year(I learned of a good firework store open year round here in WA..dunno if they do whole sale..otherwise I will have to venture over to Wyoming or Montana). Thats about it folks. Hope you all had a great 4th. 

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Hello, I am 14 years old and live in Illinois right near the Indiana border. Now as some may know the state of Illinois only permits the sale of “safe and sane” fireworks. This is why I love living so close to Indiana. Me and my friend had been saving money for awhile, combined we had about $1000 to spend on fireworks. On June 5th, the day after we graduated, my mother drove us over to the Phantom Fireworks in Merrilville, Indiana. Here is what we bought (including buy one get of f! ree and other deals): 

-Grucci’s Mineshell Mayhem 500 gram repeater 

-Golden Pyro Fusion 500 gram repeater

-Pyrotechnic Motherlode 500 gram repeater 

-Pyro Pulverizer 500 gram repeater

-Black Cat’s rack of 12 angled tubes

-Starr Factory’s rack of 8 #200 tubes

-Black Cat’s 3rd generation double break shells mortar kit 

-Grucci’s New York Harbor Show mortar kit 

-Wolf Pack’s Radical Recoil mortar kit

-Aerial Rampage mortar kit

-Colossus mortar kit

- Two Mighty Mites mortar kits

-Grucci’s #500 silver crackling palm tube 

-Green glitter with crackles #500 tube

-New Yorker assortment

-Grand Finale assortment

And then we quickly stopped by another store just to look around, but all I purchased there was a box of parachutes, and the 25 shot Wild West cake by Brothers Pyrotechnics. It all costed about $600. 

After 3 long weeks of admiring my stash, I decided I wasn’t pleased, and wanted more. I was in luck because my friend‘s sister had just turned 18 (the legal age to buy fireworks in IN), and was dating a guy that lived just blocks away from several firework stores. We tagged along one day when she was going to visit him. First we stopped by Shelton Fireworks and bought: 

-G-man Mobster Killer 140 shot Roman candle 
-A gross of moon traveler bottle rockets 
-One 70 shot “Granddad Fireworks display” canister 
- Martian Rampage #400 tube
-Blue Explosion #400 tube
-One display shell rocket
-A pack of assorted effect bottle rockets 
-A brick of whistling jacks
-One box of crackling balls
-A pack of whistling chasers

That all came out to about $80. We then drove to the nearest Phantom Fireworks and bought: 

-Untamed Retribution 500 gram repeater
-Crown Brocade Classic 500 gram repeater 
-Grucci's Park Avenue Peony Brocade #300 tube 
-Grucci's Rockefeller Gold Glitter Crosette #300 tube 
-2 packs of Thunderdome rockets
-2 packs of Moonbeam Missles
-2 packs of warhead launchers
-2 packs of two stage outer space jets
-2 packs of glittering pearl roman candles 
-A half brick of firecrackers
-A gross of whistling bottle rockets

Total for all the fireworks we had purchased for this year was around $840. 

Plus I already had the following left over from other events through out the year (heh sorry about all the listing): 

-A pack of Black Cat’s kaleidoscope candles 
-Two 5 break 'flying things' shells from Shelton 
-5 Single break Mississippi Gambler brand mortar shells 
-Screeching Terrordactyl rockets
- Frenzy rockets
-Cyber Surge rockets
-1 box of hydro-crackers
-1 Grucci Times Square silver-green wave #200 tube 
-Some assorted roman candles
-Pyroglyphics 16 shot repeater Ê

This was the most I had ever spent on the 4th (last year I only spent $350), and I was pretty excited. 

Now came my favorite part, the time period between when I get all my fireworks and the 4th when I modify all my crappy fireworks into something better, or just more interesting. I’m not going to go into any detail because modifying fireworks can often be dangerous and unpredictable. But I will say my parachutes were now launching flash salutes, as well as the shells from my Festival Balls mortar kit. About 75% of my roman candles were fused together with visco fuse. Flash powder had been added to the payloads of my 8 oz. rockets. My jumbo whistling rockets and whistling chasers were now large salutes, and so on. Now with everything ready for the 4th, I boxed up my stash and waited. 

July 3rd came, and fireworks were going off everywhere. Everyone was testing stuff out and getting ready for the 4th. There were so many mortars going off in the distance that it sounded like a thunder storm. I decided I would light some of my stuff as well. I grabbed some rockets, small repeaters, roman candles, and a shell from each of my mortar kits. I lit most of it off, and was about to light a pack of firecrackers when I saw a car turn on to my street. The first thing I noticed was the distinctive black and white colors of the car. I scrambled to hide the mortar tubes as my friend ran into my house with some roman candles and rockets. The car paused in front of my house and the officer inside began to talk. He asked if I was done for the night, I of course said yes (no officer, I’m going to continue lighting my illegal fireworks!). He then went on to inform me that ! fireworks are illegal in the state of Illinois (as if I didn’t know). Then he said they had gotten some complaints, and I need to stop. It was funny because as he was talking to me I could see huge class B mortars going off in the distance behind his car. I was angry, I mean come on EVERYONE was lighting stuff. But oh well, he didn’t take anything. But he did leave me paranoid, and afraid to light my fireworks the next day. 

After a good night sleep it was finally the 4th! I just sat around and watched TV until about 7 PM when my friend came over. We lit the small amount of daytime stuff we had, which included a gross of bottle rockets, a gross of whistling bottle rockets, a box of crackling balls, some salute launching roman candles (LOUD), some screeching rockets, some home-made salutes, and a whole brick of firecrackers fused together. It was only about 8:45 when we got done with that, not dark enough to start lighting the night time stuff. Not wanting to just sit around, I used my head and came to the conclusion that smoke bomb + capped 2 liter bottle = BOOM. We had some fun with that until it got dark enough to do some of the smaller night time stuff. I brought out some rockets, airplane-like devices, roman candles, and fountains. As it started to get darker I gradually moved into the bigger ! stuff like my mini mortar kit, small repeaters, and medium sized repeaters. We had timed it so we would start lighting mortars around the same time my town started its fireworks show, so that all the police would be up there, and not watching for illegal fireworks. First we lit all the Radical Recoil shells, then we did a single shot tube. Next we did all the shells from the Colossus kit, then another single shot tube. Then we did the Aerial Rampage shells, then again a single shot tube (see the pattern J). After that we brought out the Black Cat 3rd generation kit, and lit those, followed by another tube. Next came Grucci’s New York Harbor Show kit, which was just amazing. ! The effects were fantastic, and unique. Then we lit the other tube, and moved on to the 500 grams. I liked all my 500 grams, but if I had to put them in order 1-6 (best-worst) it would probably go something like this: 

1. Crown Brocade Classic
2. Pyro Pulverizer
3. Golden Pyro Fusion
4. Pyrotechnic Motherlode
5. Untamed Retribution
6. Mineshell Mayhem

It was hard to choose 2-6 but Crown Brocade Classic was most defiantly my favorite. Our finale sucked horribly. I lit Black Cats rack of 12, and Starr Factory’s rack of 8 at the same time. The fuse on them burns so darn slow. There was like 5 seconds between the shots, which made for a horrible finale since finales are usually rapid fire. I wish I would have done one of the 500 grams as a finale. Only after we were done lighting everything did I noticed I had an audience. A bunch of family’s on my street were sitting in there driveways with lawn chairs. There were people standing at the end of my street that I didn’t even know watching. There was a car parked on the side of the road with people in it watching. People were sitting on swings at the park down the street from my house watching. A bunch of people cheered when it was over. I had no idea that many people were watching me. I’m g! lad too, because if I had known other people were watching I would have been too busy trying to entertain them, and not enjoying the fireworks myself (like last year L I don’t even remember anything I lit last year). 

Well I was hot and sweaty after running back and fourth lighting all those shells, so I went for a swim. After about 10 minutes of floating I realized my pool was littered with thousands of pieces of torn cardboard and plastic nose-cones. It was pretty funny. I then got my brother to drive me and my friend to white castle. It was great; I could see so many fireworks going off on the drive there. After a 45 minute wait for our crave case (that place is damn crowded, only place opened 24/7), we drove home, stopping at a friends house on the way back because we saw fireworks coming from his house. All his stuff sucked though, a few missile batteries, and 48 shot colored pearls. So we left there. After eating I fell asleep watching the Twilight Zone marathon. 

The next morning I woke up bright and early to clean up all my garbage. I got everything except for some small pieces of paper and plastic (oh well it’s my yard anyways). That’s my least favorite part, cleaning up the day after. Not the labor I care about, It’s the fact that there’s another 365 days until next 4th L. I saved the tubes from the 500 grams to make rockets and salutes for new years out of (those things are thick!). I broke apart the rack of 12 in a fit of rage. Damn thing, ruin my finale will you! Then I went back inside and watched some more twilight zone J. 

The weekend after the 4th the owner of the Phantom Fireworks in Burns Harbor, Indiana was supposed to be putting on a show at my aunt’s house, because his father in-law is friends with my aunt and her yard is perfect for putting on a show (out in the country, big field). Unfortunately, his father in-law had a mortar tip over and hit him in the face on the 4th, and was in the hospital. The show was canceled. Man, I was looking forward to that too. Not only was I going to watch the show, but I was going to stop to buy some fireworks on the way there too, because there is a Phantom in my aunt’s town. Well we’ll seem maybe they will just reschedule the show. 

Well the 4th is over now, and now all I have to look forward to is my New Years show. I plan on buying some of those 500 gram rapid-fire Z-style cakes, some other 500 grams, some 61 shot rapid-fire repeaters, and some 300 shot missile batteries and fusing them all together. I also plan on buying two 20 shot HDPE mortar racks and filling them with shells from the New York Harbor Show kit, since it was most definitely the best kit I had this 4th. But that’s still 6 months away L. 

Only 360 days until next 4th!ÊÊÊ

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Along with some other items we had left over and that we purchased, we had a great show.

Winners...Brocade Bash, DS-2 Color Shells, Super Crackling Rainbow, Quad shells, and the Celebration Roll were all favorites. Brothers' repeaters were great,too---Desert Fox, Warring States were awesome. The Celebration Roll really got people fired up.

3 years running Emerald City has rocked people---it was louder than Flowering Thunder and the breaks were a little more colorful than the last two years. It remains a favorite. 

We had some Samurai Hunters from last year and had forgotten how good they were.

Also...Phantom had a rocket called Blue Wave. It had a much better report than last time we shot it (2 years ago) and still had really cool silver/blue fish in the break. 

We had lots of fun. I found the easiest way to make mortar racks is to simply take plugged tubes, set them in buckets or trays and fill the bucket with sand. You can get any angles you want, and they are very sturdy. Today we will just pull the tubes out, put them in a box and pour the sand back into the sandbox. No clumsy rack to deal with.

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As sunset approached, so did a rainstorm. This was a problem: Should I set up my show -- and risk getting caught in a downpour -- or wait until the last minute? I chose the latter course, and ended up regretting it. As we hastily set up (on the private school soccer field), it began to drizzle and turned dark quickly. The safety fuses I'd used for the rocket racks got wet, so when we tried to light those off, it was a fizzle. I was getting frustrated.

Then the school principal, who lives nearby, showed up and started shooting off his stuff from the nearby parking lot. He had a $20 propane torch he lent us -- I am DEFINITELY buying those for future shows. With the torch, we managed to light off nearly all our remaining rockets, as well as the repeaters which had fizzled due to wet fuses. With a propane torch, a wet fuse is no obstacle.

Then, after the show, we joined the principal in the parking lot and blasted off a half-dozen Festival Balls out of his tube. Then we tried one of my Dirty Dozen canister rounds. It was a tight fit, and I warned him against it, but he managed to squeeze it down the tube and -- WHOOM! BOOM! -- the shell fired just fine, but it blew his tube apart. 

Afterwards, we gathered back at my house and I remembered the Roman candle rack that I had prepared for the show but, in my last-minute haste, had left behind. So we set that up and had one last little show. 

All in all, it was a little bit of a disappointment, but not too bad. Because of wet fuses on the rocket racks and three of our four repeaters, we weren't able to do the rapid-fire finale sequence I had planned. But thanks to the principal and his propane torch, we eventually got nearly everything fired -- and the crowd (about 20 or so, total) really enjoyed it all. So, despite some bummers, it turned out all right. 

----------
Products Review
Based on my 4th of July 2004 show

RATING SYSTEM
* 1 STAR -- A poor excuse for a firework and a bad investment. Recommend AGAINST purchasing.
** 2 STAR -- Not bad, but not all that good either. Maybe buy one and see if 

you like it, but don't get your hopes up. *** 3 STAR -- Nice stuff -- good bang for the buck. Recommend purchasing. **** 4 STAR -- Pyro-gasm. Awesome unbelievable effect. Take out a second mortgage to buy some.

SATURN 22 rocket (Phantom $15.99 per pack of 4) -- Disappointing. This rocket looks big, and the Phantom catalog makes it sound awesome, but the burst is not really big or fancy. What this rocket does is no more impressive than the Westlake 16 oz. Jumbo B (see below) which is waaay cheaper. So, in terms of bang-for-the-buck, the Saturn 22 is a loser. I will 

not buy them again. (* 1 STAR)

WESTLAKE 16 OZ. JUMBO B rocket (Phantom $9.99 per dozen) -- This is a really great value, especially because we bought them at a "buy-one-get-one-free" discount, meaning we got 24 rockets for 10 bucks. These rockets come in 4 colors, with a seasons-of-the-year theme. They zoom up high and give a nice little break of color stars with report. I recommend 

them on the basis of the great price. If you are doing a sizeable show where 

you want to have a lot of rockets going up, the Jumbo B's are an excellent way to add a lot of big rockets cheaply. (*** 3 STAR) 

POWERDOME Rockets (Phantom $15.99 per pack of 4) -- Sweeeet. This is basically a mortar shell on top of a 12-oz. rocket. It goes really high and breaks into a ring of color pearls. Comes in an assortment of 4 colors. This was the highest-flying rocket I shot tonight. I plan to buy more for my 

next show. The only drawback is the price -- on a price-per-bang basis, the Powerdomes are more expensive than most mortar kits. But if you are like me and like to mix rockets and mortars, the Powerdome is one big rocket you definitely want to have. (*** 3 STAR)

FESTIVAL BALLS (Phantom $14.99 for 6 shells & mortar tube) -- I just can't get over how nice these little mortars are. I have praised Festival Balls in a previous note based on our July 3 test-firing, and can only praise them more after our 4th of July show. Real crowd-pleasers -- nothing fancy, no "palm trees" or other special effects, just your basic floral bursts. Festival Balls solves a problem that I've confronted, and which many others may have experienced, too: Lots of shells, but not enough tubes to launch them rapidly. You buy a mortar kit with 8 or 12 shells, maybe pay $20, and you only get one tube. So the show slows down while you pause after each shot before reloading. Enter the Festival Balls -- 1 tube with each 6 shells. Buying 4 kits on a "buy-one-get-one-free" special, our cost-per-shell was $1.25. Cheap! (By comparison, if you bought the $149.99 Phantomizer on the "buy-one-get-one-free" plan, you paid $2.34 per shell and got about 1 tube for every 10 shells.) So in terms of both cost-per-shell and tube/shell ratio, Festival Balls is really helpful. Will definitely be buying more of these little babies. (*** 3 STAR) 

BLACK CAT ROMAN CANDLES (Assorted, price and vendor unknown) -- I think I bought these in Tennessee sometime in the past year, probably at Fireworks Supermarket. A good reminder of why Black Cat is the most famous name in fireworks. The 10-shot Spitfire Candle gives big, high-flying crackling bursts. The 10-shot Rainbow Repeater was nice, but not too impressive. Best of all was the 8-shot Mystical Candle, which was absolutely the wildest Roman candle I've ever seen -- twirling white bursts with a loud whistling effect. As I recall, these came in a pack of 5, and I guess these were just the three I had left over. But they were on a rack with two Yiu Lang Candles, which were totally lame by comparison. The Black Cats are the best. I don't know if the different types can be purchased separately, but if you get a chance to buy the Mystical Candle, by itself or in an assortment, it's definitely worth the price. Next year, I'm planning more Roman candle racks, and will insist on the Black Cats. (*** 3 STAR) 

RED, WHITE & BOOM, 16-shot repeater (Phantom, $13.99)-- OK, I guess, but not spectacular. Red, white and blue pops, with some glitter and crackle. (** 2 STAR)

BATTLEFIELD BARRAGE, 36-shot repeater (Phantom, $19.99) -- Really cool. This item has lots of action - reports, crackles, colors, whistles. The crowd really liked it. (*** 3 STAR)

----- FOUNTAINS -------

During my 4th of July show, I used 3 different fountains. Small, cheap things, but they really came in handy to fill the "dead air" when we were trying to light our wet fuses in the rain. 

MOONDANCE (Phantom, 2 for $2.99) -- Very nice. About 40 seconds of burntime with a nice sequence of effects, beginning with purple and gold sparks, then 

a nice snap-crackle-pop. Serious pyros might not be impressed, but on the bang-for-a-buck scale, it's a cheap way to amuse the children. I recommend it and would buy it again. (** 3 STARS)

ZOMBIES (TNT, 2 for $2.49) -- This is apparently a close-out item, no longer 

listed on the TNT web site. I bought 2 of these in the local grocery store a 

couple weeks ago on a whim and have to say it wasn't bad. Lots of little effects. Not bad. If you are in a "safe and sane" state and you see some of these half-price on after-4th-of-July clearance, grab 'em. (** 2 STARS) 

FOUNTAIN CANDLE (Phantom, price unknown) -- When I bought a large quantity at Phantom, the lady at the register stuck a 2-pack of these in my box for free. As freebies, of course, the bang/buck ratio is infinity, so I ain't complaining. You get a white-yellow fiery shower of sparks that lulls you into a false security before it starts into a very loud pop-crackle effect. A good freebie. (** 2 STARS)

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This year for the 4th, I had the opportunity to help with a fireworks show that had both consumer (1.4g) and display fireworks (1.3g). 

The firing zone was on one side of a pond. The audience was on the other side. The left side of the firing zone was for the mortars and cakes, while the right side was for ground displays. The show was being fired electrically from two firing panels, one on left for the aerials and one on the right for the ground displays. I got to fire the ground displays. 

We spent all of the day up to a few minutes before show time setting up. We set up the 3" display mortars and the consumer mortars and staked them down. We took all the 3" shells and salutes and added ematches and wires. They were lowered carefully into the mortars. Later we hooked up with shooting wires to mortars. The shooting wires were attached to the slats which were attached to the firing panel. Nearly 160 cues where used to fire all the aerials. We also had some 1.3g cakes. 

For the ground displays we constructed a home-made vertical wheel on an eight foot pole. The pole also had a fan shaped spread of four California Candles. There were two horizontal wheels that sat on the ground and spun. All three wheels were made out of bicycle wheels. There was also some Critical Acclaim mines, a twenty foot wall of Silvery cones (ematched together) and a cross-rack of roman candles, ematched together. We also had three boards on saw horses, each about 15 feet apart from each other. They were filled with various consumer fountains, cones and Twitter Glitters. Each board was fused together to burn sequentially for about two minutes. Some of the cones on the left and right boards were angled, so the spray would meet in the middle. These boards were used as part of the finale.

We also had a Professional waterfall. It consisted of many 1.3g fountains that point down and are attached to a wire and quick matched together. We attached this about 15 feet up in a tree near the water in the corner of the pond. We then stretched it across the corner of the pond to another tree an attached it there about 15 feet up. 

All during the day, we periodically hand fired 3" announcement salutes and as it got a bit dimmer, 3" shells. This was the first time I had ever fired professional shells and it was quite exciting and fun to fire those. It was the one of the high points of the show for me. You would have a piece of visco attached to the quick match and then carefully lower the shell or salute into the mortar making sure you had no body parts over it. Then you carefully lit the visco fuse making sure no sparks got on the quick match. They you ran very quickly a safe distance away. The mortar would fire and you could see the salute or shell fly up. Then you hoped it would explode while it was up in the air. They all worked correctly. The explosion and flash was awesome. We could hear people on the other side of the pond yelling to do some more. We even crazy chained some together, putting the fuse of one shell, into the mortar that would fire before it. This gave us a quick sequence of several shells. 

We started the show with by firing the Critical Acclaim mines two at a time. Those were great, shooting spray up and comets 100 feet or more. Then we fired some spectacular 3" aerial shells. We continued alternating between a ground display and then shells or cakes. 

The wall of Silvery cones was impressive. The started out low, but built up to about 20 feet high. The cones were right next to each so, this made the spray go higher than normal. Everyone liked the water fall. The spray went down into the water. But it was also reflected off the pond, so it looked much larger to the audience. The horizontal spinning wheels took everyone by surprise. The had some tubes and Silvery cones on them so they were spraying in a circular fashion in about a 30 foot diameter circle. The vertical wheel was powered by ground blooms. One of them exploded shortly after it ignited, There was a loud boom and a quick spray of sparks which was a surprise and delight to the audience. The vertical wheel lasted for over 90 seconds and it send spray and crackle more than 15 feet in all directions. The show ended with the three boards of fountains and cones and then a barrage of aerial shells. It lasted about 1/2 hour.

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Our 4th of July followed our usual style. I shoot a "show" for my family and friends at my wife's family lake cabin about 45 minutes north of where I live and end up entertaining LOTS of neighbors at the lake too. In South Dakota where I live, you are only able to purchase fireworks from in-state vendors, during June 27th through July 5th, but people from out of state can buy From May 1st through Aug 31st, and we can buy from out-of-state dealers all year. Weird, I know. So I don't have the opportunity to buy too early, but on the advice of Bob Weaver I decided to purchase from Victory Fireworks in Wisconsin, wholesale for the first time ever. A GREAT idea that will be repeated again and again! Great product and great prices Ð especially wholesale. Sure I ordered by the case and had lots of each item, but if stored properly, I will have some items to use for the next year (or two) as well. Which, the thought of having half of a case of One Bad Mother, Super Crackling Rainbow, and Coconut Tree is already getting me excited for the next 4th. I made a trip out to Wisconsin in mid June to pick up my stash and to hit a Phantom Fireworks store for the first time ever. The Phantom store was in Hammond, Wisconsin. I got the last pack of Thunderstick rockets (nice report) and Flashing Thunder roman candles (they remind me of the good Firing Squad reports of old), yes!!! Too bad they were the last ones there. I also had a Buy One Get One Free coupon that really helped. I got 4 Emerald City (good for a little cake), 2 Red White and Boom (not all that impressed Ð maybe expecting a little more), 2 #500 Red Round Dahlia (good and big), 2 #500 Blue Wave/ Silver Peony (excellent), and 2 #200 Manhattan Crown Brocade (very pretty). I also got 2 Blue Ringed Willows (loud and big breaks), 2 Mineshell Mayhem (very nice mine assortment in a 16 shot cake) and some salutes (red and silver, but disappointed as the lady working there told me they were NICE). As far as Victory goes, I got the followingÉ 1. Daggerfall Ð (case) a nice gold fish cake with blue stars, but they have begun to make better fish cakes and so I won't get anymore, but they are still nice items. 2. Red Razzle Ð (case) a very cool red-tipped all comet item, very cool to do in multiples, they just fill the sky with intense red comets Ð quiet, except for the lift charge. 3. Super Stallion Ð (Ï case) always a big performer, especially for the size, great to use in finales or in multiples to fill the sky with color and noise. Again impressed with the break sound as well. 4. Super Crackling Rainbow Ð (case) Ð like Super Stallion, but crackling or almost sizzling on the way up, and if possible louder breaks than Super Stallion. Longer in duration due to 25 shot to Super Stallions 16 shot. Like a Super Stallion on steroids Ð and I thought it would be hard to improve on a Super Stallion 5. Coconut Tree Ð (case) Ð Wow, loud and nice BRIGHT breaks that are between a crosette and a palm tree break, they don't droop, but blast out from the center. Too bad they aren't longer in duration. 6. One Bad Mother Ð (case) - Awesome! HUGE gold willows that actually hang in the sky for a few seconds and shimmer on the way down and alternate with BIG breaks of popcorn crackle. Every shot got an audible "WOW" from the audience, and the finale of four simultaneous willow breaks got a huge reaction from the audience. 7. Major Riot, Powder Buster, and Fire Fiend Ð (1/2 case of MR, and full case of the other two) these all went off at the same time, but they all looked to be good performers with big artillery shell breaks of color, hard to tell apart, but BIG breaks and VERY colorful. 8. Shotgun Wedding Ð (case) Very intense. Volleys of six at a time, whistling on the way up to either six simultaneous breaks of palm trees and chrysanthemums with a few spinners in there too or six simultaneous breaks that break dark, but open into HUGE, bursts of popcorn crackle!! Also got huge "WOW's" from the crowd, but 3 fused to go off at the same time, quite literally filled the sky and made an amazing mini-finale. All in all, I will definitely buy from Victory again. 
I also drove to all of the local stands and some of the not so local ones to try to find other items that I wanted to fill in my show with. Some of them I'll list hereÉ 1. Time Trap Ð Dazzling "Z" cake of crackling gold mines that fan back and forth slowly, with an intense barrage at the end. AMAZING!!! Get these!!! 2. Waterfall Fantasy Ð some retailers had this for up to $75-80, but I got one for $30. A very cool and slow-paced cake with entire fans of mines going off at the same time. Very bright and intense. Another great item. 3. Storm Cadence Ð Shogun brand Ð baby Time Trap is how I would describe it Ð Hard to believe that all that came out of a little 200 gram cake. 4. A Little Green Ð like last year Ð LOUD green tipped gold 'mums. 5. Sunflower Ð Black Cat Ð Nice item, well named. Big gold dahlia breaks, but outclassed by some of the other 500 gram items now being made 6. America Rising Quad Shells Ð Big breaks amazing colors Ð purple, yellow, and blue Ð wow! Hard to believe how good they were!!! 7. American Power Ð great item, triple breaks of red, then white, then blue. Very hard to believe that good triple breaks came out of this one, and long lasting too. 
My usual setup is to during the morning of the 4th, set up all the items and plan out a show, and then Elmer's glue them all down on to plywood in the order I want and then fuse them all together with visco and quickmatch. I didn't glue down the 500 gram cakes or even put them on plywood, they were all wide enough to support themselves, but might like to for safety or peace of mind. It makes for a great show and you don't have to light each item one by one, but you also don't have to spend money on electrical firing. I just connect the fuses with clear packing tape, making sure the fuses wrap around each other, and it almost always works out. Not to mention cheap and easy to get at the store. The only time I had a halt in my show was when an item blew up on the ground and knocked the fuse out of the packing tape, but that was the only thing. The only drawback is you get some items too far apart, but next year I will not space things out so much and go for a little overlap rather then dead air. But all in all it was a good show, with a finale of 30+ art shells ended with 6 salutes. This was the first year I used music too, I didn't time anything to music, but I did make a CD of patriotic songs and/or songs that can get the crowd going. I used Lee Greenwood Ð Proud to Be An American, AC/DC Ð Thunderstruck, For Those About To Rock, and some songs off the Rocky Story CD Ð like Living in America by James Brown and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. I also used GNR Welcome to The Jungle and Firestarter by Prodigy. It worked out well and I was surprised how many people complimented me on the music and even had a few say they got chocked up or emotional during Lee Greenwood. It went well and I will do it again. Changes I will make to the show next year are trying to get items to overlap a little rather than space them apart (inadvertently), and I will also try to use better visco, but I was low this year and had to use some from a local stand instead of from a pyro supply dealer. Bad mistake, plus costs a lot more. I will also keep buying Bob Weavers DVDs and other materials as a few dollars spent on the DVDs and Buyers Guide made me a smart shopper, even on items that were new this year. It is hard to get burned with a recommendation from Bob. I also will again next year plan out the show on paper and do as much prep and setup before the 4th to enjoy the day, and not spend it hunched over plywood and fuse. If you know the order before the show, you can fuse things prior, but like I said in South Dakota, we can only buy from local retailers about a week before the 4th. I will also buy wholesale again, as you triple and almost quadruple the amount of stuff you can buy for the same price, and driving to pick it up saves even more $. Another first this year was taping the show on our camcorder and tripod. Tripod is a must as it will look like a bad "Blair Witch" movie and frustrate anyone watching it on tape. My mistake this year was to not put the tripod far enough away from the show. There are a few times on the video where I get all the high breaks, but miss out on some mine cakes like Mineshell Mayhem or Time Trap. I will also put the music closer to the camcorder as you can barely hear it in the distance, and it would be cool to hear the music on the VHS tape as well as live. Lastly I sat close to the camcorder to monitor it, but commented to myself or talked to other people a little and this kind of interrupts the show a little. So learn from that if you can. But I can't tell you enough how much it helped to tape the show and then have a written list of what went off in what order to go back and document the quality of the items and to be able to notice things that you don't notice during the show. Now I can just watch it with a list of the show and it is sort of like going to a demo to help for future buying. All in all it was a year of firsts for me, but a step above last years show and hopefully next years will be even better. Good luck and happy shooting.

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This fourth was great. It starts around may or Êjune when i make my annual trip to ohio to get fireworks. I spent around $300 this year and i was very happy with my purchase. When it came to be the fourth i didnt do any thing special like make an electric firing system. But i still enjoyed my self the fireworks were great and i cant wait until next year. Happy Fourth 

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"Being a Pro Pyro, for a day"

I know that many of you who read this may think, "What do you mean by being a pro", which I am definitely not, but have had the pleasure and pain of feeling like one. When any "Professional" firework display operator discusses fireworks they do so in a business sense. There is a reason for this. I do love fireworks and enjoy the lighting of fireworks, but that is no where near my reasons for being a "Pyro". I enjoy the thought process behind a show. The organization of it and the assembling of the pieces. This is a very labor intensive field and requires hours and hours of preparation before lighting a single fuse. I sit down around January and begin to budget my purchase for the year, spend about 8 hours milling over what to buy, how many and is the effect what I want. The next step to my process is procuring the goods, which is a 3-4 hour round trip venture. Once I receive the items, I begin to plan out the show. My shows usually contain a pre-amble, beginning, ground show, middle, ground show 2, ending and then a finale. All of these "parts" are setup around a certain theme or constant effect. The design of an entire show takes about 24 - 36 hours, usually at home in the morning before work, or late evenings. Then there is the actual setup, which begins by fusing various shells of like or different effects. This takes about 6 - 8 hours. The fusing of shells is really a two person job, or it takes a lot longer. I hear many people talking about using more 500G cakes instead of shells to reduce the amount of fusing, but then I wouldn't have total control of the show. The show has been increasing year to year, and this past fourth contained over 500 consumer shells. Then I begin to fuse all of the cakes that are going to be used during the show, this is usually a simple process. I add lengths of Visco to provide timing of the cakes, and they are duct taped together forming one large cake. It is now finally July 4th, in the morning, I begin to assemble the stage, which we dis-assemble every year. Then clean and paint any parts that need it. This takes about 1- 2 hours of time for the two of us. I then spend the next 6 hours either talking about fireworks with some people, showing them the setup and the stash, or trying to stir up conversations about fireworks with others. This all stops around 6:00 PM, now it is time to start setting up as dusk falls about 8:30 - 9:00. This takes another hour or two depending on the amount of help, it seems to increase at this point. 8:30 PM, the moment has come, everyone is told to go to the viewing area which is about 200' away from the fireworks. When it is almost time, we usually light one extra shell, just to peek everyone's attention. Then I stand back most of the time and tell my two dedicated lighters, what to light and when. About 30 - 40 minutes later the show is over,,, the crowd cheers ,,, and we walk back to the crowd to everyone's thanks. This makes it all worth it, but to think of it as a "Pro", they don't know anyone in the crowd. They don't walk up to people an hour later and they say, " hey you did a great job,, love the fireworks". A Pro Pyro simply breaks down the setup and moves on to the next venue. They may not spend as much time as I do, but they do spend a lot of time on each show. They also have to pay their workers, license fees, storage, permit etc... Do I want to be a pro, not really. 

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I had a wonderful 4th with friends and family on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. The weather was beautiful and the night was even more beautiful. What we didn't make up for with stars mother nature sure did! The night sky was beautiful. First, and most important everything went off with a bang and no one got hurt. The night was enjoyed by friends and family around a small bonfire and some beautiful fireworks. It's times like these that make lasting memories.Ê 

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Thanks again to everyone who contributed a story this year. Please contribute again in July 2005.

Keep visiting Fireworksland.com, for my newest products and latest additions to my web site!

Happy shooting,
Bob Weaver

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