27 posts tagged “pyrou”
At about 11:30pm Monday night I get a text message from my uncle asking if I have any fireworks. I tell him I don't have any that aren't already reserved for Renn Fayre 2010, but suggest a quick shopping trip to to PyroU member Chris/suess' stand, Winchester Fireworks.
I helped my uncle pick out $200 in product, a couple 200g cakes and lots of small stuff like ground flowers, bees, jumping jacks etc, mainly for the day and a few things when it gets dark before the 1.3G show where he'll be on the 4th.
But the item he really wanted was wheels, and Chris didn't have any. We went to three other stands within a few blocks (go Everett!), but nobody carried a single wheel! I did purchase a box of Fiery Eye (BP) and figured I could spare one since he wanted them so bad, I still have a few left and can get more for my own show if needed. I'll try and find some more wheels for him, but he won't get them in time for this year. This is why real pyros plan ahead, 365 days a year!
I helped my uncle pick out $200 in product, a couple 200g cakes and lots of small stuff like ground flowers, bees, jumping jacks etc, mainly for the day and a few things when it gets dark before the 1.3G show where he'll be on the 4th.
But the item he really wanted was wheels, and Chris didn't have any. We went to three other stands within a few blocks (go Everett!), but nobody carried a single wheel! I did purchase a box of Fiery Eye (BP) and figured I could spare one since he wanted them so bad, I still have a few left and can get more for my own show if needed. I'll try and find some more wheels for him, but he won't get them in time for this year. This is why real pyros plan ahead, 365 days a year!
I couldn't go to a fireworks stand without buying something, and figured I should have a few small items stocked up in case I need a fix and will be someplace I can use them. I got a BP Pure Fantasy fountain to test out for possible Renn Fayre use, then some Utter Chaos spin rockets, a pack of helicopters, Magic Crystals, ground flowers, pop its (more on that later...) and Twister Stix.
On the 3rd I'm setting up a barge show with Wolverine and will stop by the stands in the area. I'll bring a few of these things to play with during the day, just so I can light some fuses. I might also see if I can find some small fountains, I have a bit of a soft spot for them, and hopefully they won't cost much, even at tribal stand prices. We shall see...
On the 3rd I'm setting up a barge show with Wolverine and will stop by the stands in the area. I'll bring a few of these things to play with during the day, just so I can light some fuses. I might also see if I can find some small fountains, I have a bit of a soft spot for them, and hopefully they won't cost much, even at tribal stand prices. We shall see...
Ok, I've been meaning to post about the WA spring group shoot for a while and haven't done it. At this point it is pretty late and I'm feeling lazy, so this will be a short one. I have a Dixie Cup for your tears...
This year was different from previous group shoots because it was a two-day event, as well as being at a slightly different location. Steve gets big points as usual for hosting the event.
Day one was single items, starting with more demo stuff that Steve is carrying as part of his wholesale deal with Hales. He shot some stuff I saw at the last demo, but also quite a few different items. Jeff/boaty also shot a lot of product, mainly Winda.
Day one was single items, starting with more demo stuff that Steve is carrying as part of his wholesale deal with Hales. He shot some stuff I saw at the last demo, but also quite a few different items. Jeff/boaty also shot a lot of product, mainly Winda.
Spirit of 76 showed up with a big truck full of fireworks to deliver the WA portion of the PyroU group buy. They have been very helpful to PyroU and great to work with.
I got video of most single items that night, so just go look at my PyroU gallery for them if you haven't already...
I was planning on spending the night instead of doing the two hour drive home to turn around and do it again the next morning, but my car was already so full that I couldn't fit another case, and I planned to buy more! I drove back and unloaded, it was much more comfortable sleeping in a bed!
I got video of most single items that night, so just go look at my PyroU gallery for them if you haven't already...
I was planning on spending the night instead of doing the two hour drive home to turn around and do it again the next morning, but my car was already so full that I couldn't fit another case, and I planned to buy more! I drove back and unloaded, it was much more comfortable sleeping in a bed!
The next day I got there around lunch time and we had plenty of time to hang out and BS. We had a BBQ and plenty of time to buy more stuff and build boards for the group show.
We had various smaller items to play with during the daytime and I purchased some firecrackers and several different types of whistling rockets to kill some time, which were fun.
Finally it got dark (although in the interest of finishing at a reasonable time we started too early while it wasn't really dark yet) and we got to the important stuff. We had more single items to demo, including one each of most of the full cases I purchased from 76. I was happy to see that Spicy Hot performs very close to Global Dominance, and Hot Wire was awesome. Three at once is going to look great in my next show!
For the group show people made various boards and then we just lit them in sequence. It wasn't too fancy, but it was much simpler than trying to organize a ton of loose product and fuse it all or handfire every cake individually.
My board (which took two pieces of plywood) is shown here. It started with The New Hotness + Deja Blue + Bada Bing, then to 2x Super Stallion + 9x Megabanger comet cakes + 2x Wild West, ending on Fire in the Hole + 4x Thug. I hadn't built a board in a while and didn't spend much time measuring fuse, so I just hoped everything would go.
The group show ended up looking great, with Yuri/cracker54 lighting each board. Mine worked quite well, so I was happy! The show ended on around 500 shells in a bunch of racks and only one shell didn't fire! After the show was over, just around everyone helped clean up and we hung out around the fire of spent cakes for a while and went home happy.
We had various smaller items to play with during the daytime and I purchased some firecrackers and several different types of whistling rockets to kill some time, which were fun.
Finally it got dark (although in the interest of finishing at a reasonable time we started too early while it wasn't really dark yet) and we got to the important stuff. We had more single items to demo, including one each of most of the full cases I purchased from 76. I was happy to see that Spicy Hot performs very close to Global Dominance, and Hot Wire was awesome. Three at once is going to look great in my next show!
My board (which took two pieces of plywood) is shown here. It started with The New Hotness + Deja Blue + Bada Bing, then to 2x Super Stallion + 9x Megabanger comet cakes + 2x Wild West, ending on Fire in the Hole + 4x Thug. I hadn't built a board in a while and didn't spend much time measuring fuse, so I just hoped everything would go.
The group show ended up looking great, with Yuri/cracker54 lighting each board. Mine worked quite well, so I was happy! The show ended on around 500 shells in a bunch of racks and only one shell didn't fire! After the show was over, just around everyone helped clean up and we hung out around the fire of spent cakes for a while and went home happy.
Here is what I came home with, I'm pretty happy!
And just so I have a video in this post (again, all are in my gallery), here is a cake I liked from the first night:
Good times were had! The end!
And just so I have a video in this post (again, all are in my gallery), here is a cake I liked from the first night:
Have a huge fireworks show of course!
In a modern pyro version of the Nazca Lines, fireworks lit up the shape of the artificial bay created in Dubai for the Atlantis Hotel, the most lavish hotel in the world.
Video with aerial shots here, video from the ground here. Thanks to PyroU member rikkifin for posting the links.
The show was done by Grucci. I usually like to talk shit about them (overrated etc) but they put on a hell of a show here.
In a modern pyro version of the Nazca Lines, fireworks lit up the shape of the artificial bay created in Dubai for the Atlantis Hotel, the most lavish hotel in the world.
Video with aerial shots here, video from the ground here. Thanks to PyroU member rikkifin for posting the links.
The show was done by Grucci. I usually like to talk shit about them (overrated etc) but they put on a hell of a show here.
A few of us WA guys on PyroU threw around the idea of a casual little get-together a few weeks ago and were able to make something happen on Saturday.
We had maybe five PyroU guys plus a few friends, so it was a nice little crowd, though far from a full group shoot. I arrived with my brother and a couple friends around 5pm as it was almost dark and started looking through the store for a few things. I had brought about half my stash, but wanted to try a few things they carried and suppor them since they give us a nice place to shoot.
Frank was there, friendly and helpful as usual. I bought two Big Fireworks 500g cakes, Wide Angle and Airstrike, two Great Grizzly cakes marked as "360 gram", What's Up Dog and Vendetta, and Texas Gunslinger (Red Rhino) and Twinkling Web (Forward). While still in the store I missed a bunch of shells, they didn't wait for us! I hurriedly finished up inside and got over to the field in time to see some Critical Acclaim mines.
Frank was there, friendly and helpful as usual. I bought two Big Fireworks 500g cakes, Wide Angle and Airstrike, two Great Grizzly cakes marked as "360 gram", What's Up Dog and Vendetta, and Texas Gunslinger (Red Rhino) and Twinkling Web (Forward). While still in the store I missed a bunch of shells, they didn't wait for us! I hurriedly finished up inside and got over to the field in time to see some Critical Acclaim mines.
PyroU member cdbtx/Chuck was testing out the efire system he was building, and had it connected mostly to Wolverine products. I didn't get any video of it because I've seen those items plenty of times, but he fired a few groups of cakes that looked pretty nice, as well as three cremoras I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch.
Chris/seuss1973 had a few cakes to test out as well, some of which were pretty good (Evil Eyes) and some were a little lame (something with Terror in the name). A bit unexpectedly I had the largest pile of stuff to shoot that night, so I had plenty of fun lighting some of my items and having my brother and friend light a few.
[Videos of most cakes shot are in my PyroU gallery, I assume just about everyone reading this is registered there, so I'll only embed a couple highlights for the lazy.]
I was very happy with most of what I shot. Bada Bing was kind of weak but I had low expectations for that one anyway. After seeing a video that looked good, I was rather disappointed by What's Up Dog, but really liked Vendetta (both GG). Seeing a properly functioning Dahlias & Bouquets was nice, it appears the one I shot at the reception was fused wrong as well as not fiing the last row, the mines do all fire before the first shell volley. The effects on Heavy Metal are a little different from the last time I shot it, but it still looks great. I really liked both Airstrike (nice effects and spread) and Wide Angle (still frame above). Here are a couple videos, everything can be found in my gallery.
[Videos of most cakes shot are in my PyroU gallery, I assume just about everyone reading this is registered there, so I'll only embed a couple highlights for the lazy.]
I was very happy with most of what I shot. Bada Bing was kind of weak but I had low expectations for that one anyway. After seeing a video that looked good, I was rather disappointed by What's Up Dog, but really liked Vendetta (both GG). Seeing a properly functioning Dahlias & Bouquets was nice, it appears the one I shot at the reception was fused wrong as well as not fiing the last row, the mines do all fire before the first shell volley. The effects on Heavy Metal are a little different from the last time I shot it, but it still looks great. I really liked both Airstrike (nice effects and spread) and Wide Angle (still frame above). Here are a couple videos, everything can be found in my gallery.
Discussion of composition weight in 1.4G cakes comes up pretty often, especially with the 200g/500g classifications. 1.4G items can have up to 60g of comp per tube (40g in break/effects and 20g in lift/tail). Cakes in the 200g class don't require spacing. Cakes over 200g, generally grouped as 500g, require at least a half inch (maybe more? I thought I had a file with all this info and can't find it) between tubes.
Because of rain at my reception show back in October, I have a lot of exta stuff sitting around I wasn't planning on, especially pairs of 200g cakes. While it is always fun to shoot them, I figured I would satisfy my curiosity about a few composition weights and I'll still have one of each cake. Matrix Pyro will be in the next post, here I'll just talk about Heavenly Delight, an 8-shot cake by United Pyro. It is a pretty cheap cake that comes packed 24 to a case and performs well (there are two in the reception show linked above).
The tube diameter is a pretty good size, about the same as the larger Matrix Pyro. If it was indeed a full 200g cake, 8 shots means 25g/shot, which seemed pretty unlikely. Let's take it apart and find out.
[Note: Don't try this at home, I had a trained monkey do this while I watched video of the process from an underground bunker.]
The tube diameter is a pretty good size, about the same as the larger Matrix Pyro. If it was indeed a full 200g cake, 8 shots means 25g/shot, which seemed pretty unlikely. Let's take it apart and find out.
[Note: Don't try this at home, I had a trained monkey do this while I watched video of the process from an underground bunker.]
Left - Cake with outer wrapper removed, showing tubes fused sequentially and attached to a central weighted base.
Center - Tubes laid out after being removed from base. The fuses are inserted by hand and pull right out.
Center - Tubes laid out after being removed from base. The fuses are inserted by hand and pull right out.
Right - Tube peeled away with shell insert and lift charge visible. When everything is still together, the insert has a cardboard disc above it holding it in the tube. Another disc with a small hole in it is between the lift charge and the insert. The disc(s) help make a tight fit for a better lift, while the hole in the lift charge disc helps focus the flame onto the time fuse of the insert. It was also primed with a brown primer with black flecks in it rather than the black I usually see.
Not much point in including the picture of it on the scale, but the lift charge weight 1.8g.
Not much point in including the picture of it on the scale, but the lift charge weight 1.8g.
Left - Contents of the shell insert.
The shell insert had a clay plug on the bottom end with the primer and the time fuse, the top end had both a clay plug and a cardboard disc. The stars and break charge weighed 11.5g. Lift and insert together totaled 13.3g, well short of the 25g that would be needed to make the cake hold a full 200g. I didn't weight each lift and insert because that would take far too long, so the rest were taken apart and the contents collected.
The shell insert had a clay plug on the bottom end with the primer and the time fuse, the top end had both a clay plug and a cardboard disc. The stars and break charge weighed 11.5g. Lift and insert together totaled 13.3g, well short of the 25g that would be needed to make the cake hold a full 200g. I didn't weight each lift and insert because that would take far too long, so the rest were taken apart and the contents collected.
The total composition weight of all eight lift charges and shell inserts was 104g, well short of 200g. 104g total divided by 8 shots is 13g per shell, which lines up pretty closely with the one insert I did weight. I did not bother trying to weight the comp in the fuses (either delay between tubes or time fuse) but it couldn't be more than a gram or two.
So clearly buying something from the 200g category doesn't mean you are getting 200g of composition in every cake. At the same time, this particular cake is packed 24/1 and priced pretty low, so you are getting just as much comp with 24 104g cakes as you would with a 12/1 case of a cake that held a full 200g.
Next post (following as soon as I write it) will dissect Matrix Pyro. Later this week I (or rather my trained monkey) will dissect two differently-sized "200g" cakes to see how the comp weight compares...
So clearly buying something from the 200g category doesn't mean you are getting 200g of composition in every cake. At the same time, this particular cake is packed 24/1 and priced pretty low, so you are getting just as much comp with 24 104g cakes as you would with a 12/1 case of a cake that held a full 200g.
Next post (following as soon as I write it) will dissect Matrix Pyro. Later this week I (or rather my trained monkey) will dissect two differently-sized "200g" cakes to see how the comp weight compares...
I apparently didn't get enough of Steve when I went up there last week, so this Friday found me back up there again. PyroU member zuesmta (aka Matt) posted a thread asking about places to shoot in WA, as he suffers the horrible fate of living in the fireworks-unfriendly state of CA.
Matt was coming to Tacoma, WA for business and wanted to find a place to take a mini pyro-vacation and shoot a few things legally. I figured I could always use some more pyro fun since I'll be missing the group shoot, and attached myself like a lamprey, so I could watch some pyro without going broke. I was at least able to contribute in the form of directions to Steve's place, and in getting videos and pictures.
Matt, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the large selection of items that aren't fountains, eventually settled on a nice pile, which included the items on the left, plus a few others that didn't make it in the picture, such as Big Troops, Zinger, It's All About Power, and Openfire. Other items not pictured were Gladiator and Double Lightning shells.
Matt, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the large selection of items that aren't fountains, eventually settled on a nice pile, which included the items on the left, plus a few others that didn't make it in the picture, such as Big Troops, Zinger, It's All About Power, and Openfire. Other items not pictured were Gladiator and Double Lightning shells.
Right - Matt proudly displaying one of his purchases.
I may be a bit poor, but I couldn't be a complete bum and had to contribute in some way, plus I wanted to light a few more fuses as long as I was up there! I got a few small cakes; Jaw Breaker, Wreckless, Midnite Bonfire, Funky Fantasy, and Victoria Falls. I really like this kind of small cakes, they are often as good as larger 200g cakes while being cheaper, so they are a great bargain. Steve even found a couple Zoot Suit, which I was looking for last time I was up there, so I had to snap them up for my reception show happening (weather dependent) in a few weeks.
Along with Steve, Matt, and myself, PyroU member Hammer (Mike? Guess we should have worn our name tags!) joined us. We solicited more folks, but I guess they are all holding out for the upcoming group shoot. The weather was pretty good, we had clear skies and a comfortable temperature, but some fog and little wind, so smoke just sat there all around us as we lit stuff. A lot of great stuff was shot, with several standouts. I got video of almost everything except ones that almost everyone has seen and there are lots of videos up already, like Openfire (still a very nice cake), Buck Fever, Evil Enemy and Bling Bling (both great 200g), and Double Lightning. I had seen Glory of America, Big Troops, and Pyro Boy all before, so they weren't anything new, although all were fantastic. The standouts for me were Global Dominance (big breaks, nice symmetry, huge crackle finale), It's All About Power (nice willow volleys and great finale) and Jaw Breaker (great colors, cheap, and nice pop for a 200g). I thought the colors and effects in the Gladiator shells were fantastic, the colors were some of the best and most unique I've ever seen in 1.4G. The problem was that the shells are not marked, and the symmetry was poor even for a cannister shell. I liked them, but I don't know if I could bring myself to pay the premium price for them. Here is Global Dominance, direct links to all videos are after the embedded one... All videos can also be found in my PyroU gallery.
Jaw Breaker (Boomer, direct link), Fearless (Boomer, direct link), Boiling Point (Boomer, direct link), Zinger (World Class, direct link), Victoria Falls (Brothers, direct link), Grand Canyon (Brothers, direct link), Wild West (Brothers, direct link), Midnite Bonfire (Pyro Valu/King, direct link), It's All About Power (Fireworks Over America, direct link), Funky Fantasy (Fireworks Over America, direct link), Global Dominance (Pyro Predator, direct link), Pyro Boy (Golden Bear, direct link), Glory of America (Golden Bear, direct link), Big Troops (Golden Bear, direct link).
Thanks to Steve for letting us use his place to shoot and thanks to Matt/zuesmta for letting me tag along! It was nice to meet him and hopefully we can both make it to the next WA group shoot...
Along with Steve, Matt, and myself, PyroU member Hammer (Mike? Guess we should have worn our name tags!) joined us. We solicited more folks, but I guess they are all holding out for the upcoming group shoot. The weather was pretty good, we had clear skies and a comfortable temperature, but some fog and little wind, so smoke just sat there all around us as we lit stuff. A lot of great stuff was shot, with several standouts. I got video of almost everything except ones that almost everyone has seen and there are lots of videos up already, like Openfire (still a very nice cake), Buck Fever, Evil Enemy and Bling Bling (both great 200g), and Double Lightning. I had seen Glory of America, Big Troops, and Pyro Boy all before, so they weren't anything new, although all were fantastic. The standouts for me were Global Dominance (big breaks, nice symmetry, huge crackle finale), It's All About Power (nice willow volleys and great finale) and Jaw Breaker (great colors, cheap, and nice pop for a 200g). I thought the colors and effects in the Gladiator shells were fantastic, the colors were some of the best and most unique I've ever seen in 1.4G. The problem was that the shells are not marked, and the symmetry was poor even for a cannister shell. I liked them, but I don't know if I could bring myself to pay the premium price for them. Here is Global Dominance, direct links to all videos are after the embedded one... All videos can also be found in my PyroU gallery.
Thanks to Steve for letting us use his place to shoot and thanks to Matt/zuesmta for letting me tag along! It was nice to meet him and hopefully we can both make it to the next WA group shoot...
I got my Pyro Universe name tag today, so now I can look really cool. At the last WA group shoot we had stickers, which many people forgot, or were inevitably covered up as the day cooled down. Not everyone will get one of these since they cost money (I got the early sale!), but it'll be a nice way to remember people's names that did get one. I won't be able to make the next group shoot because of previous engagements (anyone?), so I'll have to wait a while to sport it.
In other news, I finally got a schedule for the rest of the Wolverine shows this year...
August 5 - Fircrest Emergency Services. I helped on this one last year and had a good time, it was my first show working with Wolverine. Since this is a Tuesday I have work and won't take the day off since I'm taking a week off in September. I'll just arrive in the evening as a spectator, shocking! I might get a picture or two since I didn't last year, but unless there are more than a few items I haven't seen before, I won't video so I can just relax.
August 9 - Fircrest Fun Days. I guess they like fireworks in Fircrest! I couldn't make this show last year, but I think it was basically the same show as Milton. I won't make this show because I'm going to be down in Oregon helping Homeland on the air show like last year, so I'm looking forward to that.
August 15 - Milton. I helped on this show last year and had a great time, so I'm looking forward to doing it again. I just hope I can find something better to eat than the crappy pizza I had last year!
August 15 - Boney Lake. Two shows in two days! I plan on being that both, so I'll be pretty tired when I have to start work at 6am on Sunday... I don't have any idea what this show is like, so it'll be an adventure.
There are a few others, but these are the summer shows. It has been a good summer for pyro so far, so I'm excited for the rest!
In other news, I finally got a schedule for the rest of the Wolverine shows this year...
August 5 - Fircrest Emergency Services. I helped on this one last year and had a good time, it was my first show working with Wolverine. Since this is a Tuesday I have work and won't take the day off since I'm taking a week off in September. I'll just arrive in the evening as a spectator, shocking! I might get a picture or two since I didn't last year, but unless there are more than a few items I haven't seen before, I won't video so I can just relax.
August 9 - Fircrest Fun Days. I guess they like fireworks in Fircrest! I couldn't make this show last year, but I think it was basically the same show as Milton. I won't make this show because I'm going to be down in Oregon helping Homeland on the air show like last year, so I'm looking forward to that.
August 15 - Milton. I helped on this show last year and had a great time, so I'm looking forward to doing it again. I just hope I can find something better to eat than the crappy pizza I had last year!
August 15 - Boney Lake. Two shows in two days! I plan on being that both, so I'll be pretty tired when I have to start work at 6am on Sunday... I don't have any idea what this show is like, so it'll be an adventure.
There are a few others, but these are the summer shows. It has been a good summer for pyro so far, so I'm excited for the rest!
This was posted on PyroU the other day, so thanks to IL Pyro 2008 for the link...
For those wondering what it is like to run a small fireworks show, this set of videos shows a full day, from getting up early in the morning to pick up the equipment and product, to shooting the show and driving home late at night. It shows how much work it can be and will probably chase away the casual pyro from shooting displays, but I love doing it too!
Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.
A little long, but a fun video...
In other news, I'll be helping on a shoot next Friday in Covington, WA, so check back next weekend for a report...
For those wondering what it is like to run a small fireworks show, this set of videos shows a full day, from getting up early in the morning to pick up the equipment and product, to shooting the show and driving home late at night. It shows how much work it can be and will probably chase away the casual pyro from shooting displays, but I love doing it too!
Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.
A little long, but a fun video...
In other news, I'll be helping on a shoot next Friday in Covington, WA, so check back next weekend for a report...
On the way home from setting up the Henderson Bay show for the 4th, I saw signs for "Firecracker Alley," a group of stands operated by the Puyallup Tribe. As I wasn't in a big rush and can't pass up checking out the fireworks anyway, I stopped in to look around.
There were two or three "streets" of stands, with maybe 50 stands total. For 4:30pm on July 3rd, it wasn't that busy, which was kind of depressing. Economy, recession, gas prices, etc etc... There were still a fair number of people walking around and buying things, but it wasn't the crazy mob it should have been the day before the 4th.
One thing that I certainly didn't approve of was that there were kids walking around throwing Black Eyed Peas (basically large pop-its) in the rows. These are the same fireworks that set a stand on fire in Boom City last year, so that made me a little nervous. I thought those were recalled, and they certainly should be.
Inside a typical stand. Most were pretty heavy on 500g cakes, but between the different stands you could find all types of fireworks. There didn't seem to be any brand that dominated, I saw Brothers, World Class, Great Grizzly, Black Cat, Phantom, Pyro King, TNT, Canon, Megabanger and others. Prices were pretty standard for WA retail, with 200g cakes going for $10-25 and 500g $60+.
I certainly wasn't there to spend a bunch of money on retail and I'm currently pretty poor anyway, so I figured I'd buy one or two items just for fun and to test out my new camera. I saw a stand with a decent selection of 200g and ended up getting PYK Done Deal for all the cash in my wallet, $7 (posted price was $15). I mentioned that I knew the effects on most of the cakes and somebody next to me asked if I was on any of the fireworks sites online. It turned out to be a PyroU member crazypyro, who I had never met before, but was friends with the person running the stand (that probably helped get me a discount). Small world! He told me his friend was mad that he knew the wholesale costs of the stuff and so he didn't buy from her stand...
One thing that I certainly didn't approve of was that there were kids walking around throwing Black Eyed Peas (basically large pop-its) in the rows. These are the same fireworks that set a stand on fire in Boom City last year, so that made me a little nervous. I thought those were recalled, and they certainly should be.
Inside a typical stand. Most were pretty heavy on 500g cakes, but between the different stands you could find all types of fireworks. There didn't seem to be any brand that dominated, I saw Brothers, World Class, Great Grizzly, Black Cat, Phantom, Pyro King, TNT, Canon, Megabanger and others. Prices were pretty standard for WA retail, with 200g cakes going for $10-25 and 500g $60+.
I certainly wasn't there to spend a bunch of money on retail and I'm currently pretty poor anyway, so I figured I'd buy one or two items just for fun and to test out my new camera. I saw a stand with a decent selection of 200g and ended up getting PYK Done Deal for all the cash in my wallet, $7 (posted price was $15). I mentioned that I knew the effects on most of the cakes and somebody next to me asked if I was on any of the fireworks sites online. It turned out to be a PyroU member crazypyro, who I had never met before, but was friends with the person running the stand (that probably helped get me a discount). Small world! He told me his friend was mad that he knew the wholesale costs of the stuff and so he didn't buy from her stand...
A funny sign...
The wholesale area where stands buy their stuff.
The large open area for shooting (video below). There wasn't much going on at this time of day, though I heard a few salutes while walking around the stands. I wanted to get video of something without waiting around too long, so this guy shooting candles was the only thing I got. He looked a little lonely...
I'm a bit behind on my posting considering this was two weeks ago... Oh well, summer has started and pyro season starts with it, so things will be picking up soon!
May 31 was our fourth Northwest group shoot (third here) and as usual, good times were had by all. A few bumps in the road as always, but everyone had fun. The first thing I noticed when I got there was a tent next to the stand with a huge pile of cases under it, plus a few shipping containers full of fireworks. It doesn't want to insert the picture, but here is the nice pile PyroU members purchased in a last-minute group buy. I'm pretty poor at the moment so I didn't get anything in that buy...
I was one of the first people there, but lamrith and rapidshot (Larry and Tony) were already setting up the show they had planned. They had a mix of just about everything, including mines, fountains, 200g/500g, candles and shells.
Switchfoot55/Mike and I were in charge of putting together the group show so we got there early to get started. Too early it turned out, so we had a bit of time to kill before we really had any product to organize. I wanted to compare a few different ball shells, so purchased Maximum Exposure, Unleash the Beast, Super Magnum with Tail and Pyro King Artillery.
(Below - Me looking stylish while fusing my racks)
Switchfoot55/Mike and I were in charge of putting together the group show so we got there early to get started. Too early it turned out, so we had a bit of time to kill before we really had any product to organize. I wanted to compare a few different ball shells, so purchased Maximum Exposure, Unleash the Beast, Super Magnum with Tail and Pyro King Artillery.
(Below - Me looking stylish while fusing my racks)
I also got a 2,000 roll of firecrackers and some headbombs for our planned firecracker and crackling shell opener, although that never really came together.
Eventually more people and product showed up, so Mike and I started trying to put things together into a semi-coherent show. At the last group shoot where we did an actual show we organized and handfired it. This time we were willing to organize but we wanted to actually be able to watch the show. With time constraints we decided to fuse items into boards of a few cakes each, and efire each board. We also had lots of shells and racks, which would also be efired. (pic 1, pic 2, pic 3)The formatting is being all messed up, so the rest of this will just be text with links to the pictures, I'm tried of trying to fight it at the moment...
There was no shortage of product to demo, thanks to Steve, Chris, the guys at FOA, and others who contributed. (pic 1, pic 2)
Being Washington, it started raining on us just like the last two group shoots. Luckily it wasn't as bad as previous times, and we had learned our lesson and were fairly well prepared with tents and tarps. It was pretty light and went on and off, but was gone by the time it got dark. We even got a nice rainbow! (pic 1, pic 2)
We had mostly daytime-friendly items going off pretty much all day, including the poorly-named by very cool Fan Shaped Smoke Cake by World Class. Once it was getting semi-dark we couldnt wait any longer and started the demo products. There was a ton of stuff, so it took a while. I was very impressed overall with the FOA stuff, they had some nice colors as well as glitter, without too much crackle. There was a ton of other good stuff shot, but I didn't take notes because I was going back and forth between being lazy and trying to enjoy myself and trying to help get things shot safely. (pic 1)
Then we go to the board competition, which was fun and different from other times because we changed the rules to allow more product and 500g cakes. (pic 1) Larry and Tony put on a great show as always, with lots of nice product. I particularly enjoyed the mines in the opener.
This brought us to the final show with all the contributed product. Things didn't go quite as planned! The efire didn't really work, I think it was because the nichrome-fuse igniters were too short to get the visco of the boards started. Mike was running the board with me next to him with a torch "just in case" something didn't got and needed to be hand fired. I think one item worked with the efire, then I had to handfire something. A couple more efire cues failed and Mike and I just said screw it and handfired the whole thing. Fusing was not done with any precision, so while it worked out most of the time, sometimes there were delays between cakes on a board. There was a lot of good product in the show and with boards at least Mike and I had a little more time to look up and watch things here and there instead of having to fire every individual item. By the time we were almost to all the shell racks for the finale, Steve came over and signaled us to stop. We didn't realize it, but it was already after midnight, and the cops were there telling us to stop! So the show didn't exactly go as we hoped, but it was still fun and I hope people enjoyed it, even if it was a bit sloppy and anti-climactic. Oh well!
American Trucker (WC 500g) during the demo section. It is an awesome cake!
Party Like A Rockstar (PYK 500g) during the demo section:
A board by somebody...
Another board...
Part of Larry and Tony's show:
Part of the group show (before I had to go handfire!):
Videos of a few of my racks and some other demo cakes can be found in Triskal's gallery here. Direct link to Larry and Tony's show here (47MB .mp4). Direct link to the group show (or part of it at least) here (70MG .mp4).
Thanks to Triskal and a Colin for a couple pictures I included in this post. And thanks to everyone who made the shoot so much fun!
