here's a topiic for discussion:

[Icooclast]

i don't know if it's great, but i was wondering: do you guys buy much 200 gram or 350 gram cakes or save your budget for all 500 gram cakes? if you use both, which do you normally get the most of? just curious.

i learned the last time lit fireworks that it doesn't really matter what it is when lots of them are going up at once. and some booms of 200 gramers have surprised me.

[chriskrc]

I buy mostly 500g cakes but I do get a good amount of 200g and 350g cakes. Adding them to a show for different height of effect is great and like you said some of them surprise the heck out of me.

[RalphieJ]

I buy 200's and 350's. I gave up long ago on 500's, I believe them to be not such a good value. Some $75 500 cakes run 20 seconds or less (I'm talking retail/single unit pricing). I can get 3-4 200's or 2 350's for the price of one 500, and if wisely used, give a better presentation in tighter settings
.

[Kenny East]

I do mostly shells, and 200/350 gram cakes. A couple 500 gram cakes,mostly shells though. Cakes are great when you don't have racks for shells or time to set up all the fuse work

[MtnViewPyro]

I'm still a beginner to the "display" side of the game so I'm still learning and look forward to reading what others put about this. However, I've bought a lot of cakes in my time and picked up on some of the secrets I think. If you go above 12 shots on 500 gram cakes, you aren't going to get much more boom and break size than you get with your 200 or 350 gram cakes. If you watch some videos of the 500 gram cakes that have more than 12 shots, you could actually buy the comets, mines, and whatever other effects they throw in and add some good can shells and you have just out performed that cake for probably half the price. However, depending on how many cues you have, it maybe just easier to hook up one 500 gram cake. Just like everything in fireworks it's just what you want to happen and of course how deep your pockets are.

I love all cakes. My biggest problem is narrowing down what will end up in my cart from the countless options. Not sure what is worse, me picking out fireworks or my wife shopping for a purse.

[fatcat]

I got to agree with MVP. 500 gram cakes are great if they are low count on the number of shots i.e. 9-12. Once you get into the high shot count i just don't see the value of getting 500 gram cakes. My 2 cents.

[PyroManiacs]

I like hard loud breaks, so I buy mostly 500Gram low counts. If I were to buy any 200 or 350's though, it would be because it was a new product for that year that sounded like it had the hard breaks Im looking for in its video. If I buy it and it does pass my ear "test", I usually will buy them repeatedly. Every year my list of 200/350 grows a few items.

[MontanaMike]

We've always used mostly 500g but we had a couple cases of 200g this year which were really surprising how good they were. I think we'll be upping our 200g count for next year. I agree with the low-shot-count opinion on the 500s. Although a good 500g zipper cake is really cool, especially using two or four of them at the same time.

[NorthernKYPyro]

I mix them up. I love some of the 500s like the big zippers and real hard hitters. I also like getting a ton of breaks by fusing the 200s together.

[MontanaMike]

We did that this year with six of one 200g cake. I can't remember the name at the moment, but it looked really good when it all went up.

[Icooclast]

lots of interesting opinions here. personally i like them all, but if push came to shove i'd just get the one with the loudest (judging by video) but the one thing i noticed from my last time using fireworks is that; it doesn't matter much what you use, if you have a lot of fireworks going up at once. whether it be artillery shells, 200g cakes, 500g cakes, rockets, etc. it all looks good, even if 1 or 2 aren't the best performers, but are just average or even slightly below average. they mix into the crowd that's going up with them.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Not sure what is worse, me picking out fireworks or my wife shopping for a purse.

Lol... Ahhh that's an easy one my friend!! I had 40 cases of fireworks go up this past 4th of July. I enjoyed them immensely that evening, and I can re-enjoy them whenever I want by watching the video!!

In the mean time my wife's purse collection is sitting in the closet collecting dust....

[Rick_In_Tampa]

it doesn't matter much what you use, if you have a lot of fireworks going up at once. whether it be artillery shells, 200g cakes, 500g cakes, rockets, etc. it all looks good

I like cakes that are "busy" and/or fill the sky like fan cakes with multiple breaks. Cakes like Vegas Lights or Mardi Gras Fiesta. Mix those in with single color cakes that fill the sky. I think the contrast gives the audience cause to appreciate the different effects more than just a bunch of sky puke going up.

[MtnViewPyro]

Lol... Ahhh that's an easy one my friend!! I had 40 cases of fireworks go up this past 4th of July. I enjoyed them immensely that evening, and I can re-enjoy them whenever I want by watching the video!!

In the mean time my wife's purse collection is sitting in the closet collecting dust....

Lol very true, very true!!!