Other than just a dud, what's the worst shell, cake (etc.) You ever experienced.

[Chubbles]

It could be a multishot that was too quick, no color, whatever. What's your worst experience with quality, etc...

Open to all.

[Mattp]

Well as a kid I remember all of the most basic consumer products being so much better quality.. like jumping jacks actually flew and lasted about 5-7 sec... now they’re lucky to last for 2 sec.. I feel this way about most of the novelty type stuff..

[Chubbles]

You're right. Ground bloom flowers lasted a lot longer when I was a kid. I got a few free with an order recently. I wasn't impressed.

[RalphieJ]

It could be a multishot that was too quick, no color, whatever. What's your worst experience with quality, etc...

Open to all.

I've mentioned Pyro Sonic Devices of Grand Haven Michigan (Phil Leech, Pres.) One year he offered fireworks from England, Brazil, and another SA country that I can't recall. I bought a device made by really well-known name company in the UK (Standard?), it was 4" in diameter, 4" high, with a 3/4" ID tube sticking out the top approx 3". Colorfully wrapped in red, blue, green. There was much anticipation when I lit the fuse. Started out with gold sparks that shot a mere 6" from the tube and lasted all of 6 seconds, followed by a green star that reached the stunning apex of 12 inches and burned out on the ground. And it cost a bundle, $3 was a lot to pay for a single piece back in the early '70's. Ah well..........

[Chubbles]

Thank G-d for Youtube. At least you tend to get what you expect.

My high schoil class went to Washington DC as a school trip. I went there before so I knew what stores sold fireworks. I also knew nothing left the ground. A bunch of kids bought "rockets" from a store. The store owner said they went high. I wish I could have seen their faces. I told them before, (they didn't believe me) that they were "sparklers".

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I visited a tent vendor a number of years ago (like 18-19) and I saw what I thought were M-80's. I was like, NO FREAKIN WAY!!! So I bought a mess of them like a moron. I got them home and I was so excited. I went outside and told the wife and kids to get back! These things are going to be loud!! I lit one, threw it across the yard and covered my ears. It went "pop" like a balloon popping. Those things didn't even have enough power in them to burst the cardboard tube. Just enough to blow the end caps off. You talk about a letdown. :(

[Kooooou]

I visited a tent vendor a number of years ago (like 18-19) and I saw what I thought were M-80's. I was like, NO FREAKIN WAY!!! So I bought a mess of them like a moron. I got them home and I was so excited. I went outside and told the wife and kids to get back! These things are going to be loud!! I lit one, threw it across the yard and covered my ears. It went "pop" like a balloon popping. Those things didn't even have enough power in them to burst the cardboard tube. Just enough to blow the end caps off. You talk about a letdown. :(
Reminds me of the old days when I was used to the real Firing Squads, then I bought a bunch from Phantom and learned their version was poop. The biggest purple ghost disappointment was their Raptor cake; worst cake I've ever shot although my opinion might be different if it were 30 bucks cheaper. Before there were many demo videos circulating I had bought the giant sized 200g cake thinking it would perform like certain other 19-shot 1" cakes only to see comets and other weak effects.

[Chubbles]

I'm lucky I found national brands early (Dominator, Cutting Edge... ). Reviews suggested caution especially when a store sells their own brand. I went into a new Phantom store because the website listed brands I recognized. They're more money, but not as bad if you buy a bunch. They were out if everything I was interested in. They stock what they make the most money from.

[Fox One]

I remember when I was a kid back in the 1980s, I picked out a couple of ENORMOUS pre-loaded tubes of some sort. Just based on how large they were, I thought I'd grabbed hold of the greatest thing going in consumer fireworks. I wish I could remember the name, if they had an actual name. But they were about 3.5 feet tall and had a tube diameter of probably 10 inches. The bases were made of wood and painted red. The tube itself was just cardboard with a green wrap. I remember packing those things way out into the field so as to get them as far away from our audience as I could. And of course I had saved those things for last, thinking they were the "best". I wish I could have a snapshot taken of my face in the immediate aftermath of setting those things off. The performance was sort of mine like, but incredibly weak. It was just a quick whoosh that might have gone as high as 30 feet. No report. No boom. Just a whoosh of sparks. That experience taught me me at a young age not to judge a firework based just on how it looks. Some of those little cone shaped comets from assortments I had shot earlier that evening were more impressive. LOL.

[upNdown]

Mayhem - a 200 gram zipper cake
I should have known better by looking at it, but I was a rookie and the video looked amazing.
But no, it was exactly what you'd expect a 96 shot 200 gram cake would look like - think Color Pearl.
I'm still not sure how they got the video to look this good.
https://youtu.be/M8pCmIaQGD0

[PyroBubba]

I've been on scene three times when cakes tipped over.

The first time, it was a 19-shot cake. I hid behind a truck.

The second time, it was a 16-shot cake, and one of the shots actually hit me in the upper thigh. This has been the source of a joke because the cake name was "Crown Jewelry" and it nearly got my family jewels.

The third time, it was a small 9-shot cake and I was out of range, thank God.

None of those tip-overs were my fault, mind you. Always it was somebody else who forgot Rule One:

ABC -- Always Brace Cakes.

[Chubbles]

That's one of the problems with many firework videos: no perspective. It makes it hard to judge.

[Birdman]

I always try and find homemade videos that offer perspective. I also wonder if its just a matter of perception, but some demo videos of cakes seem longer than the real thing. I often wonder if some of the videos aren't slowed down a bit to make them look better and longer lasting. It's probably just a matter of lack of precision in the manufacturing or maybe even weather conditions etc. Just another reason to watch several videos if you can find them. Luckily there is enough information out there these days to be an educated consumer. All of my disappointments have been with smaller novelty items or classics that are no longer like they were back when I was a kid, like others have mentioned. I've had a lot more happy surprises.

[Kenny East]

Worst consumer product,a bamboozled cake from brothers that blew apart about half way through. I was about 20 feet away hand lighting.

I was wearing fire resistant clothing... It didn't hurt me at all but it's never fun getting blasted with burning stars.

[Chubbles]

That is scary!

[WidowMaker]

Small unbalanced cakes that can tip over easily or burn their own tubes while discharging.
Last year I came across these disney themed novelty cakes. Small units. The propulsion charge on each tube in the cake was too strong and it compromised the later shots in the sequence. Half way through, the shots would errupt prematurely after launch. The cake would even tip over from the force of the propulsion charge.
I cant remeber who made these cakes. Maybe an indian company. These were sold in a hindu temple.

As a kid, relying on my dad to fund my fireworks endeavors, and therefore getting the cheapest garbage possible, we would end up with a pack of these butterfly type launchers. Like a firecracker with wings. Invariably, these weren't aerodynamically designed to lift off vertically. They would fly off in a random diagonal and sometimes horizontally. These got more stressfull as i got older. But my dad would buy em cause they were cheap.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I used to love those butterflies as a kid. You could buy them pretty much anywhere. And as you indicated, they were cheap! So we always loaded up on those, smoke balls, and snakes! Those were super cool. We used to light them with a magnifying glass (when we weren't torturing ants and worms). Good times...