Missed fireworks

[FinnAmerican1979]

What types of fireworks do you miss? Because they went out of production or were banned by the government.

[Birdman]

I miss the way some fireworks were made back in the day like Jumping Jacks and firecrackers. Of course M-80's and cherry bombs are missed.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

The old "Flashing Thunder" roman candles that had a solid thump to them.

[RalphieJ]

One summer (early-mid '80's) I was fortunate to score a case (4) of 90-shot cakes (round), very colorful label with Disney characters (a flagrant brand infringement). 3/4 inch dia. tubes, every third shot was a salute the equivalent of an M-80. The color shells had the usual red, green blue, and also less common violet, pink, orange, mag yellow and mag white. A crowd favorite and a real trooper magnet. One case of 4, and that was it...…..sure do miss them. I'm going to see if I kept one of the labels, I don't recall seeing any classification on it (B, C, DOT, etc)

[fireworkguy98]

Im not sure if they make them still or not, but i miss the camellia flowers, i cant ever find them anymore.

[Robbro097]

I miss the big oriental/Chinese lanterns i got some this past year that were ok but just not as big as i remember as a kid.

[leftiluci]

Rozzi's land of the midnight sun. A single shot parachute that came down slow with an extremely bright magnesium flare. 1970's & early 80's

[jknepp1954]

90 shot round cakes - pkg was ugly - but a decent cake -
Yeah - Camelia Flowers are hard to find anymore - not sure if i still have a few packs around or not.
And Chinese Lanterns = when you find you pay big $.
oh yes - don't forget the old Battle of Colors, Thunder Kings, Firing Squad, Flower thunders of the 80s and early 90s!

[Wholesale Fireworks]

I miss the big snakes. The ones today are so small and they dont work well.

[Birdman]

90 shot round cakes - pkg was ugly - but a decent cake -
Yeah - Camelia Flowers are hard to find anymore - not sure if i still have a few packs around or not.
And Chinese Lanterns = when you find you pay big $.
oh yes - don't forget the old Battle of Colors, Thunder Kings, Firing Squad, Flower thunders of the 80s and early 90s!

Battle of Colors seems to be still available. Not sure if it's the same as it was though:

https://youtu.be/1V2Gw79plh8

[jknepp1954]

Battle of Colors seems to be still available. Not sure if it's the same as it was though:

https://youtu.be/1V2Gw79plh8

Not even close!

[Birdman]

Not even close!

I should have figured as much. Didn't think that was anything much to miss but nostalgia works in funny ways. Only if we had the youtubes back then so we can compare....

[Crush630]

I miss the big snakes. The ones today are so small and they dont work well.

https://www.thoughtco.com/make-black-snakes-or-glow-worms-605964

[Icooclast]

i sorta wish i was old enough to miss the fireworks of the 60's and such. darn stupid people ruining it :(

[Escotch]

2.5" Holiday Shells when I was a kid. Honestly the modern cans are likely much bigger breaks and higher, but the first year we saw them we went from our 4th of july party directly to a tent to buy more before they closed. Sure enough they were off the market the next year.

[joewad]

Back in the 60's, early 70's when dad would fill up the basement with boxes full of Chinese writing, my favorites of his were:

1. These silver ball items, a little smaller than a golf ball packed in saw dust that you would throw against solid walls or concrete driveways and make a pretty good pow. He stopped getting them when mom discovered the gray powder marks on our brick house. Don't remember name, too young to care.
2. Quarter pound sky rockets. We'd shoot then up out of old guttering, man they went far and visible.
3. Buzz bombs. Much bigger than today's version.

Pretty sure all three would be considered 1.3 today.

[nightstalker]

I was born in the early 1950's so I remember the good stuff. I could order stuff in the mail with no problem. Awww the good old days.

[Rocketshooter]

I miss the older firecrackers and bottle rockets before they were watered down. No comparison to what is sold today. Also, the small rockets such as cluster of bees , plum and snow etc were decent rockets at one time, now they are just junk. Jumping jacks are a good example also, as kids we would light them individually as they would fly if you threw them.

[ShorePyroTom]

This goes back to the 80's, I know it was a DOT class c skyrocket. I believe it was called the green meteor or just meteor. When lit it turned green before lift off, as it streaked across the sky it looked like a meteor. When it hit its apogee it burst into green stars.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

This goes back to the 80's, I know it was a DOT class c skyrocket. I believe it was called the green meteor or just meteor. When lit it turned green before lift off, as it streaked across the sky it looked like a meteor. When it hit its apogee it burst into green stars.

Now THAT sounds like a cool rocket!!

Fireworks were illegal when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's in Cleveland, but somehow we always found a way to get M-80's. I really miss those.

[ShorePyroTom]

Now THAT sounds like a cool rocket!!

Fireworks were illegal when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's in Cleveland, but somehow we always found a way to get M-80's. I really miss those.

Fireworks were illegal in New Jersey as well, now just 1.4 safe and sane are. The m-80 is infamous in my family. My brother in law had a bunch and wanted to show off, he said "watch this" and proceeded to throw it, well he miss judged and threw it into his duck boat, a few seconds later, nice size hole in it. My sister never laughed so hard.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Fireworks were illegal in New Jersey as well, now just 1.4 safe and sane are. The m-80 is infamous in my family. My brother in law had a bunch and wanted to show off, he said "watch this" and proceeded to throw it, well he miss judged and threw it into his duck boat, a few seconds later, nice size hole in it. My sister never laughed so hard.

OMG.. That got expensive quick! Lol... I relayed a story on here a while ago about a not so good experience I had with M-80's back in the 70's. I was working at a gas station right off a 6 lane road. I lit an M-80, threw it up in the air, and it went right out over the road. It came down and bounced off the windshield of a passing car, exactly at the time I thought it would go off. Thankfully it didn't, and it just bounced off and laid there in the street. That one scared the s--t out of me. Didn't slow me down! Just scared the snot out of me.

[ShorePyroTom]

OMG.. That got expensive quick! Lol... I relayed a story on here a while ago about a not so good experience I had with M-80's back in the 70's. I was working at a gas station right off a 6 lane road. I lit an M-80, threw it up in the air, and it went right out over the road. It came down and bounced off the windshield of a passing car, exactly at the time I thought it would go off. Thankfully it didn't, and it just bounced off and laid there in the street. That one scared the s--t out of me. Didn't slow me down! Just scared the snot out of me.

That definitely would rank high on my pucker factor. lol Right after crosswind landings.

[Birdman]

One night here recently I was hanging out with a high school acquaintance I'm now good friends with and we were sharing firework stories (He works at a fireworks store). He says to me "you remember that time you flushed the M-80 down the toilet in high school? That was so loud!" I didn't even remember at first and told him that wasn't me? I didn't even really know him then but he was friends with my best bud who would have been only one of maybe two people I would have let in on something like that. He swears it was me. I vaguely remember flushing one down the toilet but don't recall it going off or anything. Apparently it did go off and I just never knew it, unless I completely blocked it out of my memory. I still have my doubts but he swears by it. Not the first time I had someone say " do you remember the time you..." and me having to think about it. It almost always involves me doing something I'm not so proud of today....lol

[Rick_In_Tampa]

That definitely would rank high on my pucker factor. lol Right after crosswind landings.

Crosswind landings?! When I was flying up in Dover De, if I didn't land sideways, I didn't land! It's the straight-in's that I'd find a way to screw up. lol.. Except at night in the winter. Used to love flying at night in the winter. Okay... I'll shut up....

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Birdman - As long as the statute of limitations has run out, embrace it! Own it!! :cool:

[ShorePyroTom]

Crosswind landings?! When I was flying up in Dover De, if I didn't land sideways, I didn't land! It's the straight-in's that I'd find a way to screw up. lol.. Except at night in the winter. Used to love flying at night in the winter. Okay... I'll shut up....

LOL your right, landing at night especially with deer on the runway, but flying at night was always nice.

[JoSlicknuts]

My dad had a box of works in the garage when I was a youngster that had a few hundred packs of Cobra firecrackers and a couple hundred little clear plastic bags that had about little bangers in them. They looked EXACTLY like gumballs and had quite a pop. No Idea what they were. No fuse. You threw them or rolled em into traffic.

[cptnding]

I still miss the grey paper fuses on bottle rockets and firecracker strings. They were a bit unpredictable and kept things interesting lol.
When I was a kid one of my favorite things to do was hold a bottle rocket by the stick and launch it that way. When they switched to visco the spray off the fuse made it too painful.
Does anyone know when the government forced the change to visco on those? Seems like it was the late 80's but I may be wrong. I remember being pissed off the first time I got bottle rockets with visco fuses. Didn't mind it so much with firecracker packs though lol. When they got old sometimes those paper fuses would go almost instantly. Got stung a few times!

[MontanaMike]

I miss sky rockets. They're still available of course but they are illegal in MT.

In our early years of buying fireworks, we would go to a store in Sheridan, WY and buy our stuff (before we knew about wholesale). Of course we picked up a bunch of sky rockets. Got told during our shoot that "those things are illegal" and found out the next day that it was true. So we haven't bought any since.

I'm kind of against them now due to the litter problem they bring. But I sure miss the sound of them taking off.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

There's a huge dialogue going on right now at PGI about rockets. They're looking to ban certain kinds of rockets since we've had 2 accidents in the past 3 years with them. It's a shame because there are some beautiful rockets they make. But I understand the liability issue. If one was to seriously injure or kill someone, that could be the end of PGI completely. So I empathize with you Mike.