@@mattscaliforniafireworks Not too surprising, costs- and thus prices have been rising steadily for years, and vendors get tired of the yearly sticker shock and accusations of greed, rip off, etc. So, to keep the price increases at least somewhat under control, they cut costs where they can. And, of course, a lot of these rewraps are intended to fill the inexpensive niche, or be assortment stuffers. Quality creep has also long been a phenominon, too. As an example, Brothers has, on their website, videos of a lot of their products. I was thrilled to see a lot of old favorites from the late 90's/early 2000s listed as still made! I was appalled to see how meh they were now, compared to what they were when new. It's like they go through the motions of making them, not because they want to still make them, but because people still order them. (and negotiate the cheapest price possible- which they oblige by making the cheapest VERSION possible...)
@@pyroman6000 A lot of fountains that should have been retired years ago are still around and getting watered down. I think the biggest offender we have here in California is the TNT American Spirit/Sizzler pack. They used to be good but were overpriced even in their prime (It’s TNT go figure right) these days they are a good 30-40 seconds shorter, noticeably less powerful, and you guessed it, even more expensive!
I didn’t see blue but my eyes don’t pick up on blue in fireworks that well when its only light touches of it because i’m super nearsighted with an astigmatism, so you may be right. There was definitely some red stars in both but Kool Kat was more pronounced due to its weaker crackle
no, I saw them, too. The problem with pairing color stars with that fluffy silver effect, it that they often get drowned out in the glare- esp when you're stingy with the stars, or they aren't really brilliantly colored. It's also hard to pick up on camera- also due to the bright white. I do like the effect, though- it's nicer to look at imo, than the standard silver spray.
@@pyroman6000 this was a fairly old camera last year that had a hard time contrasting the bright white from blue in fireworks. I also mentioned my above eye issues which don’t help either lol. This years demos i had a noticeably better camera but they will always have trouble contrasting that. Image sensors work by balancing out white, and grays. They use all colors to average this and especially with something as active as a firework scene it’s easy for the sensors to get it wrong and drown out colors.
@@mattscaliforniafireworks I didn't know the tech reason behind it- interesting. I just noticed the effect in a lot of videos. Too much white/silver at once drowns out everything else. We used to call this effect a "whiteout". People would put finales together with lots of shells and cakes, willy nilly, and all you would see is a mostly white sky puke. The culprit was most often the chrysanthemums, waves, palms etc so common in consumer fireworks. You need to be careful with those. Peonies, dahlias etc- color without the white trails, are a better choice.
Not bad choices for those times when a low noise fountain is in order. Those can be hard to come by- esp in tents! Here in NY, a LOT of the fountains are full of really loud crackle. To the point of well- I wasn't expecting THAT! Could just be the microphone, but that was fairly low intensity crackle, compared to what I see. (there are so many different kinds of crackle these days...) It makes me wonder if it isn't different state regulations at play. You definitely AREN'T talking out your butt when it comes to rewraps. Most fireworks come from the same factories in China. They make items in big batches, then put whatever label you want on them. You can also get customized versions made to your specs, it just costs a bit more because it has to be fit into the production schedule. Take the ultimate example: TNT's Purple Rain. Same fountain is sold by Phantom as Moondance; by Fireworks Supermarket as Cool- ya gotta say it right!; and also under the Firehawk brand, under I forget the name, lol. Keystone Fireworks also has a version. Firehawk is a Chinese factory brand, all the others are US importer house brands. Even more confusing, many of these factories have several different brands of their own- and factories copy each other, too, lol. (how many different brands/names have we all seen of the giant ice cream cone shaped fountain lately? Winda first sold it as Snow Cone. Now EVERYONE has a version- both US importers AND other Chinese factories. Same for the fish shaped fountain, which I think was either a Brother's or Winda original- I've seen Koi Pond, Bad Bass, and several others.) When Pyro Universe and Pyro Review websites were still around, the forums had numerous threads every year about what was a rewrap of what. It was half the fun of the months leading up to the Fourth! In the above example, those 4 US brands cover most parts of the country- if THEY don't have a store near you, you probably do have a mom n pop that buys some stuff from one or the other of them. If not, then there's a fair chance somebody sells the Chinese branded version.
@@pyroman6000 I think that Kool Kat was a dud, there’s an older version of these two called Crickets with a lot more crackle. Thank you for the manufacturing insight. It’s always interesting to hear about that stuff. I would’ve sworn somebody else other than TNT had an opening show rewrap--need to go look for it now.
@@mattscaliforniafireworks I always liked Crickets- it was a good cheap fountain with a fairly long duration and good power for it's size. It was a staple for stores that bought wholesale from TNT, and readily available. I didn't know those were rewraps of it!
Have a couple of Disco Turkey from AZ. Also a rewrap. 3 bux each
They love to clone these fountains because they are cheap to make and fly off the shelf. It seems each new rewrap of them gets slightly weaker sadly
@@mattscaliforniafireworks Not too surprising, costs- and thus prices have been rising steadily for years, and vendors get tired of the yearly sticker shock and accusations of greed, rip off, etc. So, to keep the price increases at least somewhat under control, they cut costs where they can. And, of course, a lot of these rewraps are intended to fill the inexpensive niche, or be assortment stuffers.
Quality creep has also long been a phenominon, too. As an example, Brothers has, on their website, videos of a lot of their products. I was thrilled to see a lot of old favorites from the late 90's/early 2000s listed as still made! I was appalled to see how meh they were now, compared to what they were when new. It's like they go through the motions of making them, not because they want to still make them, but because people still order them. (and negotiate the cheapest price possible- which they oblige by making the cheapest VERSION possible...)
@@pyroman6000 A lot of fountains that should have been retired years ago are still around and getting watered down. I think the biggest offender we have here in California is the TNT American Spirit/Sizzler pack. They used to be good but were overpriced even in their prime (It’s TNT go figure right) these days they are a good 30-40 seconds shorter, noticeably less powerful, and you guessed it, even more expensive!
Is it me or did cool cat have some blue stars?
I didn’t see blue but my eyes don’t pick up on blue in fireworks that well when its only light touches of it because i’m super nearsighted with an astigmatism, so you may be right. There was definitely some red stars in both but Kool Kat was more pronounced due to its weaker crackle
no, I saw them, too. The problem with pairing color stars with that fluffy silver effect, it that they often get drowned out in the glare- esp when you're stingy with the stars, or they aren't really brilliantly colored. It's also hard to pick up on camera- also due to the bright white. I do like the effect, though- it's nicer to look at imo, than the standard silver spray.
@@pyroman6000 this was a fairly old camera last year that had a hard time contrasting the bright white from blue in fireworks. I also mentioned my above eye issues which don’t help either lol. This years demos i had a noticeably better camera but they will always have trouble contrasting that. Image sensors work by balancing out white, and grays. They use all colors to average this and especially with something as active as a firework scene it’s easy for the sensors to get it wrong and drown out colors.
@@mattscaliforniafireworks I didn't know the tech reason behind it- interesting. I just noticed the effect in a lot of videos.
Too much white/silver at once drowns out everything else. We used to call this effect a "whiteout". People would put finales together with lots of shells and cakes, willy nilly, and all you would see is a mostly white sky puke. The culprit was most often the chrysanthemums, waves, palms etc so common in consumer fireworks. You need to be careful with those. Peonies, dahlias etc- color without the white trails, are a better choice.
I did mine side-by-side this year, 2024, and the Kool Kat was much more vibrant, as far as color was concerned.
Not bad choices for those times when a low noise fountain is in order. Those can be hard to come by- esp in tents! Here in NY, a LOT of the fountains are full of really loud crackle. To the point of well- I wasn't expecting THAT! Could just be the microphone, but that was fairly low intensity crackle, compared to what I see. (there are so many different kinds of crackle these days...) It makes me wonder if it isn't different state regulations at play.
You definitely AREN'T talking out your butt when it comes to rewraps. Most fireworks come from the same factories in China. They make items in big batches, then put whatever label you want on them. You can also get customized versions made to your specs, it just costs a bit more because it has to be fit into the production schedule. Take the ultimate example: TNT's Purple Rain. Same fountain is sold by Phantom as Moondance; by Fireworks Supermarket as Cool- ya gotta say it right!; and also under the Firehawk brand, under I forget the name, lol. Keystone Fireworks also has a version. Firehawk is a Chinese factory brand, all the others are US importer house brands.
Even more confusing, many of these factories have several different brands of their own- and factories copy each other, too, lol. (how many different brands/names have we all seen of the giant ice cream cone shaped fountain lately? Winda first sold it as Snow Cone. Now EVERYONE has a version- both US importers AND other Chinese factories. Same for the fish shaped fountain, which I think was either a Brother's or Winda original- I've seen Koi Pond, Bad Bass, and several others.)
When Pyro Universe and Pyro Review websites were still around, the forums had numerous threads every year about what was a rewrap of what. It was half the fun of the months leading up to the Fourth! In the above example, those 4 US brands cover most parts of the country- if THEY don't have a store near you, you probably do have a mom n pop that buys some stuff from one or the other of them. If not, then there's a fair chance somebody sells the Chinese branded version.
@@pyroman6000 I think that Kool Kat was a dud, there’s an older version of these two called Crickets with a lot more crackle. Thank you for the manufacturing insight. It’s always interesting to hear about that stuff. I would’ve sworn somebody else other than TNT had an opening show rewrap--need to go look for it now.
@@mattscaliforniafireworks I always liked Crickets- it was a good cheap fountain with a fairly long duration and good power for it's size. It was a staple for stores that bought wholesale from TNT, and readily available. I didn't know those were rewraps of it!
Maybe light them side by side