Collecting Vintage Fireworks

[rtfoe]

Are there any Moon Travelers in that bunch? These are fire-cracker size with a propellant and attached to one end of a thin stick. We used to form two gangs and have a firework fight with these either using a PVC pipe as a bazooker two man team or using a hockey stick as a rifle with a BIC pen tube tied at the grip end of it to slot in the projectile. Everyone was armed with a joss stick to light our projectiles. Great fun and memories...glad no one got hurt, crazy isn't it?

Cheers,
Wabble

 

[JR]

Are there any Moon Travelers in that bunch? These are fire-cracker size with a propellant and attached to one end of a thin stick. We used to form two gangs and have a firework fight with these either using a PVC pipe as a bazooker two man team or using a hockey stick as a rifle with a BIC pen tube tied at the grip end of it to slot in the projectile. Everyone was armed with a joss stick to light our projectiles. Great fun and memories...glad no one got hurt, crazy isn't it?

Cheers,
Wabble

Had many a battle like that in HK , seems to be the done thing there.

 

[boatman]

HI Kevin have you by any chance got a little demon in your collection as they were a short banger about 3 inches long an red in colour as i love to see one as these were the bangers to have wow as i used to use them to sink my model plastic ships on the pond yes love to see a pic if you have one
chrisb

 

[Escht]

Over the years I kept finding bangers so I kept one of every type and price marking that came my way. Within 10 yrs I had a collection of just over 400 different examples from early 1930's right up to the last bluetouch versions in 1995. I have just recently sold that collection to another collector who has his own fireworks display company and who could add a few more dozens to my collection. I think you will spot what you are looking for in here.

 

[Escht]

Not in my collection but something I've had and moved on to another collector

 

[Escht]

Other brands of ( bazooka ammo ) were available , just a few types that you might remember

 

[Escht]

Anyone remember these ?

 

[boatman]

well Kevin i cant see that little demon banger but yes i remember the areoplane with the raf roundels on an the small an big jumpin jacks they often chased you when lit banging away great fun they were brilliant times
chrisb

 

[Escht]

well Kevin i cant see that little demon banger but yes i remember the areoplane with the raf roundels on an the small an big jumpin jacks they often chased you when lit banging away great fun they were brilliant times
chrisb

2nd shelf to the right of the Boom bangers. That is every version of little demon that they did from the late 1930's through to the 1970's.

 

[boatman]

2nd shelf to the right of the Boom bangers. That is every version of little demon that they did from the late 1930's through to the 1970's.

YES Kevin that dark red one is the kiddie wow what a banger they were if that went off in your hand youed be in hos quick an yes had plenty of them 321 zero's but they were not as powerfull as the little demon what a banger that was wow an cheers for showin the pics as the yrs for me are rollin back to that age what fun we all had
chrisb

 

[Escht]

As time went on rather than ban bangers outright the industry agreed to reduce powder content in them. It was a fact that the older bangers were much more powerful until the Chinese imports started arriving when things got far more dangerous leading to an outright ban in the late 90's.

 

[boatman]

Yes the later banger towards the end of the 70 were rubbish an went off with a poof an no bang rubbish they were so we stopped buyin them
chrisb

 

[Escht]

Thought I had this somewhere , can only date from around 1972 to 74 as they stopped putting prices on these at that point.


Before blister packs they came in stock boxes and you bought whatever number you could afford

 

[boatman]

Thought I had this somewhere , can only date from around 1972 to 74 as they stopped putting prices on these at that point.
View attachment 488813

Before blister packs they came in stock boxes and you bought whatever number you could afford

Yes Kevin they are the ones wow talk about the fun we had with them wow what bangers they were as i think the reason they made such a powerfull bang was the outer cardbord casein was about 1/8 th thick an not just a single carboard wrapround like the petty banger we stopped buyin an cheers for the pic an when we lit the fuse on them we made sure to chuck them on the ground bleedin quick like mini hand greanades they were
chrisb

 

[colin m]

Are there any Moon Travelers in that bunch

I'm just catching up on this thread, and that's another thing to come to mind. The names of fire works. What a job that must have been, inventing new names every year.

 

[boatman]

HI again Kevin what was the biggest rokect they made for genaral sale not a show vershion ? as when back in the 90's i had a firework show in the feild near where we lived an next day in the medow where all the rokects were aimed i walked around pickin them all up as i then just cut off the spent heads an used them sticks for modelin as the wood was good an cheap but the same thing in a model shop was exspensive so a cheap supply of modeling wood as my big nimitz carrire had several rock sticks built into it an jen thought of this as a money savin idea an very good to
chrisb

 

[Escht]

Not as big a problem as you might think. Many names started in the 1930's and were still in use by the late 1990's. They just did label variations either in design every 10 yrs or so and then price or size markings that were over stamped during label printing.
For example
Standard Air bomb from1938 to 1990
Each year a few new items might get added, they were designed from ideas put forward by the workforce and in most cases were influenced by something of interest at the time. Example when the film Zulu came out there was a Zulu banger produced for the next season. When Sputnik was launched there was a Sputnik rocket. First flight of the Jindivik target drone, next season there was a Jindivik banger and so on. This practice helps greatly with dating some items. It started way back, when Belisha Beacon was first installed out came a firework so named, same with Robot Lights soon to be called Traffic Lights, fireworks of same name were produced.

 

[Escht]

Longest stick would have been 48" x 3/8" x 3/8" and was on most display and the home bought rockets. Strange thing is I reverse engineer this now when I need replacement sticks for damaged or missing rocket sticks I order similar from model suppliers. These are the Standard Firework versions that had the larger sticks. Depending when this was they could be size 9, 12, 15 or 20. Over the years they increased the prices by increasing the number . In 1976 the firework company introduced size numbers, then each year they gave a price factor to multiply with to get price per item. This meant they could produce same labels for years and save a fortune in extra printing costs.

 

[boatman]

Longest stick would have been 48" x 3/8" x 3/8" and was on most display and the home bought rockets. Strange thing is I reverse engineer this now when I need replacement sticks for damaged or missing rocket sticks I order similar from model suppliers. These are the Standard Firework versions that had the larger sticks. Depending when this was they could be size 9, 12, 15 or 20. Over the years they increased the prices by increasing the number . In 1976 the firework company introduced size numbers, then each year they gave a price factor to multiply with to get price per item. This meant they could produce same labels for years and save a fortune in extra printing costs.

COR thanks for your reply Kevin very intresting subject lets see more of what you have got an do they still make them airbombs as im goin to buy some this november if i can as they used to come in pack of 3

chhrisb

 

[Escht]

COR thanks for your reply Kevin very intresting subject lets see more of what you have got an do they still make them airbombs as im goin to buy some this november if i can as they used to come in pack of 3

chhrisb

I don't know what is made now, I'm not that interested in modern fireworks. Back in the 70's and 80's they had various ways of selling them in blister packs like these. In later years in the 1990's they changed to Bazooka with visco fuze set into bottom of the unit rather than blue touch fuze