Fun with fuses: Bee tests a sampling of fireworks

Fireworks are a bit like fast food. The cheapest is sometimes the best. The names, photos and descriptions often suggest something bigger and better than the real thing. And if you don’t choose wisely, you end up wishing you had tried something else.

To help you with your pyrotechnic purchases, 16 Modestans gave more than an hour of their time Monday night to sit in The Modesto Bee’s parking lot, fill out forms in the dark, eat quickly cooling pizza and drink quickly warming soda, wave smoke away from their faces and watch about $100 worth of TNT and Phantom fireworks ignite. It was a blast!

What we bought

We set out to get about $50 in fireworks each from TNT and Phantom. We stayed away from sparklers, snakes and little Piccolo Pete types of things. We asked the vendors for recommendations of midsize fountains, and this is what we got:

At a TNT booth, we purchased, for $54.82 including tax:

▪ Exploding Piñatas, $17.99, two-for-one deal. TNT description: “A pluming spectacular of all colors of the rainbow but with strobing bright white flashes within – finishing into very loud triple crackling golden mini palm explosions! Packs quite a noisy finale punch!”

▪ Mad Dog Fountain, $17.99, two-for-one deal. TNT says: “Beautiful red and green with bright crackling stars and whistles.”

▪ Orchid, $3. TNT says: “Emits showers of sparks. Yellow and purple.”

▪ Zombie Zapper, $11.99. TNT says: “Keeps you on your toes as its fountain overflows with red and green lights, whistling sparks and stars, and silver crackling chrysanthemums. An awesome finale!”

At a Phantom booth, we purchased, for $52.53 including tax:

▪ Firecracker Fountain, $9.99. Phantom says: “Extra-loud crackling barrage that sounds like a strip of firecrackers. Intense long-lasting finish.”

▪ Funky Monkey, $29.99. Phantom says: “Unique display with chrysanthemum, pearls, fish, flowers and crackle with green, red and titanium finale.”

▪ Volcanic Vortex triple pack of cones, $17.99. Phantom says: “Three cones erupt with high sprays and supercharged colors. Each has individual effect and color.”

We were able to get what we did in the $50 range because this Phantom booth was selling at a 20 percent discount.

Judging

We had 16 judges, ranging in age from 10 to adult, but heavily teen, with nine of them high school students. Judges rated each firework on a scale of 1 to 5 in several categories: color, size, sound, wow factor and overall. The three Volcanic Vortex cones were evaluated as a single unit. After averaging judges’ scores, Funky Monkey came in first – not surprising, being by far the most expensive. But a couple of less expensive fountains also scored well, and the little $3 Orchid edged out a couple of bigger, pricier purchases.

Funky Monkey

Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds

Color: 4.4

Size: 4.25

Sound: 4.4

Wow factor: 4.3

Overall: 4.4

Selected comments: “A lot of funky for the monkey”; “Immediately hooked my attention, and it never let go”; “Not sure if it was worth the money”; “Expected more from its size”; “I loved it, definitely surprised me a couple of times.”

Firecracker Fountain

Duration: 1 minute, 13 seconds

Color: 3.5

Size: 3.8

Sound: 3.6

Wow factor: 3.5

Overall: 3.6

Comments: “Surprisingly big, so I liked it”; “Lasts long and fun finale, lots of firecrackers, aptly named”; “It lays down the law – babang!”; “Solid but not spectacular.”

Mad Dog Fountain

Duration: 52 seconds

Color: 2.5

Size: 3.6

Sound: 3.2

Wow factor: 3.6

Overall: 3.6

Comments: “Bright, but not enough variety”; “Really ‘in your face’ kind of firework”; “Long-lasting, impressive finale”; “Pretty underwhelming”; “It popped up and out the perfect amount, pretty good in all categories and enjoyable to watch.”

Exploding Piñatas

Duration: Roughly a minute

Color: 3.4

Size: 2.8

Sound: 3.1

Wow factor: 2.75

Overall: 3

Comments: “Purple, yay!”; “Loud at the end – I liked that”; “Best for money”; “Started pretty slow and ended abruptly”; “Large, don’t stand too close”; “Great bang-for-your-buck product.”

Orchid

Duration: 26 seconds

Color: 2.6

Size: 2.6

Sound: 2.9

Wow factor: 2.4

Overall: 2.7

Comments: “Pretty poppin’ for such a small thing ... very very good for the size and price”; “Good for $3”; “Small container, decent size”; “Better than expected”; “Great value”; “Eh”; “For the size and price, it was pretty good.”

Volcanic Vortex

Duration: 36 to 37 seconds per cone

Color: 2.9

Size: 2.9

Sound: 2.8

Wow factor: 2.8

Overall: 2.6

Comments: “Boring, Orchid was better”; “Lives up to its name”; “Not much wow at all ... pretty lame, honestly”; “Disappointment”; “Wouldn’t get it because it comes in a three pack, no (single cone has) wow factor.”

Zombie Zapper

Duration: 34 seconds, but that’s apparently because ours was defective. A YouTube video shows one lasting 53 seconds.

Color: 3.3

Size: 2.8

Sound: 2.5

Wow factor: 2.4

Overall: 2.6

Comments: “Short, didn’t last long”; “It kind of petered halfway”; “Loud and cool, tall and wide”; “Way too short, especially for the size”; “I think it was a dud. WEAK!”; “Nice mixture of color with pop kept it fresh.”

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Fun with fuses: Bee tests a sampling of fireworks."