HALL OF FAME
Our Firework Awards UK Hall of Fame features retail fireworks that are either discontinued or have been around long enough to become a much-loved classic or achieve legendary status amongst firework enthusiasts.
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Only FIVE fireworks each year are inducted into our Hall of Fame and these will have been selected by a team of experienced members of the UKFR (UK Firework Review) community.
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Scroll down to view all of the fireworks currently in our Hall of Fame.
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Brothers - Tri Fawkes
Brothers Tri-Fawkes is a 66 shot F2 cake which has certainly stood the test of time with it being as popular back in the mid noughties as it is today. This multi shape firework starts with straight firing peonies with added mines, to pulse firing of fish and fanned blue peonies. A Z-firing multicoloured pearl comet section fills the middle middle of the display, providing a rare effect in such a small cake. This is followed by a finale of fanned fish and fanned blue peonies. For a small, reasonably priced F2 cake, this was a game-changer back in the day, providing a rage of effects never seen combined before in a single cake. Tri-Fawkes is a quintessential display-in-a-box that was well ahead of its time.
Brothers - Night Vision
Sadly now lost to history is Brothers Night Vision, a colourful 105 shot cake which was an impressive low-noise addition to any garden display back in the early 2010s. Fast Z-firing wiper cakes have always been difficult to find, especially one as small and affordable as this. Night Vision swept through a range of coloured pearl comets in quick succession with rows of each bright colour filling the sky. It was quick, but it was a very popular way of giving any sized display the wow factor.
Brothers - Krazy Klock
This is the third entry into our 2024 hall of fame for Brothers with their legendary Krazy Klock multi-effect fountain. The fountain begins with the hands of the click spinning like a mini pinwheel, followed by two green strobes. Three blisteringly loud whistles give way to a trident of red flames, cycling between the two effects several times. Five fanned coloured bengals then appear out of the top of the clock which transition into fanned silver jet fountains, followed by a large plume of gold glitter crackle. This fountain was a very popular choice for garden displays and even larger community events due to the wide range of effects contained within. Remembered fondly for its iconic design as well as its contents.
Magnum Series - Mega Mine
The Mega Mine from the short-lived Magnum Series brand of fireworks will go down as one of the first instant dump cakes to be available to consumers. In the mid 2010s there were various types of true mines available from the likes of Sovereign and Vulcan and other small diameter tube mines that started with a fountain but the Mega Mine with its multiple tubes all fused together provided an instant lift, perfect for opening or closing a display. Many enthusiasts will remember with fondness a batch of Mega Mines which instead of containing their legendary wall of dragon-egg crackle, accidentally contained thumping salutes! Both versions will go down in folklore as being a truly novel firework at the time and its popularity helped lay the foundations for the array of dump cakes we see today.
Shellscape - Shanghai Candles
Shellscape’s Shanghai roman candles were a staple of many garden and semi-professional displays for years. Available in a range of single effects including red star, lemon star, green star, blue star, purple star, silver comet, gold comet, crackling comet, blue coconut, pink coconut and red strobe tail, these were an inexpensive way to create a really professional looking effect, especially when used fanned in multiples. Their consistency in height and timing has never been matched since they were discontinued in the late 2010s, even by Celtic’s similar version – Hong Kong candles.
Epic - Screaming Spiders
Screaming Spiders from Epic Fireworks was one of the first big 100 shot cakes on the market to be described as a ‘display in a box’ and is one of Epic’s best-selling products of all time. This cake fires a two-stage mine with large reports, golden tails with willow effect bursts, massive jet screams, glittering confetti, crackling comet tails to tourbillions with blue peonies, dragon’s eggs and strobes with a huge 10 shot multi-break finale. Screaming Spiders is talked about today as being one of the best cakes of all time and it is still selling as many as ever.
Cube - Molten Krypton
Molten Krypton is a legendary cake from the now defunct Cube Fireworks. Remembered fondly for its huge charcoal gold breaks with silver glitter tips, the consistent pacing along with its bright silver to colour rising comet tails made this stand out amongst a growing consumer fireworks market in the mid 2000s. Cube produced many other memorable cakes, which began with a range of re-wrapped Brothers items but Molten Krypton is one that still sticks in the mind as being years ahead of its time.
Weco – Diamond Sun
Weco’s Diamond Sun or Diamantsonne as is sometimes known is probably the best-known of the traditional pinwheel style which has been available for decades. The construction of the wheel is different to modern wheels which use tube drivers for rotation. Diamond Sun is instead powered by a single reel of powder-core match which burns down gradually and provides a driving force as well as a plume of bright silver sparks for a long duration.
Standard Parachute floating Light
Standard’s Parachute Floating Light was a truly unique firework and featured a bright star falling down to earth on a paper parachute. This firework has largely been forgotten by history but was always a memorable sight in displays with its intense coloured light illuminating far and wide.
Bright Star - War Hawks
Bright Star’s War Hawks are the best-selling rocket pack of all time and have spawned countless copies and variants across many brands. War Hawks are often regarded as the best pound-for-pound rocket pack that has ever been available to consumers. They break fairly low in the sky so their bursts appear significantly larger than similarly sized rockets and the five effects in each pack make for a nicely varied display. These rockets are used as much in back gardens as they are in large scale community displays and are the first-choice rocket for millions of firework users each year.
Mars – The Boneshaker
The Boneshaker was a mixed effect SIB, notorious for its ultra-loud multiple titanium salute finale. Its unique coffin-shaped packaging made it stand out in a packed SIB market in the mid 2010s but this was not just a gimmick firework. Pulse firing 80 shots of various effects made it a very popular piece for any display and the inclusion of the salute finale, unique at the time, gave it legendary status.
Klasek - Brocade War
Brocade War is a cake that has only been available to UK consumers for five years or so but which has already gone down in folklore as being one of the most impactful fireworks of the modern age. The firework contains only two effects – brocades and titanium salutes but the way in which it interlaces these effects is novel and spectacular. Brocade war has inspired spin-offs of same name, including rockets and fanned versions.
Fireworks International – Triple H Bomb
Triple H Bomb was a much-loved medium-sized cake that fired 75 breaks from its 25 shots. To this day there has not been another cake on the market that has featured a triple-break effect, essentially three separate breaks per tube. Because each shot had a triple break, the length of the firing tubes was longer than usual to accommodate, which meant each shot fired noticeably higher into the sky than other cakes of this size. A truly memorable firework in many ways!
Brothers Pyrotechnics – Hercules
Hercules is one of the most popular SIBs of all time and is as popular today as it has ever been. The key to its success might be the unique pace of the effects – starting with straight firing peonies, to V-firing, to W-Firing, building pace and filling more and more sky as it goes, finishing with Z-firing gold and blue brocades and a fanned finale of chrysanthemum breaks. Hercules was one of the first great SIBs on the market but still holds its own amongst a huge SIB market which now includes two Hercules spin -offs – The Hercules Limited Edition and the Hercules Mini.
Absolute Fireworks – Zero 2 Sixty
Zero 2 Sixty from Absolute Fireworks was one of the first professional-style, low-noise cakes to be made available to the public. The cake began with slow Z-firing crackling comets and then sped up with waves of fanned crackles to ruby red crossettes. It was such a spectacular, sky-filling and unique effect that it spawned an-ever popular spin-off in Celtic’s Slow Then Go.
Sovereign - 3" Mines
Our first entry in the Hall of Fame class of 2021 are the legendary 3" mines from Sovereign.
The mines came in 6 varieties - red crossette, green crossette, gold to blue, whistles, dragons and colour butterflies and were one of the most impactful retail fireworks of all time, launching with a satisfying boom and firing a wide column of stars high in the air. These Sovereign mines were unfortunately discontinued in 2017 but continue to be regarded as a product many would love to see return.
Cube - Powerstation 1
Cube's Powerstation 1 was one of the first cakes in the UK to feature humming/screeching volleys of bombettes and in the early 2000s was one of the most highly regarded fireworks available.
Although now discontinued it launched a whole host of copycat fireworks that are still available today under several popular brands.
Royal Party - Diamonds 70
Royal Party produced two cakes as part of their Crown Jewels range - Diamonds and Sapphires with Diamonds being the best known of the two and used in many finales of large-scale displays for the best part of a decade.
Diamonds pulse-fired 70 huge bombettes filled with golden brocades and pink, green and gold stars and is still considered one of the most powerful and impressive cakes of all time.
Kimbolton - Jumping Jelly Beans
Kimbolton brought us something truly unique with this legendary fountain. The outstandingly bright and intense colours are created by using nitrocellulose in the manufacturing process, with this being the first fountain to use this method.
Jumping Jelly Beans is still as popular today as it was decades ago and its design and groundbreaking effects have spawned a handful of modern imitators.
Gold Label - The King
Gold Label's The King rocket is and was in a league of its own. There have been many rockets that have tried to impersonate the hanging golden brocade trails that this rocket produced but not many have come close.
The King was the epitome of class and excellence in its day, regularly used to close a large display and this rocket remains the yardstick that all other brocade rockets are still measured against.