New fountain fireworks from Italy that lasts 5 minutes!

I was shopping at the local wet market during the weekend when I saw a fireworks stall that has something very unusual – it’s a boxy fountain “cake” format firework that has all Italian writing. Best of all, it’s *new* – the manufacture date listed is 2014! This was the only shop that carries it and the person didn’t know the price, that’s how current the stock was.

There’s actually two groups/gangs selling fireworks there – one has a yellow tablecloth and the other blue, but their stock is essentially the same. I was given a brochure listing all their products and everything was similar. However, this stall had one interesting stand-out that no other stall had – a strange Italian fountain. I knew it was a fountain coz it doesn’t have the holes/tubes that aerial fireworks shells has, but it’s in the format of a cake.

I was quite intrigued by the firework seller’s cell phone notes which goes “Lasts for 5 minutes! Price = ???” and since he couldn’t reach his boss for the actual price and no one else was selling it, I compelled him to let it go for RM 25. I thought that was a great bargain for a new firework that I’ve never heard of.

I let it off for my better half and the kids to see since Chinese New Year is coming up soon – it didn’t last 5 minutes, but it was close, it was over 4 minutes! It’s basically an array of 3 rows of 5 firework fountains chained together into a cake, as you can see when I tear off the top. You can see the Sunsong Fireworks logo at the other (bottom) side of the top cover, it might have been an OEM for Jupiter Fireworks. Here’s a video of the new Italian firework:

It’s an interesting mix of traditional fountains and some shooting effects and the color mixture is nice, but it’s the duration that’s the USP – I’ve never seen a fountain last this long for commercial fireworks (not counting professional ones). It might have really lasted a *full 5 minutes* as the packaging Italian text suggests since the original format seems to be in a horseshoe shape and apparently radiates outwards in an arc before coming back, easily adding another minute to the display.

This Jupiter made Fontana Ferro di Cavallo (Horseshoe Fountain) is an awesome buy (and a hell of a deal) for RM 25 but I suspect it won’t be that price when they finalize the price list – it doesn’t make sense to sell 15 fountains for RM 1.60 each (it’s 5 fountains x 3 for a 15 firework array). Even the 12” cone fountains already retail for RM 35 and doesn’t last nearly as long.

I suspect this is a Chinese divert though, the original is really in the shape of a horseshoe and has about 3 of these connected together, as can be seen in the Jupiter 2014/2015 Italian catalogue (Page 17). It’s common for Chinese manufacturers to divert and resell partly assembled fireworks to other countries – a horseshoe shaped firework cake would be really hard to package economically, especially when it’s illegal here so it’s cheaper and more effective to smuggle in and sell one flat section.

It has a bit of a flaw though, maybe due to the departure from the original horseshoe shaped design – the firework fountain got REALLY HOT at the end (unusually so) and it ended up *burning up* after it was finished. This could also be due to the strong wind though, but I suspect it was meant to go a lot further down the arc before coming back which led to the overheating issue.

Still, the diverse colors and crackling effects makes this a pretty awesome sequential fireworks fountain cake…and you can’t beat the price! 🙂