An interview with Bob Weaver

PyroReport.com interviews Bob Weaver, the man behind the "Fireworks A to Z Buyers Guide".

A man once said "We anoint their fuses with a tiny amount of fire, and they come alive, playing out their life span in a matter or seconds. In those few seconds a crack in the universe is opened, giving us a glimpse of the energy locked within all matter." That man is Bob Weaver.

Bob has been testing and evaluating consumer fireworks since the late 1980's, and publishing his findings since 1990, with a simple pamphlet, and a full-color booklet in 1995. Since 2007, he has been publishing his "Fireworks A-Z Buyer's Guide" in PDF format. It is often considered an essential reference guide for everyone from the backyard fireworks enthusiast to the experienced amateur pyrotechnician.

We recently sent some of questions over to Bob to find out a little bit more about him and his works.

PyroReport: How and when did you start getting into fireworks?

Bob Weaver: When I was a kid, my Dad brought home an assortment box from a stand. It was just “Safe and Sane” items, but it was thrilling nonetheless. When I got a little older, I started going to the stands by myself, and spending long periods studying the merchandise through the screens, trying to decide how to get the most for my $1.00. The arrival of the stands, the opening of the stands, and the 4th of July itself were somehow more important than Christmas. We always had a block party on the 4th with softball games, homemade ice cream, and of course the largest box of fireworks that was sold.

PR: Why did you get into fireworks?

BW: I think if anyone doesn’t know or understand the “why” of it, they should be in another hobby altogether.

PR: Are you into fireworks for a living, or is it a recreational hobby?

BW: In the past it was a hobby but now nearly 100% of my income is related to it in some way.

PR: Do you work within the fireworks industry?

BW: No, despite rumors I hear now and then, I do not work for any fireworks company or any company period. It is important for the integrity of my evaluations of the products that I maintain an independent position. If I wasn't seen as independent of the industry, then who would believe what I wrote about the performances of the products?

PR: When did you decide to come up with the “Fireworks A-Z Buyer's Guide”?

BW: In the 1980s I started keeping notes on index cards for every item I lit, and I organized them by type and alphabetized them. In 1990 I published a small booklet called “Fireworks User’s Guide” which had 565 fireworks listed in it. In 1995 I published a full-color book called “Fireworks For Everyone!” and that seemed to be the turning point when I was in it for real. I published printed books again in 2000, 2002 and 2004, with a newsletter in between, but when I ran out of printed books I started selling it on my web site as a PDF file. Now that’s the only way I sell it, and it makes it easy to update it with new items as they come out. Currently it has 6,238 fireworks listed in it and I keep adding more all the time. New products come out at a faster rate than I can keep up with.

PR: Why did you publish the guide?

BW: When I first started publishing these buyer's guides, the quality of fireworks from China was highly variable, and there was almost no information on the performances. Descriptions of the effects on the labels, which are common now, were almost nonexistent then. You were basically on your own when you bought things, unless you got lucky and were buying from a dealer who had tested their inventory and knew the performance of the items, and was willing to tell you. So there was a need for some kind of organized source of information on the performances of the fireworks. Some of those conditions have changed since then, but it is still convenient to have an organized repository of information about the performances of the items, that makes it convenient and fast to find the information, and that's what the buyer's guide is for now.

PR: Do you test all of the fireworks that are in the buyers guide?

BW: Most of them - a few I only see on video, but I think about 90% I light myself.

PR: Do fireworks companies approach you with new products for inclusion in your book, or do you just go out and pick up whatever is new on the market?

BW: Yes, almost every day there is a quiet knock at my back door, and some little guy is there with a box of free samples, hoping that I will accept them and write good things about them in my buyer's guide. Sadly, though, they always seem to forget the briefcase full of cash, so I have always politely turned them away.

PR: Can you tell us about the other books you have?

BW: I have also published a directory of U.S. fireworks dealers.

PR: And about your PYROvideo series?

BW: That started in the year 2000 with a one-hour videotape, and has gradually evolved to where they are now two-hour DVDs. They haven’t sold nearly as well as I was hoping they would, so the future of it is in doubt. But video is a better way of showing the perfomance of a firework than a verbal description is, and seeing the firework in person is better than a video of it.

PR: Can you tell us about your website, Fireworksland.com?

BW: I want it to be the place where people go for information about fireworks. And if the answer they are seeking isn’t on my site, that it will link them to a related site where they can find the answer. I also want it to be a fun place, where they can learn more about fireworks, reminisce about old fireworks from the past, meet other fireworks enthusiasts, and share stories about their shows, trips and other fireworks adventures.

PR: Living in a state where fireworks are, for the most part, restricted to “safe and sane”, how does that affect you?

BW: It makes it difficult for me to get 75% of the items that are on the market and forces me to do a lot of traveling. Otherwise it’s not a factor.

PR: If you had to pick THE best firework out there, what would it be? And why?

BW: Tie between the “America Must Win” double-break shells from Beihai General Fireworks & Firecrackers Factory and the “Smoke & Mirrors” canister shells from Brothers Pyrotechnics. They’re both great, but the comet tails on the way up give the “America Must Win” shells a slight edge.

PR: What are your thoughts on the future of fireworks in the United States?

BW: I think it’s a growth industry. The state laws seem to be moving in the right direction, but very slowly. We’re in a golden age of fireworks right now, with the quality and sophistication of the designs and effects improving a little bit each year. People bemoan the fact that large firecrackers such as M-80s and “cherry bombs” which were legal decades ago are no longer available, but back then they didn’t have 500-gram cakes and the enormous variety of high-quality items that we have now.

PyroReport.com would like to thank Bob for taking the time to answer our questions and for letting us get to know him a little better.

For more information on Bob or the “Fireworks A-Z Buyer's Guide”, visit his site at www.fireworksland.com.

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