Hi Malte,
I guess its a definite decision to step out of the dutch market? I understand the reasons, but I do miss the quality products in the smaller items (such as fountains) and quality cakes (especuallt such as argento which are still affordable).
I would love to see you do an attempt to produce fountains which stand out in (multi) color. We have seen some amazing things in gold and silver, though the color section is over all still poor.
Well, currently the problem is, that the fountain factory we originally cooperated with got famouns (we started the gold effects such as Brocade crown / golden willow in the "Riesenfontäne 4", and "Goldfontänen mit Farbsternen"; now, they get orders with those effects all over the place, like "Brokatmeister" in Holland, one fountain battery for Nico for Aldi in germany, conic fountains for Jorge.. So when I was discussing too much for quality issues, they just canceled all our orders and don´t want to produce for us anymore. So we currently anyways have a problem to make those things.
Furthermore, I was not happy at all with how distribution / pricing was going in NL (although this might be my fault, as I just agreed with Zena that they do it through lesli, and never discussed details with them, or talked to Lesli myself at all).
So while I don´t want to rule out we might bring back some items in the future, I can only say that currently it´s not possible, and we need to build up some reliable own production capacities over time first.
Welcome!
I think a lot of us would be very happy if those series of go getter cakes, and single rows, would be available here or, even better, in the well known shops in Belgium.
For NL, see above. For Belgium, Zena could order them from us, but they are pretty expensive to make and a pure "Freak"-item, and storage space etc in their stores is limited. So I do not think it matches the assortent.
Welcome Malte!
first of all the new python line is exht great!!! I'm eagerly awaiting the product videos
. Will the new Albert products also be offered at "special" stores in Germany this year? (then my wallet can take it into account
)
We will increase the offer of Albert in Thomas Philipps in germany, but last year it was sold out everywhere within minutes, so I do not think this will help.. There will also be new Albert items for normal fireworks stores, and we might add other sales points for Albert, but likely not this year anymore - due to capacity reasons we had to turn down some requests.
Hi Malte,
It's good to see you active here where most fireworks can still be discussed. Like you said we can even talk about those high risk items like babyrockets and roman cables.
Recently a video appeared of the Red Python and I'm loving it and looking forward to the other variants, especially the Python compound.
The biggest question I have at this point, and I think a lot of us have the same question, what can we expect this year from the availability of your products? Last year availability was very limited in Germany and close to nothing in Belgium when it comes to cakes and compounds. It would be nice if you could share your expectances on this.
Availablility is still tough this year, and I am focusing on Albert / Iskra / Argento, which I have lower request than for our Funke items, so it is easier to get something done and keep everything running. Meanwhile, I am trying to build up a new own factory, and if this works, we will focus to make Funke items there after some practice time, but it might be too late for this year, as we are just starting, need to find workers now, then need to teach everyone etc..
In the small items section, I woud also love to see innovation in spinning products.
E.g. ground bloom flowers are originally with a 2 times color change, but the last 20 years this results in poor quality of the colours and/or spinning time and quality.
I wonder if the color is reduced to one (or 2 contrasting colors), would it be possible to intensify the depth/brightness of the color. Such as the bengal flame products.
A small string (6-8pcs) of different bright colors would also be nice. A bigger and better version of the old jumping jacks.
And since funke stands out in gold and silver, i would love to see a gold or silver spinner with a good spinning time.
At last, I would love to see an improved attempt (if possible, different versions) by funke for this kind of product:
Actually, I found an old factory in Guangxi which can make groundbloom flowers in good quality. Price is quite high, but they are willing to make all in the old style, even labeling carefully with pink flower pattern paper wrapped over the end etc.. A very small factory with an owner over 70 years old, they specialised on small / toy items, like pagoda, rising spinners, tanks etc, quite nice and fun items. Sadly, their license has been over in begin of last year, and since then they try to renew it. But as the factory is so old and small, and the boss is very old and stubborn, since then they could not meet the new standard, and can´t get a new license. So we will see if they will be able to get it during this year, or have to shut down forever... Besides this factory, I tried to find someone willing to make it according my request for years, but was unable to find anyone, so if this won´t be possible, then I do not know if and when we will ever be able to get it done.
Strings might need a factory with proper tooling and license to make such strings.
The fountain has the problem as written on top in another reply already, that we would need an own fountain factory, or at least a factory willing and able to work according technical data which I provide, which we currently not have.
I can only wish for more whistle cakes in burst. Or cakes with a whistle highlight like we see in the Iskra line.
With the wettest of all dreams, a combination of te Scala 100 and the Guangxi whistle, in a 6 or 10 row F-shape
And I'm personally very pleased by the idea of the Guangxi whistle in burst, altered by a burst of those good howlers we see a lot the last few years, in the finale a combination.
The howlers you saw in the last year may all disappear now first, as they were all made from plastic, which is not allowed from this year anymore.
However, in Guangxi, we will work on whistle effects like this and others. Although we just had some kind of setback, as the factory we are focusing on had an accident, and the technician left. We tried to hire him back, but one big company who produced a lot there before brought him to another factory and doesn´t allow him to go back. That guy is 60 years old and has all the knowledge of the old style of whistle effects, hummers etc, and it´s a big pity, as they let him make red green peony crackling cakes instead, complete waste.. But yeah, we might have to re-develop all by ourselves now, which will take time.
I would like some bigger cracker fountains, 250 gr NEM would be great, so they go higher.
Perhaps in volcano form.
Your product range is already pretty big with lots to choose from. Availability is a bit of an issue though.
Oh, I would like to add: it sucks that Pulver (Fire Event was it?) is ripping off your ideas, too bad the Chinese won't do anything about it. No such thing as copyright there.
For fountains, see replies above.
For Fireevent, they copied our blackpowder crackers, same as Pulver now. However Pulver is in general sending our factory codes to china and trying to copy many items such as Luftheuler, rockets etc; as well as whole designs etc. Really annoying to have to deal with such people
Adding a couple of good whistle cakes, or compounds including whistle would be nice for sure. The availability of whistle products is only getting less with great products like Kingsmen, Wicked Whistle and The Scream going end of life and I'd love it if Funke could fill that gap with some brilliant whistle products.
As written above, all those items will be gone from the market from this year due to the ban of plastic whistles. However, we are working on whistle effects in paper. I intent to develop a wider range of such special effects, as I think it makes cakes / compounds in general more fun and playful if there are more special effects inside, not always just boring shooting up with crappy tail and maybe some mine, followed by star burst effect. But as written above, development takes time..
Should be great if you can work together with Vulcan and/or get the rights of their ASTRONAUT brand.
They don’t have the balls and knowledge to get Astonaut and Reuzen Astronaut in 90’s style back for the German and Belgian market.
Will be a absolute bestselling cracker in all Belgian and German shops close to the Dutch borders if you use your grauer lunte/old style Böllers expertise combined with their Astronaut logo/labels.
If they don’t want to cooperate you always can go for Aztronaut or Asstronaut combined with the old Schuurmans logo instead.
I can´t use designs from other companies which still exist, as I already replied.. Also not change a little. I am not familiar with possible copyrights, also do not know anyone there I could talk to.
While we're talking about flute cakes...
a 16 or 25 shot "scream" cake.
The following will probably not be possible, but I would think it would be something for Funke.
a 100sh compound in which different flute types have been processed, such as.
whistling palms - Funke
devil scream - Abba
3 stage whistle
shout to salute
and to open it with hummers and end with a 3-layer fan with the effect of the vortex salute. so that in the end it sounds a bit like stepping during fallas
A 25sh version of scream shots / Vortex salutes has actually really been considered by me. But, currently, at first I need to get scream shot and vortex salute done again at all. The factory in Guangxi making it had a serious accident in last march, and the technician left, as written above. So we need to get all adjusted again first.
And I was also planning some sound cakes, but this will take time, as effects need to be developed which noone can do currently / anymore. Oh and the whistle of ABAs devil scream is not impossible, but almost impossible to make in china, as the powder has to be pressed very tight in craft paper tubes which are being inserted into a mold, while the chinese usually press in bundles of tubes. But this doesn´t work, as pressure would be too much, and tubes would burst. So the whole system would need to be changed according german style, which I do not consider to be realistic anytime soon.
I would love to see a real poisenous spider cake just like the old one from weco, neven seen a cake with this kind of spinners since, They keep spinning for a couple of seconds in the air, spectacular!
Example
i guess the aces high cake had also nice spinners but was 50mm.
And maybe some 75grams rockets for the belgium market.
A real poisonous spider is high on the list since 2020. When I first went to Guangxi, I did weeks of research online for old items made there before, old videos etc, and over time developed a good judgement for old items which effects must have definately been from there. Actually, in 2020, we already had one factory there make almost succesful samples of this effects, but the factories license was over that year, they shut down and never reopened again, as the owner would have to invest millions in order to meet the new standards for renewing the license, and does not seem to be willing to do so..
I try for 3 years now to convince them to sell me the factory but they refuse, so it´s just sitting there and looking more and more like a jungle, huge pity..
Anyways, I still want to get it done; just they made this kind of items / effects by hand before, so the workers rammed the powder for the spinning one by one, which makes it extremely expensive, so new tools have to be created in order to make it affordable; and also, due to the long spinning, it needs a huge amount of powder, in 25mm it´s already 10-12g minimum just for the spinning, so in 25mm you already get close to the max. 25g per shot in F2 if you add lifting charge, stars and burst, making this the maximum caliber possible for this effect in F2. Also price per shot will most likely be higher than most 30mm cakes due to the reasons written above. But anyways, I didn´t give up on that one, during this year we will try to make samples and get it to a stage where we can mass produce it, let´s see if we can be succesful. I think such unique items are really missing on the market today, it´s not just simply shooting up and bursting, but adding a very special and fun effect, which people even still talk about 20 years later. So this is exactly the kind of thing / the direction I want to go to in the coming yeary.
Rockets, we shall see what capacity of the factory will allow us to do..
What also woud be nice to bring back are the high quality Jumping jack / baby magic bloom. The one with powerful spin and bright colors. Some even fly up the air.
a good example at 0:40
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I do not think this will be possible. This is a very work intense item to make, due to the small size, and also only few factories specialised on this can make it at all, as they need a lot of specialised tools. But, all of this is adjusted for todays crappy quality. It would be a huge effort to get it better again, many things would need to be chaned, and we simply to not have the time and ressources to do so, and also for this item I do not see the order quantities which would be necessary in order to be worth it / convince any factory.
Hi Malte, good to see you joined FPM!
It would be great if you could consider the option of bringing back this version of the Twitter Glitter. A multitube item, with small roman candles, small whistles and reports. It used to be a great item. Please also have a look at this Youtube, if you hadn't seen this already:
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Furthermore, I agree with most of the previous posters. Great ideas. It would be really REALLY great if Funke crackers could be available also in the Belgium market again, as was the case in 2018 (DJF Thunders, 450BE). Are there any plans to export the new Dancing Lion crackers design to Belgium?
Finally, it would be great if you would consider remaking this old-school whistle, from days gone by. It looks like you got the whistles technique nailed down quite well already. This whistle ("Luchthuiler") was made with report. Whether or not that could be done today; you're most likely best informed if this would stand a chance.
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Such items with small roman candles I would like to make, but what makes them special are the inserts. Small tubes pressed with different compositions etc, giving different unique effects. Before I assume this was just done by hand, but today such items would be completely unaffordable. Even if pressed by machine, I assume such item would easily cost 10€+ today. Which would not stop me from making it, but the factories for roman candles usually do not even have any press (maximum one press for cylinder stars), so they are not able to make such inserts. So realistically, it would only be possible to make with an own roman candle factory, which we do not have.
We work on something together with the factory in Guangxi which made our 8 shot roman candles, the new python series etc, but actually they do not even have a roman candle license anymore haha, and is only due to renew their license next year, then we shall see if we can find any way to let them get a roman candle license again, which would be necessary in order to do the necessary investments in tooling in order to produce such items at least somehow affordable / realistically in todays environment. So we shall see.
As most of the times, the difficulty here is not that I do not want to make it, but that it is not readily available in the market / noone has a factory set up by structure, machines etc in a way which would allow them to do it, so it requires a lot of time, work and investment for us to get to the point where something like this can be made. There is a reason that nowadays, there are a huge amount of items on the market, but if you look at it closer, there is not much real variety.. But anyways, that´s what we have to deal with, and development of many items for us may be very time consuming, but we still continue to work on it.
As for the whistle, we have the "luftheuler" which should be the same item, just no bang? With bang, it may be possible I guess, but would need to remain within 8m, and be under 120dB to the testing point. As it moves uncontrolled, and it can move let´s say up to 5m, then it could move 5m towards the measurement devide, so the bang would only be 3m away from the measurement device, making it 120dB max @3m instead of 8m. So what I want to say is, the distance of movement would need to be restricted a lot, and the dB would need to be very little; or it would need to have some instruction to be fixed in the ground somehow.
But also another problem would be to find a factory which has both licenses, which I do not know any. Most banger items nowadays are only allowed to make bangers, even for a color flame they would need a fountain license now, so even bangers with color flames mostly disappeared / have mostly been replaced by shitty color fuses....