TNT Fireworks Doubles California's New Items for the Fourth

Business Wire,  June 24, 2008  

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FULLERTON, Calif. -- With six colorful and colorfully named fountains making their debut this Fourth of July season, some featuring a unique "fish" effect new to consumer pyrotechnics, TNT Fireworks is giving more ways for patriotic Californians to make their holiday a Yankee Doodle dandy.

Varying in shape, price and performance, the half-dozen new state-approved fireworks will be sold starting June 28 by thousands of non-profits serving the needy, youth sports, veterans, seniors and a host of other benefactors. Combining fund-raising with America's 232nd birthday, these organizations in 275 California communities hope to turn red, white and blue into green - or more specifically fountains, spinners, smoke items and novelties into Little League and soccer equipment, funding for food banks, support services for seniors and countless other community programs.

"Despite the slumping economy, we predict a booming Fourth of July this year," said Tad Trout, president of Fullerton-based American Promotional Events-West, the wholesale distributor of TNT fireworks. "Tradition is recession proof as we learned in the late 1980s and, I'd surmise, economic downturns before that dating back to when John Adams first suggested Americans celebrate their independence with fireworks."

The six new state-approved "safe and sane" items are the most introduced in California by TNT since 2004. Three items were debuted last season by TNT, which has about 75 percent of the California market.

"With the Fourth of July falling on a Friday and people likely staying home for the holiday because of high gas prices, we want to make sure our product line-up is as exciting as possible so that our non-profit partners, which aren't recession-proof, unfortunately, can reach, if not surpass, their fund-raising goals," Trout said.

Retailing for $4.49, Mighty Man is the lowest-priced among TNT's freshman class of fountains. The ellipse-shaped item boasts a performance of red, green, blue and yellow stars plus crackles with a titanium additive that produces brighter silver-white sparks. Emitting from the hexagon-shaped Glittering Jewels ($19.99) are colorful fishes with red, green and blue stars and titanium crackles. (In fireworks speak, a fish effect is color stars vigorously "swimming" around and expanding rapidly outward.) Pharaoh's Treasure ($19.99), one of the few trapezoidal fireworks on the market, offers white smoke and a red torch with titanium rain, sparks of purple, green and blue, and loud, crackling chrysanthemums to go with red and golden fishes.

The $21.99 Jack in the Hex, with an unusual design of hexagons and triangles to suggest a sprung-up jack-in-the-box, spews a series of stars, crackles, chrysanthemums and flowers in red, silver, yellow, blue, orange and white, plus titanium crackles and a strobe effect. Hexagon-shaped Dancing Stars ($39.99) features a unique "darting" or "jumping" fish effect and stars, chrysanthemums and crackles of green, red, yellow, blue, silver and gold. The largest newcomer this year is 3-Ring Circus ($49.99), a raucous fountain shaped like three interlocked cylinders, bursts with crackles, chrysanthemums and torches in eight colors.

Buy-one-get-one items this year are: Mini Monster Fountain, $1.99 for two; Fire Krackle, $3.99 for two 3-packs; Mad Dog Fountain, $11.99 for two; Morning Glory Torch, $6.99 for two packages; Purple Rain, $5.99 for two; and the Rustler Fountain, $9.99 for two. The American Spirit and Sizzler fountains again are packaged together for $16.99. Value-minded assortments range from the $9.99 Triple Treat to the $499.99 Big Bang.

About TNT

TNT Fireworks is California's largest distributor of State Fire Marshal-approved fireworks ("safe and sane"). For more than 50 years, TNT has set the benchmark for safety, customer satisfaction, innovation and quality in the fireworks industry. More information is available by visiting www.tntfireworks.com.

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