Spectrum Pyrotechnics - ArniesAirsoft

Author

R22Master

Dionysus

Registered: September 2004
Location: Static in the UK, but wishing I was motorbiking around the world - UK > Europe > Russia > Alaska > USA > UK.
Posts: 3,372

Review Date: 15/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	100% reliability, better than expected performance.
Cons:	Delays getting the pyrotechnics due to overwhelming popularity of the products - can't really call that a bad point though I suppose ;)

Arnie-Geddon 2005 has just finished and I was the pyrotechnic expert for the event. All pyrotechnics we used were supplied by Spectrum and here's how they went.

First off, EVERY SINGLE ONE of the devices used at the event detonated as planned. I had a 100% success rate with the pyrotechnics supplied and considering I used up to 200 grenades, maroons and smokes, that is an excellent record. About 100 additional grenades (the green bodied "dry pea-filled" grenades) were given to players free of charge and a few did actually fail to go off. On inspection of one or two of them, it appears they were struk far too hard and the sulphur tip was torn off before the secondary fuse ignighted properly. Still, it is a very good success record.

The in-game pyrotechnic maroons were supplied in 2.5 gram, 5 gram, and 25 gram versions. The "gram" value refers to the number of grams of flash-powder contained inside the device. The 2.5 gram model was equivalent to a Mk5 Thunderflash, the 5 gram model was equivalent to a Mk9 grenade, and the 25 gram devices were just massively loud. Due to restrictions put on us by the local SAS regiment after Thursday's heightened Terror Alert status, we were unable to detonate any 25 gram maroons - they would have been just too loud. Even the 5 gram devices were pushing the limits somewhat. However, the 25 gram versions were used underground to cause an amazing explosion that threw dirt a good 20 feet in to the air, with minimum noise. The 5 gram models were also used to create an "Air-Strike" (my own invention). Basically, 10 of these maroons were buried in the ground in a staggered line and hooked up to a custom built 10-way rotary detonator. Once the Airstrike was called, all 10 maroons were detonated one after another, moving up the line and throwing dirt in to the air. The sound resembled a silenced M60 HMG, and visually, the effect created was a realistic small-scale airstrike. Done right, it is a very safe effect and can REALLY produce a great atmosphere for players in the game. I certainly had a lot of comments about how great it was.

Spectrum have also started making some small smoke grenades. About the same size as smoke grenades you have used before, they throw out a good covering layer of smoke and last noticably longer than competetive devices produced by other companies. They are great value for money.

The two most notable grenades that Spectrum produce are their large smoke grenades (large green canisters with the cosmetic pin and ring), and their revolutionary "Stun Grenade". The smokes throw out an outstanding amount of smoke that will fill almost any room, and the weight allows accurate deployment of the device.

The stun grenade again has a perfect weight for accurate use, and it is an excellent "Base-Clearance" grenade. Picture the setting: A base is covered with scrim netting and has 3 enemy players inside. You throw the grenade accurately on to the roof, which then falls through the netting. The players inside shout "GRENADE!!!" and rush out of the structure. Smoke fills the base and then 4 bangs occur, knocking any nearby players out of the game. As the base is still filled with smoke, the base is unusable by the enemy for a few minutes after, as they would not be able to see accurately enough to use it as a fire-base. This is a very handy grenade and all of the ones used at the event went off perfectly.

Congratulations to Spectrum for making some excellent pyrotechnics, for sponsoring the pyrotechnic presence at Arnie-Geddon 2005, and for supplying them to players at breakthrough prices.

NOTE: Do NOT try to use electric maroons yourself unless you have the relevant training and experience necessary to do it safely. Static electricty generated by your body, vehicles, and other factors can prematurely detonate, leading to potentially devastating injuries. While these devices are exciting when used professionally, they are very dangerous, even to those who have used them before.

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Lance Jackass

Registered: October 2004
Location: Midlands
Posts: 10,414

Review Date: 29/8/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �2.50 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Extreme realism
Cons:	Price

Right first of all these are the only pyrotechnics that i have ever used, so i have nothing to compare these against. I used these products at Arniegeddon 2005, where the spectrum rep/manager was present as well as a pyrotechnician. So i can safely say i learnt how to use these the correct way!

Out of the spectrm range i used the:

- 90 seconds screening smoke
- Mk 5 thunderflash
- BB grenade

And i saw the remainder of the range being used.

Firstly the 90 seconds screening smoke. This consists of a long cylinder with a ring, much like that of a normal grenade. Okay so the pull ring looks gucci right? Well to be honest thats all it's for. It would have been more useful to have had a grenade "spoon" than the ring.

The screening smoke is easy to use- just a case of "twist top, strike and throw!" This is the same way in which the whole spectrum rnage is used, apart from the electrically fired maroons. The weight of the grenade also makes it extremely to throw over quite a decent distance.

The smoke given off is very intense and deploys very fast. I personally found it hard to spend much time in the smoke screen that it gives off. The smoke irritated my eyes and lungs, so my advice would be to throw the thing and run through the smoke, no dawdling around!

The next product that i used was the Mk 5 thunderflash. Now i should point out here that i comitted an airsoft sin with this product. Due to me not owning a tac vest i had to keep the thunderflashes in my pockets which i knew was unsafe and i proved so. I'm sure that the thunderflashes are fine in pouches, but in a pocket they are very prone to the caps twisting off exposing the striker. That's basically your safety catch falling off.

DO NOT PUT PYROTECHNICS IN YOUR POCKETS

The Mk 5 is another long cylinder, but much, much thinner than the screening smoke. I personally found the MK 5 hard to throw far because of the shape and weight, but for just tossing into rooms they're perfect.

The sound on them is fantastic - 150 Db the manufacturers reckon, about the same as one seconds worth of heavy metal concerts! I wore ear defenders when wearing them, but to be honest i would have been perfectly fine without them. Also the constant chucking of Mk5's in the back ground of a skirmish really adds more depth to the games; great background noise.

The only major gaming trouble of the MK5s that i found was that they leave very little smoke when they go off in grass. So when playing the "3 metre elimination rule" it can sometimes be hard to work out where the thunderflash landed.

The last grenade that i used was the BB grenade. It was perfect in all respects. Quite light, yet heavy enough to throw well, great ergonomics, easy to strike and also great smoke and BB coverage. These are the perfect bunker busting or room clearance option.

Lastly i was on the truck at AG that was rigged with, i believe 2,5 gram electically fired pyros (either thunderflashes or maroons) and i can honestly say that i was terrified. They simulated an RPG hit perfectly and really added realism to the game! Another use of the electronically fired maroons was the simulated airstrike in the gulleys at AG05. A line of simulated machine gun/cannon fire hits lifted earth and debris in the air to rain down on the attackers, aswell as scaring the life out of everyone with the noise. These products really do make airsoft very realistic!

My main niggle with the Spectrum line of pyrotechnics is the price. �2.50 for something that blows itself up really isn't worth it. However i found out that this is because the skirmish sites and airsoft shops inflate the prices to make their profit. The pyros can be bought directly from Spectrum for under a pound, so this is what i will be doing in future.

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jay bee

Registered: April 2005
Location: Brighton, UK
Posts: 411

Review Date: 4/9/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	highest quality pyros around
Cons:	Enola and Dangerzone will go bust.. hang on thats a good thing...

Im a total pyro-head, and I've used pyros from the 3 main players - Dangerzone, Enola Gaye, and Spectrum. I used Spectrum pyros for the first time about a week ago, and in my opinion, they are by far the best.

For a bit of a background on the subject, for those of you who don't know, spectrum used to make pyros for both Dangerzone and Enola Gaye, but after Spectrum were unable to continue supplying them, they had to seek other supplyers. This I believe, is what led to the inferior quality of Enola Gaye pyros.

I met the owner of Spectrum at a military show in Detling, a really nice chap. The first thing he did was to hand me a pea grenade so I could see it up close and test its durability. Being used to the Enola Gaye grenades, I expected the thing to fall apart in my hands, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this grenade was as solid as a rock!

The pyros I used from the Spectrum range were the following: Pea grenade, 90 second screening smoke, mk5 thunderflash, and the Stun grenade. All I must say, were very solid, infact I sat on one of the stun grenades by mistake, and being a reasonably large lad of about 13 stone, I expected it to be duff after such treatment. However, it still worked perfectly. I found them all very easy to throw, and despite the differences in size and shape, I found the ergenomics of all of them to be very good. I especially liked the ringpull of the 90 second screening smoke, which just added to the cool factor.

The initial impessions out the way, it was time to proceed to using the pyros in game.

The Pea Grenade

This one made a surpising loud bang (again my experience with Enola Gaye grenades meant I was used to the usual pffftt) which startled me for one. I never got hit by any peas from the grenade, but I had been told this was generally the case, and the best way to use them was to count anyone out if they were within a few metres of the grenade when it went off providing they weren't behind hard cover.

The 90 second screening smoke

These babies were quality! As the name suggests, you could hide a house with one of these provided there wasnt any wind. The smoke did get carried away a bit sometimes, but this could be solved by throwing 2 or 3 at once for some seriously thick smoke cover. These were also very good for throwing into bunkers, being shielded from the wind, the smoke just filled up the bunker, flushing out anyone inside.

The MK5 thunderflash

These were neat little sticks of surprise. Again being used to the Enola Gaye thunderflashes, (which in all honesty never really did much to surprise you unless you had it held up to your ear) I was pleasantly surprised (no pun intended). I found generally that it was the noise, not the flash, that made you vulnerable to attack afterwards. I was on the recieving end of one or two of these in urban environments. When one of these got thrown right into the room, I tended to flinch and turn away from the flashbang, so naturally I got totally mowed down a second later! In woodland areas it tended more to distract your attention, which did make it useful for ambushes as the victim would usually turn towards the flashbang shortly after it went off. I suppose the only possible improvement to this is that the flash could be a little brighter, but of course due to the laws surrounding pyrotechnics for non military use, this could be impossible to do. I dont exactly know the ins and outs of everything.

The Stun Grenade

These were pretty damn sweet. In urban scenarios, these scare the living daylights out of you! Useful in woodland too for that matte. Basically 4 MK5s and the added confusion of the smoke beforehand.

Overall

To be quite honest, these are the best, most reliable, most effective pyros that money can buy. Not only that but I think you'll find they're cheaper than Enola Gaye or Dangerzone. So why carry on buying inferior products from other pyro manufacturers? Spectrum wipes the floor with all opposition, end of.

One other thing I should point out to any potential buyer of pyrotechnics, is that if you have used Enola Gaye or Dangerzone products, do NOT assume that Spectrum pyros will perform the same. Believe me, Spectrum pyros have a 97% reliability record, which is MUCH higher than that of E.G. or D.Z. products. I have even heard of some Dangerzone pyros having 'a Spectrum product' printed on the side, or words to that effect. However, you have to believe me that this is no longer true, I know for fact that unless the pyro in question is very old, it will NOT be a true Spectrum product. So basically what I am trying to say is that despite the fact Dangerzone and Enola Gaye are (allegedly) copying the pyros Spectrum used to supply them with, this does not mean that the Dangerzone and Enola Gaye copies are of the same standard of quality as the Spectrum equivalent. In my opinion the Spectrum equivalent, is much, MUCH more effective and reliable. Plus its cheaper, so woohoo what more do you want?

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Pro-Test - Standing Up for Science
9:22, Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal. I was terrified, alone in that darkness. Slowly daylight crept in through the bandages, and I could see, but something else had changed inside of me. That day I had my first headache.

RSM

Registered: February 2005
Location: Manchester
Posts: 2,034

Review Date: 11/4/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Nigh on 100% reliability and consistency, very satisfying bangs
Cons:	Erm.....I can only carry about 20 on me at a time?

Having used all of the Spectrum pyro extensively now I felt it was time to get one of these reviews up properly rather than the Reader Reviews section on the forum. I�m not one to beat around the bush, so here�s the run down

BB Grenade

Unlike other brands (excluding the ring pull ones by SFX as I have no experience with these) these are highly crush resistant, possibly the most important feature about them. To clarify I have often lay prone on top of a pouch holding 5 of these (for reference the utility pouch on the highlander copy of the standard British Army Assault Vest that has a grenade/trauma pouch either side of the chest) and none have been damaged, I am not the lightest of folk either.

With approximately a 4 second fuse these are not pyro to ignite without knowing exactly where you want to send it, with a good throw and combined with the weight of the individual unit these can be projected quite some distance, although BHD style ranger throws into upper floor windows are yet to be seen.

The contents of the BB grenades are dried peas (presumably to keep the percentage of biodegradability of the unit as high as possible), detonation mid flight produces the best spread but as anything that goes bang in 5m counts as a hit usually this is more a novelty effect personally.

MK 3 Smoke Grenade

Now I like these for a number of reasons, one of them being the ring pulls. Although non functional having two I can immediately yank off my vest is incredibly useful. The unit is crush proof period (well you may need to stand and jump on it, or get a landrover�), and is heavy enough to throw with a good deal of precision

The smoke produced is thick, unlike the �wisp� of some other products I have tried, of course the MK3 requires a good 20-30 seconds to get an effective screen going but this is typical of smoke grenades anyway.

Stun Grenade

Similar in shape and weight to the MK3 but black and sans ring pull the Stun contains a short smoke component and 4 MK5 Thunderflash (see next for these) charges.

The fuse time to smoke emission is roughly 4-5 seconds with an equal amount of time in smoke discharge before the MK5 charges detonate.

Each charge is spaced along the fuse to go off at roughly .5 to 1.5 second intervals (the fuses are hand made so that�s where the variance comes from, I am told that these can be made more precise, but would increase the cost of the unit as more time is taken to produce one to higher standards). The individual bangs are rather satisfying and I would expect these to be readily feared in CQB.

MK5 Thunderflash

These have recently (earliest I knew of this was around March 2006) been redesigned and are now a longer and thicker tube than the almost biro type design of the old style MK5.

These are much easier to throw now and the bang is much deeper than the party popper on speed the old MK5 was. I am told the sound on detonation is in the region of 100-120 Db at 5m.

MK9 Thunderflash

Now these are fun. They are also �duck and cover� inducing. Simply put the MK9 Thunderflash is the big evil bastard of airsoft pyro.

Roughly a foot long (new type, old type is about 1.5 inches shorter but carries the same charge) these can be somewhat difficult to carry in some forms of load bearing equipment.

The boom (yes, not bang, boom) from these is loud enough to warrant a 10m safe distance and are strictly not to be thrown directly at people or into bunkers simply because these will cause damage to your hearing, however for when you have to cause everyone to stop firing for a second wondering who called in the air strike these are perfect.

Other Info:

As to the ignition system this is the tried and tested remove cap, invert cap and strike fuse tip system, you only have to strike the fuse tip gently with cap to ignite.

Bar the frags all the other pyro has the cap affixed to the body by tape which securely holds the cap on while being extremely easy to remove when needed, usually as you remove the tape the cap comes away with it so you aren�t left trying to wrestle it off.

All the Spectrum brand pyro is consistently reliable, out of over 100 varying units during a skirmish (our group has a rep for making the site sound like an artillery range) we had a grand total of 4 unit failures, 2 due to fuse tip damage, 1 down to the top of a frag getting rip off (we still haven�t figured out quite how that happened) and the last was due to the unit failing to detonate for mystery reasons.

When you�ve got Spectrum pyrotechnics available there really isn�t any reason to buy other makes as the Spectrum ones genuinely are the best available.

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urban-ninja

attack of the clones

Registered: September 2004
Location: Milton Keynes
Posts: 4,338

Review Date: 29/1/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	nice products, very reliable, cheap.
Cons:	takes forever to get in contact with spectrum

i've ordered alot from them and have used them on different occasions with different stuff in the order so i know how consistant their service/products are. but i'll keep this short and sweet.

pros.
they kick arse!
can be very cheap.
nice size/weight
very consistant
flexible payments.

cons.
very long waiting time for delivery and/or contact with spectrum.
products may not arrive the day mentioned.
can be frustrating if you have require the products within 4months

they are perfect if you can afford to buy much more than you require within the near future.

as you may never know for sure, when exactly you will receive your products. so if you are prepared to wait for an uncertain period of time (months) they are perfect for your pyro needs.

i understand how busy they can get but keeping a customer waiting and/or wasting their day off booked specifically so you can receive the products is rather frustrating and had happened to me more than a few times.

but this is not going to stop me from ordering from spectrum pyros, becuase they're THAT good. NOTHING else i've tried in the pyro market is as reliable as their products.

edit:
15th april. i have added this link to youtube.
here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXZ2i8JcJM

that stun grenade is over a year old. maybe a year and a half when used. still went off without a problem. and because the stun grenades at that time were 'prototypes' it's common to have 2 or more charges going off at the same time.

also, electric pyros. they have a much longer shelf life as it's a completely sealed unit and usually stored in a sealed container...
this was used in october 2006. again, they were not freshly made. these were about 9-10months old. (these are 5g maroons, not safe for the average skirmish. and this was set off before participants were too close to the bunkers)

link here to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyH29ac5rfs

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jaredc40

Registered: February 2007
Location: England/Fareham
Posts: 8

Review Date: 22/2/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Spice up Games
Cons:	None

Ok When I went Airsofting for the First time my Dad took me there to see what its like and as soon as we got out the Car I Heard Pyrotechnics Going off in the Background, I thought to myself this is going to be good, and now I got Once a Month and its Great, I've just realised that in paintball they never use Pyro's but In Airsoft we use them all the time!!

YEAH BABY YEAH

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MY RIFLE