TNT Big Timer Assortment — Worth It? Every Fountain Lit.

Open box, light everything, call it. That's the deal. I lit every fountain in TNT's Big Timer California Safe & Sane assortment, ranked them with Polar Bear Pyro using our four-circle system, and one of them earned the only blue circle on the box. Spoiler: it's not the one the box wants you to think it is.

The Big Timer is one of TNT's mid-tier California ground assortments. The pitch is the standard pitch: one box, full show, no thinking required. The catch is the catch every assortment has: most of the fountains inside it are tubes you could buy individually for less, packed with a couple of one-tube wonders to fill the box and make it look heavier. The real question every year is the same one. Are there enough good fountains inside to justify the assortment price over walking the stand and buying singles?

For Big Timer, the answer turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

The Box — And The Color Garbage Problem

Before we light anything, the inspection. Sixteen years of doing this and I still get annoyed at the same thing: fountains with visible empty tube slots labeled as "stabilization." Color Barrage is the worst offender in this box. Three tubes that actually fire, three empty slots underneath labeled as stabilization tubes. There's no Isatube under there. Nothing. It literally looks like it used to have more tubes and they pulled them out.

This is a fountain. Not a 200-gram cake. It does not need stabilization tubes. The footprint is plenty wide for what it does. That's why I kept calling it Color Garbage on camera — because the empty slots tell you exactly what the marketing won't: this fountain used to be bigger.

Out of all the fireworks I've inspected in my life, this literally looks like it used to have more and they just took the tubes out. So that is very upsetting. It literally has the room to have three more tubes. — Beast, inspecting Color Barrage before the demo

I'm going to come back to Color Barrage because the burn told a different story than the inspection. But the principle stands: if you see "stabilization tubes" on a fountain box, that's marketing telling you the item used to have more firepower and got cost-engineered.

The Polar Bear Circle System — How We Rate Fountains

Polar Bear was on camera with me for this demo, and we used the four-circle rating system on every fountain. If you're new to the channel, here's how it works:

For the Big Timer box, here's how it broke down. Most fountains landed yellow. One landed blue. The math on whether to buy the assortment hinges on whether that one blue item plus the supporting yellows justify the box price over buying singles. Stay with me through the verdicts — the answer at the end might surprise you.

The Fountain-By-Fountain Walkthrough

The One-Tube Wonders

Rain Dance, Glittering Fountain. The single-tube novelty crowd. Nothing to write home about to your mother — although as I said on camera, mom might actually like the glitter one. Lightning Flash was the entertainment of the opening: I lit a stack of eight pieces and the photoflash blinded everyone within ten feet of the lighting position, including me and the camera. That's how to make people leave a show if you want a smaller audience.

The Four Sharks (Tiger / Hammerhead / Mako / Thrasher)

Lit all four at once because, well, they're sharks and the foursome is the bit. Not terrible. Some good purple. The art on these has been redone enough times that I'm not really a fan of how they look anymore, but the burn was fine. Yellow circle for the foursome — solid mid-tier four-pack you've seen in assortments for years.

Piñata Buster + Crash Course (Two-Pack Demo)

Both quiet, both mid. Piñata Buster is the silent fountain you light when you've got an HOA situation and don't want a noise complaint. Mrs. Beast's anti-bang-anxiety fountain, basically. Crash Course is the slightly bigger sibling — same family of effects, more presence. Neither one is going to wow anyone. Yellow on both.

Blue Ribbon + Ice Chest

Blue Ribbon is one of those fountains with #1 on the package, so I half-expected it to be a sleeper banger. It wasn't — red, green, a little bit of gold, and one tube actually had some blue/purple in it (rare for fountains, so that's worth the call-out). Ice Chest had a crackle finale tucked into the end. Both ended up roughly the same vibe: pleasant, not bad for a one-tube wonder, nothing to clear the room for. Yellow on both.

Wildcat + Solar Glare + Livid (The Two-Tube Tier)

Lit these three together because they're all two-tube format and they tend to blur into one show when stacked. Wildcat went first, Solar Glare followed (a TNT staple you've seen in California assortments for years), and Livid closed the round. Some good crackle from Livid. Decent variety across the three. If all three of these were sold as one combined fountain, I'd pay $20–25 for the package — but as three separate two-tube items in an assortment, they're filler. Yellow tier.

Combustion Chamber — The "TNT, Please Redesign This" Item

This one has a great theme and an underwhelming execution. It's a hot-rod-themed two-tuber with the box art of a muscle car. The first tube went up looking like a generic crackle fountain. Then the second tube popped — and that one was actually kind of loud, with some real character.

Here's my pitch to TNT, on the record: both tubes need to fire at the same time, themed like an exhaust pipe. Like a NOS car. Like the box art promises. Right now it's two separate medium effects stacked back-to-back, which doesn't read as "combustion chamber." Add one extra tube, fire them paired, theme the burn to the box art. Add $5 to the retail price. I'd pay $20 for that.

You should make me feel the combustion. — Beast, on Combustion Chamber's missed opportunity

Color Barrage — The Inspection Was Wrong

The fountain I called Color Garbage during inspection turned out to be one of the box's wins. Three real tubes (the empty stabilization slots stay a complaint, but they don't affect the actual burn). The middle tube went high — higher than I expected — and threw a "yellow crackle" effect I haven't seen quite like that before. Not the bright-white storm-runner crackle. Different chemistry. Worth seeing.

I take back what I said about Color Garbage. The burn earned a green circle. The empty stabilization tubes are still a marketing complaint, but the actual fountain delivers.

Supernova — The Box's Most Underwhelming Pick

Four tubes, decent height, but the effects didn't pop. The opening tubes felt like an air compressor running in the background — the actual compressor at the property was louder than the first stage of this fountain. The finale tube was the saving grace: nitro-cellulose-style pearls and a streak of purple visible on camera. Strong finish, weak setup. Yellow circle. Not a fountain I'd buy as a single.

Crackling Blast — The Blue Circle

The last fountain in the box, and the only one that earned a blue circle from both me and Polar Bear. The name promises crackle and nothing else. The fountain delivered crackle and then ambushed me with flying fish.

Fish in an assortment fountain. I have rarely seen fish in an assortment item — they tend to live in standalone premium fountains because the chemistry is more expensive. Crackling Blast snuck them in. Combined with the crackle stages and a finale that was over the typical 10–12 foot rule for Safe & Sane, this was the moment in the demo where I sat up and went OK, TNT, you got me.

That's probably one of the best assortment fountains I've ever seen. So TNT, you have impressed me. — Beast, after the Crackling Blast finale

Buy strategy: if you can find Crackling Blast as a single, that's your buy from this assortment lineup. If TNT only sells it in the Big Timer box and you can't buy it standalone, that single fountain plus the supporting yellows is what carries the assortment math.

The Full Verdict Table

Every fountain in the box, rated. Circle-rating system in the right column. The same rating system Polar Bear and I used on camera.

So, Was The Big Timer Worth It?

Here's where I land, after lighting the whole box and watching the rated stack play out:

If the Big Timer is your only fireworks purchase — stretched out across the night with maybe one extra single like an Opening Show for finale insurance — you will not be disappointed. There's enough variety in the box to feel like a real show, and Crackling Blast at the end is genuinely impressive for an assortment fountain. The Color Barrage redemption arc is a bonus.

If you've got a real budget and you're choosing between the Big Timer and walking the stand for singles — singles win. Almost always. Crackling Blast as a single (if TNT sells it that way) plus a Centennial XL plus a Magic Whips fuse will beat the Big Timer at roughly the same dollar amount, with no filler one-tube wonders eating shelf space in your finale lineup.

The assortment math is the same math it's always been. Boxes are convenient. Singles are better. The Big Timer is one of the more honest mid-tier boxes I've seen from TNT in a while — at least one item earns the box, and the rest don't drag it down. That's actually a decent grade for an assortment.

What's Next — The Big Deluxe Demo Coming

The Big Timer's bigger sibling is the Big Deluxe, and that one's already filmed. Coming to the channel next. Same format: open box, light everything, call the circle ratings, write up the verdict. If the Big Timer earned one blue circle, the question for the Big Deluxe is whether the higher price tier delivers more blues — or whether it's just the same item shelf with more filler around the winners.

Subscribe to the channel so the Big Deluxe demo lands in your subscription feed the second it drops.

The Big Picture

Sixteen years of California Safe & Sane testing since 2010. Twelve years filming reviews on YouTube. Zero sponsors, ever. The verdicts in this post and in the Bible are mine — no brand pays for a positive review, no assortment gets graded up because TNT sent it to me. Crackling Blast earned a blue circle because Crackling Blast performed. The Firework Gospel is the foundation if you want the longer story of how this whole project started.

Light it up. Make it count.

— Beast