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The skateboard ramp was also occupied by the skateboarding kids who had helped with some of the earlier destruction. Naturally they thought the whole thing was very cool indeed, and they crowded round. One asked if we were crazy. His mate said no, we were cool.
 
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Josh had some trouble lighting it, swearing in the process about the poor quality of generic brand matches. But eventually it got lit. Problem was, the "fuse" sparkler wasn't in close contact with the rest of them, and it looked for a little while as if it would fizzle out.
But Josh had a plan. He quickly pulled another sparkler out of the VCR, and lit it from the first one. Then he shoved it through the hole where all the other sparklers were. And then, probably silently praying to any deity that might be watching over him, he ran for it.
 
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This certainly did the trick, because moments later, the whole video recorder exploded in a blaze of light. The kids all backed away and shouted enthusiastically and appreciatively, and as for yours truly with the camera, well my instincts told me that backing away might well be a good idea too.
Flames poured out of the VCR, and so did smoke. This goes to demonstrate how dangerous and polluting an average domestic VCR can be when set alight. I don't remember reading any warnings about this in the manual.
 
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It burnt for a few minutes. The sparklers continued sparkling for about the usual time that sparklers sparkle.
The amount of smelly smoke it was giving off was a bit of a worry, so once the sparklers seemed to be out, we used the handily placed bucket of water to put the fire out. The water put the fire out quickly, but it was still hot and smouldering. After a few minutes however, it began to cool down and the smoke finally stopped.
 
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A little more water, and it stopped smouldering. Josh reckoned the image on the top looked like the Virgin Mary, which left at least one of the kiddies demanding to know "Where?!" I thought it looked more like the Phantom Of The Opera myself, but there you go.
More significantly, Josh said the toast was still in there, though I couldn't see it. Maybe he was... umm... err... joshing. Not to worry. It must have been pretty burnt anyway.
The whole VCR was well and truly a wreck now. Quite frankly, if it had still been under warranty, I would have been quite tempted to take it back to the manufacturer and demand a refund.
 
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When it had cooled down, we started to clear up. We got the loose bits into a garbage bag, and then Josh cautiously lifted it up by the (still intact) power cord, and carried it back to his house.
 
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We popped it into a handily located wheelie bin, and said goodbye, and good riddance to Sharp VC-A105 video recorder.
Conclusion: Blowing something up? Take a bucket of water with you.
Now available: download the video footage of this momentous event!
Or watch it online at Google Video
Why it deserved to die: the evidence
Shameless capitalism!:
Get the
t-shirt!
(Help me buy a new VCR)
Send a video destruction e-card
Get it for your computer's wallpaper
Don't try this at home, kids.
Copyright (c) 2001 Daniel Bowen. Special thanks to Josh and Cathy.
