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Stick Bomb?

What's a Stick Bomb?

It was in 2011 when the invention of the stick bomb was introduced to the world. Tim Fort, better known as “The Kinetic King,” took his whimsical popsicle stick inventions to the stage of the television show America’s Got Talent. It was these performances, aired on national television, that would inspire an explosion of interest in stick bombs across the globe.

A stick bomb, quite simply, is a weave of popsicle sticks. In this special weave, the removal of a single stick causes a chain reaction of sticks relieving their tension by flying into the air in a spectacular fashion. The size of a stick bomb has no limit, and can range anywhere from a handful of sticks to tens of thousands of them. At the time of his audition on America’s Got Talent, Tim Fort held the official Guinness World Record for the largest stick bomb with 2,102 sticks. On his way to 13th place out of over 25,000 auditions, Tim Fort introduced new styles of stick bombs, each with their own unique way of exploding.

Building a stick bomb is similar to building a line of dominoes. Each piece must be set up properly otherwise the entire reaction could stop. A steady hand and a focused mind are the tools of a stick bomb builder, for a mistake could prematurely trigger the chain reaction, potentially exploding the entire bomb. Stick bombs generally fall in the following categories:

Orthogonal Weave

(Also known as the Square Weave)

The square weave was the first type of stick bomb that could be extended indefinitely by adding additional cells. The square weave consists of sticks crossing at right angles, and resembles the weave of a basket. Square stick bombs are tied with diamond weave stick bombs for reliability, and are generally considered the hardest to make.

Diamond Weave

Diamond weave stick bombs are made of sticks crossing in repeated “X” shapes, creating the appearance of overlapping diamonds. The diamond weave was used as the primary weave in previous stick bomb world record (held by the Tulln Domino Team from Austria).

Cobra Weave

The cobra weave is the easiest style of stick bomb to learn and the fastest to build. When exploded from the correct end, the stick bomb will rear up like a cobra (hence the name). The downside of the cobra weave, however, is that it is the most likely weave to lock up and stop the chain reaction. The cobra weave was used in the previous world record setting event by the Natick “Bomb Squad”.

It was less than a year after Tim Fort’s appearance on America’s Got Talent, the Natick “Bomb Squad” was formed. With 4 members, the Natick “Bomb Squad” achieved their first official Guinness World Record by successfully building and detonating a 4,037 stick device, beating out the previous record by only a few hundred sticks.

Since then, the stick bomb world record has only grown. It was later in 2012 when the 10,000 stick mark was finally passed, and the record grew to 30,000 sticks by 2014.

In June 2015, the “Bomb Squad” was reunited and set the official Guinness World Record once again, detonating a colossal 31,370 sticks in the Natick High School gymnasium.

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