Imperial Atomic Stock Pile (1 of 24) by Damir Djanis

This is a very clever version of Andre Kole’s Atomic Stock Pile Illusion created by Damir Djanis with assistance from George Robinson.  Even though this is the best version I have seen, the blocks cannot be examined and the spectators cannot get too close to the blocks.  The illusion looks excellent, but I suspect some lay people who watch would simply believe magnets are being used.  And although you can tell the audience “there are no magnets, wires, or threads used in this effect”, because they cannot examine the blocks I’m not sure how many will believe you.

This being said, I believe if you address this head on and use a strong magnet to demonstrate that there is no magnetism involved you can get close to removing the doubts.  My good friend George Robinson disagrees with me on this finer point, so I could be wildly wrong here  🙂

The routine has four phases and although they are not hard to do this will take some practice to get smooth which is why I believe there have been no videos added to YouTube by the usual suspects. The demo video looks great and the instructional video, performed by Chris Brent, is excellent and certainly makes learning the phases much simpler.

There is no doubt this is a beautiful item and since there are only 24 of them they are in strong demand and sold out months ago at Viking.

Effect: (from George Robinson at Viking Mfg.) I first heard about an inventor named Robert Gurtler (aka Andre Kole) around 1968 after reading an article in Genii magazine. I began seeing his ads in older Genii publications and became an instant fan. I read all I could about this magical genius. His effects were unusual, clever and magical.

Since that time, I began collecting some of the props he produced and one that fascinated me the most was his Atomic Stock Pile which I purchased from Louis St Pierre at Hollywood Magic. Such a clever and deceptive miniature illusion. Since then, many builders have produced their version with slight improvements but still something was missing. I set the Blocks aside for almost 50 years and then the impulse to perfect this illusion reared its head again. I began brainstorming but most of my ideas fell short of what I was looking for.

Then in 2018 I got very close but no cigar. In 2022 I met another clever creator, Damir Djanis of Croatia. His unique methodology immediately caught my attention, and we began to work together creating some of the finest limited edition close-up props offered by Viking Mfg. I knew Damir would be the one to take my ideas for the Atomic Blocks effect and turn it into a miracle class effect, which he did. The answer did not come easy. We threw ourselves into this project and brainstormed some crazy methods only to come up short But then the light bulb lit, Eureka! He hit upon an idea so devious it blew both our minds.

The problem with the original idea, in my mind, was that you could not show all the blocks cleanly and separately. Well, after months of experimentation Damir hit upon a marvelous solution. The blocks could now be shown all around and separated. REVOLUTIONARY! After 50 plus years my dream has come true, the Imperial Atomic Blocks have become a reality.

Imagine opening a small chest and removing three wooden blocks which are shown all around. They are stacked one on top of the other and then one block is moved away from the others and the other two blocks remain suspended in the air.

They are positioned in precarious positions defying gravity and finally, the pièce de résistance, a solid brass hoop is passed over the blocks going from one end to the other straight across without the usual Super X ring manipulation. The ring is shown solid with no openings and passes unobstructed over the floating blocks. The blocks are then separated and again, each block is shown on all sides as is the box used to house the blocks. No evidence of any support method can be found.

It’s pure magic 🙂

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