This is the original version of Magic Wagon’s Ring Thru Sword Mystery. The prop is much smaller compared to the Magic Wagon version, which is what makes it truly remarkable, and the use of a plastic tube makes it appear even more “clean.” It would be better if the tube were a bit longer. When performing it, I encountered a slight angle issue. That being said, this prop is still very ingenious and well thought out.
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This effect was first known as The Mystery of Mysteries and was created c. 1880 by Martinka in the USA and Zauber-Klingl in Europe. It was made popular by the versions manufactured by West German manufacturer Zaubertechnik Haug (often know as ZT Haug) and Mephisto-Huis.
Bali Magic Woodworks make some good wooden items, and their items look great on the web. But once delivered they sometimes fall a little short of the effects they are copying – at least in the two items I’ve seen from them. When this box arrived it was literally impossible to use it. I spent about an hour sanding and cleaning things up and now it works perfectly. For a 60+ year old product this would be a little more acceptable, but for a brand new item this should not be the case.
Also the latch on the smaller box really should be smaller or at least without a top lip. This is purely aesthetic, but it bothered me and with a little attention could have been avoided. When it comes to these more collectible items, attention to detail really does matter 🙂
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Larry Becker created the first Chameleon Chest released by Larry and Viking. However, the Mighty Mini manufactured by Magic Wagon with the help of Tony Curtis is breathtaking!
The box is small, silent, very solid and beautiful to behold. The original one is still fine, but unless you are dealing with a lot of choices my preferred chest is the Mighty Mini and due to it’s size I feel it is even more versatile than the original.
As with many clever utility items once you have the perfect prop coming up with the perfect routine to do it justice. Larry includes six routines in the detailed instructions and any of them will work perfectly though in most cases you will need to provide some readily available extras like small golf pencils and pads.
For my routine I decided to base the routine on Mark Elsdon’s Guaranteed Jackpot. I found some perfect sized plastic numbers over at Amazon and came up with the following effect which I will video soon. I think it works very well with this beautiful box and I hope you like it.
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What a beautiful item from the talented craftsman from Croatia, Damir Djanis. This is the sixth of Damir’s items released by George Robinson at Viking Mfg. and there is no doubt it is magnificently crafted.
However, as an effect initially it did not do much for me. The provided patter is interesting enough if you like telling stories. And, if you are a good story teller, then I’m sure the spectators will also be entertained. But I don’t think it matters how good a story teller you are, they will not be that amazed by the reveal at the end. Telling a lay person what is inside a cleverly constructed magic box is not that amazing to them. Something like the Tele-Vision Box which has a cleaner and simpler construction is much more effective because of the two boxes and there seems no way you could ever see inside both. But with just a single lid it doesn’t take too much to think of ways to look inside with a peek here and a mirror there (to the layman at least).
That being said if you are collecting Damir’s magic you are probably doing it for the sheer joy of owning beautiful magic and probably not performing them to anyone but your magic buddies and for that purpose it is perfect 🙂 With the one exception of Damir’s Intangibility I could not see myself performing any of his other effects to lay people. To be fair this is also true with a huge amount of the collectible magic we all love and cherish, so Damir is no different in this regard 🙁
However, after some thought about this problem I came up with a routine that I would be happy to perform to lay people that is entertaining and I believe quite amazing using El Duco’s Signed Card to Hip Wallet – please check out the Speed Demo 🙂 🙂
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Bob Solari released a series of Classic Collectibles in the early 1990’s. All of the pieces were well made in Solid Brass, they looked great, were solidly made, and worked perfectly. The effects in the series included:
This release is one of my favorites from Bob’s series – it looks great, is is easy enough for someone with my limited skills to perform and is easy to follow too 🙂
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Mark Lee has created a fine close-up version and this effect joins the Merlins growing Premier Range though this is the most expensive of that line, the other items are a little more reasonable.
For my money the size of the bottle opening is a little too small as it makes it quite difficult to get the silk inside the bottle without some effort, which you can see a little in the video demonstration. And in my practices it was sometimes more pronounced. If the bottle was a tad wider these problems would go away …
I’m not sure what other effects Mark has planned for Merlins Premier Range but now he has created a few it would be good to see some new ideas or at least some innovations on existing ideas. The quality of Mark’s work is solid but it is not at the level of Louis Paul, Kent Bergman, Alan Warner, Eddy Taytelbaum, Colin Rose, etc. so if you are going to be creating some classics you’ll need something to keep the collector’s satisfied 🙂
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This basic effect and method was first invented by James Lucier as The Cockeyed Skeleton In The Closet and described in Genii October 1949. The effect was also released c. 1949 through Sedghill Industries as The Scrambled Skeleton with credit also going to James Lucier. There have been many versions of all shapes and sizes ever since and Eddy Taytelbaum’s is probably the best I have seen.
Mark Lee of Merlins Magic has created a fine version and this is part of Merlins growing Premier Range. The one change that Mark has made is that each Die is gimmicked, instead of the more usual two, which means you can do some interesting routine variations, including at the end vanishing the red die completely 🙂 In addition, the addition of the lid for the tube ensures that no prying eyes are looking when they shouldn’t be.
I think you will like playing with this item and it has the most potential for innovation of the current crop of Premier Range items.
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This is my favorite device for vanishing a ring. It works perfectly and looks clean without any preparation or set-up. This is the one to use. I can’t understand why Sans Minds stop making this beauty 🙁
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This is a wonderful mini illusion with Jumbo Cards first created by Wolfgang Grosskopf as Fluchtkiste.
This is the nicest set I have seen and comes with a packing case to store the props. The packing case is a little beaten up but does its jobs and keeps the props together and protected. It is easy to perform and I added an extra stand to make it easier to present. Hopefully my Speed Demo will effectively demonstrate that 🙂
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This amazing penetration was invented by The Great Leon (Leon Levy, NY 1876-1951) and manufactured perfectly by Merv Taylor c. 1945.
It really is remarkable how effective this looks and how easy it is to perform. When this was first released in August 1945 it was advertised as The Great Leon’s Improved Glass Penetration, but the instructions were called “The Great Leon Glass Penetration.” The original version came with 6 spikes, ribbon and skewer. However, by 1955 a couple of further improvements were made and the instructions were now called “The Great Leon’s Improved Glass Penetration.” It was released with 11 spikes and an external release for the gimmick.
In the instructions they talk about threading the ribbon in and out of the holes in addition to the spikes. To be honest I had mixed success with this because it takes extra time to thread the ribbon and I don’t think it looks as good as the spikes. So I added another 6 spikes and use 12 spikes and don’t spend much time with the ribbon.
This version is the original version and I have replaced the original cheaper 6 spikes with 12 golden colored galvanized steel spikes which blend perfectly with the color of the box.
In 2017 Magic Wagon released their version of this effect called Penetration 360 and in true Magic Wagon parlance they say their version was inspired by Merv Taylor’s version. Magic Wagon did not make any significant changes to the method. They describe how their version allows 14 spikes to penetrate the box. It is true this is not possible in the Merv Taylor version but this is simply because in the Merv Taylor routine he focuses on the ribbon going to and fro in the last few holes rather than all the spikes to add some extra interest. If Merv had wanted to put all the spikes through it would have been easy to do by changing the location of the center holes of the top. The way Magic Wagon describe this “ingenious addition” makes you think they did something special, whereas in fact all they did was reduce the size of the box. Now Magic Wagon did create a wonderful version and I would not take away from that, but I do wish they would not take so much credit for the effects they recreate when what they frequently do is use the exact same method with improved materials or fabrication techniques and aesthetic changes to the design.
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