3 Stars

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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I have no real information about this effect.  It works and it easy to do.

There is no forcing, but you do use up 2 envelopes each time you perform it.  The coins can’t be examined  and I’m not sure how convincing it is with the envelopes.

I think if I wanted to perform this I would use a 4 way wallet and the Miller Miracle Wallet would be perfect. This would make the effect more convincing, instantly repeatable, and you would not need to keep making up envelopes.  Also I would replace the coins so that they could be examined.

But frankly I’m not sure the effect is worth the effort, so I’m leaving it as is 🙁

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I thought this was going to be a pretty nice budget priced wand. But this one has what look like vice marks on the tips – which is a shame and detracts from an otherwise fine budget priced wand ?

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Here is a mini version of UF Grant’s Strat-O-Sphere using a clear tube on a base.

After playing with the item this afternoon there are two issues that came up that the larger version does not have – in the MAK Strat-O-Sphere version that I had the large balls were fairly light and it was reasonable to have to push them down into the tube.  But the small balls this version comes with are small power balls and are quite heavy and you can hear them land on the bottom of the tube – so why do you need to push them down? Also due to the small ball’s weight if you are not careful you can end up with four balls instead of three as momentum wins out so you have to handle the tube quite gingerly 🙁

The final issue with this version is that you loose the simple red, yellow, green colors of a traffic light and particularly the colors on the front of the tube.  I took this version and made a few changes to resolve these issues and you can see the finished version here.

This seems like a nice idea but I don’t think it was thought through as far it could have been and is a far cry from the original.

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This is a remade version of Viking’s  Jack and Jill Jumbo which is an updated version of the Steve Dusheck and Jim Hill effect: Cases of Metamorphosis c. 1984.  All of these effects are versions of Al Baker’s Cherchez la Femme.

This is a nicely made version, though heavier and not as fine as the Viking version.  The addition of the separate stand allows you to show the cards in the stand before you begin so that you can show the cards and the frame cleanly to begin with. The holes to see the jumbo card through the frame could be a little larger.

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Since 2019 the Mystery Blox as been my version of choice. But sadly I have gone back to John Kennedy’s Mystery Box II due to reliability issues.

I was practicing with the Mystery Blox this holiday season and the gimmick came apart unexpectedly.  I replaced it which was relatively smooth. However, my Mystery Blox has never been the same.  I tried it on some friends and it went drastically wrong twice.  I even tried a brand new box from PropDog and had the same issues. 

It is true if you really work it in you should be fine, however the more you work it in the less life the gimmick has, so now you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you work it in too little it can fail you, and if you work it in too much it will also fail you by breaking on you when you least expect it.

So as much as I love this box and idea it certainly can be more unpredictable than the original Mystery Box and as a result I have now switched back to as my go to set: https://www.martinsmagic.com/allmagic/cards/mystery-box-ii-by-john-kennedy/ .  I just don’t have the time or inclination to deal with issues that can arise with this box.

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The legendary British Inventor, Craftsman, and Dealer Jack Hughes invented many staples in magic that we take for granted today (including: TV Card Frame (1936), Coins in Glass (before Copenetro) (1939), Clatter Box (1951) and many more.

He also invented this beauty, Attaboy, c. 1937. This version was manufactured by Sam Dalal in India and is probably not authorized and although it looks good from a distance it does not work anywhere near as well as the Abbott’s version.

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If you read the Tannen’s ad below you would think this was a complete miracle, and I spent a couple of hours trying to understand the two pages of instructions but try as I did, I could not figure out how to do this. I have to assume it is possible, but I’d really like to see a Speed Demo of this bad boy – I wonder if someone out there has this and can do a demo for me and the rest of the folks?

The paddle is well constructed and moves easily in the hands. It sounds amazing and the effect is quite different from the more common Money Paddle, but I was unable to understand how to perform it from the instructions. Maybe you will have more luck?

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