4 Stars

Great for Hobbyists – just don’t open a Store with it!

Making up decks with short cards, narrow cards and rough and smooth is great fun! Until this unit came along there really wasn’t much of an alternative but to get a professional unit to do your card cutting. Of course if you had the cash having one of these would be best. However, not many people have $700-$2000 spare to spend on a card cutter.

I have made up three decks with this card cutter and found it to do a fine job. It is not very flexible because you are unable to change the size of the cut you are making – if it is not one of the 5 templates that come with the unit. Most hobbyists want to create short cards or strippers, and as long as you don’t want to increase the depth of the cut this will do a fine job. You have to be careful and hold the card steady but it is certainly possible to create a svengali or stripper deck with no problem. And is quicker than you would imagine – about 30 minutes should see you done with a complete deck once you get the hang of it.

I was unable to create a Chameleon deck (where you have cards in sets of 3) as the short cards were not short enough and gave me incomplete results.

But if you need to shorten odd cards for packet tricks or make up some standard decks you should be fine and it is great fun to experiment. This unit will not round corners either so you will need something else to do that, and the instructions provide a number of options. You can get them from an office supplies store or pay twice as much for this one!

I hope to be able to get a proper card cutter one day, but until that happens this will keep me happy!

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Classic MAK with a very magical Finish.

This is a well made, bright and colorful effect that has a very magical finish. The set-up is straight forward and the working is smooth with no real issues and it is easy to perform.

Basically in effect you show some rice that you pour into the center canister. Then you show an orange and place it under the right hand Tube and under the left hand tube you have some checkers which can be seen to be separate.

When the Magic happens everything changes places: the orange goes to the center canister which can now be turned upside down and shown empty. The checkers appear where the orange was and the rice appears loose uner the tube where the checkers were. The changes are quite amazing to see and are easy to acomplish. The only downside I find with effects like this is an entertaining patter line.

This is classic MAK Magic in a nutshell and for many magicians this is just what they are looking for!

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Huge Load Capacity!

This production effect from Ickle Pickle is a very convincing way to produce a large load.

You show the box which you say you use to store your Magic Wand and show the clear box empty. Then you place the lid on the box, remove your magic wand and chant your magicial incantations and when the box is lifted it is filled with whatever your little heart desires.

This is a great way to produce candy for kids parties, or money, a smally bunny or almost anything else – the load capacity is almost as big as the box itself! You could even use it to switch billets for a question/answer type effect. The top and base of this box are made in wood, and the clear acrylic insert is rigid and solid and will last a lifetime. To release the load is simplicity itself and ther are no springs or catches to worry about.

The only downside I have with this box is that the finish is slightly marred due to the sticky plastic that is applied to the box during storage – it seems to be applied to the box even before the paint is fully dry as you can see an impression of it on the box. This could just be my copy, but it is a shame because it spoils an otherwise fine paint job.

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Anyone for Tennis?

Stephane Bourgoin decided he wanted to produce Chop Cups – and produce them he did! This is the third of his offerings – and the cheapest too. It is not as nice as the other two – for two reasons: 1) the surprise finish is not as distinct from the rest of the routine and 2) getting the ball to stay in the cup takes a bit more practice due to the shape of the ball holder. However, when you produce such strong effects, one of them has to come in last!

For the money this is a wonderful value however, and if you are on a budget but still want a new routine for your Chop Cup you could do much worse than spend your money on this. Get all 3 and have a Chop Cup Party!

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Naughty but Nice!

This is the old 3 card monte with a surprise ending and patter about the little Dutch boy who plugged up the Dam to save his village. Not suitable for all audiences, but great for table hopping with known friendly audiences!

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What a great Idea!

So this is the classic brainwave effect, that of course we all love! But it has the added ruse that allows you to show the card box as red or blue when you remove it from your pocket instead of having a blank box or no box.

This is a great idea and adds a very nice touch to an already wonderful effect!

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Simple Method but Fun Surprise!

This effect is nothing more than a specially printed Credit Card and a switch but it works great and given our familiarity with plastic money is a wonderful way to reveal a chosen card.

I would use a Himber Wallet to perform the switch as opposed to the method they suggest. To be honest, what could make more sense than to actually have the credit card in a Wallet?

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I really like this Deck!

Just when you think you’ve seen all the trick decks out there, along comes X-Deck! This is almost a total home run. It is a very clean way to show that you had predicted what card they would mentally think of from all 52 cards in the deck. They can think of any one and you show that you had marked it with an X and with an alternate back.

It is better and easier to use than the Brainwave Deck because you can freely show the backs and fronts of the deck. However, the only problem I have with it is that they have made the deck look pretty obviously prearranged by the choice of cards that you can see when you fan the deck. With a little thought and some simple calcuations I’m sure there is a better way. I’m going to play with a deck myself to see. Once you remove this slightly annoying limitation then you truly do have a great idea that is simpler, faster and cleaner than Brainwave and then something that you will just start using all over the place!

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I Love Factory Printed Gimmicks!

This is similar to the FA-KO Deck and comes with an impressive selection of gimmicked cards factory printed on Bicycle stock. It doesn’t come with as many routines as the FA-KO Deck, but there are certainly some usuable routines here.

Plus it gives you some cool new cards to play with to invent other new routines!

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