4 Stars

This little box was made in Germany and it is a bit like a poor man’s Jewels of Shah Jahan – you can perform the same effect for a fraction of the cost.  I am not sure if Bert Wheeler’s Hollywood Magic were the first company to import this item, but they were the earliest ad I could find.  It was also sold by Paul Diamond, Tannen’s and others under the name Color Clairvoyance.

Although the box is made from plastic it is good quality and works very well.  The mechanism is easy to operate and difficult to detect.

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A great little outfit created by Joe Berg and Charles Miller that was very popular in the early days of the Princess Magic Shop in Chicago. It can be adapted to many effects, and includes three as released.

I had a few issues with the cork and it does take some practice to be quiet, but it probably needs a different size cork to the one supplied (which is likely not the original, given that this effect is almost 100 years old). But I think if you find the correct cork and spend an afternoon playing with it this could be a real winner and you’ll have something the other guy does not.

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Here is a wonderful collection of low priced “Collector’s” items from the famous Indian producer of magic products Sam Dalal ? Good old Sam the Sham, you can’t keep a good man down.

No one is going to believe these items rival the wood craftsmanship of (in no particular order) Colin Rose, Alan Warner, Kent Bergmann, Owen Magic Supreme, Michael Baker, Paul Lembo, Mel Babcock, Dave Powell, Magic Wagon, Thomas Pohle, Francois Danis, Louis Gaynor, Viking Mfg., to name just a few of the many thousands on this website.

However, if you have a low budget or are used to plastic versions of these items you’ll be more than happy with these wooden miracles from Sam.

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The standard version of this effect was apparently so popular the mini version was released about six months later.  When I first saw this version I thought it was the mini version until I received it and noticed it weighed twice as much as the standard version.  So this is not the “Mini” version.  Internally it is quite a lot more complex than the original version released by Tannen’s too.  So I don’t know if this was later released by Tannen’s or in fact a different manufacturer.  I am assuming it was created by a different manufacturer.

The one improvement on this version is you can cleanly slowly the back of the prop without any thumbs.  However, this also means that you actually have to touch the box to discover what the choices were.

Although this appears to be a copy of the Tannen’s version (which itself is inspired by Ed Mellon’s Quantimental) it could in fact have been released earlier.

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This clever effect is sadly not new with Tannen’s 🙁

The same basic method was actually created ten years earlier by Ed Mellon and engineered by James Swoger as Quantimental. In fact Quantimental is easier to set, more flexible, quieter, and has more choices.

However, even if Divining Rods is not as good as the original it is still a great prop and will certainly fool the average person. As we saw with the Jewels of Shah Jahan the problem with these clever devices that allow us to determine what the spectators have chosen is how to reveal them.  I thought about a simple routine which I hope will come over in my Speed Demo 🙂

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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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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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