4 Stars

Another great close-up item from the German Magic Craftsman: Thomas Pohle.  This is based on Hoffman’s Obedient Ball as featured in Professor Hoffman’s Modern Magic.  Though this effect is of Japanese origin and is sometimes known as the Japanese Ball. The most popular version of this effect is Tenyo’s Cubio.  Colin Rose created a very nice version that is shown here.

One feature with Thomas’ version is that the cubes can be set live in front of the audience so that everything can 100% be examined. This same feature was also present in Brema’s Triple Mystery Cube c. 1932 and later in Carl’s son William Brema’s Cubio c.1946. Thomas’ version takes a little knack to be able to set these blocks so that they can stop and start on demand.  Doing this live in front of the audience might be tricky, or at least I found it so.

One approach is to set both blocks before you begin.  Then have then select either block at first and show the stop and start with that block.  Then release it and hand it to the spectator to do the same thing.  They can’t of course. Then you still have the second block ready to go to do the do as I do.

Of course with practice you will be able to hook up live with ease, but I found that some trial and error is required at first.

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This Ring Box works well and is quite clever.  However, it has two main flaws for simply vanishing a ring:

• The box is quite large. If you compare it with Sans Minds’ Vanishing Ring (see last two photos), you’ll see how much bigger it is.
• You cannot retrieve the ring secretly from the bottom.  So you vanish the ring – how do you extract it?

That being said as a result of these issues it can be used to vanish AND appear rings and small items which might be what you are looking for.  I can see it being useful if you want to make a ring appear inside the box. You can also do this repeatedly should you want some sort of running gag, but I’m think it would become less convincing if repeated.

The box does work well and the mechanism seems solid and reliable.  But I would not get this if you mainly want to vanish a ring – I would use Sans Minds Vanishing Ring hands down for that.

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This is a well thought out wallet that is professionally made, looks good and, best of all, the price is very reasonable 🙂

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A nicely made “budget” Ball Vase from Merlin’s Magic and their Premier Range. This is the larger one almost 7″ high with a 2″ red snooker ball. It does not compare with craftsmen like Colin Rose, but if you were looking for a reasonably priced ball vase that works perfectly and still looks nice this would be a contender.

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Thayer’s Great Ballot Box Mystery c. 1916 was hailed as The Wonder Trick of 1916 and what a beauty it was.  Louis Gaynor reproduced one of these for Stevens Magic here.

This version was one of the very early items created by Thomas Pohle when he had a workshop in Berlin.  It was built as a prototype after seeing the effect in Dr. Albo 04 that he borrowed from his magic friend “Braco” (Ralf Wichmann).  A few years later when fellow countryman, Willi Wessel, was renting some space in his workshop,  Thomas gave it to Willi.  I recently purchased it directly from Willi.  This is the only version that Thomas built.

It still works though the handle design is a little fragile and Thomas tells me he would build it a little differently today – of course he was a very young man back then and and has had another 44 years of experience since 🙂

Unlike the original Thayer version, although it is fine for the spectator to handle briefly it cannot be examined as thoroughly and the gimmick is not designed to be removed during performance as with the Thayer version.

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This is an interesting routine for the Matchbox Penetration first created by Jose M. Llacer. I think you can have some fun with the spectator’s ability to not remove the sword from the block, unless they believe in magic 🙂

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These boxes were designed by Roy Roth for his cabaret act and they are very compact.  The loading mechanism is very similar to Himber’s Her Majesty’s Box (c. 1945) which has also been used by Viking Mfg. and Davenport’s.

These work well but the quality is not as fine as Himber’s original or the later versions.  But it is quite amazing how small the boxes are.  However, don’t confuse this with Roy Roth’s other Nest of Boxes and his Prediction Chest/Nest of Boxes which are have also been called Nest of Boxes in R.A.R. magic adverts and catalogs.  This is the first version I have seen of this style.

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What a clever idea from Magicraft. This is about as clean and effective approach you can come up with to turn a candle into salt and no wonder it was a complete sell-out at Magi-Fest when it was first released in 1974. Maybe not mechanically clever, but you have to admire the solution for this effect ?

Magicraft Products was a small dealer and manufacturer founded by Tim Dereme in North Canton, Ohio c. 1966. As far as I can tell they were in business until c. 2004.

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Created by Karl-Heinz Tanczer who is one of founders of the amazing German Magic Manufacturer and Dealer Future Magic who produce a very solid selection of fine quality magic that is shipped world-wide. Before Future Magic Karl-Heinz Tanczer created magic for Eckhard Boettcher among others.

This is the latest version of Excalibur – the main pedestal weighs exactly half of the original Excalibur (from 9.6oz to 4.8oz) .  Often reducing the weight of a prop is a good thing, and there is no doubt the original is heavy.  However, I have used the original for years and I find that the heavier version is easier to use and more convincing because of the very solid base.  You can still perform the same effect with the new one, but if you can I would track down one of the originals.  The original also has a nice brass handle which I think looks better (the final photo shows both versions side by side).

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This effect and method was invented by George Lorimer and published in the British monthly periodical The Magician Monthly as The Crown Jewels of Crashbania and subtitled: A Regular Royal Robbery (pg. 72, May, 1928).  Lorimer’s routine had quite a lot more going on than the eventual dealer versions including changing the large rubies into a shower of smaller rubies, a British flag to cover the crown, the production of some large silks, and a cage complete with Canary 🙂

However, the key methods of the rubies appearing in the crown and vanishing from the presentation case are used in both dealer versions I have seen.  The first dealer version that I am aware of was released by Harry Stanley c. 1953 as Royal Robbery and routined by Arthur Leo.

Supreme Magic released their first version c. 1968 through arrangement with Harry Stanley and still based on the Arthur Leo routine, then later as they purchased Stanley’s exclusive copyrights c. 1972 they released other tweaks and changes.  This version, though brand new, comes from c. 1992 with the addition of the Tom Sellers’ idea to vanish the silks.

Supreme’s version is well made but does not have quite the elegance of Stanley’s Royal Robbery and only includes three jewels as opposed to four (look at the final photo for comparison of the crowns).  But the routine is similar with a few extra tweaks including the cardboard card instead of hanky to cover up the crown.  One of the other 1992 changes  is the vanish of the jewels from a silk and tumbler.  To be honest I could have left that out as I didn’t find the method that convincing (but I have not actually performed it to children so maybe it goes down very well in reality).

But, with or without the vanish, this is a great routine for the younger children and will entertain them and they will have plenty of fun along the way.  It is very topical right now with the Coronation of King Charles III 🙂

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