Andy Martin

Move over Mr. Porper!

Good Bloody Night, these paddles are amazing! I’ve known for some time how talented Chance Wolf is with newer hi-tech materials. However I had no idea he is a true craftsman of the old ways too! This whole collection is amazing: from the beautiful box they are stored in, to the incredible individuality of each paddle, to the video demos that comes with the outfit.

Everything is a sheer delight. It is very hard to understand how this much talent, dedication and thought can be bought for so little in our world of highly inflated prices. These paddles are just an incredible deal.

What is more, Chance offers some great new ideas and moves in the easy to follow video. One of the best things about this whole set is that there are no moving parts on the paddles and everything is focused on ease of use with basically no re-set. Although the moves are simple, they create an incredible illusion, which just goes to show you the simplest magic is still the best.

I look forward to more min-magic offerings from Wolf’s Magic – the industry could certainly use the breath of fresh, magical air that is emanating from this incredibly talented company.

Most Highly Recommended!

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Beautiful and Shocking!

As with the other Mephisto items I have this is very solidly made, delivers a very impressive (but not dangerous) shock when required, and is totally innocent looking.

This completes the set of 3 from Mephisto, and very nice they are too!

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A Wonderfully Novel Card Revelation!

Here’s a new one of a kind item from Yours Truly here at Martin’s Magic! I think it is my best so far!

You have a card chosen. (BTW, I never actually use the Tiger Decks for real performances, but they photograph well, so I often use them when taking photographs – just in case you cared!).

Then you open a small box and show it has all of these miniature scrabble tiles that can be freely moved around in the box. You close up the box and start to gently shake the box with initially fairly large motions. As you do this you can hear the letters move around. As you continue shaking, the motions get smaller and smaller until in the end you hear nothing move. Then you ask the spectator to name their card, and ask them to lift the lid off of the box, and there neatly spelt out is the name of their card! Another Off The Shelf miracle comes to an end.

Reset is almost instant, but currently it is the same card that is revealed each time so it is not so good for walk around.

My wife said Wow! and smiled. That is good enough for me!

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You can always spot a real Craftsman!

My good friend Howie over at The Trickery has struggled with various wood guys over the last ten years or so since his business began. In all of these years, in my opinion, he has only employed one real Craftsman – the infamous J.L. Wright. Few know the true identity of this character but whoever he was he was very talented, and it is a real shame he is no longer making magic.

His pinnacle was clearly the Definitive Hole in One and other treats where his Jack and Jill, the Collector’s Edition Dice Box, and Penny Pour. This particular Mini Production Cabinet, an old trickery favorite, is probably the second best item he produced for Howie.

It is very beautifully made in Walnut. It has a very clean production mechanism and is a true joy to behold. It even has a feature that allows you to hand out the box for examination at the end if you so desire. This is truly collector’s quality and since he is no longer creating items for The Trickery or elsewhere as far as I know, these will soon be impossible to get hold of.

Howie still has a few left so grab them while you can!

Highly Recommended!

(Please notice that the items in the photo are all Trickery Exclusives, but they are not all by J.L. Wright)

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Attaboy for the Potter Generation!

I’ve always liked Jack Hughes’ Attaboy, but felt that it was starting to look a bit dated. So along comes Fairchild Entertainment and produces the high quality and wonderful Zanadu – The Card Wizard. It is the exact same effect as Attaboy – though now it works with poker sized cards (most of the original Abbott’s ones did not, though according to my sources in Arizona some did) – and it is big and showy to be seen by many – it is 24" high.

This surely opens this wonderful effect up to a whole new generation of would be wizards?

I have one minor complaint – a little bit of felt would go along way to make this a totally quiet Wizard. Otherwise, the action is very smooth.

Highly Recommended!

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Mikame Keep On Creating Fine Quality Magic!

It is good to see that great magic is still coming from Mikame Craft. Over the last 4 years I have picked up over 30 different pieces created by Mikame Craft, and they have many more that I have not yet acquired. They consistently produce fine quality magic that is clever and unique. I know Mikame Craft used to be more exclusive, but I have found the quality very fine and their prices reasonable – so I have no complaints.

This beauty is wonderful! I needed a "Jap" box for a great routine with Mel Babcock’s Rainbow Die Box by my friend Larry WIlfong. This is a very well made box with 2 loads that lock with a very clever mechanism. It even comes with an extra load chamber as large as the box itself, for those of you who are doing platform/stage work with a table.

This is very well finished, and really could not be improved upon. The mechanism is clean and works everytime. I am very happy with this beautiful box.

Highly Recommended!

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Sometimes You Need the Definitive Version

Well Howie and Bobby have taken one huge step further to extreme high quality collectable props with their latest release. Hole in One, which is directly based on the Jack Hughes origination Penetra-Spheres, has been a favorite with magicians for many years and this version is easily the best – it’s also the most expensive by far – but you get what you pay for.

Currently there are a very few of these floating around, and my guess is that there won’t be many more. They are very time consuming to make and are aimed at a fairly small Collector market. But if you truly want the ulitmate version of this effect then this is easily it.

The Shot Glass is very snug once placed on the tray – unlike the Abbott’s version. The mechanism is carefully hidden with a secret release that makes it difficult to see anything from beneath. For the final revelation the spectator can be holding the tray without any worries that they will notice anything.

It’s as close to perfection as you can come. Is it too expensive? Well that depends on if you want the best or not. If you do fancy one then take a trip over to Howie right now because they don’t have many left. I am really looking forward to the next release from these guys – they are getting better and better!

Great Job! Highly recommended if you like expensive high quality magic!

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One of Johnson’s Best!

So we all think of Johnson Products as being all about coins and coin gimmicks. Well this was one of their early non-coin effects, that was made equally well as any of their coin work.

This has been long unavailable which is a shame because it really is a wonderful effect. The basic effect is as follows: You introduce a small black bag and out of the bag take a deck of cards, a small wallet and a blank card sealed between two heavy perspex plaques. The spectator chooses a card and it is placed face down in a clip on the outside of the plaques. Then you show some blue backed cards, with blank faces and take one of these and also slide it under the clip facing the red card.

You then place it in the empty bag for a few seconds to develop and when the plaques are removed the blank card now has the red face on it and the card sealed inside the plaques has the chosn card. They are free to examine the plaques as much as they want – the card really is sealed in there.

Very lovely props and a clean simple method that will impress you.

Higly Recommended!

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Great Entertainment, and lots of Magic!

This is a great kids/comedy effect that involves two bags and two colored wands. The bags have a blue and red spot on them and you place a matching blue and red wand into each bag. Now the fun begins.

The wands change places, they turn into the same color, they turn into different colors, and finally they transform in to huge 5 feet straws!

There is a lot of potential with this outfit – you have all the usual turn it around gags for the kids, and due to the number of changes you really are left with a startling piece of magic.

If I was doing kids magic as much these days, I just know this would be a hit with my audiences. It is fun for kids and for adults too!

The whole outfit is very nicely made, plays big, and packs almost flat too!

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Very nicely made and a fooler!

This is a nice utility item from MIkame Craft, that allows you to force a number of dice, transform them and even make dice appear and dissappear.

It is very simple in operation, but really quite clever and comes with 17 dice to give you a number of options for routines. As with most Mikame Craft items it is also very beautifully made and finished!

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