Andy Martin

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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What a lovely version of Run Rabbit Run made by Supreme.  Based on my favorite version that I used when I was performing to children in my teenage years.

This is well made in metal and will last a lifetime.  I like this smaller size as you can easily handle it with one hand.  I also like how the patter switches things around and you start without showing the alien and then he pops his head out of the side door – that is a nice touch.

You’ll love this little guy for sure 🙂

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This is a version of the Harry Stanley item: Harvey and The Soldier, beautifully made under license by Regow’s or Regow’s House of Enchantment or Regow’s Magic Co. or Regow’s Magic Studio – they seem to have placed ads under many names 🙂

It is a well made from wood and plastic that you will be happy with.  The switch requires a little finesse as there are no magnets and a fairly cramped space but it is certainly workable. I particularly like the patter below by Harry Stanley as it gets a lot of the prop and I think it will go down well with the the younger kids.

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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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After playing with the original of this item, I found some light colored blocks and added some stickers and have solved the issues I had with the original version.  I hope you like it 🙂

The original issues are solved by:

• Replacing the heavy balls by some light foam colored squares.
• Changing the colors to red, yellow, and green to match traffic lights.
• Adding colored stickers to the outer tube so you can easily see where each color goes.

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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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This is basically the same chips as Black and White Surprise but the chips turn into mirrors instead of colors at the end. The basic same moves and gimmicks are effectively used but the mirrors are a bigger surprise and make for a great ending.

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The Clausen Chips were first released in 1987 with two effects supplied, although a third was very soon added. Then in 1988 the number was increased to six with the appearance of a 23 page booklet. Finally in 1995 a larger set of instructions was included with 33 pages and 14 effects featuring all of the routines that had been submitted and collected together.

There really is something for everyone in the final list of routines and I chose to perform two of the simpler but still effective routines on video: Silk ‘N’ Chips and Flash Double Chip Change.

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Eckhard Boettcher released two versions of Per Clausen’s Psycho-Chips one in 2003 and the second one in 2008 in Germany. The first version was in fact Sam Dalal’s Super Psychic Chips rebranded and this second release was Per Clausen’s version of Sam’s effect but crafted with much nicer brass chips that Per Clausen was famous for.

As mentioned Psycho-Chips II is basically the same as Sam Dalal’s Super Psychic Chips but crafted with much nicer brass chips.  It is also the same effect and method as Eddie Gibson’s Chinese Sting.  However, Psycho-Chips is not the same as Per Clausen’s earlier Prediction Chips which at first I was confused with.

In the two routines provided in the German instructions the first routine is same as Sam Dalal’s, but the second routine discusses how the chips can be used to force any of the four colors which is a nice use of the chips if you need a very clean force of four colors.

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The Blue Phantom was invented by Viennese magician Hans Trunk c. 1924 who called it “Das blaue Wunder” (The Blue Wonder). It was introduced to the USA c. 1930 by Thayer Quality Magic as “The Blue Phantom” and it became an instant hit, and has been doing well ever since. It is also known as: The Chinese Clock and The Traveling Checker.  In fact The Blue Phantom and The Wandering Mummy (both of which were built by Tony Lackner with great success) seem to continue to be built and rebuilt with no shortage of buyers or interest each time.

This version built by Tony Lackner and distributed by Harold Voit has been the gold-standard for the close-up version for many years. This is one of the very earliest versions purchased directly from Zauber Zentrale in Germany c. 1980 and it is perfect. You can also tell it is one of the earliest because later runs had a button you could depress on the back to supposedly help with the effect.  However, that button comes with a cost: now you cannot hand out the top tube to the spectator as discussed in the original instructions.  For me the button has little value and is certainly not necessary so I would prefer one without the button.

In  recent years I have preferred the versions of the Blue Phantom created by Andy Hurst, however many people still prefer this Tony Lacker classic and when I play with this beautiful specimen I can see why.  It really is a beauty.

This was the first version of the Blue Phantom that I ever owned and at 6″ tall I always thought it was a close-up effect.  I had no idea that the standard version was a stage sized effect often 16″ or more tall, so when I purchased a normal sized one years later I was surprised to see how big it was!

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