I have tried to bend quarters with one hand, but it is almost impossible . I go to the gym and i am
150 pounds and I lift pretty heavy. i am 5'4. What i'm trying to say is I don't have the biggest
hands, but i am pretty strong, but i still can't bend quarters with the gimmick.(quarter is the best
coin to use for the gimmick) It is difficult to hide the gimmick if you have small hands (parts of
the gimmick will show) Don't get me wrong, the product does what it says and bends coins. (pennies &
dimes) are the easiest. It is not for everyone and sadly it wasn't for me.
20 of 25 magicians found this helpful.
I think that this is a great bender but... but... most people will not have the hand strength to
bend quarters. I am a 36 year old male and I cannot bend a quarter. Pennies, it goes through them
like butter, and it truly is perfect for pennies and dimes but quarters in a real practical setting,
forget about it.
13 of 13 magicians found this helpful.
I have been doing metal bending for several years now. About one year ago I was in the middle of
completely redesigning my Fork bending routine. I saw this and thought that it would be a nice
opener to the routine I was working on.
When it arrived my first impression was similar to
some of the other negative reviews that I have seen on here. So I put it on the Shelf and decided I
would come back to it at some point. That was a huge mistake I wish I would have given this the
credit it deserved from day one. Let me help you by addressing some of the issues people are having
with Ox Bender.
This CAN be performed even if you have smaller adult hands. This trick is
not for woman with petite hands or preteens. unless the preteens have hit a couple of growth spurts
early.
I have smaller hands. I am an adult male in my 30s. When I pick out a pair of gloves
I always get medium. Some of the reviews on here say that in order to use this gimmick you must have
large hands. That is the number one reason that I didn't put more work into this trick when I first
got it. I was also worried that my hands were not large enough to properly conceal the gimmick.
However after putting in the work and performing it for my trusted "test audience" I realized
that as long as you don't act like you're holding something the audience will pay no attention. It's
basically the same concept as using a marked deck of cards. If you don't treat it like a marked deck
of cards, the Spectator will never think twice to check and see if it is.
That having been
said, I understand that there will be teenagers and preteens that will not be able to perform this
because their hands are still child size. Again, I would not recommend this trick for women with
very petite hands or for anyone that has "child-sized hands"
I have noticed in other
reviews that people saying they are not strong enough to bend quarters.
Let me just say
that if I was six foot three and looked like I just walked off the stage from a bodybuilding
Contest, no one is going to be impressed when I show them that I can bend metal that they cannot.
When somebody looks at me and sees that I am 5' 9" 175 lb (slightly overweight) and yet I can do
impossible things with metal it is more impressive. I used to think that it would be physically
impossible to undo a Corkscrew band in the handle of a fork until one day I handed the fork out for
inspection and a rather muscular individual undid my corkscrew. Not only did he undo the corkscrew
he made it look easy when he did it. It was at that time I decided that if he could do it then so
could I. I began to practice and now I am able to put a cork screw in the handle of a fork without
using any gimmicks or special pre bends. My point is just because it's difficult in the beginning
doesn't mean you won't be able to do it if you put in the work and build up the strength. JUST
REMEMBER NOT TO OVERDO IT AND HURT YOURSELF. There are a ton of little muscles, tendons and soft
tissue in your hand that you can strain if you overdo it so take it one day at a time.
Everyone has their own opinion when it comes to metal bending. My opinion is that The Spectator
should not be able to duplicate or unbend the item that I just bent.
Unfortunately in
order to put a bend in a piece of metal that The Spectator cannot take back out you're going to have
to develop some strength and some calluses. There are items on the market that can help you make the
bends easier such as Ox Bender. But you need to understand that even gimmicks like ox bender have
limitations. Ox bender gets you most of the way there, but you're going to have to put some of the
work in yourself. This is accomplished by exercising your HANDS.
I have read reviews where
people say that they work out at the gym and that they are very strong and yet they still cannot
bend quarters. Let me say that the type of strength you need to acquire in your hands is in no way
like the strength you achieve by working out at a gym. The only way to make your hands strong enough
to perform Ox bender and other metal bending routines is by performing the routine over and over
until your hands are strong enough to do it with ease.
To sum it up, I would like to say
that this is a phenomenal gimmick that can take your metal bending routine to the next level. I
highly recommend Ox Bender to any one dedicated to putting in the work that will be required to
perform it properly
9 of 11 magicians found this helpful.
Though I appreciate the work that goes into ANY magic gimmick, this being no exception, I am
unsatisfied with this purchase. I am a relatively large man, with strong hands, and this gimmick
requires HUGE hands, and strength to deliver as advertised. (Fully surrounded, undetected) it is
everything I hoped it WOULDN'T be!! Large, plastic, impractical. $99 is WAY to high for this as we
are paying for GIMMICK ONLY whereas most magic purchases, we are paying for "the secret" not the
case here. Also, there is a link for downloadable instructions, but you need a password to view the
video. Unless I am just missing something on the small box, there is NO PASSWORD to be found!!
For me, coinvexed followed by quantum bender at a close second.
8 of 9 magicians found this helpful.
Very good bender! You can really bend a coin using one hand! The gimmick is very lightweight and
with proper care it should last for hundreds if not thousands of performances. Menny went through in
great detail on what coins you can bend with this. I purchased this mainly for coin bending but you
can also use this to bend spoons and keys! It's flesh-colored and can be easily be "hidden in plain
sight"; the moves are justified and of course with enough practice you'll be killing people with
this. Menny showed a couple of methods on how to bend using 1 and 2 hands--I'm not a fan of the
other alternative handling but it might work for others depending on your level of comfort and
performance style. There's one section where Menny showed a silent video of him performing this as
he narrates and break down every move which I think is very helpful. Is this worth the price? This
is 3 times cheaper than the quantum bender and accomplishes the same thing: bent signed coin.
Granted ox bender is not built like a tank like the quantum bender but i think it was able to
deliver what it promised to do, and then some. 5 stars all the way!
8 of 9 magicians found this helpful.
This was not for me. When you've got hands like Donald Trump this thing is not going to work out
very well.
Hand strength is pretty important here too.
Pros:
Its a real time
one handed coin bend.
Can be done in front of the spectator
Cons:
1. The handling
of the gimmick feels odd. Its a little too bulky.
2. Having to do the dirty work right in front
of the spectator seems very bold, and maybe it'll work for other people, but hand size is a huge
factor here.
3. The handling of the associated props didn't feel natural and felt only there to
hide the gimmick.
Overall this was not for me. It may be great for others, just my two
cents.
9 of 12 magicians found this helpful.
The coin bender gizmo is well-conceived, unfortunately, it is large. Big hands are needed for easy
concealment; smaller hands will need considerable misdirection.
The video tutorial is not
very good. The cautions on using the bender are over-done, although not entirely frivolous.
Nowhere on the DVD is there a well-lit, clearly-captured end-to-end performance. The only
end-to-end performance is poorly lit.
As for the recommended handling, it is inelegant.
The issue is transferring the signed coin into the bender. Misdirection and patter cannot conceal
flawed handling. Why do you need to move the signed coin from one hand to the other and then back
again? The audience may be fooled, but they'll smell something rotten rather than being
wonder-struck.
I purchased this coin bend hoping for an elegant coin bend; it is not that,
even though it is probably the best real-time, signed-coin, coin bending routine. My approach has
been to switch-in a pre-bent coin similar to Morgan Strebler's approach to the problem. In fact,
Strebler's signed coin may be as good as it gets.
Bottom line: save your $100.
5 of 8 magicians found this helpful.
This is the last bender I will need to buy, and I've owned several including Superman and Quantum.
The Ox Bender puts both of them to shame. It's incredibly light weight, and produces clean bends in
the center of the coin, even on U.S. Quarters which most benders produce off-center bends in.
Overall, I'm incredibly satisfied with my Ox Bender and would recommend it to anybody interested
in doing coin bending.
5 of 8 magicians found this helpful.
I have always loved coin bend routines. The idea is just so magical to me.
This method will
allow you to bend a coin with one hand or two handed. Menny provides a little somethin' somethin'
that will allow this to happen. It's not too big and very lightweight.
You need to practice
though. To bend the coin ONE HANDED (two handed you can have nearly any strength level) you actually
have a pretty dang good grip. Other than that its a great product that I know I will use forever for
coin bending.
3 of 4 magicians found this helpful.
I usually dont write reviews, but in this case i just have to! Its the best coin bender i have ever
seen and i have seen them all! One handed, very natural and every move is justified..i tried it
yesterday in a close up gig and it truly fried them!I just cant recommend it enough
4 of 7 magicians found this helpful.