Before moving on to the review, I would make a list:
Difficulty? Beginners;
Quality-price
ratio? 9/10;
Sleight of hands? No;
Reset? About one minute;
Stage, social or close up?
Perfect in any case;
Are the cards examinable? No;
Light/angle problems? No;
Is the
tutorial actually what you get? Yes;
Difficulty in setup-fixing gimmicks? Minimal.
So,
the trick is really innovative: as soon as I saw how it all worked, I was really impressed.
There are two cards with "extra gimmick". Of these, we have two versions:
- for training,
with ready to go gimmick and very easy to use;
- an official one, with gimmicks to "build" and
more challenging.
N.B.: this gimmick, which will come with extra supplies, is really easy to
make. Personally it took me 2 minutes and I have absolutely no particular crafting skills.
The
other cards, however, are unique and with gimmicks that cannot break or change, so no work
necessary.
There is no sleight of hands... the most challenging thing is really just placing the
cards delicately. The gimmicks will make building the castle almost automatic. For me it was
exciting just to make the pyramid with such ease!
As listed above, there are no angle issues,
it's great at 360°; there are no problems with the light, I doubt there are situations that reveal
something so well hidden.
Precisely for this reason, the quality-price ratio is very good,
although slightly higher than I expected. But considering the work behind it, the quality of all the
cards and the end result, it is absolutely worth it.
As you will have understood, the cards
cannot be examined. Some cards have almost no gimmick, but I would still avoid showing them.
This is the only time when if you are an expert, you have an advantage. In fact, by using a
routine that involves switching the cards as soon as they fall, you will end up clean and
examineable.
I'll also try to say some negative points:
I didn't understand why the
"official" gimmick wasn't ready to go like the training one. Although easy to build, that too could
have been ready for use. Furthermore, in the tutorial, for reasons I won't explain, there are no
clear images on how to do it. You must rely on the gimmick test and common sense. Btw everything is
easy.
To conclude, this is a true jewel of magic, an impossible balance. Everyone in their
life has tried to build a house of cards, many without success. Now you will not only have the
opportunity to build it with extreme ease, but you can almost make it fly! You will only have to
think about the presentation.
It's truly something that anyone, magician or not, would love to
have in their home.