Magic Tricks

Okay, here goes. I've contemplated getting Tool for a while, missing the cutoffs for pre-orders twice actually. When I was finally able to hold it in my hands (after really fast shipping from Penguin Magic), I was severely disappointed.

The reason for my disappointment was that the gimmicks arrived completely bent, with deep gouges in the card boxes because of the DVD case that they were shipped in. Maybe it's just me, but I think if you're gonna sell a trick that revolves around such a prominent gimmick, you ought to package it a little better than sticking it in a slim DVD case.

I thought maybe I could fix it, use a different card box, but I shouldn't have to do extra construction for 34.99. I'd also like to note that my gimmick arrived with a lot of dried glue marks, and misaligned edges. Maybe I'm being finicky, but I just can't feel compelled to try and fix a gimmick that shouldn't have these flaws in the first place.

To be perfectly clear, this is not Penguin Magic's fault. In fact, they agreed to give me a store credit which I would happily accept to buy Chris Ballinger's Redemption. I'm not going to get into which trick is better, they both have strengths and weaknesses. However, I noticed (through several YouTube unboxings) that Redemption is shipped in box, with actual padding that keeps the gimmick from getting crushed in transit. Redemption also shows you how to remake the gimmick, something that Tool's ad copy only claims to do.

But differences between the two tricks aside, if you've made up your mind to purchase Tool or any gimmick of the sort, you may want to purchase it with a shipping method that packs it an actual box, and not a padded envelope that might be subject to being squashed under other mail to be delivered.