Magic Tricks

What kind of review do you give a restaurant with great food but substandard service? Well, I give it three out of five stars.

The food — the trick itself — is just great! Watch the video, and unless you're wise to the ways of Rubik's Cube effects, this will fool you. The trick itself is fully worthy of five stars.

BUT

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but I much prefer terse, well-written directions to the rambling videos that have become the norm in the magic market these days. The video is nearly two hours long, and, mercifully, is indexed, making each chapter of the explanation more accessible than is the norm. HOWEVER, neither JB nor Michael is a native English speaker, and though they manage a thorough explanation, there is a LOT of wasted time with banter and extraneous asides. More maddeningly, neither JB or Michael is a gifted pedagogue. Simple, repetitive moves are slowed to an unnecessary crawl, while critical transitions are glossed over and often not even acknowledged. (See the explanation of Fugii Akira's one hand stack to see what I mean.)
In addition, this trick is ANYTHING but ready-to-go out of the box. You'll need to buy two additional Rubik's Cubes (I recommend speed cubes for reasons I won't go into here) and spend HOURS in front of the video before setting up the gimmick. At no time in the video do the presenters clearly take you through the setup — you are left to to infer much of the process, leading to unnecessary potential errors.
For your money, you are getting a great trick, not a bunch of apparatus. You get the gimmick, something called tako, a bunch of stickers, and a bag large enough to contain two three inch cubes. This brings up another beef — nowhere are you given instructions on how or where to obtain appropriate replacements for either the stickers or the tako, if necessary.
Bottom line: I love the trick, but HATE the time I was forced to waste learning the basics and setting it up. Maybe the learning is part of a rite of passage that will ensure that not many end up learning and performing this gem. Now that I've made the effort, I guess I hope that's the case.