Magic Tricks

First off let me say that I had the opportunity to chat with Olivier prior to purchasing this and he couldn't have been any more humble. He is extremely passionate about what he does and I envy that. I also spoke with Vanishing prior to the release, and I can say that they aren't so friendly a lot of the times. Regardless, I thought this was something visually creative and up my ally (as i do mainly mentalism & some visual magic) however, i was unfortunately fooled.

I will be very very clear... This is NOT a worker. This is NOT practical. Imagination Box is a different way of doing some of things you can do with TOOL but with added the dry erase white board component of this product - and a new method (one i am not a fan of) really makes this seem like it will have a a lot of blowback for people that have similar situations as the months go by and the reviews come in.

I spent so much time on the DIY part of this & now on a review, regardless I wanted to share my experience to help you when looking at a product I have a positive/ negative response from. The video states 15 minutes or however long approx. The reason it took me so long is #1 - I learn differently, & #2 - I did not know until creating the gimmick with materials provided that I would have to make TWO Imagination Boxes!!!!! Honestly, this is so falsely marketed Box means ONE, it should be BOXES or another name than imagination. Also I HATE THREAD. I will NOT go into what the thread is used for or how, but that is a big component into this which makes the DIY NOT what is advertised nor should you say that with cool graphics in your trailers because they make things sound great until you have a situation like mine.

The Trailer is deceptive as you are made to seem like you are creating these possibilities all from one box, but you have to make up two boxes. You don't get enough of some of the materials to fully make two boxes as I noticed and checked what I would need to make the second one. The whole purpose of the SECOND BOX is to do things like you would SIMILAR TO TOOL. If you watch the trailer, at times you will see a dry erase piece on the box - and at other times you will see it looking NORMAL with no dry erase piece. That is what I am talking about with the TWO BOXES you have to make if you want to do those two different effects. Even if you wanted to do some of the effects with the NON Dry Erase/ normal box you would make - YOU WOULDNT HAVE ALL THE MATERIALS TO MAKE THE EFFECTS HAPPEN! In the Instructional, Olivier shows you what he did with some parts that magicians use in these kind of gimmicks / boxes and that part was NOT included , yet shown on the box how to set up (very hard to find as it needs to be, .... strong*)

In addition, I received the white board card crooked and off center as if it was cut differently. I get that they wanted to go DIY so you could make this yourself and cost of the parts are much cheaper versus them shipping you a fully finished product/ gimmicks - however I would have much rather received a fully finished product/ gimmick two boxes and paid more for it due to all of these troubles, missing pieces to do the second box effects, & lot of DIY that is beyond 15 second by far. Don't get me wrong - I love getting crafty, creating things from others and myself however - I cannot stand when you are looking forward to something that really could have been made and shipped out but due to labor, sales etc. I can really see how cheap they went on this just by the small flat box, online video - Dont be Fooled as i said...

The Angles are not too great. You have to really cover yourself and a good chunk of the last part of the video is focused on angles... Its a lot of time and I was hoping it would be more ideas to do (which Olivier does go over some cool things and I will say that there is NO SOH for the most part pending what you want to do) however it focused mostly on the DIY ; then you realize you have to make two boxes to do what you are about to see next and dont have the materials to do the things you can do with that second box, WAIT! But if you have TOOL, then you are set!

So where is this going? I dont know how many card boxes you want to carry around with you and even the one itself, I am not crazy about. I honestly LOVE the idea of what Olivier was going for here, but I simply wont work with the materials / method used for this product you need to put together , not the whiteboard - something else that you would find upon opening it. Overall, I am honestly very disappointed. I had higher hopes for this. I thought this would be something new and practical, but it is the opposite of those things. It is not a worker by any means and takes up so much space as if we all have enough decks & gimmicked decks set up in our arsenals.

In the end, I wasted a lot of my time & money. I cannot speak for what will work for you, I can only explain my experience. Thought it would be helpful to share, so think about how practical this would be in your case. I look forward to more releases and Penguin Exclusives to come, I am not surprised by Vanishing's lack of information on this product as it never had the bio that you see when I purchased of course for a pre order - but thereafter it released and shipped, I am on Penguin's pages daily checking whats trending and never saw the updated bio till recent days. Bottom line - I'm not a "Vanishing" fan, and this is not the first time they have wasted my Time and Money.

I will NOT be asking for a refund or a store credit because I honestly do not want to deal with the headache of going through that process again with another product and the little materials you do get - I can save for my own creations.

I was going to give this a 1 rating, but Olivier as I said was and is a great person with passion behind his creations however this whole project is a mess in my opinion & with the amount of time I went through, I couldn't be more frustrated than anything. Vanishing inc is turning into Sandsminds slowly... not always but at times it seems their products are getting more deceptive and NOT PRACTICAL. So yes Vanishing INC, you get the 2 rating. I hope this helps you on your decision making & that my review has been informative, all the best!