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huggie50 Regular user North Las Vegas 109 Posts |
Received my Tenyo Elite "Moonspinner" and "The Fortune Sticks" today, and they are everything they said they would be, just as advertised. These are really nice and the instruction book is well written in both English and Japanese. I can hardly wait for the next release.
Magically yours,
Huggie |
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Steve Brooks Founder / Manager Northern California - United States 3780 Posts |
Huggie - Glad to hear you are enjoying your Tenyo Elite items.
"Always be you because nobody else can" - Steve Brooks
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GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
Still waiting for mine to arrive
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dking66 Loyal user 261 Posts |
Very nice pieces. Congrats, Tenyo Elite Team! I especially like the Moonspinner! Wonder when the other two items will be released?
Doug |
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Steve Brooks Founder / Manager Northern California - United States 3780 Posts |
Hang in there GeorgeG - if you made a pre-order it was shipped and is currently in transit.
dking66 - Soft Coins and the Blue Crystal are still being tweeked a bit and will eventually follow.
"Always be you because nobody else can" - Steve Brooks
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Peter Loughran V.I.P. Ontario, Canada 2683 Posts |
Huggie50 & Dking66 - happy to hear you guys are enjoying your new Elite items.
GeorgeG, yours was shipped out with the pre-orders last Wed, and it takes approximately 6-9 business days for delivery to the USA (these are shipping from our headquaters in Canada) not including weekends or Canadian/Destination holidays. Times are approximations only as we cannot predict how fast each order will be passed through customs, every state and country can have different custom clearance times. However, in some cases it can get there quite faster than the approximated time as noted by dking66 and huggie50. Today is only the 6th business day that they have been in transit, so I would start to look for them in your mail box to show up any day now begining with today. If they still are not there by next mid next week, let me know personally, and I'll pull up your tracking number. Peter.
Brand New: - SNAKE BITE ILLUSION
www.masterofillusions.ca Follow me on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/peter.loughran.9 Check out my new movie: www.plasterrockmovie.com www.globaluniversal.com Also visit: www.l2fireworks.com |
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Curtis Kam V.I.P. same as you, plus 3 and enough to make 3498 Posts |
Can't wait to see these. About a month ago, I came up with a killer routine for the moonspinner. It's going into my working repertoire as soon as the spinner arrives, and once it's road tested...you guys got a forum or anything?
Is THAT a PALMS OF STEEL 5 Banner I see? YARRRRGH! Please visit The Magic Bakery
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Robert M Inner circle 2482 Posts |
I received the Fortune Sticks a couple of days ago. They are really nice. And, they come with a beautiful leather holder. Nice black box to put it all in, too. Excellent presentation.
Robert |
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GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
Received my goodies yesterday, Friday, and very happy. Love the Moonspinner; still worried about specatators handling the Fortune Sticks, though very clever effect (own a lot of the original Tenyo pieces, but missed out on these two).
Heard there may be a limited edition serially numbered boxed set of all the new elite items somewhere (maybe on that Magic magazine artcle sometime ago)...would love to get one, if it still goes out. |
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dking66 Loyal user 261 Posts |
Me too, George!
Can anyone from the Elite Team tell us if the LE set is happening? |
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tdowell Inner circle 1050 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-11-07 23:00, dking66 wrote: I thought all the Elite sets were a limited edition. A limited limited edition? Seems to me that would be redundant. |
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bsears Inner circle Cincinnati, Ohio 1040 Posts |
As I am unfamiliar with these effects, I'd be interested in what kind of reactions they receive "in the trenches." I'm sure the craftsmanship is excellent, but what about the routines themselves?
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dking66 Loyal user 261 Posts |
Elite Team: Can you answer these questions relating to the Limited Edition?
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Steve Brooks Founder / Manager Northern California - United States 3780 Posts |
My apologies for the late reply, as you can imagine things have been a bit hectic.
To answer tdowell: While the Tenyo Elite versions of Tenyo's classic tricks are indeed designed for both performers and collectors alike, we have never implied that these are limited editions. Though we have produced a very small number of the Moonspinner's and Fortune Stricks, should there be enough demand to warrant the financial investment, we will naturally produce another run. On the other hand, this is in no way an open ended project. From a business point of view, if there is not enough interest it would not make any sense for us to continue producing items that are not in demand and I'm sure you can appreciate the amount of time and expense that goes in to a project such as this one. So, when we stated that supplies are limited, we were not kidding. The run we made was very small and a second run may or may not happen - only time will tell us. Now, while these are not official limited editions, by their very nature they are still highly collectable. As an example, I've seen various original Tenyo tricks sell on Ebay for hundreds of dollars...what might a Tenyo Elite edtion go for in years to come? Having said all that, we have indeed entertained the idea of eventually producing an official Limited Edition set of our Elite editions. These would be produced in special presentation cased sets with serial numbers, hallmarked and having several other surprises. These special editions would not be made for actual performing but rather to be treasured and displayed by discriminating collectors around the world. In addition, these sets would be made in extremely small runs, possibly only fifty or a hundred sets made period. To answer bsears, the reactions you receive in the real world when performing these will of course depend much on how they are presented and framed by the performer. We have done our very best in teaching and providing a good routine within each instruction booklet. Our hope is that magicians will indeed take the time to practice and present the effects properly. I hope this helps answer some of your questions and concerns.
"Always be you because nobody else can" - Steve Brooks
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Kjellstrom Inner circle Sweden, Scandinavia, Europe 5203 Posts |
Fortune Sticks is a very good effect, smart and easy to do.
First time I saw the effect I had no clue how it was done. If I cant figure it out I need to get my hands on the prop, sure. I bought the sticks only to know the secret - THAT is silly. |
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Jason Palter V.I.P. 335 Posts |
Hello all:
I just had to respond to Kjellstrom's comments about "The Fortune Sticks", and how clever the trick is. I must admit, I too was completely fooled by this trick when I first saw it. I'm so glad that Peter, Steve and I decided to do this as one of first releases in our Tenyo Elite line----it is a killer! Just to give everyone a point of reference of how deceiving it is, I wanted to show the Elite version of "Fortune Sticks" to a colleague of mine, because I was confident it would fool and entertain him. He is VERY well-versed in mentalism, magic, and the workings of so many tricks (many of you know him, but I was requested not to mention his name for this story). So I did the trick to him. As soon as I named his thought-of symbol, he swore loudly at me and demanded that I do it again. I repeated the trick for him, and he again suggested something biologically impossible to me. He then grabbed the sticks and proceeded to VERY CLOSELY examine them. He searched my hands for gimmicks, etc., but of course found nothing (my sleeves of course were rolled up, and those of you who are familiar with the trick, know that it is completely self-contained). He requested one more demonstration, and I of course obliged. After I divined the symbol, he shamefully hung his head in defeat-----he had NO idea how the trick was done. I took pity on him and revealed the secret......he then had to step away from the table for a few minutes to compose himself. It was GREAT! lol Anyhow, as you know the Fortune Sticks and Moonspinner are in stock and shipping, so please let us know if you have any questions or would like ordering information. Thank you for your time. Best regards, Jason Palter Paltergeist Unlimited / Tenyo Elite (416) 410-5766 |
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teevtee Special user 963 Posts |
I received my Tenyo Elite Fortune Sticks a couple days ago.
Let me preface this by saying that I hope we can have honest critiques here despite the obvious conflicts on interest. It is a bit odd to review products on a forum run by people involved in creating the reviewed product. With that said here are my thoughts: I have mixed feelings on this particular product as well as all of the announced Tenyo Elite items. I absolutely love the idea of higher quality Tenyo effects. Like many of us I think Tenyo has some great little tricks but they are generally let down by the plastic nature of them. The idea of making high end versions is something I welcome but I have to question the particular selection of effects they made. I understand that for the first round keeping things mechanically simple is a wise idea but most of the effects choses are (in my opinion) not worthy of Elite status. Both moonspinner and soft coins are similar to effects commonly included in kids magic sets... do we need or want $100 versions of kiddie effects? Personally I do not think so. Fortune Sticks however is NOT a kiddie effect. In fact the actual effect is quite strong, simple to learn and easy to perform. The design and build quality of the Tenyo Elite version is quite nice. The sticks are nicely machined out of anadodized aluminum and they come in a nice little case (faux leather I believe). I have nothing negative to say about the build quality of the items or the effect itself... both are high. However I must question the logic of choosing this particular item for the Elite line. While it is a GREAT effect I am not sure the Elite version is worth four times the price of the standard version. See, there are Tenyo effects out there that have GREAT thinking behind them but are just cheap looking and or too small to really perform in a serious manner. Fortune Sticks functions just fine in the lowly "standard" version. There is really very little added value in the Elite version in terms of performance benefits. It is in effect identical to the standard version but metal instead of plastic and at a very high premium ($100). Without getting involved in method at all I believe there would be a way to make these out of materials that felt higher end, like stained woods and so on. The use of higher end materials would justify the price and make the effect play more seriously. As is it is a very nice effect, very nicely built with great instructions, but also very dubious as to wether it can justify the much higher price tag. I want to encourage all involved to continue with the Tenyo Elite project. In fact I ordered TWO sets of the Fortune Sticks in large part to simply support the creators (I feel that the Fortune Sticks are BY FAR the best of the effects they currently have in development for Elite). I offer this critique in hopes of letting the makers know what the magic community is really looking for and would appreciate the most.. or at least what I would appreciate the most. FOr anyone else who is a fan of this particular effect or thinks they may like it I would encourage you to purchase at least SOME version of it, and if you feel metal is worth four times what plastic is worth then go for the Elite. |
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todsky Inner circle www.magicstore.ca 2354 Posts |
Thanks for your balanced and thorough review, teevtee.
Todsky's Magic Shop: over 15,000 tricks, books, DVD s and Card decks. www.magicstore.ca
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Steve Brooks Founder / Manager Northern California - United States 3780 Posts |
teevtee - Thank you very much for taking the time to write such an honest review. We very much appreciate you taking the time to do so.
I'm glad you are happy with your purchase and I will try and respond to a couple of your suggestions. As you know, JPS MAGIC STUDIOS LTD aquired the exclusive worldwide manufacturing and distribtuion rights to produce a high end version of Tenyo's wonderful line of magic tricks. This new line, appropriately titled Tenyo Elite has been three years in the making. Now, while we are certainly making a number of changes, adjustments, etc to the original Tenyo tricks (e.g, re-writing the instruction manuals, manufacturing the effects out of high end materials, etc) - our good friends at Tenyo very much have a say as to what we do and how we do it. In fact, in the end - Tenyo has the final word on which tricks we are allowed to produce for the market and which tricks they would rather keep to themselves and who are we to argue? Because of contractual agreements that's as much as I can say on the matter. I will say this; Personally I feel that 99% of all the tricks made by Tenyo deserve to have an Elite counterpart, either because of how ingenious the effect is or sometimes because the trick has been out of production for so many years and now folks will have a chance to aquire one - but that could be just me I suppose. You said; "Without getting involved in method at all I believe there would be a way to make these out of materials that felt higher end, like stained woods and so on. The use of higher end materials would justify the price and make the effect play more seriously. As is it is a very nice effect, very nicely built with great instructions, but also very dubious as to wether it can justify the much higher price tag" If you could see what we've had to do and the amount of capital it has taken to produce the Elite version you now hold in your hands you would certainly understand our justification for the higher price - believe me. Also, it may interest you to know that in the begining the Tenyo Elite Fortune Sticks were set to be made out of exotic hardwoods including the blue stick being made out of a rare wood cut from a naturally blue tree! Unfortunately, as it turns out - no matter what we tried (e.g, various woods from around the world) or how they were cut, stained, coated, etc we could not prevent the sticks from splintering in actual use. Remember, we just didn't make these for collectors to display in a curio cabinet, we want folks to be able to use the items in real world performances. Thus, in the end it was decided that the heavy gauge anodized aluminum was the best choice. Anyways, just some food for thought teevtee - thanks again for your support of Tenyo Elite.
"Always be you because nobody else can" - Steve Brooks
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teevtee Special user 963 Posts |
Thanks for your thoughts Steve...
I totally understand how involved such an large project is. Obviously I have no idea what Tenyo has allowed or disallowed you to produce and I can imagine how that might be frustrating as well. Nevertheless I can only judge what is really on the market and really being offered as a final product. Ultimately how or why it got there is of little meaning to the end user. It reminds me of art... just because something was difficult to make does not make it better than something that was simple to make... some of the best art ever produced is also the simplest. In the end the final art, the final product is what is judged... being difficult or easy to make does not change the verdict. That is an interesting point about the wood... thanks for sharing that... I had not thought of the splintering issue (and I am sure I have not thought of MANY things that you have all had to deal with). This actually brings me back to my original point and one that you have already addressed, and that is the choice of effects. If the Fortune Sticks could not be properly produced as a usable prop in wood then maybe it should of been passed over in favor of some other effect that may lend itself better to the Elite treatment. Perhaps plastic really is the best material for the sticks? Truthfully, having owned the original and the Elite versions of the tricks I kind of, sort of prefer using the plastic ones... something about rubbing them together and rolling them seems more natural with plastic. But listen... I am afraid that this is somehow coming across as a negative review and it truly is not meant to be that at all! I am in fact happy with the purchase, I knew what to expect and got exactly what I was expecting, in fact maybe a little more. The effect is solid, the craftsmanship is high and I know a lot of care and effort went into these. I wish that you were allowed to choose other effects, effects that could truly be elevated far above the originals, maybe next round? Finally I will say again... for those who know nothing of the trick other than the description I can tell you that it is a solid and powerful effect with very few limitations, either version will work well for you and you should try the effect if it is up your alley. My point of view is why not support these guys and pony up for the Elite version, not so much because this round is actually worth it but rather in hopes of them having success so that the next round will be even better. |
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