It was such a pleasure to meet up with Mark at Blackpool so he could share with me the following handling. Combined with Wayne Fox's tip out (into their hands) it looks great.

Thanks once again to Wayne and Mark.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=101......&theater

Cheers

David

Nice.

Straight into the spectators hand.

Your hands are as clean as a whistle.

But the box isn't 😉

Mystery Solved = clean hands, dirty box.

Paragon = clean box, dirty hands.

The Holy Grail hasn't been found.

Although I did see a guy in the Theatre Bar at Blackpool with his own version of card to clear box which ended with a clean box and hands. Very fooling.

So are we saying that the essential difference between David & Jon is personal hygiene?

If only one box could do both..

The one I saw in the bar at Blackpool did. It relied on a very clever optical illusion, the likes of which I haven't seen before. Box and hands could both be examined afterwards. Can't remember the name of the guy but he was selling them 'unofficially'.

They are both great boxes, and everyone will have their preference. Mine is for paragon, I don't think I have ever seen so many magicians fooled at Blackpool. It's not perfect but it gets pretty close. Yes you are dirty at the end but the move looks so convincing that everyone couldn't wait to see the moment the card was opened and handed out. There was genuine disbelief that it could possibly br their signed card. To be honest if you can't clean up at that point you may as well give up magic completely. It literally takes a second to do the clean up while the card is being handed out and then everything is examinable. I do two different 3fly routines one with a gaff and one with normal coins in both you are dirty at some points in the routine but at the end nobody asks to see my hands they are interested in the coins, my feeling is that it will be the same with the box.

I thought mystery solved had been discontinued because of paragon?

I thought everyone who bought Mystery Solved was now being given access to password protected videos showing the Paragon method.

No, that's Three sixty you are thinking of. They use the same physical box.

Simon, if you are being snarky here can we please try not to make judgement calls on people based on which box they choose to tip cards out of?

Has David pulled Mystery Solved then?

Why would he?

As rowland points out, they both look great, and have contrasting issues. The fact that Paragon looks great makes no difference to the craftiness of Mystery Solved, which is also a very convincing illusion.

Paragon looks a lot better. And Mr Allen seems to have a much nicer personality. He'll get my money.

Paragon looks better because you've only seen the 10 second demo where he tips the card out. This is a magician fooler- for an ordinary layperson, they want to know if that card that has been in full view the whole time is their card. The box is only the vessel for holding what has been in front of them the whole time.

I also doubt that the whole Paragon routine and setup for the signed card will be as practical as the other clear card to boxes.

pass on this one

With respect, in the case of a card from box routine you don't need to see anything other than the card coming from the box. The routine that precedes it is irrelevant.

I own mystery solved, it was a great deal at Blackpool. I will also be getting Paragon when funds allow.

Mystery Solved and Paragon are both welcomed entries in the Card to Box plot. I plan to use Paragon for folded playing cards mainly because the angles are excellent, and I like that the folded card (in the box) is identical in size to the actual card that ends up in the palm of my hand. Mystery Solved however is my preferred device for predictions and related mentalism applications. This will fit my needs perfectly for a small parlor show effect. The illusion looks terrific on top of an inverted wine glass after the 'dump'. To each his own but I doubt that anybody will be disappointed with either box...They are both excellent utility devices.

As a mentalist I would rather have clean hands than a clean box. In my experience there is absolutely no heat on the box at all. I place it down on the table as in the video and not one single person has ever paid it even the slightest bit of attention. The video for Paragon looks superb but from a mentalism standpoint it is essentially a step backwards for me personally. If I want dirty hands I can simply do a billet switch.

When it comes to mentalism the compromise isn't whether the box can be examined the compromise is that you have a box at all. Mystery solved allows me to perform a very clean billet switch ending with completely empty hands. The trade off is that I have to justify the box. With Paragon I still have the trade off that I have to justify the box but now my hands are just as dirty as if I did a simple billet switch. There is zero heat on the box so I really don't care if it can be examined or not. After a billet switch I would rather have a dirty box that nobody cares about than dirty hands.

Mark

Wayne's original 3sixty allowed for clean hands AND box.

New isn't always better.