I would like to Know if anyone used the Bunny Gift Surprise? Pro and cons.

Simple:
Pro- you don't have an animal in your house or aparment keeping your time if you don't perform constantly this is a good way.
Con- The parents of the children maybe don't like to have a rabbit in his house and the refuse to have it.

Non experimented animals bring sometimes bad surprises so I recommend have your regular animals if you perform only as a magician but if you are an paid amateur maybe the way of give away the rabbit is good for you.
Thanks,
Hansel!

I am very interested in this effect too.

I have been planning to purchase rainbow house for a rabbit production, but saw this come up on Hank Lee. Since I do one family stage show every couple of weeks, and many more birthday parties, this seems like a great alternative to give the birthday child a gift from the parents, have an add-on sale of a gift from the magician, or to produce the rabbit (not as a gift).

I am hoping to see a demo of the Bunny Gift Surprise. The demo of the rainbow house is lacking in presentation, but does show me the basic mechanics. What I would like to see is a photo of the presents. Hank Lee only has a drawing of trick. I'd like to know how the Bunny Gift Surprise looks.

Who knows, I'll probably end up buying both, one for my family shows and one just for birthday parties.

I have Bunny Gift Surprise. It is a great prop! I currently have 6 bunny production boxes so I only I have only used mine a few times at some repeat birthday gigs. I think Bunny Gift Surprise has a better presentation than Rainbow House. Having said that, I need a Rainbow House for a specific routine (set to music) that I am working on.

With Bunny Gift Surprise there are the silks and ribbons that go with it and the tranformation adds to the mystery. In my routine I also added a black and white Happy Birthday Silk that vanishes along with the other silks and ribbon and it is found colored inside the colored gift box at the end.

Another advantage to Bunny Gift Surprise over Rainbow House is that the production can be made by opening the box from the top. The roof on the Rainbow House does not open up. This is the issue that keeps me from getting a Rainbow House. I really need to be able to produce some items through the top of the box before I make the final production. Of course you can still lift the Birthday Gift Surprise load box to reveal the production if you want. I put a couple of small screws in the bottom to hold my box down because I make the production through the top in my birthday show routine.

In the routine I am working on I need to be able to make productions both ways; through the top, and by lifting the box. I am debating on whether to refinish my Bunny Gift Surprise to look more like a rainbow scene, or buying a Rainbow House. I don't do as many birthday party shows nowadays anyway, so if I could figure out how to open the roof on a Rainbow House I would buy one and sell my Bunny Gift Surprise. I really need the 'house' instead of the 'box' for my routine, because it would make more sense, and I'm not sure I could repaint the Bunny Gift Surprise boxes to look like houses. Maybe houses with flat roofs!

I think the Bunny Gift Surprise is better, especially if you are doing birthday shows. The silks add a lot IMO. However, these days the Rainbow House would fit my routine better, so I guess it's just a matter of which would work best for each individual. By the way, I don;t think that the silks come with Bunny Gift Surprise. I know they didn't when I bought mine. I use 10 silks, and one of them you have to make up yourself. I also stenciled some purple letters on one end of my final load box to make the routine make more sense. The outer shell has 5 holes for 5 silks, but the box is only 4 colors plus a white end. If you read the routine description you will see that one silk still has some color left on it, so I made the stencils this color. I do not see a reason why part of the box would remain white, but by adding the stencils it made sense to have another color. Hard to explain, but in my opinion it improved the effect.

By the way, I also replaced the velcro with the heavy duty kind on my Bunny Gift Surprise and it helped it 100%! I also used matching color velcro.

Regan

I sold Rainbow House and just got Bunny Gift Surprise. I found that Rainbow House didn't really have a good premise or plot, and unlike other props, it didn't inspire me to think one up. It was colorful, but didn't make much sense (some dealer routines are so random as to insult the kiddies). The Bunny Gift makes more sense, although you do still have the silks to pull through. I just got Bunny Gift, but like the logic of it much better (the workings and technical elements are pretty much the same). This and Rainbow House are very good productions if you are leaving the rabbit inside for a half hour or so. When my assistant cannot help and I am solo, I use this one as I can load before the show, produce the rabbit as finale, and not feel guilty about having discomforted the rabbit in the meantime. It has plenty of air and the rabbit rests in a comfy position unlike other flash boxes, which squash the rabbit, and bags, where the rabbit has to hang (they like firm ground, not the suspense of "being kept hanging").

Now you are making me doubt whether I should sell my Bunny Gift Surprise or not.

After reading good report of this Bunny Gift Surprise from this forum I ordered one.

Well I do not know where you good people got your Bunny Gift Surprise from but I have just received mine from Hank Lees and it is not made that well in fact a kid at High School wood working class could have made it better.

The Outer tube was scratched and had white marks from the White Parcel
The white parcels paint was marked in various places, glue at joins had not been wiped before painting. The velcro used on the white parcel to attach to the tube are black and not white
The coloured Parcels paint had bubbles in it, and it does not sit square on the tray.
There is no lip on the tube at the botton for the white parcel to sit, therefore when showing the botton end of the tube it is quite evident there is a another box inside the tube. This was quickly picked up by my neighbours child.

There is no quiet way of putting the white parcel down the tube and when it hits the bottom there is a loud bang which would scare any rabbit inside the coloured parcel. The paint colours on the coloured parcel are nothing near the colours of silks I have in my posession.

I have writen to Hank Lee in regards to this prop and its condition and sent photo's back and they are available to any one who would like a copy, I doubt it is a Supreme Magic Original but a copy and a bad one at that as I have many of Supreme Magic's props acquired over 30 years and they are still in good condition.

The basic routine for this prop is great just be careful from who you buy it from.
I am having to pull this one I have received apart and modify it so it can be used and looks professional, convincing (Children are not stupid)in a professional show in its current condition I would not even use it in a kindergarten. When you purchase props like this and get slugged lots of money for them you expect quality workmanship.

Martyn Phoenix
Howdi Do-it? Magical Entertainments

Click here to view attached image.

The basic principle at work is the "Pass-Through Tube" principle, same as in the venerable "Organ Pipes" described in Hoffmann's "Later Magic" only with not so many pipes. I mention this because I noticed that Jim Gerrish is working on a "Pass-Through Tube Effect" for his Hardboard and Duct Tape Magic Books that is almost ready for publication (two or three weeks) that contains improved ideas that might be of interest to those who want to make their own versions of the two effects described in this thread. If the quality of the currently available props is as bad as described by Martyn Phoenix, you might want to jump right in to making your own props inexpensively from Hardboard and Duct Tape (or feel free to upgrade construction to thin plywood and glue or nails). This way you control the size of the props as well as the quality of construction and the final decorations to match your own themes.

Marvin, your description surprises me. Not in general, because I have experienced similar workmanship from many magic items I have purchased. However, my Bunny Gift Surprise was put constructed fairly well. I do remember a couple of problems that I had with it.

Silks did not come with mine, but I do remember that I had a hard time finging silks to match the paint. My green and blue silks were a slightly different shade from the box, but it was never an issue. I added the color purple to mine and made up a purple 'splotchy' silk because I thought the routine made a little more sense that way.

The biggest complaint I had was that the velcro was too weak. I replaced it with industrial strength velcro, and I also used white velcro on the white box.

I ended up selling mine because I needed a Rainbow House for a routine I created, and I felt using both it and the Bunny Gift Surprise was too similar.

Just a follow-up from my previous post. Jim Gerrish just completed his "Pass Through Tube Effects" and the e-Book is now available on-line as the last effect in Book 2 of his Hardboard and Duct Tape Magic on my site.

Wow Martyn, that looks like a used one in a "not so good" condition. I would be complaining also. I purchased my Bunny Gift Surprise almost 10 years ago from Hank Lee's whenever Supreme first came out with them and, although there were no silks and the velcro was a little weak, it was in excellent condition. The paint job was really nice. It didn't look anything like the one in the pic you have posted. The quality of wood was heavy duty and nice also. I will say that a few years ago, when I purchased a Parker Swan Dollhouse from Hank Lee's, the paint must not have been dry when they shipped it because the base was stuck together and when I pulled it apart, it pulled off some of the paint with it. I don't think it was Hank Lee's fault though because when I ordered one, they were out of stock at the time. So it may have been in the rush from the manufacturer themselves. I never did report it though, although I probably should have.