I do stand corrected on the amount of balls in 1 hand but,the simple point is that he was holding 11 of them in one hand, nothing special about that(according to you).

I'm sure you can hold 11 tennis balls in your hand.

Next thing your gonna tell me Santa isn't real.

Mike

Does not bounce like a real tennis ball. From waist height about a foot bounce when tossed downward. Still, they look great. Not as compressible as supersoft, more like a stiff "normal" spongeball.

Thank you Doug for sharing that,I know it was a big question for a lot of people.

Mike

Yes you do stand corrected. Yes I can hold 11 soft balls in my hand.
I am just pointed out that he does not try to cover all the balls.
If you read my post you would see I still said it was pretty good but not 12.
And yes to your second inquiry. Well not that is is not real but he has been dead for a long time. But that is a secret so do not tell anyone.

I would like to know if they react EXACTLY like sponge balls when compressed for say 20 mintues. Do they instantly pop back into shape?

Touche !

The point I was making was that you can not hold that many tennis ball in your hand the way he does. I'm very happy that you can hold 11 soft balls (not softballs)in your hand.

Not quite the same thing.

As for Santa, he's not dead. He's running a rib joint in Alabama with Elvis.

:xmas:

Mike

If the picture is the actual product, I admit they look good enough to fool Billie Jean King.

I would like to see a CLEAR higher res shot of the balls close up.

Can someone who has these post them since the low res photo does like nice but I am guessing they are a bit different close up.

I still would like an answer on the how quickly they expand after being compressed for 15-20 minutes.

Also are these balls PAINTED or does the color appear to be dyed or the foam itself.

Powermagic - these are more like manufacturing questions. Probably could ask Alan Wong directly. It appears to be dyed. Not sure about the 15 to 20 minutes compressed test. Again, these are a little more stiff but do "act" like a sponge ball. Here's my take on them - the whole point, at least for me - is that they look exactly like a real tennis ball. A real tennis ball is not compressible. It's also pretty darn big around (hold a normal tennis ball in your hand and you'll get the idea). So, their advantage is that you could stuff a bunch of them in something as a production item or like the Finn Jon routine, produce them as solid objects. I can't see using them like a normal sponge ball 2-in the hand, 1-in the pocket type thing. Why not just use super soft or normal Goshman balls then? These have many applications. Buy a cannister of them and start brainstorming

I don't see what the big whoop is about compressing a tennis ball in your hand....Jamie Summers used to do it every week!

Seriously though, I just got a set of these from Daytona, and they are the HIT of my table-hopping gig. They make a spectacular & hilarious climax to a sponge ball routine, much like the limes-finale of the cups & balls

Sounds even better than Sankey's earplugs!

We played around with them as loads in cups and balls... you can't believe how many you can squeeze into a cup.

Hi Pete
Thanks for the post and nice meeting you at Dean's Shoppe!

For some other friends' queries, the balls in the ad photo are the sponge tennis balls. They do not bounce as well as a real tennis ball would, but I would throw them against a wall and they bounce back just the same as a real tennis ball. They LOOK real, but they are NOT real. They are not super soft, and are dyed and hand painted. The colors will not come off easily. You can even wash them lightly if got dirty, some colors will come off the first time but after dried out you wont be able to tell if any color has come off. Don's leave them in the sun as it will get yellow as all sponge would. The real problem now is that they are all sold out. I sent my last 100 sets to Murphys after that it will take a while as I got shortage with the sponge material for the tennis balls.
Thank you for all the interest on my sponge tennis balls. Please keep your comments coming!

So any idea at all when the next batch may be available?

I just purchased a set from The Magic Warehouse

Can't wait! The Wizard review really sold me on these. I'm excited to try some ideas..

sponge ball through glass

mini tennis ball to full size

productions from hilarious places

etc etc etc

Got em - Love em

My only beef is that the white paint on the seams wears off easily and the yellow dye fades out with moderate use.

I fixed the seem problem with thinly painted on white silicon caulk/seal. I used a small screwdriver to give the seem a smooth strip appearance. Now they look even better and the silicon isn't going anywhere!

Any suggestions for restoring the yellow? Dye?

Hi Daffy,
We have them in stock for immediate shipment just click here:-
http://www.worldmagicstore.com/product_i......_id=6253
UK Sales tax of 17.5% which is included at part of the retail price will be deducted at checkout if you live outside of Europe. This reduces the price to £18.77 which is the tax free price. Shipping takes around 5 days airsure tracked.

best wishes
Jim

Great........adding them to my list.

I have two sets up for sale

These look great even a a short distance. I did find myself accidently picking up the sponge thinking it was a near by real tennis ball.
The color is not exact but as your sponge ball wears it will probably match nicely. Side by side the sponges are a bit brighter than a Wilson brand ball. This is not to say there is not a perfect match out there but it is close enough if using with a real ball. I never had them long enough to risk wetting them. Maybe just a rinse in water as Alan suggested would dull the color. I am not sure how much it can take before then going too light.
The painted lines looked decent but there were a few small light spots where the painter went outside the line. Wong needs to be up on the quality control to prevent this.

The sponge carved lines in the balls are a tad wider and different color than a Wilson but again, close enough and maybe with some searching one could find the model they used to make there's.

As I guessed, they do not bounce at all. Sure you can hit them with a racket or bounce off a wall to be realistic but even on a table they are just too light to return in any sense of REALISM. The one claim of "bounces like a real tennis ball" should be removed from the advertising since it is very misleading to anyone new to foam products.


In my tests they do have a slower return than I would have liked. If you are one to have this ball full size in the pocket and grab it, you could have it compressed for 10 minutes and not have a problem. They spring back fast if not compressed too long.
However if tightly compressed for too long they will come out misshaped.
If putting in a sh*** I maybe could fit 4 tight. Within 15 minutes most had an issue being flat sided or football shaped.
The recovery time is not very good for OPEN productions. Maybe 4-5 seconds, longer if you do not squeeze it back. Yes the more you push it back in shape the faster it goes but your audience might see a ball out of round which ruins the illusion.
With 3 pushed in a gimick I say 10 minutes is safe, 15 minutes you can get them out with some rolling to hide any defects but 20 minutes or more you have a slower return.

As for many of the old Finn Jon sponge tennis ball moves, some can be done. Now I have smaller hands and say two of the Wong balls were hard to compress. I could not hide them from all angles. I think Finn Jon has large hands.
So small hands maybe you can compress two, medium hands 3 and larger hands maybe all 4. They seem to be denser than what Finn Jon was using.


If you can grab and go, you will love these balls. Also you will love them if you have 5 seconds for expansion That is, if you have them compressed for 15 minutes and toss a few under a cup, YOu might want to give time for them to full restore their round shapes.
However if you want to do set up productions where the balls have been compressed and set before the show, you might be disappointed.
Having only 15 minutes at best for 3 balls compressed is limiting.

In A Day with Finn Jon, he is proud to show off a new sponge material. He shows how for his ball productions he could fit I think 8 tight into one sh***.
He claimed that this material was found at a local shop in Germany and the balls he made from it would expand fast even after an hour.
I am not sure about those claims and since he has not sold these in years, I assume his source dried up. Also on the DVD he sets them up and uses them right away so one can not say his were any better than Wong's unless someone out there has had both.

Finn usually used a rolling production and I wonder if that was to put the ball back in a full round.
Again, I say it is hard to say since what he shows is something set up and then used.

I think for the product to be practical and superior, they need to find a better material so they spring back fast. If you have these and set a book on them so they are compressed as flat as possible, for 15 minutes, you will see what I saw and find on tape it easy to see they are not real then.

I am not saying it is impossible to use later in the show but you will ahve to work harder to let the ball go back into full round.

Magicians note- DO NOT squeeze these back into shape since they are supposed to be solid. If your audience sees you squeeze them, they will know they are fake.
If you do not care, then you might as well not use these and just get some sort of toy ball.

Note I tried to PM Mr. Wong but did not get a response but I wonder if you wet them if they would not have this issue like you do with Goshman super soft sponge balls. When you do that with goshman products 4 balls in a TT can come out fully round. I was afraid to try since with the current Goshman line, the color bleeds when side by side. (say a bright yellow and navy blue, leave a green spot on both. Since Mr Wong states there is some color run, I was not even going to play around at over $6 per ball.
But anyone having them feel free to try it and get back to me. Maybe I sold these without giving a fair trial since any color bleed would not be noticed all being the same color. And as stated, maybe a rinse would give the ball a darker color to match closer to the Wilson brand tennis ball I have.


So for now I give these a grade of B or B- depending on the application.