Change – Lloyd Barnes

Product description : Oh well oh well oh well ! The most hyped trick of 2015 is finally in my hands and this is going to be one of the few reviews where I'm going to destroy the product. I'm telling it to you right away because we can't approve anything related to this trick : hype, way of selling it and the product in itself. Basically, Change is “A collection of 5 effects that will change your life forever”.. Yeah, whatever. You get a color changing card, vanishing the angel, making a card blur, a changing coin and a thing with headphones.

Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $29.95 and you can only find it on the Ellusionist website.

What you get : You get a small carboard sleeve, I think they did it because it was cheap to ship and easy to store for them, with inside 5 gimmicks which will allow you to perform the effects stated previously. Alright, I will say that only 0.5 gimmick can be used (the blurry king) and you will have to be very very careful about the light and the angles. You also get a streaming video for the explanations, nicely shot, but it doesn't help at all when it's the material which is the main problem. Unhappy with what I received.

Teaser : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_U_FME11qs

The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.

THE CONS :
Well, let's start by the hype around the trick. For months, the E team has been teasing the entire world with this release, for months ! They said that magic would be changed forever blablabla, all the usual BS but hey, Ellusionist is quite a big company which put time and efforts into their products, let's trust them ?
The way it has been sold, only 999 DVD available, but hey, when it's out of stock, we still have 1.000 DVD waiting to be sold ! So they lied just to make quick bucks, to make people buy it very quickly and say “First batch sold in under 10 minutes”, more BS hype.
Let's talk about the gimmicks should we ? A new principle ? Are you kidding me ? I'm born in 1995 and I remember when I was 4 or 5 having this kind of toy in my cereals ! Of course, they were not made out of Bicycle playing cards but don't say it's a new principle !
The gimmicks shine as hell, whatever light you're using. I can't see anyone using it in real life or maybe if you're in the deep night, you have a chance of getting away with it. (Or for TV and camera but I don't buy a magic trick to perform it only to my webcam)
The angles ! Sometimes in my review, I say that the angles are very limited but here, they're just awful ! Anyway, if you like dual reality, you can do a multiple reality here because everyone in the room will see something different ! Ahaha, I just realised that it could be a good trick in fact : “Man, you see that blue card ?” “What blue card, it's red !” “Guys, I'm seeing it purple”..
The color of the gimmicks are.. bad. They do not match at all the color of Bicycle playing cards.
The coin gimmick isn't cut out ! You have to cut A PERFECT CIRCLE to be able to have your gimmick, who is going to do that ? Why didn't you precut them ? It was too much time and you had to hype the whole project ?
Misleading trailer anyone ? The trick with the headphones can't be done as shown.
There is no way you can get away with 99% of the gimmicks, they're not well made per say, they are very shinny, doesn't feel and look at all like playing cards.

THE PROS :
You get 5 gimmicks so you can give them to 5 children to play with them.
It's cool to do it on video.

Overall rating : One of the worst project/product I've seen in a long time, definitely not worth it, please don't buy it, you will be disappointed because YOU CAN'T USE THE GIMMICKS ! 0/4 hearts, one of my first really bad review in a long long time, I really hope products like that will disappear from the market.

As for the difficulty level, you will have to be a master to present it in real life, from the angles to the light, you can't do it (or you will have to have somebody just in front of you, somebody a little bit old so they don't see well), 4/5 stars.

Similar products : From regular color change with sleights to flap cards, they are millions ways of achieving the same effect in the spectator mind. Please, learn the proper sleight instead of buying this piece of ****.

If you like this review, please make sure to read all the other ones on my website, link in my signature

"Careful about light and angles" in fact means "you should perform it in complete darkness with your spectator standing on the big X, that you carefully drawn before the show"
I just can't imagine someone paid $30 for it

Good point! What I found hard to imagine was that someone had the brass neck to charge $30.00 for it!

Yup, hope people are now aware of the crap E release and won't encourage them.

I'm really really upset about everything about Change.

But it's only Café members that were disappointed. That was from their marketing manager. Everyone else was very happy. Go figure.

Thanks for the review.

I will hold off on this one and check his "Money" effect instead.

I will hold off on this one and check his "Money" effect instead.

Being one of the people that ran out and purchased this effect prior to this review being posted, I concur!... It is lousy! Couple of things to add to the above comments...

The backs aren't even "Bicycle Red"! If I were to even try to use it, the "ungimmicked" back stands out from the rest of the deck like a sore thumb!
I wouldn't even say these are "angle sensitive". These cards are angle random! I wouldn't know how to begin to position myself relative to the spectator to get any kind of decent effect.
I also have to agree that the king is worth maybe a small something. I may someday be able to work it into some kind of "you can't trust what you see" effect... but that's about it.

$30 thrown down the toilet! What a sham!

Don't hold back so much folks, tell us what you *really* think!