I have made myself incredibly busy lately. I normally post the ‘Tenyo Tuesday!’ at 0001 on Tuesday night…morning? Because I’m so excited. However, I’ve been trying to work on my first cardistry video, and I found myself working the cards for, I’m not kidding, FOUR straight hours. And managed to do all this while my hands are completely blistered up from something that the twins brought home from school. I think it was called ‘hand, foot, and mouth’. Never had it before in my life, but it’s the complete opposite of fun. My hands make me look like a leper. I’m just waiting for my arm to fall off. Hopefully, I can knock out this review before my limbs decide to do so.
FLASH DICE
Inventor: Takuya Yoshizawa
Year: 1976
Cost: $15-$35
Type of Effect: 1st effect: Production. 2nd effect: Production
Skill Level: Beginner
CONTENTS:
- 1 plastic holding case
- Dice box
- Dice lid
- 6 relatively small dice
EFFECT #1: Six dice are placed in the case at random. With a shake of the box, the dice are in ORDER from 1-6. Another shake and the dice now go from 6-1.
EFFECT #2: The audience picks out one die and selects a number. You, the magician, place the remaining 5 dice in the box at random. A shake of the box and all 5 dice are THE SELECTED NUMBER!
REVIEW:
We have finally hit a Tenyo that kids can do. Great for the wee magicians in your life. This one is fun. I used to have this trick when it was a part of the Milton Bradley: Magic Works line under the name of ‘Mystery Dice’. I know I’ve mentioned it before. Milton Bradley had a legitimate license to re-release some Tenyo under their name. Some had name changes, color changes, some even underwent prop changes. In the case of ‘Mystery Dice’ the only thing that changed was the name and the words ‘Mystery Dice’ on the plastic carrying case instead of ‘Flash Dice’. Other than that, both ‘Mystery Dice’ and ‘Flash Dice’ work the same and are pretty hard to tell apart in quality. It’s just ‘Mystery Dice’ is a smidge harder to find because it was released within a small window of time in…jeez. Early 1990’s? ’94-’95. I think. If you look on Ebay, it doesn’t go for over $20 if you’re REALLY jonesing for a used version and you REALLY want to use the version that says ‘Mystery Dice’. I’m really impartial to both versions. And the fact that I got my version of ‘Flash Dice’ as a part of a Tenyo lot; whatever floats your boat.
There are a couple versions of the Tenyo ‘Flash Dice’. The more common (and available) version is with the blue plastic housing case and the brownish-gold dice box. A much, much older version sports a black housing case and a (and I’m not sure how else to describe this) creamy white and brown dice box and lid.
Yes, that’s the description I gave. Deal with it.
The color scheme reminds me of a 70’s bowling alley
Both versions sport the name of the trick, ‘Flash Dice’ on the carrying box. And both work in the exact same fashion. The disco-bowling alley version is going to run you an extra $15-$20 more whenever it pops up on everyone’s favorite auction site.
The plastic housing is a bit of thinner plastic, but holds the dice box and lid together very well. If you carry it around in your pocket enough, the letters of ‘Flash Dice’ are probably going to inevitably wear out. Honestly, I’m not too fond that the name is on it because if people might get curious after watching a performance, they have the ability to look it up on Youtube and check out ‘reveal/tutorial’ videos. I mean, it takes a rather dedicated mind to go to that length, but giving them the name certainly doesn’t help your case if you want a nosy audience member off your trail.
The dice box and lid are rather thick plastic. They. Are. Sturdy. But you want the plastic carrying case to go along with it because fumbling for the box, lid, and the six mischievous dice out of your pocket WITHOUT the housing is certainly not going to help you either. I guess you could also use a rubber band. Or your wife’s hair-tie. But I don’t want to answer to the missus as to why her favorite hair-tie is missing.
The dice are a bit odd. For a while, I was looking for pink dice so I could get a copy of ‘Flash Dice’ for my daughter and she could use pink dice.
Makes sense to me.
The size of the dice make that little project next the impossible. They aren’t standard size dice in any sense. You might have to get a second copy if you lose a dice or two.
So we’ve done an entire review so far and haven’t talked about anything other than aesthetics. What gives?
Well, there’s not too much to discuss about ‘Flash Dice’. Especially the gimmick and how it works. I can’t say anything about it other than it ‘requires practice’. I mean, ALL magic requires practice, obviously. But ‘Flash Dice’ doesn’t really have anything that you can ‘improve’ or ‘skirt around’ as far as making it work better. It either works or you screwed up. Like all magic. Which it is.
One HUGE thing you can do with ‘Flash Dice’ is combine it with another Tenyo named ‘Tower of Dice’, in which both tricks use the same size dice. That’s some really neat versatility.
I will say this. The size and the carrying case make it PERFECT for all sorts of applications for restaurant work and one-on-one applications. Even better that its 100% inspectable. One of the FEW Tenyo that’s able to boast the ‘seal of inspectability’. The BIG problem is that it’s VERY SMALL. The action of making all the dice the same number is the stronger of the two production effects, but you can only get one or two people in on anything done with ‘Flash Dice’.
Before you get there, you need to have a LOT of patience in getting it to work. You’ll be spending a good hour or two trying to get this noisy little thing to work properly. But the noise is more to be expected, rather than it being a hindrance to your performance. You have 6 dice, you have a box, you shake the box, it makes noise; expected. Again, one of the FEW Tenyo that can make noise and get away with it without having to jump through performance hoops.
So, is it recommended? To me, it’s great if you’re performing in an environment where you can do one-on-one work—or work where a TINY group can witness what you’re doing. Because both effects CAN be separate from each other, there is a bit of modularity intact so that you can end a performance on one effect and leave it at that if need be. On top of that, it’s also perfect for kids to learn, despite the fact that it requires a bit of patience to learn.
FLASH DICE
Inventor: Takuya Yoshizawa
Year: 1976
Cost: $15-$35
Type of Effect: 1st effect: Production. 2nd effect: Production
Skill Level: Beginner
CONTENTS:
- 1 plastic holding case
- Dice box
- Dice lid
- 6 relatively small dice
EFFECT #1: Six dice are placed in the case at random. With a shake of the box, the dice are in ORDER from 1-6. Another shake and the dice now go from 6-1.
EFFECT #2: The audience picks out one die and selects a number. You, the magician, place the remaining 5 dice in the box at random. A shake of the box and all 5 dice are THE SELECTED NUMBER!
REVIEW:
We have finally hit a Tenyo that kids can do. Great for the wee magicians in your life. This one is fun. I used to have this trick when it was a part of the Milton Bradley: Magic Works line under the name of ‘Mystery Dice’. I know I’ve mentioned it before. Milton Bradley had a legitimate license to re-release some Tenyo under their name. Some had name changes, color changes, some even underwent prop changes. In the case of ‘Mystery Dice’ the only thing that changed was the name and the words ‘Mystery Dice’ on the plastic carrying case instead of ‘Flash Dice’. Other than that, both ‘Mystery Dice’ and ‘Flash Dice’ work the same and are pretty hard to tell apart in quality. It’s just ‘Mystery Dice’ is a smidge harder to find because it was released within a small window of time in…jeez. Early 1990’s? ’94-’95. I think. If you look on Ebay, it doesn’t go for over $20 if you’re REALLY jonesing for a used version and you REALLY want to use the version that says ‘Mystery Dice’. I’m really impartial to both versions. And the fact that I got my version of ‘Flash Dice’ as a part of a Tenyo lot; whatever floats your boat.
There are a couple versions of the Tenyo ‘Flash Dice’. The more common (and available) version is with the blue plastic housing case and the brownish-gold dice box. A much, much older version sports a black housing case and a (and I’m not sure how else to describe this) creamy white and brown dice box and lid.
Yes, that’s the description I gave. Deal with it.
The color scheme reminds me of a 70’s bowling alley
Both versions sport the name of the trick, ‘Flash Dice’ on the carrying box. And both work in the exact same fashion. The disco-bowling alley version is going to run you an extra $15-$20 more whenever it pops up on everyone’s favorite auction site.
The plastic housing is a bit of thinner plastic, but holds the dice box and lid together very well. If you carry it around in your pocket enough, the letters of ‘Flash Dice’ are probably going to inevitably wear out. Honestly, I’m not too fond that the name is on it because if people might get curious after watching a performance, they have the ability to look it up on Youtube and check out ‘reveal/tutorial’ videos. I mean, it takes a rather dedicated mind to go to that length, but giving them the name certainly doesn’t help your case if you want a nosy audience member off your trail.
The dice box and lid are rather thick plastic. They. Are. Sturdy. But you want the plastic carrying case to go along with it because fumbling for the box, lid, and the six mischievous dice out of your pocket WITHOUT the housing is certainly not going to help you either. I guess you could also use a rubber band. Or your wife’s hair-tie. But I don’t want to answer to the missus as to why her favorite hair-tie is missing.
The dice are a bit odd. For a while, I was looking for pink dice so I could get a copy of ‘Flash Dice’ for my daughter and she could use pink dice.
Makes sense to me.
The size of the dice make that little project next the impossible. They aren’t standard size dice in any sense. You might have to get a second copy if you lose a dice or two.
So we’ve done an entire review so far and haven’t talked about anything other than aesthetics. What gives?
Well, there’s not too much to discuss about ‘Flash Dice’. Especially the gimmick and how it works. I can’t say anything about it other than it ‘requires practice’. I mean, ALL magic requires practice, obviously. But ‘Flash Dice’ doesn’t really have anything that you can ‘improve’ or ‘skirt around’ as far as making it work better. It either works or you screwed up. Like all magic. Which it is.
One HUGE thing you can do with ‘Flash Dice’ is combine it with another Tenyo named ‘Tower of Dice’, in which both tricks use the same size dice. That’s some really neat versatility.
I will say this. The size and the carrying case make it PERFECT for all sorts of applications for restaurant work and one-on-one applications. Even better that its 100% inspectable. One of the FEW Tenyo that’s able to boast the ‘seal of inspectability’. The BIG problem is that it’s VERY SMALL. The action of making all the dice the same number is the stronger of the two production effects, but you can only get one or two people in on anything done with ‘Flash Dice’.
Before you get there, you need to have a LOT of patience in getting it to work. You’ll be spending a good hour or two trying to get this noisy little thing to work properly. But the noise is more to be expected, rather than it being a hindrance to your performance. You have 6 dice, you have a box, you shake the box, it makes noise; expected. Again, one of the FEW Tenyo that can make noise and get away with it without having to jump through performance hoops.
So, is it recommended? To me, it’s great if you’re performing in an environment where you can do one-on-one work—or work where a TINY group can witness what you’re doing. Because both effects CAN be separate from each other, there is a bit of modularity intact so that you can end a performance on one effect and leave it at that if need be. On top of that, it’s also perfect for kids to learn, despite the fact that it requires a bit of patience to learn.