I apologize! Usually, I post these 10 minutes after midnight his Tuesday morning out of excitement. I HEAVILY underestimated how difficult this review would actually be and I finished the review JUST NOW! It doesn’t help that I’ve been bogged down with my cardistry project and birthday shopping for our twins...and early Christmas shopping too. As well as trying to find things to sell to get some of the new 2016 Tenyo.
So, while we are waiting for the review of the 2016 line, let’s review what has been said the ‘best Tenyo of 2015’.
'MAGIC BUTTERFLY'
Inventor: Sou Sato
Year: 2015
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: 1st: Production
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate-Expert
CONTENTS:
- 1 white butterfly box
- 1 fold-up black container
- Butterflies
- Butterfly cards!
EFFECT #1: You, the magician, present 4 butterfly cards: red, blue, yellow, and green butterfly cards. You turn them over and shuffle the cards. Your audience selects one card and you place the empty butterfly box inside of the black box and wave the selected butterfly card over the box.
When you take the white butterfly box out of the black box. A butterfly has now appeared INSIDE the white box that is the color of the butterfly on the card!
REVIEW:
Last week, when I did the TENYO TUESDAY! For ‘Ultraslice’, I said I would do a review for ‘Magic Butterfly’. I then realized that after the 5 minute ‘editing window’ that I sort of shot my mouth off. I LOVE ‘Magic Butterfly’, but it’s a rather tough one to go after. Regardless, let’s give ‘Magic Butterfly’, the pride and joy of the 2015 line, the ol’ college try!
Let’s start off with this. When I reviewed ‘Undercover Cube’, I grumped pretty hard about how tough it is to write a review on something so simple. Well, I’m about to get grumping pretty hard again—for the opposite reason—there’s A LOT more than I’m letting on and I really can’t get into why for exposure purposes.
Let’s say this: When you read the instructions and look over all of what is in the box; you’ll see that there’s enough utility and variety in presentation to choke a horse.
Speaking of the instructions. 2015 is the FIRST year in which Tenyo Magic has their English instructions in an online PDF format. You view them through their website and a rather long, long password that gives you access to the PDF.
Despite there being A LOT of things in ‘Magic Butterfly’, we are not able to talk about much. However, we can talk about the aesthetic, durability—other things!
So, what you’re working with here is 4 different colored butterfly cards. Very vibrantly colored, easy to see and identify; can’t go wrong here. They’re cards. Kind of hard to jack up cards.
The black container is rather flimsy, but made of plastic. It comes flat out of the box and while you can shape it up and down rather quickly, point still stands, I feel it’s clumsy for performance purposes.
We had a Tenyo-ite suggest using postage stamps or making a different type of box altogether. Make it seem like you’re shipping a butterfly off to another collector. SUPER cool idea there!
Personally, I don’t use the box at all. I utilize a handkerchief and I feel that has the ability for a much larger range of performance versatility. Especially when I have a couple handkerchiefs with butterflies on them.
The butterfly box. Not flimsy, but if you dropped it on the ground it would shatter and make you sad.
Which is funny because one of the routines suggests you perform a move that, if successful, would produce an amazing effect. If not, you’re buying another ‘Magic Butterfly’! Interesting marketing ploy!
How does it perform?
Very well, actually. The reset on it is rather quick, but I wouldn’t use it for a strolling gig. And with managing the cards AND the box, I think it would be hard to utilize for impromptu. So parlour and small shows it is! The production of a butterfly is huge. Whenever I do it (considering I’m a massive rookie), it plays BIG—even with minimal scripting. Not saying that’s okay, just that the kids were pushing me to utilize the darn thing as soon as they found out that daddy has a magic trick that makes butterflies appear.
But in all seriousness. What made ‘Magic Butterfly’ the smash hit of Tenyo for 2015, and one of the best tricks they have produced in a long time?
2015 was a great year for Tenyo. They had 4 effects I would say were ‘surefire’ and completely innovative. You had:
- ‘The Great Escape’: a penetration effect
- ‘The Alchemist’: a double transformation effect
- ‘Security Lock’: an effect that had TWO tricks in it, one a penetration effect and the other a…um…impossible location? It think…We’ll review it next week!
- ‘Magic Butterfly’: a versatile production effect
2015 displayed a WIDE variety of different effects that all played very well and were rather tough to figure out on the end of laymen—and magicians.
So what made—still makes ‘Magic Butterfly’ such a great effect?
Well, unfortunately, I can’t get into the details of it. And I’m not just talking about the gimmick.
I will say this, it’s EXTREMELY versatile in terms of performing.
There’s more in ‘Magic Butterfly’ that I’m letting on. But you can do a few different types of effects with it and present them in several different ways. Some are on the beginner end of things. And if you want to go a more difficult route, you can. You can even get REALLY in depth and make it a rather involved production routine. Of all the Tenyo in the 2015 line, ‘Magic Butterfly’ boasts quite a lot of versatility.
And what’s even better is that resets rather quickly. While, yes, it can reset quickly and can be great for strolling, it’s not something you’d want to do a repeat performance for people who have seen it done already. So it’s not something that would be great to do for a party. Table-to-table, where you have an ‘isolated audience’, would be great. A small show; great as well. Because of the cards and the use of the butterfly box, you need a table for the whole shebang. On top of that, it’s not inspectable. In fact, I’d say that none of the 2015 Tenyo are inspectable. But ‘Magic Butterfly’ requires a bit of audience management to prevent them from inspecting anything.
Can I recommend it? Absolutely. It’s one of the FEW Tenyo that has as much versatility in performing as it does. I mean, you don’t HAVE to use the butterfly. The instructions even suggest using coins. And even a voodoo doll. Yes, you can do all sorts of crazy things with this thing. It’s a trick with A LOT of versatility and utility and definitely a Tenyo you should give the time of day to look over—even with the non-inspectability, the production plays EXTREMELY WELL and, I think, makes up for it.
So, while we are waiting for the review of the 2016 line, let’s review what has been said the ‘best Tenyo of 2015’.
'MAGIC BUTTERFLY'
Inventor: Sou Sato
Year: 2015
Cost: $15-$25
Type of Effect: 1st: Production
Skill Level: Beginner-Intermediate-Expert
CONTENTS:
- 1 white butterfly box
- 1 fold-up black container
- Butterflies
- Butterfly cards!
EFFECT #1: You, the magician, present 4 butterfly cards: red, blue, yellow, and green butterfly cards. You turn them over and shuffle the cards. Your audience selects one card and you place the empty butterfly box inside of the black box and wave the selected butterfly card over the box.
When you take the white butterfly box out of the black box. A butterfly has now appeared INSIDE the white box that is the color of the butterfly on the card!
REVIEW:
Last week, when I did the TENYO TUESDAY! For ‘Ultraslice’, I said I would do a review for ‘Magic Butterfly’. I then realized that after the 5 minute ‘editing window’ that I sort of shot my mouth off. I LOVE ‘Magic Butterfly’, but it’s a rather tough one to go after. Regardless, let’s give ‘Magic Butterfly’, the pride and joy of the 2015 line, the ol’ college try!
Let’s start off with this. When I reviewed ‘Undercover Cube’, I grumped pretty hard about how tough it is to write a review on something so simple. Well, I’m about to get grumping pretty hard again—for the opposite reason—there’s A LOT more than I’m letting on and I really can’t get into why for exposure purposes.
Let’s say this: When you read the instructions and look over all of what is in the box; you’ll see that there’s enough utility and variety in presentation to choke a horse.
Speaking of the instructions. 2015 is the FIRST year in which Tenyo Magic has their English instructions in an online PDF format. You view them through their website and a rather long, long password that gives you access to the PDF.
Despite there being A LOT of things in ‘Magic Butterfly’, we are not able to talk about much. However, we can talk about the aesthetic, durability—other things!
So, what you’re working with here is 4 different colored butterfly cards. Very vibrantly colored, easy to see and identify; can’t go wrong here. They’re cards. Kind of hard to jack up cards.
The black container is rather flimsy, but made of plastic. It comes flat out of the box and while you can shape it up and down rather quickly, point still stands, I feel it’s clumsy for performance purposes.
We had a Tenyo-ite suggest using postage stamps or making a different type of box altogether. Make it seem like you’re shipping a butterfly off to another collector. SUPER cool idea there!
Personally, I don’t use the box at all. I utilize a handkerchief and I feel that has the ability for a much larger range of performance versatility. Especially when I have a couple handkerchiefs with butterflies on them.
The butterfly box. Not flimsy, but if you dropped it on the ground it would shatter and make you sad.
Which is funny because one of the routines suggests you perform a move that, if successful, would produce an amazing effect. If not, you’re buying another ‘Magic Butterfly’! Interesting marketing ploy!
How does it perform?
Very well, actually. The reset on it is rather quick, but I wouldn’t use it for a strolling gig. And with managing the cards AND the box, I think it would be hard to utilize for impromptu. So parlour and small shows it is! The production of a butterfly is huge. Whenever I do it (considering I’m a massive rookie), it plays BIG—even with minimal scripting. Not saying that’s okay, just that the kids were pushing me to utilize the darn thing as soon as they found out that daddy has a magic trick that makes butterflies appear.
But in all seriousness. What made ‘Magic Butterfly’ the smash hit of Tenyo for 2015, and one of the best tricks they have produced in a long time?
2015 was a great year for Tenyo. They had 4 effects I would say were ‘surefire’ and completely innovative. You had:
- ‘The Great Escape’: a penetration effect
- ‘The Alchemist’: a double transformation effect
- ‘Security Lock’: an effect that had TWO tricks in it, one a penetration effect and the other a…um…impossible location? It think…We’ll review it next week!
- ‘Magic Butterfly’: a versatile production effect
2015 displayed a WIDE variety of different effects that all played very well and were rather tough to figure out on the end of laymen—and magicians.
So what made—still makes ‘Magic Butterfly’ such a great effect?
Well, unfortunately, I can’t get into the details of it. And I’m not just talking about the gimmick.
I will say this, it’s EXTREMELY versatile in terms of performing.
There’s more in ‘Magic Butterfly’ that I’m letting on. But you can do a few different types of effects with it and present them in several different ways. Some are on the beginner end of things. And if you want to go a more difficult route, you can. You can even get REALLY in depth and make it a rather involved production routine. Of all the Tenyo in the 2015 line, ‘Magic Butterfly’ boasts quite a lot of versatility.
And what’s even better is that resets rather quickly. While, yes, it can reset quickly and can be great for strolling, it’s not something you’d want to do a repeat performance for people who have seen it done already. So it’s not something that would be great to do for a party. Table-to-table, where you have an ‘isolated audience’, would be great. A small show; great as well. Because of the cards and the use of the butterfly box, you need a table for the whole shebang. On top of that, it’s not inspectable. In fact, I’d say that none of the 2015 Tenyo are inspectable. But ‘Magic Butterfly’ requires a bit of audience management to prevent them from inspecting anything.
Can I recommend it? Absolutely. It’s one of the FEW Tenyo that has as much versatility in performing as it does. I mean, you don’t HAVE to use the butterfly. The instructions even suggest using coins. And even a voodoo doll. Yes, you can do all sorts of crazy things with this thing. It’s a trick with A LOT of versatility and utility and definitely a Tenyo you should give the time of day to look over—even with the non-inspectability, the production plays EXTREMELY WELL and, I think, makes up for it.
