True Astonishments - Pros and Cons

Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
37
Belgrade, Serbia
This is not the review of the effects, but just my general opinion of pros and cons of this set. This is totally subjective, but it may help someone...
Well, as a lot of people already said, this is the best purchase I have ever made (and not just in magic) ;)
I'm serious, this DVD set is awesome. It has really high entertainment value, and is FULLY packed with great effects, interviews and everythingelse (trilogy flash back)...
First thing that I noticed when I opened the package is that TA wooden box is a lot smaller than I taught lol. And just when I put wooden box on the table and got ready to open it, my mother came in the room, saw this not-so-big box and asked "was that really worth all those money?" (it cost almost 500$ dollars for me). And by the time I was watching 3rd DVD, I knew it was worth it (and that is just 1/3 of the entire set).

Pro's:

1. A lot of very easy to do card miracles
2. Very very hard hitting effects
3. I really had a lot of problems with patter and guiding audience trough my effects... Well I don't have that problem anymore. This set helped my presentation grow 400%
4. Very high entertainment value, specially in interviews and phoote notes.
5. A LOT of material. This set will keep me going for a while.
6. Nice "little" wooden box, which is great collectors item.
7. Nice wicker/rope/something bag in which all the gimmicks are held. This bag looks like ancient Greek's bag in which they held goat cheese lol
8. ...etc.

Con's:

1. One of the biggest con is that most of the (but not all) explanations are silent (no words), with music in the background. Don't get me wrong, ALL explanations are crystal clear (mainly because of tricks being easy themselves), but I would prefer verbal explanations more...
2. Music in those speechless explanations are beautiful but gets old really fast. I almost fell asleep during explanations, because of music (and speechless factor).
3. For majority of effects, spectators (or you) needs to sign, draw, mark cards (sometimes the entire deck of cards), and this is HIGHLY subjective con, because I don't have easy access to cards like Americans do. Specially not to poker sized cards.
4. Wooden box itself was a little bit disappointing. Firstly because I taught it was bigger than it actually is. I blame all the hype and official trailer for that ;)
But I guess that is my problem lol. And box is definitely not worth 300$ itself (like Ellusionist says, and a lot of you guys here). If you ask me, it is hardly worth 100$...

But, believe me, all those pros overrules those cons. I stand by my statement that this is one of the best things I ever bought.
So, there you go. I hope I helped somebody with this list (which I will update as more things comes to my head).
Of course, not all of effect's are great, but with that much material, it is only logical that you don't like all of it, but I like 90% (which is far FAR more than I like in Trilogy, or any other DVD set).

Effects on this DVD set really match my style, so I can see myself using it a lot (when I get hold of that many decks of cards lol).

So if you are D&D flourishy/juggling type of performer, than maybe this set is not for you. But if you are a magician who is looking to astonish their audience and connect with them, than this is definitely for you.

Thanx for reading
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,699
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34
Hey, this is awesome, man. Thanks for posting this. Exactly the kind of things I like to know.
 
3. For majority of effects, spectators (or you) needs to sign, draw, mark cards (sometimes the entire deck of cards), and this is HIGHLY subjective con, because I don't have easy access to cards like Americans do. Specially not to poker sized cards.

This was just a suggestion that was passed to me and now I pass to you. For the tricks that require you to destroy cards you could find stickers that you can use instead of marking directly onto the card.
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
37
Belgrade, Serbia
Hey, this is awesome, man. Thanks for posting this. Exactly the kind of things I like to know.
Glad you liked it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
This was just a suggestion that was passed to me and now I pass to you. For the tricks that require you to destroy cards you could find stickers that you can use instead of marking directly onto the card.

Hmmm, what kind of stickers?
 
Sep 22, 2008
17
0
Sydney, Australia
i think i see where nexus is going with this as friends of mine put this to me recently

if you get those small circle stickers or ones that you use to label things (anything really that fits on the card) you could get different coloured ones

if they think "you could have had another card with the same type of sticker on it" then you can get them to write on the sticker

and after the magic has happened just peel off the sticker (if you want to)
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
37
Belgrade, Serbia
i think i see where nexus is going with this as friends of mine put this to me recently

if you get those small circle stickers or ones that you use to label things (anything really that fits on the card) you could get different coloured ones

if they think "you could have had another card with the same type of sticker on it" then you can get them to write on the sticker

and after the magic has happened just peel off the sticker (if you want to)

Yeah, I know what you mean. But I think that stickers will just steel the focus of the effect, and magic itself. All of the spot light will be on the stickers, like "why is there a sticker on the card? Is it some kind of magic sticker that does all the work? I've never seen a card with a sticker on it, thats weird..." etc. If you know what I mean.
 
Sep 2, 2007
1,229
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also, the trueastonishment site says that the box is worth 100$ itself, not 300
 
Nov 16, 2008
2,267
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In the not to distant future
just take a piece of tape and say, i would normally ask you to sign the card, but this is my last full deck of cards, so to make sure we use your card the entire effect i'll just tear off a piece of tape and ask you to sign that instead. i hope you don't mind.
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
37
Belgrade, Serbia
just take a piece of tape and say, i would normally ask you to sign the card, but this is my last full deck of cards, so to make sure we use your card the entire effect i'll just tear off a piece of tape and ask you to sign that instead. i hope you don't mind.

Yeah, that makes more sense now. But if you have TA set, you know that tape will only damage the effects. And in most of those tricks that you need to sign or draw something on the card, it is a pretty large surface, so (in my opinion) it wouldn't look nice...

But great thinking
 
Nov 16, 2008
2,267
0
36
In the not to distant future
Yeah, that makes more sense now. But if you have TA set, you know that tape will only damage the effects. And in most of those tricks that you need to sign or draw something on the card, it is a pretty large surface, so (in my opinion) it wouldn't look nice...

But great thinking

yeah, i don't own TA, but that's actually what i do, because i like to have at least 2 full decks.
 
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