The Skull deck is now available in the UK at Cards4Magic for £6/pack (although MagicNevin, Prudhoe and MagicBox were already stocking this so they seem a bit slow of the mark here).
They also have the new 809 Mandolins for £3/pack (although, Alakazam, Magic Shop and Prudhoe all have them at £2.50/pack).
Here at Bicycle-Cards.co.uk we’re still wondering whether these will become the new card of choice, or how the Phoenix deck will do. Any thoughts?…
Although these haven’t officially hit the UK yet (official release date has shifted back a week to 9th August), my man at BBM slipped me a couple of decks to have a look at – what a gent! And I have to say I think they’re gorgeous. Gold and dragons. Nice!
But I’m conflicted.
Let me come clean about a few things. I have had this nagging suspicion with some of the other Karnival decks that they might not appeal to every audience. This is probably a sign that I’m not cool enough – and I guess with any special design like this you are going to find some people who won’t like it. But the dragon design on the Ryujins seems to me a bit more classy and more widely appealing.
On the other hand, the rather tastefully designed new Joker is not going to suit some people. It is elegantly done, and in no sense explicit, but it does feature nudity. So that will put some people off. Although it must be said that most of the magic I do with cards could be done without any Jokers in the pack – so you could always remove them if you were bothered by this.
The ace of spades is very striking with intertwined dragons and the rather classy gold ink used for the back design. You also get the apparently obligatory ‘prediction’ card (‘you will choose the 5 of diamonds’) – which I feel is rather spoiled by the advertising on the back of it. Rather nicer is the 9 of hearts ’spiked’ under the sword of one of the Jokers. There’s also a barcode reveal on the tuck case if you like that kind of thing. A matching blank-faced card is also supplied which is always useful.
The Ryujins are printed on regular USPCC stock and so handle as well as you would expect them to. There does seem to be quite a lot of ‘border’ on the back design, and on my deck these are slightly unbalanced leaving a pronounced ‘one way’ effect. I am not sure if this is intentional or is just a USPCC printing problem – you see it on normal Bicycle Decks from time to time. However, I don’t think a layperson would notice.
Ed note: having checked with BBM – there is a subtle one-way effect in the actual design; the off-centre printing is a bonus!
Bottom line – this is a nice and visually striking deck which handles well. But pick your audience carefully…
BBM are still doing their pre-order deal (buy 3 or more decks and get a free Renegade chucked in) – head over to their pre-order page for more details.
MagicNevin are the exclusive UK stockist of this striking new design from the USPCC. It is a modern twist on an old design, created by artist Brett A. Jones. The colourful backs will provide great displays when fanning, and of course, they are printed on classic Bicycle 808 card stock so handle beautifully.
Whilst you are there, you will discover MagicNevin have a truly impressive range of Bicycle Cards – in addition to all the usual decks, they have the Gold Standard Deck, the White Raider Deck, Rainbow Backs, Red Dragon, Raider, all the Karnival decks, Black Scorpion and Black Spider decks, The Vintage series decks, the Limited Edition Decks, the Pastel Decks, and some ‘fashion’ decks I’ve not seen before – the ‘Bungalow’, ‘Flirtatious’ and ‘Twilight’ (pictured below) decks. Phew!
With a launch date of 9th August, and a tasty pre-order offer (free Karnival Renegade deck with pre-order of 3 or more Ryujin Decks) it is worth a little look at the BBM website.
This is a very different look for the Karnival Deck – more oriental in style and with metallic gold ink. We’ll do a proper review when we get our hands on some. Watch this space… (to make that easier, why not follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook page?)
Two days ago Murphy’s Magic in the US announced a new Bicycle Deck. The Mandolin Deck has new artwork (see below) – but it looks a lot like the Bicycle design at a glance. Murphy’s will be making it their standard design for all products using gaff cards in the future – will this mark the end of Bicycle Cards as we know them?
You can read Murphy’s full announcement here. As usual we will let you know when we see them starting to hit the UK.
It will be interesting to see how this affects the magic world – and also whether the Phoenix Deck becomes more or less significant as a result. Watch this space…
Update – 16/8/10 – now available at MagicShop.co.uk for £2.50 – Bicycle Mandolin Deck (they also stock Invisible Decks and Stripper Decks in Mandolin backs).
Just recently Paul seems to have been putting out more tricks than books. He’s just announced his Oil & Water Rainbow packet trick, which joins Spectrum, Triple Kick Monte and Triple Rainbow Whammy Deck in the brightly coloured cards set! He’s obviously bought a job lot of cards. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to look at them in person yet, but you know what you’re getting with Paul. And he offers some good bundle deals if you want them. Check out PaulGordon.net for more details.
Here are two new Bicycle Decks now in the UK with the folk at TheCardCollection.
The Bicycle Dragon Deck is a bit like the old Red Deck, but using high contrast yellow. The Bicycle Rainbow Deck has an attractive back which would make for some pretty fans. It also comes with 52-on one card and a matching blank faced card.
The Annihilation Deck is the latest offering from Cameron Francis, produced by BBM. So what is it? The basic effect is a prediction effect. A card is chosen in a very free way, and then two prediction cards are revealed which are said to reveal the suit and the number. The trick appears to have gone wrong, until the cards are turned over to reveal exactly that drawn in bold marker on the back.
How does it play?
The effect is certainly very clean, if ever-so-slightly contrived (by this I just mean, if you really could predict someone’s choice of card, would drawing the value and the suit on the back of two other cards be the way you would do this – but to be honest quite a lot of magic falls into this category!). The advertising is correct that it requires no memory work or forcing etc. etc. and so it is essentially self-working. There are lots of things which make this appeal to me very much. It can be done ‘in the hands’ so is good for walk-around.
The deck is obviously ‘prepared’ and so requires some preparation time. However, this won’t take too long and is very clearly explained on the DVD, and once it is done it is done. The trick requires a very simple re-set which can be done easily.
Two variations on the original effect are provided. Total Annihilation seems to be the way Cameron prefers to perform it (there are 3 demo performances of this on the DVD!) and is essentially the same effect, but with the added element of ‘introducing’ the prediction cards at the beginning of the effect. Red Hot Annihilation is a variation in which the prediction cards have a contrasting back colour.
I like the effect, but for me, some of the extra effects on the DVD are even stronger. Do as I Predict is a kind of one deck do-as-I-do, where you and the spectator both freely select a card from a genuinely shuffled deck. Not only do your cards match, but they also match a pair of prediction cards from a contrasting deck which were in open view from the beginning. This is very neat, and requires only minimal sleight of hand, and the deck can be used freely in other effects before and after. It does require use of a table.
Red Lite is another self-working prediction effect in which two cards freely chosen by two spectators are found to predict a ‘randomly’ arrived at card in the deck. This is a clever bringing together of some principles you may already know and I think a strong effect.
But my favourite effect is called Convergence. Regular readers will know of my particular fondness for ACAAN type effects, and that is what we have here. And I love it. Here’s how it looks (BBM’s description):
The magician proposes an experiment in fate as he introduces two decks of card; one red & one blue. The blue deck is placed in front of a spectator and the magician never touches it again. The red deck is removed from its case and shown to have a different number written on the back of each card. A second spectator then names ANY card (Really!). We’ll say it’s the Two of Diamonds. This card is removed from the red deck. Another card is randomly selected, and the number on it’s back is noted (let’s say the number is 29). The spectator now uncases the blue deck. He counts down 29 cards… The 29th card is the Two of Diamonds!
I think this is really strong. The decks can be examined, no memorization or cribs needed, no real sleight of hand and it resets instantly. Obviously you will have to set up the decks which will take a little time, but it seems to me a real worker. I know that it is common place in magic adverts to say ‘worth the price of the whole dvd/book’ but I really do think this one is.
What do you get?
All the effects are explained on a DVD made to BBM’s usual high standards. Some will be annoyed by the graphics and the music, but I personally find them easy to watch and well shot. Some of the ‘subtitles’ made me laugh out loud and I enjoy Cameron’s slightly quirky way. Explanations are all very clear. There are some extra adverts/plugs (including regular references to the Karnival Decks!) – but most of these are in the ‘extras’ section, so you don’t have to watch them. You also get a free deck of Bicycle Cards so you can make up the basic effect straight away.
At only £15.99 direct from BBM I think this is great value. And I’ll be making up Convergence as soon as possible…
[you can also purchase if (at the same price) from Alakazam if you want to collect their points!]
Our friends at Freepost Magic have got a new link which gets you to all their lovely Bicycle Cards at once. They’ve got the Karnival decks (Assasins and Midnights, not Renegades yet) for £5.99 and regular decks for £2.29 (all with FREE 1st class UK delivery – which is why they are still top on our Cheapest Bicycle Card Finder). Click through to Freepost Magic and follow the link in the main navigation.
Paul Gordon also has some new stuff out. A DVD on Useful Card Sleights, another with some new tricks, and also his Triple Rainbow Whammy – a great (and easy to do) trick that looks very appealing.
USPCC seem to keep on churning out these new limited edition cards. Cards4Magic are now stocking this latest design:
This is the second installment of Bicycle’s Limited Edition series featuring a dark blue background with white and silver design. The joker was specially designed for this deck. The card faces are standard index, the same courts and fonts seen for years on Bicycle decks. They also have the 125th anniversary edition cards in stock. See Cards4Magic.
Bicycle Cards are produced by the United States Playing Card Company.
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