The rather groovy limited edition Bicycle Apollo Deck

The elegant Crown Deck

(also available in Green and Blue)

The beautiful Erdnase Decks (on Bee stock).

And a number of Ellusionist decks including the Second Edition Artifice Deck

They stock many other favourites too. So many decks, so little time…

The latest in the Karnival range of cards from BBM is the Karnival Death Heads (Armour Edition). In a radical change from form, they are printed by Fournier on plastic playing card stock – as used on the World Poker Tour.

And first impressions are good. Once you’ve taken off the outer cellophane, and the inner cellophane (this double layer of cellophane will come as a shock to anyone more familiar with Bicycle Cards!), you will find a surprisingly versatile deck.
The Fournier syle large-pip index is bold and very clear – you will read these from a mile off!

The Jokers? Skulls, blood, the usual sort of Karnival style. And do I detect some extra hair in the ’scroll’ pattern – a subtle tribute to their hairy artist?! There’s a bar code reveal on the case, and an extra advertising card is also included.

So they’re made of plastic – that means they are very hard to tear or crease by accident. They wipe clean etc. etc. But do they handle like ‘normal’ cards?

Well I couldn’t do a perfect FARO with them… but then I couldn’t do that beforehand But they do fan and handle extremely well. A quick run through some of the standard sleights didn’t expose any obvious problems – they just feel a bit funny! But you would get used to that. And they really ought to last a long time – no need to replace them as often as normal Bicycle Cards.

You’re paying a bit more for the privilege of plastic – £11.99 for a pack. But if they last 3 times as long then you’re quids in!

Available exclusively from BBM – get them while they have them…

Here’s the back and front of the tuck case. First impressions are good.

In case you haven’t worked it out yet – Hornets look a lot like Bees. And I’m not just talking about insects here! I’ve always like the understated class of the borderless Bee design, and that immediately inclines me towards these Hornets.

But as we know, Sam Hayles and the BBM folk are obsessed with skulls. So if you take a closer look at the ‘pleasing geometrical back design’ you see that it actually consists of skulls (and crossbones). Lots of them. All over…

The skull and crossbones and the hornets themselves also feature on the Ace of Spades and the Jokers (which bring in the inevitable skeleton too! and a 3S reveal). But all rather tastefully done.

If I’m honest, what I like most about the deck is that you don’t really notice the skulls at all. Now I know that a lot of the BBM faithful won’t understand that – but skulls don’t do it for me that much – which was why until now my favourite Karnival deck was the Karnival Ryujin.
But I think the Hornets may have taken that crown. And I love the slightly mesmerising effect of spreading or fanning the borderless deck (see pictures below).

Before we leave the appearance of the cards, the faces (apart from the AS and the Jokers) are classic Bicycle faces and easy to read. You are also provided with a rather odd extra card (not pictured here, sorry) – which has a Hornet back, and most of the front of a Karnival Dose but with a ‘torn away’ effect in the corner revealing the pip of a 6H. Don’t really know what that is useful for apart from advertising…
I should also just mention there is the almost obligatory barcode reveal on the tuckcase.

We need to say a word about card quality and handling. A new deck is incredibly smooth and slippy – handles like a dream. It is apparently printed on Bee stock – and I still don’t know if I’m imagining it but it feels slightly thinner. But there are few sleights that will be hindered by this – and many will actually be helped.

Feast your eyes on what I consider to be the attractive geometric effects of a stacked, spread and fanned deck before you read our conclusion…

All in all we’re a big fan of the Hornets. In Karnival terms it feels to be an understated design which is very pleasing on the eye and handles beautifully. Available right now direct from BBM for £4.99 + p&p.

And watch this space for our Christmas competition and the chance to win yourself a deck!

Cards4Magic are now stocking these ‘Hope for Japan’ playing cards by USPCC. They are designed by Dr Leon and rock in at £9 of which “a portion” will go to the Japanese Red Cross. Don’t know how big the portion is and hope its not just opportunist marketing. But maybe worth a look.

Just noticed Merchant of Magic are offering the deck for £7.99.
I imagine the cut to the Japanese Red Cross is the same

They are designed by Eric Duan aka mloong and produced by Diavoli productions.

What’s to like?

They handle beautifully and the back design is very intricate and attractive. With the compass points it is inherently ‘1-way’ – which is potentially useful.

The jokers, too, are nicely designed, and sit well with the theme. If you look closely you will see one is holding a dagger and one a harp. There is also a double backed card supply which is a nice touch with many uses for magicians.

We mainly like the work on the Ace of Spades, but have a few issues with the blue ink – about which more below… We’re also unsure whether the spelling of ‘pirate’ on the Ace (it is spelled ‘Piraue’) is deliberate and has some meaning, or is an accident.

What’s not so good?

I suspect the colouring of the cards will be a Marmite thing. Some will love it and some will hate it. Various (arbitrary?) pips are coloured blue. Here’s what a hand of spades looks like:

Here are some on the hearts:

And different aspects of the court cards are coloured blue according to suit and value:

There appears to be no rhyme nor reason to this. So for example, only the Jack of Spades has blue hair – no other Jacks, no other spade court cards, in fact just no other cards. The Queen of Spades and Diamonds both have blue hairbands but not the Queen of Hearts or Clubs.

Perhaps a more inventive magician than me will come up for a routine which capitalises on these variations.

Or perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye – there is an extra card supplied which hints at a secret hidden in the cards.

All in all I think I was a little disappointed with the look of these.

The Black version has black faces with purple colouring which looks better from my point of view.

But I have seen other reviews taking the opposite view.

You will have to decide for yourself at the end of the day. They are a limited edition – only 2,500 printed – so will probably be collectible. The good news is we have a black and a white deck up for grabs in our summer competition and still plenty of time to enter.

Alternatively you can buy them from:

Cards4Magic for £9
Bicycle Playing Card Supplies for £8

The newest limited edition cards are these rather swanky looking Aristocrat 727s – available in Red or Blue.

MagicNevin seem to be the only people with them in stock at the time of writing – at a brilliant £3.99/deck.

Follow the links to: Bicycle Aristocrat 727 Blue Deck or Bicycle Aristocrat 727 Red Deck

The BlueDragon deck follows hot (pun intended!) on the heals for the RedDragon Deck

They are available at £4.99 from Magic Nevin or MerchantOfMagic (or £6 at Cards4Magic).

We recently reviewed the fun new Bicycle Stickman Deck. This is now in stock at MerchantOfMagic for only £4.50 (slightly cheaper than the £5.49 at MagicNevin or £5 at Cards4Magic).

If Ellusionist is more your thing, the new Artifice deck is now in the UK.
Cards4Magic have it at £7 which is slightly cheaper than MagicNevin at £7.50.

I think that will do for now…

The USP here is the idea of a little animation in the top right corner of the deck. Each card has a different ‘frame’ of a sword fight between 2 stickmen. So when you riffle the deck (see end of review) you get a groovy animation.

The cards handle beautifully, and the distinctly non-bicycle back design gives an amazing almost irridecent effect when it is spread out – very nice.

They have completely re-imagined the jokers and court cards in a slightly abstract style. An extra card is supplied which shows all the frames of the animation.


And here’s the animation itself… (apologies for the focus)

I think this is a really fun deck. I enjoy the fact that it is less gothic and ‘dark’ than many of the newest designs we’ve looked at recently. The animation is a nice novelty, and I’m sure some creative magician will work it into a routine before too long. Available now at MagicNevin for £5.49.