Posts under ‘Cards’

Bicycle Gargoyles – first look!

Jun 6th, 2011
by admin.
2 comments

Gargoyle Box BackThe good folk at MagicNevin have just taken delivery of the latest deck from Diavoli productions – the Bicycle Gargoyles.

As with all of the Diavoli designs (see our review of 3 earlier decks here) they are visually impressive. Here’s a look at the box:

Gargoyle Box Front

As you can see, the design is inspired by Gothic style architecture and, in particular, Gargoyles. I found fascinating an extra card which is included by Lance T. Miller, the designer, explaining the rationale behind his design. You don’t need to have read this to enjoy the design (and I won’t spoil it here) but it frames the whole thing in the context of the struggle betwen good and evil – drawing on the Gargoyle’s historic role of warding off evil.

The card backs are printed in black and silver/gray ink. The overall effect is pleasing and looks nice in a spread – the Gargoyles themselves aren’t too prominent in that kind of layout:

Gargoyle Face Down Fan

The card faces are printed in silver rather than black ink, with the red indices only (not the actual pips in the middle of the cards) printed in red. It is a dramatic look, though to my eyes it makes the rest of the face on red cards look a little washed out.

Have a look at some court cards and see what you think (my photo may not help here)…
Gargoyle Court Cards

There is an extra prediction card included – a ’slashed’ 3 of Spades – here it is, plus a look at the Jokers and another shot of the box.

Gargoyle Prediction and Joker
Gargoyle Prediction and Case

Gargoyle ribbon spreadThe USPCC are advertising a new finish on these cards ‘magic finish’. I have to say that my first impressions of the handling were very favourable. In particular, a few of the decks I have recently tried from BBM have felt slightly on the thin side – these felt like a return to classic USPCC form, and were extremely smooth.

All in all a stylish pack, and like all the Diavoli decks, a limited edition. Available for £7.49 at MagicNevin immediately.

Joint winners for cheapest Bicycle Cards!

May 27th, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

We have been updating our Cheapest Bicycle Card finder and have a new situation we have never had before. Joint winners! Two different dealers come in at £2.50 for a single deck. As ever, you may be able to get better prices by buying in larger quantities.

Karnival Dose – our first look!

May 18th, 2011
by admin.
1 comment

These are the latest in the growing line of Karnival Cards from Big Blind Media – but was the Dose right?

We’ll start with the box. I have a lovely broody photo of this, but until I can sort out some technical problems, we’re going to have to do with a stock shot – sorry… Update! Here’s my broody photo!

Karnival Dose Box

It screams out ‘this is something unusual’. Or possibly ‘macabre’ if you’re that way inclined. And at the same time it whispers (via a barcode) ‘Jack of Clubs’…

When I opened the box the first thing I saw was the joker – which is the best Karnival joker I’ve seen yet. As long as you like skulls. And you do, right? One of the jokers has an Ace of Hearts reveal on it – tastefully sticking out of a crack in the skull.

Karnival Dose Jokers

Extra cards include a slightly eery prediction card and a double-backer. Have you spotted the ’subtle’ one way feature on the back design?

Karnival Dose Reveal

Every single card has been individually designed. There are skeletons and skulls and writing, and it has all been weathered or aged. Shades of Da Vinci but somehow less wholesome.

Karnival Dose Spread

The Aces and the court cards are particularly cool…

Karnival Dose Aces

What about the handling?

Like the Dead Eyes I find that the cards feel just a little bit thinner than standard Bikes. I don’t know if this is a deliberate a USPCC thing (economy measure?) and weather newer Bikes will go the same way. But they still fan and handle well. There’s still a reasonable ‘flex’ so I am struggling to think of a sleight where this will be a problem.

The bottom line is, this will be a great one for the collectors, would look good in all sorts of slightly ‘darker’ presentations, or could be mixed in with other Bicycle Cards to add extra impact.

Available to pre-order now, and you’ll receive them before my birthday :-)

Visit BBM’s Karnival Dose page for ordering info, or try your local dealer.

Bicycle Transducer Fire Playing Cards

Mar 12th, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

Now available in the UK at Cards4Magic for £8. This is the third in the series from the K3 studios. Very attractive 3-colour back design and flashy aces.

Bicycle Transducer Fire

The previous ‘Lava‘ edition still available from MagicNevin for £8.49 or only £7.34 at DiscountMagicExtra (though watch out for shipping rates and times here).

Another new entry!

Feb 27th, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

We have added a link to another new supplier – BicyclePlayingCardSupplies – on our Cheapest Bicycle Card Finder page. Now at a bargain £2.50 including p&p. We are going to revisit the page soon because it does not provide all the information that would be useful. Let us know if there are features you would like to see added.

Cheapest Bicycle Card Finder – New Entry!

Feb 23rd, 2011
by admin.
2 comments

We have been updating our Cheapest Bicycle Card Finder and we have a new entry from a non-magic company. PlayingCardsOnly.co.uk offer FREE p&p in the UK which makes them a bargain at only £2.95 for a single pack. They also offer discounts for larger purchases. This is the first time a non-magical supplier has been our cheapest offer. They also offer Eco Edition and Clear Plastic Cards as well as a variety of Poker versions.

Please note – the Cheapest Bicycle Card Finder is based on a single pack purchase – so there may be cheaper options when making larger orders.

New Bicycle Cards in at Card Collection

Feb 4th, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

A few new designs in at the Card Collection. Bicycle Dragon Back and Bicycle Rejuvenate Deck.

Bicycle Dragon Back
Bicycle Rejuvenate Deck

They also stock Bicycle Party Starters – but we can’t quite bring ourselves to post images of their horrible designs here!

Here’s a real Bicycle Card fan

Jan 22nd, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

We don’t usually post pics of people’s collections (because we can’t escape the lingering doubt that it is worrying!) – but this guy is clearly a true fanatic!

Bicycle Card Collection

You can see more shots here…

Happy New Year – and a Bicycle Quote

Jan 1st, 2011
by admin.
No comments yet

Confessions of a ConjurorHappy New Year to all our readers. One of my Christmas presents this year was Derren Brown’s Confessions of a Conjuror. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Derren’s slightly pretentious prose, but look forward to reading the book. As a Bicycle Card fan, imagine my pleasure to discover this typically Brownian description of a pack of our beloved cards on page 12 (which by a strange feature of books, is actually the second page of the actual content):

The new deck of red-backed Bicycle-brand poker cards had that afternoon been worn in for the gig through bending and riffling and springing until the deck’s spirit had been broken; in the way that a puppy, made to walk to heel, piss on the newspaper and not eat the roast, loses its bungling vigour and learns to behave. A brand-new Bike deck, is, for a short while, wanton and precarious. For those first few minutes it may simply spread effortlessly in the hands, the cards riding the frictionless slivers of oily space that lie between each virgin surface and gliding on their own advertised ‘air-cushioned finish’; absorbing and re-directing the pressure of the fingers into a beautiful, even spread at the slightest touch; each paste-board fluidly moving along with its one-higher/one-lower neighbour. But as marvellous as this evenness of movement is, and as satisfying as it feels to see a ribbon of fifty-four perfectly spaced and ordered indices appear almost instantaneously between the hands with an apparent mastery of controlled pressure that could not likely be wielded upon grubbier cards after a career of practise, the new deck is at other times reckless and prone to belching itself without warning from the hand, leaving usually just two cards held: a circumstance caused by the natural moisture from the thumb and forefinger pads adhering to the back of the top card and face of the bottom respectively and holding them back while the others issue defiantly from one’s grip towards the floor.”

Monte Cristo Deck by CardMaker – review

Dec 20th, 2010
by admin.
No comments yet

I don’t know much about the magic scene in Germany, but they seem to have more specialist card companies than most. I have known of the work of Card-Shark.de for some time, but today we are talking about the latest Monte Cristo Deck from CardMaker.

CardMakerCardMaker is a German company specialising in custom printing on Bicycle stock. Thankfully (for us) their website is also in English. They also sell a number of refills for some common packet tricks, a nice ESP deck, and a number of special decks including the Monte Cristo Deck.

What do you get?
A lovely Bicycle 808 deck gaffed in a very clever way. This is CardMaker’s ‘Series 3’ deck which has been made directly by USPCC and so quality is top notch. Written instructions are available to download (with the password supplied with the deck).

Lest there is any confusion (and I have certainly seen some on the forums) this is the same kind of deck as the Mastermind Deck – it is not a new principle. But it is a very clever one. It means you can freely shuffle and handle the deck and yet have complete control of the card a spectator picks, without any sleight of hand.

The instructions come with a load of ideas to start you off, including a dead-easy Ambitious Card routine and a Koran style prediction effect. Tantalisingly the ACAAN effect has not been translated into English yet, and so is not available in the instructions (as you know it is one of my favourite effects) – but it doesn’t require an enormous amount of thought to work out how you might achieve this.

Nice additions with this particular version of the deck are 2 extra cards. The first is a blank-backed version of the force card, the second is a force card with a large question mark printed on its blank back. Both lend themselves to predictions and more magical revelations of the force card. A nice touch.

What do we think?
I love this deck. For me, magic which is easy to do and powerful in effect is what I am looking for – and with the right presentation this has that. One friend of mine closes his act with this. These cards handle beautifully and I think that the extra cards are a useful addition. So they come highly recommended.

Where can you get them?
CardMaker are doing a special deal for readers of this site. If you quote the code ‘BCCUK2010’ they will give you 25% off the regular price i.e. EURO 24.50 (roughly £21) instead of EURO 32.50 (NB + EURO 4 for p&p). This is only available direct with CardMaker and not via other dealers. You will need to email CardMaker directly to take advantage of this deal.

Otherwise, MagicTao will be stocking them shortly, as will DudeThatsCoolMagic – we will update pricing etc. as soon as it is available.

← Earlier Posts
Newer Posts →