Other manufacturers

Articles about other manufacturers.

Magic Wagon (Thailand)

http://www.magic-wagon.com

Introduction

I would not have been able to write this article if it weren't for Magic Wagon's support and I wish to thank them for providing me with all the bellow information. Also a big thank you to Mr. Tony Curtis for answering a few questions.

When I first started collecting magic tricks (roughly 10 years ago) I had no particular company or manufacturer I looked out for. As I mentioned somewhere on this website I had a few Tenyo effects without knowing they were 'Tenyo', one of the first being Credit Slasher. I like tricks to be simple and easy to do with clever mechanisms. Ever since I'm only missing a few Tenyo effects to complete my T-number collection my interest for other easy to do magic grew. I read about this company from Thailand selling very nice looking, clever, easy to do tricks: Magic Wagon. I was however never able to buy one of their products since they were out of stock. After some time I subscribed to their website (so I would get a notification e-mail when their next trick would be available) and bought their next release: Majestic Hydro Die. My interest for Magic Wagon was born. Soon after I bought Majestic Hydro Die I was able to buy a few 'discontinued' items from one or two internet magic shops - I knew these tricks would become highly collectible.

My collection

I have a decent MW collection but do not own every effect. My budget is not inexhaustible I'm afraid, so I have to be picky. The effects that intrigue me the most are the ones that are uncommon and of course the effect has to be good. Bellow is a picture of my MW collection I took several years ago. On the bottom shelf you can also see some Alan Warner and two Dave Powell effects.



My favourite effect still is Majestic Hydro Die, which is based on an old trick produced by Magiro in Germany called Hydro Die. I have both and I must admit MW's version is much more beautifull and actually easier to handle. It is also the very first MW effect I bought, therefore sentiment perhaps also plays a role ... .

The company - overwiew, philosofy and brief history

Magic Wagon's first catalog
Magic Wagon is owned and operated by Inventruss Corporation Ltd. For the magic department they offer a variety of beautiful handmade magic props uniquely and exclusively made in Thailand. At the beginning, they produced magic items in very small quantity for local magicians and private collectors. But soon they realized that this business model could improve. They expanded their market to a number of big department stores in Bangkok such as Siam Paragon, Central World and Central Chidlom. They have even been selling at Toys R Us in Thailand for many years.

At that time in the (total four) magic shops they had several employees working full time for them. Bellow are a few pictures of magic booths in these stores. Unfortunately they all closed due to the political unrest in 2010 and the flood situation in 2011 and as we speak only a small number of employees remain active. These employees are not professional magicians at all but they have professional magicians working with them.
The prototypes of their new effects are always performed for both staff members and laymen. Magic Wagon used to do teak woodworking in-house but the craftsmen have now separated due to the fact they didn't get enough orders to keep them happy. Building them this way and in very small custom runs for them is where the high cost comes in. For now Magic Wagon has other companies that build the effects for them.
A picture of their version of Cups and Balls with matching wand on the table.
There are only 12 sets in the world so it is very collectable.

In 2006 their PDI (Product Design & Innovation) team decided to launch a website. This was a few months after Mr. Tony Curtis stopped by their shop at Central Chidlom and encouraged them to sell magic items worldwide. He offered to promote their effects through his magic dealer network and this proved very successful with many of their early releases which he also named including Mental Safari, Hook's Chest, Siam Card Box, Hua Hin Dice, Chiang Mai Block, Ko Chang Paddle and Cha Am Drawer Box.

Since the beginning of their online service their goal has always been to offer unique & modern designed products including a small number of limited edition items to serve magicians worldwide. The main criterium for a new effect is that it must be easy to perform with interesting effects or the tricks have to be classics for collectors.

Magic Wagon actually rarely invents a trick from scratch. They mostly take care of the product designs and many ideas are from the magic items in the 50's. Ideas have also been supplied by people like Simon Corneille, Tony Curtis, Andy Martin, Danny Selnick and myself.

Magic Wagon also makes magic tricks exclusively for companies or magicians. They made five items exclusively for Mr. Tony Curtis for example including Die Abolical, Mental Case, The Bermuda Medallion (by Steve Cook) and Boxxed II and Mighty Mini Chameleon by Larry Becker.

Very first Magic Wagon packaging

Magic Wagon boot

Magic Wagon boot

While Magic Wagon used to publish videos of their effects they do not anymore. They are no longer hiring a camera man and video editors so that they can keep the cost down. Their goal has always been to provide the highest quality and designed magic props at the best possible prices. 

The number of effects Magic Wagon produced is unknown (the same goes for the Tenyo company by the way). When I asked them they replied: "We honestly do not know how many tricks we have released in the past but it's definitely over 100 items now. We also do not know how many tricks we will release in the future but after we have closed all of our magic shops in Bangkok, we can now concentrate on the exporting business and we will try to have a new magic item once a month until we have other business possibilities to pursue."

If you want to take a look at the effects they produced the best way is through their website. You can work your way up from there. Simply adjust the number id, so the next effect would be ***id=009, followed by ***id=010 and so on. At the time of writing the numbers 001 to 007 did not work for some reason.
Another great resource is the website of Mr. Andy Martin.

New releases

I asked Magic Wagon about upcoming releases and I think everyone will be happy to hear there is a chance they will re-release some of their older items, sometimes in an improved form but always with a new design. Mind Paintings II and The Sorcerer's Chest II are two great examples from the past.

Normally, after their items are sold out, there is a possibility that no more units will ever be reproduced due to they were fairly complicated to produce and the high labor intensity in building each effect. However, they have been re-releasing a few effects from the past every three years for FISM conventions.

Magic Wagon has grown into a very successful business and has a very loyal following of magicians and collectors worldwide which often results in any new effect offered by them being sold out in just a few hours. I have often read that their website is a big dissapointment for several people, almost all the effects are always out of stock. So you have to be quick when a new release pops up! As everyone who bought a piece from them already knows their shipment is the absolute best: well packed and extremely fast. All items that sell for 200 USD or more include free ultra fast shipping.

As mentioned before, for now they aim to release one effect each month.

Favourite and least favourite effects

Magic Wagon asked their employees about what effect they like the most and what effect they do not care about that much. Ghost Dice got the highest votes for 'best' effect, Coin Thru Coaster got the highest votes for being the 'weakest' effect they ever produced.

As mentioned before my favourite is Majestic Hydro Die. My least favourite would be The Golden Sphinx because of the akward way to 'detect' the way the sphinx is turned.

Routines

Here are some possible routines for a few effects.

  • Golden Sphinx - use this with Tenyo's Eye Of The Idol or The Hand Of Cleopatra. Combining it with Eye Of The Idol makes this a completely, self working miracle. The problem is both tricks have to be ideally positioned towards eachother. The Hand Of Cleopatra can be used as an alternative revelation.The idea using both comes from Mr. Simon Corneille.
  • Dice Of Poseidon - use Promystic's Multidimensional: let spectator one choose a number, place it on the table and write it down. Spectator two does the same. The magician now knows what numbers are chosen and takes the corresponding dice out of his pocket; force one or two numbers.
  • Mysterious Ring Cabinet - I have made two alternative handlings for this effect. As the owners know the sound the ring makes when it falls on the bottom is not very convincing. My two alternatives handle with this problem. If you are interested in them you may contact me and I will be happy to send them if you prove you own the effect.
    Another routine uses Wolf's Magic Rings Of Thruth - in this routine ( from Mr. Simon Corneille) a ring is chosen from the Rings Of Thruth Cabinet, all three rings are then used in MRC and at the end of the trick the previously chosen ring is the only one hanging on the golden rod. I will not go into more detail here however, but if you own both effects I'm sure you can work it out.
  • Mental Boxes - Mr. John Dream has a very nice routine for this effect. However, there is a possibility he will be publishing a book with routines for magic tricks and therefore I don't think it is appropriate to publish it here. I would suggest to give this effect a chance - it looks very obvious when you read MW's instructions but with a few adjustments (make it a longer routine, make it more complex for the spectators by adding an extra bag for each of the boxes, ...) this is a miracle.
  • Quantum Tunnel - Mr. Roberto Breyer uses a silk in addition to the ball. See here.
  • Diceolation - Use the box as a storage place for other, small tiricks. At the start of your routine use Multidimensional to have a number selected. Open the box, taking out the 'other' (mentalism) effects and also, casually, take out the black box with the die in it. Perform a few effects, and finally point out to the litle black box. Let a spectator shake it a few times (the die will not turn over) while he concentrates on the previously chosen number. He can now open it ... .
  • Mini Phantom - this video made by Simon Corneille speaks for itself ... .
If you have a personal routine you would like to share with the community please contact me and I will be happy to place it on this webpage (giving you full credit, of course). There is also a thread on TheMagicCafe's forum (in the secret sessions) where routines are discussed.

Final words

Magic Wagon asked me to thank the following people in their name for all their help and support: Tony Curtis, Andy Martin, Howard Baltus and Martin Breese. Without them they could not have achieved their mission in the world of magic.


Tricks Co. Japan

Introduction




There isn't a lot information available about this company but it seems they also made a lot of magic tricks that are Tenyo-like. Most of magic collectors will probably have one or even a few Tricks Co. effects in their collection, often even without realizing it. There have been a lot of people asking me about this company and therefore I decided to write what I found out the last couple of years. 
For being a company that I believe once must have been fairly popular (a lot of their magic tricks have been sold in Europe and America) it is strange that very few info on them can be found. This has perhaps something to do with the www/internet becoming more mainstream/available after the company went out of business.

Who is Tricks Co. ?

The company itself was founded in 1971. Mr. Rod Mc Fadden from Themagicgadgetsite was so kind to provide me a scan of their 'intruduction' magic catalog that came out in 1976.


I have contacted the D. Robbins magic company (now known as E-Zmagic) because they used to be the wholeseller for Tricks Co. Japan items in the USA. Robbins was established in 1916 by David Robbins, an amateur magician, who retired in 1960. At that time, Paul Fried, the president and CEO, purchased the company. Robbins was originally located in Manhattan, moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1978 and to Cranbury, NJ in 2004.
Unfortunately in the e-mail I got back from them they replied no one who used to work at the company is longer there and other employees have no info on Tricks Co.
Luckily Rod had some info on them he shared with me.
Tricks Co. Japan, like Tenyo, probably had a strong focus on selling in regular store toy departments, but also had more professional magic available. They sold a lot of magic kits and plastic peg rack hanging packaged magic, beginners things. But with the Original Magic series of 1976, they really upped the quality of the items and were more en par with Tenyo. They probably never partnered with tenyo, but rather were a competitor.
The only person named (and who possibly started and ran the company) is Toshio Akanuma. He invented many of the effects. Other inventors listed in the Original Magic series are Yasukazu Nishio, Yuichi Katakura and Skeyasu Hirata. In their professioanl line, one of the more famous effects, Silks in Net Tube (SM-48) is listed as invented by Yutaka Kikuchi.
Much of their wood magic was made in partnership with Mikame, and this is why some of the items are now in the Mikame line. Watch Box, sand Frame, Jap Box, etc. Yonezo Mikame is listed as inventor of M-Cylinders (SM-64) and Dream Tunnel (SM-61). Dream Tunnel has recently been remade by Mikame. For your information, Dream Tunnel works the same as Tenyo's Astro Tube - a seriosuly sought after Tenyo item among collectors. The most recent one sold for 1000 USD on an auction site!
The exact date when Tricks Co stopped is not certain. There are a number of items from the late 1990's and these were available through US wholesale distributor D Robbins in limited quantities until about 2005.

Their magic catalogs

Another source of info for me was Mr. Victor Superanto from Jakarta-Indonesia who I e-mailed with a year or more ago. When he was in Berlin years ago he had a good friend in magic and he had the original n° 2 Tricks Co catalogue from 1977.
Wondering how their catalog looks like and what tricks they produced? Good news because I have uploaded a pdf-file of their second catalog. And while the scans are not good quality (some text is hardly readable) the pictures/photos of the tricks speak for themselves. Click here and enjoy.
While browsing the catalog you will recognise names of some well known magicians like Mikame (cf. supra). Some effects are copies of Tenyo or perhaps Tenyo copied them from Tricks Co. ... . An interesting example is Million Flowers that came out more or less the same time as Tenyo's Million Flowers (the catalog is 1977 - the official Tenyo website places Million Flowers between 1977 - 1978) - perhaps this is a coincidence, perhaps not :) ). 
You will probably also notice a lot of 'classic' effects made by other manufacturers too, some have been around for ages, some however perhaps were invented by Tricks Co. and later copied by other manufacturers.
So ... those of you who thought they had 'quite a few' Tricks Co. Japan items in their collection will perhaps think otherwise after seeing the catalog (take in mind this is only ONE of their catalogs!) ... it seems they really produced A LOT of magic items!