Excalibur, Quicksilver, Sun & Moon Tubes, & more!

[Brett H]

As soon as I get the 'green light to go', I'll be in the market for a second wave of a 'not insignificant' amount of Tenyo.
Reason being is that I'm trying to set up three separate and distinct sets that consist of 5-6 Tenyo tricks.

The set I'm trying to build now is a coin themed set. The thing is that the ONLY Tenyos I have for it are Trap Box and Soft Coins.
And finding reviews and discussions about the various coin-centric Tenyos are far and few between. I'm guessing it's because of the incapability with different currencies outside of Yen and US coins.
But I have some questions in regards to a lot of the coin-themed Tenyo as well as a few others:

INFINITUM: I know there is a load involved. Now, if I were to hand Infinitum to a kid, would it work in their hands? Or do you have to 'activate' something to get the gimmick to work? Do I need to worry about fragility? Is there a telltale sound?

QUICKSILVER: I'm sure a load is involved somewhere. again, if I were to hand this to a child, would it work in their hands? Does something need to be activated? Do I need to worry about fragility?

EXCALIBUR: Do I need to worry about fragility? Is there a telltale sound?

SUN & MOON TUBES: There has been virtually zero talk about this one. Is this one any good? Anything I should know about?

COIN IN NEST: I saw a video by Japanmagic where they perform Trap Box to vanish a coin, and use Nest of Boxes to make it appear. Brilliant use of two Tenyo for a routine. Is it possible to make the coin disappear and put it in the nest with someone very closeby without looking fishy?

BRASS BILL TUBE: I'm positive I have seen zero talk about this one. Any thoughts? Insight. There doesn't look to be much to it. I just started looking up Brass Bill tubes and I know a lot of them also use a padlock mechanism and the Tenyo version does not. I'm curious to know more.

MENTALIST NOTEBOOK: Now if I were to perform this for kids, would it go over their heads, or does it have the potential to work (since I think it would be neat to work the darn thing blindfolded and have kids see that. Thats the only reason why I'm considering it)

Also, I'm trying to work a mental magic routine where a kid WORKS Money Splash. I think I found a way to get the gimmick to work virtually every time. I might be nuts.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Pete1805]

Hi Brett,regarding the Bill Tube,It is best to get a good quality brass one so the working of it is nice and smooth.I got mine from Davenports 35 years ago still works fine.I used it with a signed rolled up bill or just about anything which will fit inside the tube,choose which ever way to vanish the object.Mine has a small padlock on it so when you hand it to the spectator they can open the padlock with the key and i would say its about 95% examinable,but you must get a good quality one
https://youtu.be/1beuuIWAdQQ

[Elliot W.]

Infinitum - You can have them open the drawer but you need to do something to make the changes happen to happen. Maybe you can guide a kid with the first couple of changes but you will definitely need to do the last one. There is no sound and I don't think this is any more fragile than other tenyos.

I usually present it as a math quiz to see how well they know their math.
I open it, show them the 3 pieces of "chalk" (can't have them play with cigarettes) and take away one and close the case. I ask them what is 3-1? They say 2. I give them an exasperated look and say "OK let's start again". I open the case and say if I have 3 and I take away one what do I have. They will usually guess 3. I open the case and show them the correct answer is one. I take out the 1 and ask them the easy math question of 1-1. Thhen show the answer to be 5. I suggest they study harder in math class.

Tenyo also did make a Disney version of this that used pencils and was easier to operate (but less examinable). It is a very hard to find this version though.

You may also want to check out their Disney pencil case:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu07shWbXY0

This looks like a regular pencil case and is made pretty rugged to be tossed into a kid's backpack to take to school. Something I wouldn't do with to many other Tenyos. You can have a kid close the empty case and immediately open the full case. There are no external switches on this so there is nothing to see. The top of the case does have a rubbery texture though which I seem to remember you having an issue with.

Quicksilver - Haven't use this one in a while but I seem to remember you do have to do something to make the magic happen. I think you can have them open the case though. I once let my kids use this one and they broke. I have no idea how but it suddenly didn't work so I would consider this one to be somewhat fragile.

Excalibur - This one has some reliability issues. If I remember correctly there was a thread on the cafe with tips on getting this to work properly. There is noise but you are cutting metal discs with a sword so what do you expect?

Sun & Moon Tubes - more of a utility device. This will completely depend on your routine.

Coin in nest - The nest is generally kept in your pocket and and brought out after it is loaded. I suppose you can keep it hidden someplace else but it cannot be shown until after the coin is loaded which can be done very quickly with enough practice.

Brass Bill Tube - Any Brass Bill Tube should be fine. I like Tenyo's because I find it entertaining to watch the spectator unscrew it. The threads are so small that it takes them quite a while to unscrew it and by that time they are quite sure that I did not slip the bill in and screw the cap back on.

One other trick that comes to mind that I like doing for kids is the underrated Super Phanto Block. It is simple, you can have the kids do the magic part and they like playing with the pieces afterwards to try to figure out how it works. (They won't figure it out.)

Hope this helped somewhat.

[Brett H]

Thank you guys for the response!

Seems like the Bill Tube is the equivalent of a secret decoder ring you send away for as a kid to be in a secret club.

im not exactly sure as to how I'd use it. There's a few ways this can go. It sounds like I just need to take the leap and get the darn thing.

As for Super Phanto Block. Can a kid perform the entire thing or do I need to hold certain parts?

[SimonC]

Did you mean zone infinity instead of infinitum mate? ZI would be great for a coin routine if you use a signed coin. we had a thread a while back where we thought about sending a signed coin or note on a trip trough a whole bunch of tenyo. it was a bill now I think of it but you could do a gray kids routine sending a coin on an adventure. the crystal pyramid would be a good start. Back to ZI, it's not really performance in the kids hands but they could push the key through. I love it. I got a tiny version in a toy egg a while back. Pete found some on eBay, they might be a good giveaway at the end of the routine

[Elliot W.]

As for Super Phanto Block. Can a kid perform the entire thing or do I need to hold certain parts?

You need to insert the rod into the tube. The standard routine is the spectator then holds the ends of the metal rod and the magician taps the top of the tube. However I don't see why you can't hold the rod and have the kid tap the tube.

[Brett H]

Did you mean zone infinity instead of infinitum mate? ZI would be great for a coin routine if you use a signed coin. we had a thread a while back where we thought about sending a signed coin or note on a trip trough a whole bunch of tenyo. it was a bill now I think of it but you could do a gray kids routine sending a coin on an adventure. the crystal pyramid would be a good start. Back to ZI, it's not really performance in the kids hands but they could push the key through. I love it. I got a tiny version in a toy egg a while back. Pete found some on eBay, they might be a good giveaway at the end of the routine

I have Zone Infinity and I opted out of doing it because of the handling. Which stinks because it's a perfect follow up from The Alchemist.

But yes, I had my eye on Infinitum as a way to multiply crayons to use for Ultraslice.