Product description : A badge holder is displayed with inside a badge OR a playing card, it will depend on the routine you want to perform. Let's say it's a badge inside. You show the back of it being blank, take it out and you draw something at the back but spectator can't see it. You put the badge back into the badge holder and you proceed to let the spectator choose one card out of five, "randmoly" taken out of a pack. You then show the back of the badge and you reveal your prediction which perfectly match the chosen card. You can do this with ESP symbols too. Various gimmicks are provided so you can choose the routine which will suit you the most.
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $44.95 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's partner !
What you get : You get a DVD which is pretty basic in term of quality, one camera, not the best video quality I've seen but it does the job teaching you what you need to learn in order to perform the trick. You are also supplied with a "necklace" and a clip so you can attach it to the badge holder, the holder which is ungimmicked and 4 bicycle cards, 2 of them have the regular rider back design and will allow you to perform the ESP symbol routine and the routine in which the card can change up to 5 times ! The other 2 cards have the "Hello, my name is" logo on them and there is a space to put a picture of yourself as well. Those 2 cards will allow you to perform the ESP routine but with the symbol drawn rather than perfectly printed on the card and the other one will allow you to reveal 5 cards but those will be drawn onto the badge, like you've just written on it. The whole package feel quality, the holder is made out of hard plastic so I'm pretty confident about the durability. Very happy with what I received.
The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.
THE CONS :
You're stuck with the revelations provided, you can't print or modify them and you won't be able to make new ones. I'm sure it's not difficult if you have the technique but the technique is quite difficult to find. I'm being vague here but let's say you won't be able, for now, to reveal other things than playing cards and ESP symbols.
The card or badge can't be examined directly. I don't think it's a con but still, some people just want everything to be examinable those days.
You will need to find the knack for the change, it's not as easy as a Wow for example.
THE PROS :
It's a very cool principle that I've never seen anywhere else ! This is the kind of trick that you open and say "Wow, I'm fooled and it's f****** good !".
It's very very very very visual, you can't get more visual than this (well, the Wow has the same look when it comes to the change).
You can do up to 5 changes. I wouldn't do that in a routine, it would give away the fact you're using a special thing and I don't think the 4 last change will be as surprising as the first one. I think this prop is best used for a multiple out routine and you can adjust your revelation to be spot on everytime.
The holder is not gimmicked in any way so you can give it out for examination. Also, the card you put in it is a single card, only one card thick, feels like a regular one. So no problem when it comes putting this card into your deck of cards.
The amount of stuff provided does justify the quite high price asked. The quality of it too is amazing, cards are bicycle, plastic is hard.
The reset is instant, you can do this as an impromptu trick if you have a deck of cards or even business cards on you (and the holder of course).
Overall rating : I really really like this trick, I find the prop to be versatile and very usable in the real world. Will it replace my Wow ? No, because I won't use Name Tag for a transformation routine but rather for a prediction one. Anyway, I will be using this, 4/4 hearts with a big recommandation.
As for the difficulty level, the knack is not easy at first but with a little bit of practice, you should be fine, 2/5 stars.
Similar products : The Wow is THE trick which gets me the most amazing reactions, it's definately a must have for magician. I do find that it combines well with Name Tag and I will be using both.