Product description : Are you interested in metal bending ? Ox Bender came out a little while ago, allowing you to bend coins, this is different in many ways. It will allow you to let people check a regular nail, they can’t bend it and then, without anything else than the nail, bend it with your bare hands. The bent can be done right in front of the people. Of course, you have many ways of doing the bend, it can be visual, it can be psychological, you can even use pseudo hypnosis in the routine. But is it worth your attention ? Let’s find out !
Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $49.95 and you can find it in nearly every Murphy's magic « partner » shop !
What you get : You get a small cardboard box, which is black and very sturdy so you can keep the gimmicks inside. You receive a little card on which you can find the link for an online video. The video is very well made, you learn quite a few routines to do (and not only “look the nail is bent”), it’s very interesting to see the thoughts of several people on the same tool. You obviously get the gimmicks and you get loads of them ! 40 nails in total, 3 sizes available, you get enough for a few performances (you’ll need 1 nail per performance). They look like real nails and I would have no problem letting people check and inspect a gimmicked one, they wouldn’t be able to bend them ! Overall, this is very good, the material is top notch and you can’t go wrong for the price.
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 :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]Bending the nails is actually not easy. You get 3 sizes, the big and the medium ones will require two hands but they can be bent quite easily. The small ones can be bent with only one hand but it will requires more practice (they’re alternative ways of doing it).
[if !supportLists]– [endif]You’ll need a new nail for each performance, but refills are quite cheap !
THE PROS :
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I love this kind of trick, where the gimmick is actually hidden in plain sight. But in this case, it’s more than that since people can really check the gimmicked nail before you actually bend it ! (real nails are also provided so if you don’t feel confident letting people check the gimmicked one, you can still give them the regular one and switch it for the gimmick, even if I don’t think it’s necessary).
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I love the fact that you can just put the nail through your business card (the medium and the small ones, the bigger would be too big). It’s an amazing souvenir.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]When the nail is bent, you can bend it back so it’s a memorable and strong gift to the spectator.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]You do get a lot of nails in the package, 20 small ones, 10 medium and 10 big so you should be good to go for enough performances to begin with.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I do like the small ones, even if I don’t succeed to bend them with one hand, there is an alternative routine taught by Rasmus based on an idea by Marc Lavelle which is to pin the nail on the business card before the trick. It will make the bend way easier.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]I found another to bend the small ones with 2 hands incorporating your business card so that the spectator can himself bend the nail. This is perfect for a pseudo hypnosis routine !
[if !supportLists]– [endif]The refills are cheap enough so that you can perform this everywhere.
[if !supportLists]– [endif]There is no memory metal, it’s a “real” nail.
Overall rating : I’ve never seen something like that, I really liked the whole plot and the quality of the material provided is amazing, 4/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, it depends which size you want to bend, but the small ones will definitely need practice, maybe strengthen your hands, I would say 3/5 stars.
Similar products : Except from a memory metal nail, I’ve never seen a real time nail bend like this.