Hi Guys,
I have unearthed a trick from my magic cupboard. I would like to sell it on eBay but cannot remember its name. Can anyone help? Here's the description. The effect was put out by Supreme Magic just a few years before Edwin quit the business. The effect went like this. The magician displayed a large red tube with a hand and arm design painted on the side in yellow. An assistant placed their arm into the tube with the fingers showing through the other end. The magician then disected the tube using two blades just where the assistants wrist would be. The magi then completely seperated the two parts of the tube, the assistant was still able to wiggle their fingers. Paul Daniels performed it on one of his TV magic shows. I think it sold for £65 when first put out by Supreme. Can any of you experts remember what it was called? Thanks.

Don't know . . . but it sounds a lot like this.

Here is the Café thread on the (new) item.

Hi Kinesis,

This sounds just like an effect called "A Little Slice of Hand" or the Arm Box Illusion put out by Magic Ian. I know you stated that the one you have is from Supreme so I'm not sure they are the same but the effect you describe is exactly like the Magic Ian item. I found it listed in the last copy of Tannen's catalog that I have on hand (#17 from 1993-94).

In case anyone is still interested I've found this in an old International Magic catalogue from 1988. They called it "The Hand's Off Illusionette", and it sold then for £47.50 Post free.

I bought my Little Slice Of Hand from Tannen's back in the early '80s. It was credited to Magic Ian. A very innovative principle in arm choppers. And as alluded above, very similar in method to the large version from a few years ago.

For the record: I manufactured the "slice-off hand illusion and first sold them through Tannens. Some of the versions were the "zig zag" type paint job, some were actually a ruffled tuedo shirt sleeve with black jacket,
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I took the box off the market due to quality control problems. Tannens, decide that they would make them on their own with the excuse that they had customer back-orders they had to fill. They sent it to Supreme who made them (unauthorized) for Tannens.
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I later re-released it with a cheaper version through Sam Dalal, but those boxes were so badly constructed, I halted the production as well, after only 250 boxes.
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Today, the knock-offs sell for up to $650. Unauthorized versions are still popping up in Germany, and Belgium (Mephisto magic), India and japan.
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Trivia note: The original illusion was made from paper iced-tea cans, then some coffee cans. The prototype was two cans with magnets that held the boxes together. I also used black tape around the seam between the two cans, and used a saw to cut through the tape. After the cut, I slipped the metal coffee can lids between the cans and the magnets held the lids in place while I separated the two pieces.
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more Trivia: My first performances were with a young "customer/assistant/protege" who I took to all of my early shows. This 11 year old named Rudy Coby, was a skinny kid and a steve Martin Freak. We dressed up in a mad doctors white jacket, and used white gloved hands on the magician. I put his hand in the box and used fake blood capsules to drip from the seam as we cut. I guess he still likes the white jacket routines.
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Trivia 3: I introduced the box in California at the pacific Coast Magic convention. Mohammed Ali stopped by the dealer booths, and somewhere there is a picture of Ali and I doing (attempting) the effect. His comment was, "you can't do this with a brotha". We stopped the illusion short when his hands were too big to go into the box.
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So, the manufacturing went:
1983-1985 -Made for me by Glenn david and sold through Tannens.
1986-94 - Unauthorized versions sold by Tannens. Made by Supreme. The Supreme version was fashioned after the original "can" version.
1988 and again in 1999 or so- Unauthorized Mephisto magic version.
1988-89- D. robbins distributed from Sam dalal (250 pieces made).
I made a few for select customers in the 90's. I have plans for re-release sometime in 2006.
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More Trivia: a spin-off based on my original was demo-ed at tannens convention in 1982. That version used only a leather glove and a blade. One of the attendees of that demo used it as a joke item in his act. Another dealer later produced it as the "living hand" novelty".

Little slice of hand is indeed a wonderful effect, it fooled a table full of magicians that I performed in front of. The only thing I do not like about it is the latches, they are too cumbersome to re-assemble the box as you are in a somewhat compromised position, I replaced one of the latches ( the rear one ) with a hinge, it is a lot quicker and not as sloppy. You can view this effect at:

http://www.freewebs.com/caputocollection/

I have the Glen David model and it is great areal fooler.

This effect may be seen at http://www.magicians.tv or
http://magicians.podbean.com/arm-box/
-Magic-Ian

For the record... Magicians on this site is Magic-Ian or MagicIanS the Magic Ian Sutz is my last name.

Kinesis, looks like you may have got your answer. But if not, I have stacks of old Magigrams, which featured the ads, if you PM me at least the year I could check the name for you.