I am interested in acquiring some Fantasio Candles but had some questions. When I read appearing candle is this the same candle that has the spring and gimmick. Or is it only the Appearing Lit Candle that comes this way?? Just want to make sure I get the correct candles. I want to have the candle "magically" appear without being behind the ribbon or silk. Its the vanishing candle that has to be raised up by your other hand....correct.

The candles, whether vanishing or appearing, operate like their cane counterparts. It is possible to make a vanishing candle appear, and it is possible to make an appearing candle vanish. But doing the opposite of the intended use requires a second hand. Using them for their named effect does not.

For a while Fantasio made appearing candles and appearing LIT candles.
The basic operation was the same in either case and the one designed to appear LIT most often did...but not 100%.
In both models, only one hand was necessary for the candle to appear, unlike (as mentioned above) using a vanishing candle for the same purpose and requiring two hands.
Regards-
JNeal

When it comes to fantasio I think the candles seem more realistic than their cane counterparts.

I love my fantasio candles

for many many years I have been using them.

yes I think too that they fair better then the canes.

I also prefer the clasic white candle as the main candle to produce and getting one red candle for a color change is a nice touch.

as for the appearing lit candle I concur that it is not 100% but very reliable one tip with this is to make sure that the striker is fresh!
I replace all my strikers for candle and match pulls every 5 shows regardless what the package says. guess what I get a lot more lit matches and candles this way.

I may have used one or two around that I could sell you real cheap so that you can play with them before you buy new.

let me know

sam

Fantasio no longer makes the appearing lit candle with the holder. See his web site for what is currently available.
You can only get the Appearing Candle that you have to lite separately, unless you get his book and use one of the ideas from the book.

http://www.fantasio.com

Is it true that he has stopped production?

Jim

He stopped production in March of 2010. All remaining stock was sold to Murphy's Magic.

Richard

What are we going to do? I heard the knock off candles aren't very good.

Jim

Take care of what you have, buy a few spares while you can. If you read Fantasio's book, he tells you how to take care of them.

Richard

Thank you, Richard.

Jim

FYI - I recently (and unknowingly) bought by mail, a knock-off vanishing candle. Having used the Fantasio candles for nearly 40 years, the differences were immediately apparent. I did not want to bother sending it back, as the extra postage costs would make the transaction ridiculous.

So, even though I prefer Fantasio candles, and wish they would continue to be available, here is my take on these ones from India...

First of all, there is no lighter fluid chamber. The top of the core has a metal insert into which a small section of birthday candle should be inserted. I have not tried this yet, as I haven't any of the required small candles. At first I thought this might be a bad thing, but more thinking brought me to the conclusion that as long as the short piece stays put, it should work just fine. In fact, possibly with more realism. Until I have the chance to experiment, my vote is still out on that.

Secondly, the plastic is quite glossy, compared to Fantasio candles. Some real candles also have a glossy finish, so this might not be too much of a concern, although stage lights are sure to bounce off these things like chrome bumpers.

I have not seen a problem with speed, but durability will tell after time. The core is a minor bit wider than Fantasio's model, but that should not be a real problem.

The main issue I had was that the first time I extended the candle's coil, I noticed that the coil is spiraled the opposite as Fantasio candles. To me, this makes a huge difference, but probably because I have a lot of experience with the real deal. There is a different feel to both setting and operating the candle when the coil is going in the opposite direction. It's like trying to write left-handed when you are a right-hander. It just feels wrong.

After playing with this to the point of near hatred, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I detached the coil from the core, and re-attached it upside down. There are tabs on either side of the end that goes into the core, and the one nearest the bottom open end of the core must be carefully bent to allow it to pass through the slot. Once out, just reverse the process to re-insert that end into the core again. Carefully bend the tab which will be closest to the bottom open end of the core, so it will pass to the inside. Try not to crease it heavily. Once in, use the tip of a pencil to straighten the tab, and this will lock the coil in the core.

There is one more issue to be dealt with... the free end of the coil is cut at a slant so the bottom of the candle aligns properly when the coil is extended. By reversing the coil, this slant will be going the wrong way. To remedy this, cut the end of the coil off, so this slanted portion is removed. (This will be about 2" of the end of the coil.) Now cut a new slant in the now square end, so it goes the proper direction. It will be the bottom edge that will be removed. Round the corners as they were originally, and your newly re-built candle should operate as good as can be expected under the circumstances.

~michael

The birthday candle as a wick is not new, my 1st vanishing candle as a teenager was made of gloss red paper and used a birthday candle. It was not until Fantasio, that these candles disappeared off the market. They worked very well, but you could only do the vanish under a silk vanish.

Now India is making metal vanishing candles similar to the old Thayer candles. Again, they are using the birthday candle as a wick system. Thayer used a custom made brass lighter fluid tank.

I was not aware that India was producing a metal vanishing candle. Does anyone here have experience with them?

Just found out this weekend, they come in many colors as well.
See here: https://midwestmagic.net/shop/item.asp?itemid=12039

Those are appearing candles (which is still a good thing, if they work well). Do you know if they have the vanishing, as well? I didn't see them.

Mr, Baker, yes they do make an Appearing Candle as well.

https://midwestmagic.net/shop/item.asp?itemid=12037&catid=

Interesting that the ad says it is a vanishing candle that APPEARS in the magician's hand. I suppose that is a typo. It seems that they are also color coded so you can tell them apart.

Michael, these dealers do not actually have any of these products in stock, they are all dropped shipped or they place an order with the wholesaler for the product when they get an order to from a customer. Secondly, they just grab whatever the wholesaler has for listings to put on their site, if the wholesaler does not have or provide photo or listing materials to put on the dealers site, they just copy from other sites. Thus a lot of the photos and descriptions can have errors. In other words the dealer does not know what he is selling until someone orders it from them. Then they may or may not even have seen the product.

Online stores are not like your retail physical stores, where a 'buyer' goes to a convention and actually knows what they will be ordering and selling in their stores.

If magic dealers get questions about a product, they usually just lie about the product, and they have no idea how to answer the questions truthfully, because they have never seen the product.

So all we really know is that there is an import, metal, Appearing and Vanishing Candle available, that is it.

How do I know this, because I have ordered from several different Web Dealers and found out this to be the case. I am currently waiting for a product to be shipped, I ordered last week from Midwest Magic. They refuse to answer the telephone or emails why the delay with the order and shipping.

Great way to run a business, but they all do it. I even got a hold of one dealer when the product was nothing like the description on the web. Because I ordered through PayPal, he accepted a return and refunded my money. So I still never got the product, and he never changed the listing on his web site, even though he said he would. To sum up, the product that I ordered never existed, maybe once it did, but not the current item they are sending from the wholesaler.

Ironically, Midwest Magic IS a brick and mortar store, although with online sales. But, considering the large volume of items carried, it's possible they list more than they stock in the store. maybe someone who has actually played with these will chime in on the new metal versions.

BTW - What were the reasons for Fantasio stopping production? Is it retirement, or something else?