Hi folks, been awhile huh.

Many Tenyo collectors have assumed that the Magic Works series was just a rehash of several previous Tenyo tricks. To a certain degree, this was correct, but there was also several original non-Tenyo tricks included. There was 30 tricks in total in the Magic Works series. Here is the complete list with corresponding Tenyo names. This is the 1st time (to the best of my knowledge),that the complete list has been on the Café'

Series 1:

Soft Coins
Mystery Dice/Flash Dice
Dark Dagger/Super Spike
Clean Cut
Vault Vision
Crystal Cleaver

Series 2:

Severed Skeleton/Zig Zag Cig
Secret Slate - Original
Double Vision/Eclipse
Eye of the Pharaoh - Original
Missing Masterpiece - Original
Hidden Sun - Original

Series 3:

Mysterious Queen/Illusionarium
Knight's Tomb/Diabolicus
Map of Skull Island - Original
Tongue Tied - Original
Twisted Pencil/Twister
Crate Escape - Original

Series 4:

Ghost Deck - Original
Invisible Hook - Original
Phantom Key/Zone Infinity
Coin in the Crypt/Crystal Pyramid
Money Morph/Metal Matrimony
Rope of Calcutta/Sutekina

Electronic Talking Series:

Guardian of the Grave - Original
Secret of the Sphinx - Original
Spirit in the Coffin - Original

Mail-in Specials Series:

Mystery of a Dark Stranger
What Dunnit
Half a Dozen Cousins

Well, I sincerely hope that this list clears things up for some collectors. Please note that even thou many items are Tenyo redos in a sense, several of these items have been greatly modified from the original Tenyo versions. Examples being Severed Skeleton, Knight's Tomb, Coin in the crypt, Rope of Calcutta, etc. As for the Mail-in Specials, I'm assuming that they are all original too. I've never laid eyes on any. Maybe someone from here can chime in on these.

Be Well

Welcome back Glenn!!

Thanks for compiling the list. I have all the regular edition items with the exception of Rope of Calcutta... have missed that one a few times. Would alos like to know more about the mail in specials.

Thanks for the list, very interesting.

There is a post about Magic Works on Hey presto ! :
http://jpmagic.blog34.fc2.com/blog-entry-1376.html

That's a great list

Are these all readily available (if patient?)
Any very rare?

I want to know if someone have or know something about :
What Dunnit
Half a Dozen Cousins

That is a great list. MB Magic Works came before Tenyo in my case. Walmart (a large department store chain for those that don't have them) carried them about 10-12 years ago, and I would periodically pop in to see if new ones had been released. Although they were placed in the toy section, they were a class above the usual cheap toy tricks that had been around until then (like the SS Adams magic tricks). Too bad that blog page is in Japanese; it looks quite comprehensive. Until now, the only link about MW I knew about was this one:

http://www.tenyoworld.co.uk/magicworks.htm

John...thanx for the welcome back Bud. I appreciate it. Dandy work on your MW collection. Can I ask about your favs from the collection?

Teevtee...thank you & your more than welcome. Interesting name btw.

Stereo...hey Dude! Thanks for the link. Good stuff.

Edshern...many people helped on the list. Even Mark Setteducati's site is incomplete. I'm just starting to collect some of the series myself, but I'll try to answer your questions. I'm way late to the game. I think that I just saw series 1 years ago & thought that everything was a Tenyo redo & then completely ignored the rest of the later series by this incorrect assumption based on the series 1 titles. My newbie MW collecting indicates that everything should be available with patience with the exception of the elusive mail-in specials. I'd classify those as difficult/rare to find. Much like Tenyo specials. The 1 truly great part of collecting MW (other than the product itself), is that they have all been inexpensive to buy, unlike Tenyo. I don't think that I've paid over $30 for any of their effects, including the electronic talkers.

We definitely could use some more info on the mail-ins huh.

Apologies Cyberdave...I didn't mean to exclude you in my reply. Your post must have posted while I was typing my above post. Thanx & cool story on your MW experience. If you right click the Japanese link page after it loads, you can auto translate the page. There are some confused translation mistakes, but it's way more readable.

By & by...does anybody know if all the non-Tenyo effects were created by Mark Setteducati? I've never seen a credit given on any instruction booklets. I have also seen Jeff Sheridan's name involved somehow in my surfing research travels. Anyone have any info on this subject?

Thanks for the list, very useful and interesting.

One thing I've noticed about the Tenyo MW tricks is that they all weren't completely made by Tenyo. Some say made in U.S.A. Some have just a part made in Japan. For example, Double Vision says "mirror made in Japan." Twisted Pencil says, amazingly, "pencil made in Japan." I guess the U.S. isn't good enough at making pencils and mirrors anymore.

Not to beat a dead horse from another thread, but why is it out of the realm of possibility that a Magic Works-like series can't be done again in the U.S. given that it was done before with most parts made in the U.S.?

I've got 15 of them arriving from USA tomorrow. I'll try and give a wee review once I get them. I bought them on the premise that they may become collectable in the future. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I bought the items when they first came out, hard to believe that was 15+ years ago! To be honest I prefer the Tenyo items in the collection. The original items were cute but no major new creative methods. Eye of the Pharoh in my mind was the most Tenyo like of the original MB items. Hidden Sun and Tongue Tied are my other favorites of the originals.

To me the real jewels of the Magic Works line are the electronic items. They are some of my favorite magic items period and still enjoy showing them. Highly recommend those items and they are still available at a reasonable price if you keep your eyes open for them on the auction sites. Spirit in the Coffin would be my first choice but they are all good.

Glenn, Jeff Sheridan was definitely involved in a few of the items, unfortunately MB did not credit the inventors in their instructions like Tenyo does. But I believe he was credited somewhere with Secret Slate, Missing Masterpiece and possibly Eye of the Pharoh. I also think that Ghost Deck is a Dan Harlan creation and was released by him as Missing Think.

Walter, the Tenyo items in Series one and two were definitely made by Tenyo. In series three and four they did more modifications to the Tenyo items and quite possibly MB did the manufacturing. On Knights Tomb for instance it says Created by Tenyo, Made in the USA. I will say that for the most part the MB original items were much less complex to manufacture then the Tenyo items.

John

My Magic Works version of Twister doesn't work well at all. I don't think it was made by Tenyo, or at Milton Bradley's request is was made less expensively.

It hasn't been mentioned here, but Amy Stevens edited a series of newsletters for people who were in the Magic Works club. Those should be listed as part of any Magic Works collection.

Glad you mentioned that Richard, my MB version of Twister broke many years ago.... thought it might just me mine that had issues.

John

I have one of the specials that you had to send for called "The Mystery of the Dark Stranger" from 1994- MB. I consists of 4 vinyl cards and a vinyl case. The effect is that you show three hat cards that change into clue cards, you show the fourth clue card in the vinyl case and remove it and it changes into Dracula, the dark stranger.

I bought a MB one used on e**y a few years ago, and it was broken. I managed to repair it by gluing part of a toothpick on the gimmick and now it works fine. I've never had the Tenyo version so I have nothing to compare it to, though.

I always preferred the graphics of MW's "Twisted Pencil" to Tenyo's "Pencilla".

MW's scroll work and continuation of the pencil in the middle added to the illusion.

Thanks and welcome back Glenn!

I own quite a few Magic Works items. My favourites are Tongue Tied and Rope Of Calcutta (an improvement over Tenyo's Stutekina). Mysterious Queen is another improvement over Illusionarium, the depth of the box is bigger which hides the secret.
The secret on The Knights Tomb (Diabolicus) is much harder to see than on Diabolicus.
Spirit In The Coffin is definately their best electronic trick but it brakes very easily because the electronics are so sensitive.

Welcome back Inert great MW list. I have missed your most comprehensive posts as they are always some of the most informative and complete no matter what the subject, written in the classic Inert style. I only have one MW series trick Vault Vision. I like it better as it works prefect and doesn't say Money Game as the original Tenyo. To me makes it seem less like a toy to present but that is just my opinion.

Richard