I love the idea of this trick, but have been wary about buying it. I heard a while back that the gimmick wasn't very good quality. Everyone sells it for around $30, but ellusionist are charging $40 for a new and improved gimmick (same DVD though). I e-mailed Penguin Magic, who have the best price I've seen, and they claimed to know nothing about a new gimmick. However, the ellusionist preview definatley claims the gimmick has been improved. Can anyone shed any light on this subject?

-- Topher

PS. Apologies for using the word "gimmick" so frequently.

Topher,

This response might or might not help. In fact,it might just cause more confusion but, here goes:

When the gimmick first came out, it was not well made and would break or fall apart. Jay was selling Three Ring Circus through Penguin Magic at the time. They (Jay and Penguin) hurried up and got new improved ones made and went through a process of replacing the defective ones.

I'm just wondering if the improved version that Jay and Penguin were selling is the same "improved" model that Ellusionist is now selling.Is Ellusionist merely trying to assure people that the original defective model has been improved and that the old model is not the one being sold by Ellusionist? If not, I can't imagine how the gimmick got improved over the "2nd generation" put out by Jay and Penguin. (Maybe more chromed? Bigger? A cosmetic improvement?)

Anyone have any other info to add to this thread?

Hope this helps and does not further confuse.

Mike

I think you are right on, Turk! I purhcased the "improved" version from Penguin a few years ago. Recently, a friend bought this from Ellusionist and it's the same. The quality is good as mine has not broke after getting a lot of mileage out of it.

Turk is right.

.
I just bought this from Madhatter's and I received it (September 2011):

http://madhattermagicshop.com/magicshop/......_id=9832

How do I know if it is the new improved version or the old one? You definitely can NOT pass out this ring for inspection. Is the new improved one examinable??

You can PM me if you'd prefer.
.

It just uses stronger glue, that's all.

It's not glue; they are weld points. I got mine directly from Jay a few months ago. So maybe the ones at some of the dealers are still the old versions, ones that have perhaps been sitting in stock for awhile? My DVD has a slightly different cover from the one shown in the link above.

And why would anyone hand out the k** ring for examination anyway? Hand out the other three.

If you watch the dvd, you'll understand how to have them examined. Obviously the K** ring cannot be examined.

You can make the gimmick yourself, just need the right cutting tool. As a back up, I did, and it works fine.

You could use hoola-hoops for a stage version, or hula-hoops for a close up version...for midgets...