I just received a lovely large rose-gold hotel-type spirit call bell by Hatiro Nishiguchi for $59.00 (brand new) from eBay, and it’s fantastic. The mechanism is very small and easily concealable. The call bell itself is fully examinable. (I’ll strap the remote control to one knee and simply bring my knees together under the table to ring the bell. It works great.) I’ve seen bells like this one for 5x the price, but this one is perfect for my purposes. So, if you’re looking for something, check out Hatiro’s products on eBay. They’re great value for the cost.

I’m going to combine it with David Minton’s Executive Suite for a ghostly hotel story. Does anyone else know any good hotel effects in the bizarre tradition that might be used to expand this idea further? Thanks!

Not a bad price.

[quote]On Oct 25, 2021, Payvand Reed wrote:
I just received a lovely large rose-gold hotel-type spirit call bell by Hatiro Nishiguchi for $59.00 (brand new) from eBay, and it’s fantastic. The mechanism is very small and easily concealable. The call bell itself is fully examinable. (I’ll strap the remote control to one knee and simply bring my knees together under the table to ring the bell. It works great.) I’ve seen bells like this one for 5x the price, but this one is perfect for my purposes. So, if you’re looking for something, check out Hatiro’s products on eBay. They’re great value for the cost.



Check out the "Donny Pepper" and the hotel routine from Arcane Relics

Thanks for the lead, Doc!

I always enjoy using a spirit bell to "announce" the entrance of a spirit when performing something bizare. In the hotel theme it makes perfect sense to announce the presence of a spirit "guest". One thing that immediately jumps to mind would be starting off bringing out the bell and an old skeleton key, relics of the old hotel and conjuring a guest while displaying the haunted moving key, when suddenly the key goes limp and the bell rings while in a participants posession . "Ah, our guests have arrived" and then proceed into something like the donnie pepper routine.

I saw one that said, ring for sex. Would be fun to just place this near someone, ring the bell, and ask if they rang for you. I once took an electronic fart machine and taped it under the table across the room. Had a ball with that one.

LMAO Will you are relly sick. What a great idea. I had one of those fart macines and pulled it on my brother in law, he liked it so much after everyone broke out lauhging, he insisted that I leave it with him.

Thanks for the comment. Did I mention the table was in a restaurant?

Great ideas, guys! Thanks! Keep ‘em coming!

Found this on eBay. https://tinyurl.com/7hdhbezw Looks like directly from Hatiro. $49.99

Another one: https://tinyurl.com/yst6nt7b $39.00 also from Hatiro.

Yup. Those are his. They’re great and work beautifully. I highly recommend them. The one I got was larger and rose-gold but it works the same. A really clever mechanism. Hatiro also has some other devices (like a gimmicked card that rings the bell or turns on a light when put into a special wooden box). It all looks cool, and its all very affordable.

Those look cool Payvand Reed. Thanks for the heads-up. They look like they'd also be relatively easy to distress and age.

Yes, I think they would be easy to distress and age. I’m thinking of doing just that with one of his card boxes that goes with the bell. Its a good quality gimmick.

I just contacted Hatiro. He’s building me a custom box to go with the rose-gold bell. There’s a shimmed Bicycle card (which I probably won’t use, although I might make a shimmed tarot card on the same principle) plus a shimmed “erasable” white card. You force the shimmed card from a Bicycle deck or have a group of people write messages on the erasable cards. Then put the cards one at a time into the box. When the shimmed card goes in (but not, of course, any regular card), the bell rings.

He’s selling the boxes, cards, and bells on eBay as a set for $79.95. It’s not the pretty rose-gold bell, though, just a standard hotel call bell.

Just received this today (ordered based on this thread). Looks mostly like a normal bell, but it wouldn't pass close inspection (and assuredly wouldn't hold up to someone left to their own devices with it who is looking for a hidden mechanism, even for a moment).

That said, it could be held by a spectator before knowing something was up and they wouldn't discover anything under most circumstances, and the actual mechanism does a fantastic job of making an eerie ring. It also depresses the plunger when activated, which looks downright spooky if someone is looking. Range is about 10 feet, more inconsistently.

For the price, I think it's a good deal. If you used this as a base and mildly modified it you could probably hide more of the method and I think it'd be pretty excellent. Also pretty great that it can ring normally by hand as a normal bell without restriction.

For those interested in this style of spirit bell, the original version, Death Toll, was released back in 2010. The plunger falls, is fully explainable and can be assembled in front of the audience. Range is about 50 yards and can be controlled with toe-switch or time delay. In short, it is an aged work of art.

Christopher Taylor

https://youtu.be/83aQFnWjkQA

Click here to view attached image.

Just fyi- the inexpensive hotel style bell being sold by House of Fire is NOT an electronic version. You need to be seated at a table for this. There is at least one other inexpensive electronic version on the market for a similar price.

A lot of stuff you can do with a coin you can do with a key... maybe a rattle box?

Good thoughts jccooper. As much as I love spirit bells, I think sometimes, we get caught up in the method of revealing a revelation versus the impact of the revelation itself.

Yes, agree Wizard. They often used in underwhelming ways. It should be something that gives a show impact creating an emotional climax with a message coming through or sending shivers down peoples spines. People have them, so use them and they aren't necessarily as well thought out as other tools. My favourite bell still remains a wine glass and pendulum. The pendulum suspended in the glass by the spectator and rings on the glass. No electronics to wrong or batteries to mess about with worrying about charge. The impact of someone holding the pendulum in the glass when the message comes through is always brilliant to watch, spectators often dropping the pendulum in a panic. I've used it a lot and witnessed other performers using it to the general public and even though it's simple it's often the part they speak about afterwards at the bar.