

Magic: Onyx Edition
Fall 2016 ToysThames & Kosmos has created an extensive and entertaining introductory magic set in Magic: Onyx Edition. This set includes everything necessary to perform 200 classic tricks/illusions, and it is presented in such a way that even an 8-year-old's performance is relatively convincing.
Many of the kit's illusions will be familiar to those who have tried magic tricks before: card tricks (with the traditional deck as well as with a specialty magic deck called "Svengali cards"); disappearing and reappearing coins, sponges, and handkerchiefs; mysteriously tangled and untangled rings and ropes; and far more. Most of the tricks will certainly be new to the budding magician. There are no fewer than three manuals: two full-color booklets describing the majority of tricks, and a denser black-and-white guide to the Svengali tricks. Most of the illusions in the general booklets are simple enough that a patient child (with a patient test audience) should be able to perform them skillfully, but they are broad enough in range that even teens can enjoy learning and presenting them. The Svengali tricks are more challenging and require hands with enough dexterity to manage a full-sized, uneven deck; these will appeal to older youths as well.