Factory Sealed... what a name. I'd have to be honest, I got clouded by the
mass advertising and hype by Ellusionist and its fanboys. I bought both
Bullet and Factory Sealed.

So what is Factory Sealed like after watching it?
To start with, the basic principle invented by Nick Verna is nothing short of
genius, I'll tell you that. Take a coin, show the bottle empty and just melt
it in... on the same spot your fingers were. Very visual in my books. The E
team has absorbed the basic effect and streamlined it for us to perform it
somehow impromptu on the streets or whatever situation we might
encounter. Kudos to that, but there is a lot of trade-offs not mentioned when
you streamline it this way. Overall a great illusion "sort" of worth my $29.95.

What is Factory Sealed not?
Its not the holy grail of CIBs. You can't sign a coin, and you certainly can't
borrow the bottle from a spectator on the spot. Setup is 10 to 15 seconds
after you've got your hands on a factory sealed bottle and then you're good
to go with the miracle.

What is not taught on the DVD?
This is the most disturbing part which I did not mention on E's forum. I'll
voice it out here. Over 1 year in the making (if I'm not mistaken) and this is
what I get? Sorry to say but Impervious is more bang for the buck then.
There is only actually 2 methods taught in the DVD as opposed to many
mentioned by Nick V himself. You get a visual melt and you get another
method similar to Impervious. My brain went "??????? huh????" when the
teaching ended and the credits rolled.

I felt there is so much left out from the instructions. There are subtleties
where you can prep the bottle gimmickless and actually let the spectator
open it and "feel" as if it is factory sealed. Not there. Besides holding the
bottle still and showing it empty, you can actually move the bottle around,
even twist it around horizontally to show its empty. Not included either.
I've worked out a way to somehow put the coin near the neck of the bottle
and "plop" the coin floats down the water to the bottom. Not there too! :(

Overall impressions
No doubt I am fooled by the trailer and by the hype too, but in my books,
the basic method is a darn good one and is a great addition to any CIB
performer. I'm not so much concerned about the cons of this effect, but
hey, if it took a year to produce.. at least more details and materials. For
a beginner as a first purchase on CIB effects, I would say go ahead. As for
myself... hmmm I don't really regret the purchase, it was so-so.

Thanks for the review.

I think Factory Sealed was being over hyped to the point that it sounds like real magic.

But now when it is out, we found out that it did not live up to the hype.

Some of the E's CTB fans hyped up the effect too much. They speculate that the penetration will be visual. They speculate that it could be done impromptu with a big signed coin. They thought Factory Sealed can be done with a real unopened brand new factory sealed bottle. But the truth is it cannot be done.

Here's the truth.

First of all, the penetration is not as visual as I thought. The whole coin was covered by the hand. The whole point of penetration is covered, and the audience cannot see how the coin penetrates.

Second, Factory Sealed is NOT factory sealed. The audience cannot look at the seal and break the seal of the bottle.

Thirdly, you cannot do it on the spot with a borrowed bottle.

Nothing revolutionary here.

And for USD $29.95, I think it is over priced.

I'm glad you did not mentioned it in the E forum. All hell will break loose if you mentioned that.

So it is just 2 methods? They should be more honest and mentioned that in the FAQs.

Consider it one method, the other one is just redundant.

Redundant? You mean the method similar to Impervious?

Yes..... :(

You know.. going off topic a bit here. As much as I resist ill thoughts
against the creators of Factory Sealed and Bullet, I can't. If you look up
near the end of the E's 100+ page thread, the creators are clearly
confirming false claims to their tricks. I bought Bullet because Matthew
himself (yes! himself) said you can use a cap in bottle with bullet.
LOL sure.. now I know.. can't sue or flame him either. Maybe he meant
for a beer bottle cap?

Gee... I've learnt something new with Factory Sealed and Bullet. But it
was just small stuff though.

Ellusionist have ways to mislead the consumers. What they said is true, but they said in in such a way that it'll mislead people.

That is why I asked specific question on the E's forum. I asked "can Bullet be done impromptu with a big signed coin?"

If they answered "yes" they would be making a false claim. If they answered "no", it would make their effect look weak.

Hence they would just attack me and said I'm trying to ask ridiculous questions. Then they would say things like "It can be done with a cap and a big signed coin" BUT they DID NOT say that can be done impromptu.

The factory sealed claim was very misleading as well. Factory Sealed is NOT factory sealed. The audience cannot look at the seal and break the seal.

After knowing the truth, i would not spent close to USD$50 on these 2 CTBs. They are not really revolutionary.

Well ahemmm USD$44.90 minus the $10 discount when you buy both :)
Then again, both are so similar, E might as well merge it into one. I took the
dive, so now everybody knows.

Factory Sealed is USD$29.95
Bullet is USD$24.95

If you get both it would be USD$54.90. If you get both you get $10 discount which is USD$44.90

I don't think I will spent USD$44.90 on these CTBs after reading the reviews.

Wassup folks during midnight?
Ace you always get excited over cib effects :P
By the way, from the post i kind of got some inspiration how factory sealed is
and i did a video on it, will post on the coin effect section soon :)

Haha most other magic forums are more active during midnight. It is afternoon at the other side of the globe.

Actually I'm more disappointed than excited about the E's CTBs.

Me too
The trailer, the teaser were good
but..the review let me down.
Marketing, is all about marketing. :P
I guess there is really no way on earth to penetrate a coin without alteration to a BRAND NEW BOTTLE, right?

We'll just have to keep pushing the limits of CIB/CTB.. hehe, who knows
one day we'll get there :)

If there is really an effect like that, solid is no more solid..haha
I have posted my ctb effect on the video section, have a look

Consider the source, fellas.

You shouldn't be surprised.

Haha, consider the source.. make sense

Ace,

I feel sick to see you criticising E's Products.
I have read your complains in Cafe, T11, SMC, E.
I am very very sick of your post.
Honestly, you are just a sour grape.

Honestly, I do not care how good or bad E's CTB, Ace CTB, PK ring CTB, or super super power CTB, or super super super CTB.

As long as it work for lay people, it is a good product.

I am not a big E's fan and I do not like their products either.

But, we must realize the same source that we are poiting finger and judging brought in dozens of hobbyist here in the forum.

Some remain in E but some grow out of it and become a good magician.
I guess is time for us to realize is time to stop poiting finger and start work on our own magic. Some of us here are not even half as good as the magician team they have in E.

Another point I must make :D , Brutally honest, I guess if Ace spend the time he post on forums to perfect his CTB effect, his CTB might be on E now selling like hotcake.

I will rest my case. Please do not take my post and quote it and post in your next post and make a big fuss out of it.
"Siapa makan Cili dia tahu pedas"

Isaac

I'm not the only one that is criticising Factory Sealed & Bullet.

The majority of the reviews are negative for the E's CTBs. The good reviews came from people like Jim, who is known to be with good terms with the creators.

This thread is about the E's CTB. Hence I'll only post my opinions about their CTBs.

Of course, I have other issues with the Ellusionist. Including the unfair treatment I received over the E's forums. I don't wish to discuss this here, but if you want more information you can start a new thread.

If you read the post of the Ellusionist staff and the E's fans, trust me, you will really be sick of them. The words they used, their tactics of making personal attacks really make me puke. No joke.

And no, no sour grapes.

How can there be sour grapes when the E's CTBs are inferior to many of the CTBs out there?

True. I agree with that.

But the Ellusionist and their fans don't believe in that at all.

Just look at how they bash all other CTBs in the E forums. To them there can be only 2 CTBs. Bullet and Factory Sealed.

The point is, Ellusionist is trying to mislead the consumers in their product page. They over hyped their products.

I really doubt that Ellusionist will produce many good magicians.

Just make a trip to their forums, look at the way some of the members there behave.

Many of them are used to make offensive posts against other people. They use words like "Idiots, Junks, bite me in the a**" etc. And the best part is the moderating team would encourage them to do so as long as they support Ellusionist products.

This would only produce more new arrogant magicians.

There is a misconception that if your product is on E, it is a good product.

Please, just look at Kaos, Indecent and the recent E CTBs.

Those products are mediocre at best. And yet they are hyping Kaos to be the best CTW, Factory Sealed to be the best CTB. But the truth is there are many better effects out there.

I have spent a lot of time on my CTBs. And I believe my effect is better.

And here are reasons why I think Sealed & Stuck is better.
______________________________________________________________
Sealed & Stuck uses factory sealed bottles where the audience can break the seal.

Factory Sealed don't use factory sealed bottles. The audience cannot break the seal.
______________________________________________________________
Sealed & Stuck penetration: The coin is penetrates through the middle top of the bottle. They can see the coin sinking down. The hand is shown empty right after the coin penetrates the bottle. The coin is not covered.

Factory Sealed penetration: The coin is fully covered by the hand. The coin penetrates through the bottom. The bottom is fully covered by the hand when the penetration happens. You cannot see how the coin penetrates. Hand can be shown empty.
______________________________________________________________
Sealed & Stuck can use big signed coins.
Factory Sealed cannot be done with big signed coins.
______________________________________________________________

Although my CTBs are not on E, they are selling well. The reviews are positive. Everyday I will receive emails from people who are interested in the CTBs.

Btw, Nick and Matt have a lot more posts than me on various forums. You can also advice them to spend more time on their CTBs instead.

Sorry, I don't know that you edited your post and add this part.

I think there is a need to clarify some of things here (since you mentioned them first)

Let's go back to topic.

Who are the saints and who are the rottens, we will know at the end of the day
Others out there choose to be childish, let them be, its a world of liberty anyway
They gained disrespect and shame if they behave like so, we don't have to promote their shame furthermore here

Ppl like E stuffs, let them be, it is their right, it is for themselves to choose what they want

The hype about all the products that are claimed the best, is all about MARKETING
yes, MARKETING
When you sell a product, definately you want your product to sell, definately u want people to have the perception that your product is the best in the market

And consumers always fall for these tricks,when they claimed to be impromptu, no set up, easy, angle proof, and the best.
Amazingly, this works and is more impressive than any other magic!

No magician will ever publish a CTB effect and say : Buy his, his is better than mine, mine is not the best!
No cheft will ever say, eat in other restaurant, my dish tastes yuckie!

I hope i make my point clear, lets not argue over something that benefits nothing to our magic society, instead, give constructive comments to improvise whatever we have now.:D

Anyway, E has good magicians in their team, Justin Miller, Daniel Garcia, and , i know many of u may disagree, Brad Christian.
Whether those who purchased E products will be good, that I'm not sure. :rolleyes:

Very true Christopher.

And you are right this is not the place to discuss the clever marketing of some magic companies.

Let's discuss magic instead. :)

Yeah lets talk magic. I always thought that, instead of coin in/through
bottle.. why not borrow a spectator's ring and melt it in? Doesnt it make
more sense than going through the fuss of borrowing and signing a
coin?

I mean sure the ring will come right out once the bottle is opened and
poured right out... but with a spectator's ring... there is no need for
things to be signed or "a coin larger than the hole". And if the spectator
gets to open and confirm that the bottle is indeed factory sealed, even
better.

Just my 2 cents here... if this bottle magic is going to advance any further,
I think passing a ring into bottle would make much more sense and impact.
:) :)

So, since I've used my own hard earned money to buy this effect. I'd figured
out I would test this out on the streets.

Was at The Curve yesterday to chill/club. 2am, when everything starts to
settle down I went to 7/11 to grab a mineral water.

Performed Factory Sealed infront of 3 people right outside 7/11. They went
nuts over it and then when the excitement died down.....

"Now where's my coin? Give me my coin back..." said the guy whom I
borrowed a 20cent from with a grin on his face.

Now over the many times I've performed anything with coin(s), I'm sick
of hearing this question and replying them "thats your coin there!" to sort
of cover up. It just don't work to convince them. So instead...

"Ok sure" and I poured out the water from the bottle and out comes the coin.
That was done right infront of his face. Handed the coin back to him and gave
him the bottle too.

A silent moment for them.... hehehehe.

Quite content with my purchase now. At least it did not go to waste. :)

you got to give them some credit though.....when they say its impromptu....it is sure is.. i use to do the CTB with a m*&^@^...now, i end my bullet and factory sealed routine clean.....and to top it off, justin miller is an awesome teacher. I got the routine down after 5 min of watching the instructions. the psychology of this effect is there as well. the spectator dont have to open the factory sealed bottle, just by sayin it is factory sealed is more than enough....trust me on that.....

just my 2 cents.
:lol:

you know what, both of the factory sealed and bullet really give a very high expectation to me, and when i watch the trailer, i thought E is going to produce something special that have never done before and when perform it, everything can be say is visual,totally clean and etc. However, i stop in the middle of the video and not going to watch both of the video, its boring... anyway, it just my own opinion.

Dude, Ace, I just saw your Sealed & Stuck. And I must say it's a lot more convincing.

Thanks Kam! =)

I believe that it will be more convincing if you can make the penetration as open as possible.

Hence I don't want to cover the coin, or the point of penetration. I want them to see the coin penetrating the sides of the bottle and sinks to the bottom.

Plus I think it is more convincing if you let them open the factory sealed bottle.

Slam (another effect taught in Sealed & Stuck) is very similar to Bullet. In fact the only difference is the grip of the bottle.

In Slam you can hold the top of the bottle, and slam the coin through the bottom. I think it is better to hold the top. If you hold the bottom, the point of penetration will be covered.

You can show the bottle to be empty, and ask them to stare at the bottom to make sure nothing is hidden.

You can use a coin that is bigger than the neck of the bottle in Slam.

I know what you mean, it is a great effect that you can do anytime.
The magic lessons alone were worth it to me. It did me a lot of good.

I used to spend time prepping bottles on my kitchen table and doing all sorts of stuff for my card in bottle effects. The method taught here is simple and the audience loves it.
I concur, They really do go nuts when you learn what is taught properly.
You can bring a bottle prepped from home if you really want to, but I am really liking the test results I am receiving each day with this. At first I was skeptical, but I have been practicing my presentation and I am winning over the crowd in so many ways.

I'll still use my card to bottle, but probably not as often as this.

"Anyway, E has good magicians in their team, Justin Miller, Daniel Garcia,..."

Those are 2 my favorite instructors.
When solid effects like these are taught proffesionally, it really aids in the learning process.

I guess is the same guy Spamming in Smc

Spamming and only talk about Ellusionist ctb...

I'm afraid I don't understand your last post, Christopher.
This is an Ellusionist product thread, is it not? What do you mean only?
What else are you supposed to be talking about here with this topic?
I am in not even a big Ellusionist fan. I was simply agreeing with the posts above, including yours Christopher. Justin Miller & Danny Garcia are very talented and Danny Garcia isn't even a part of E's CTBS, but I do agree with what you said about him, very talented.

Hi Ilovemagic!

I think there is a reason why Christopher suspects that you are the same guy that spammed SMC and tried to hype up the E's CTB.

You can see the same thing in other forums. One guy used multiple usernames and posted false information about E's CTB.

He was caught in 2 of the forums. (TalkMagic Forum and SMC forum)

In the T11 forums, he was confused between his 2 usernames in T11. He made a mistake and showed everyone that he is using 2 usernames.

All those guys post in the same manner. "They" tried to hype up the E's CTB and post false information about them. He would bash other people who exposed his lies.

His usernames include magiczman33, magical5, magiczen, TheInformer, singemagic888, NYCMagician etc. Most of the time there is the word "magic" inside. They all registered recently and tried their best to hype up the E'c CTB.

Ilovemagic, if you noticed, you really fit the description.
You spammed the product review page, and you write alot about the E's CTB.

I'm not saying you are that same guy, but you really remind us of him.

If you are not him, I suggested that you post in the intro thread and tell us more about yourself. Time will tell if you are that same guy. It is very easy to spot that guy.

I don't know the stories about SMC, etc.

But the eye in the sky watches over all.

Wow, what a mouthful, Ace.
Take it easy, no need to be uptight.
Excuse me for agreeing with talented teachers.
Sorry if I double posted (it was an accident wich the moderators seemed to removed)
You all have a good day and enjoy yur magic.

I'm merely informing people of the fact that there is this spammer who used multiple usernames and false identities to hype up and post false information about the E's CTB in several magic forums.

And it is hard to take it easy when you see the same thing happening in almost every magic forum I have visited. If you have to resort to this kind of low tactics to promote a product, it really tells me alot about the product

ILoveMagic,
If you can contribute more to this forum and prove that you are not here just to hype up the E's CTB, I'm sure everyone will welcome you.

Good luck.

ILoveMagic,

Please post an introduction in the Intros section and provide us with your real name.

If you want to avoid further controversy with the other users, do it.

I'm giving you 3 days, if you don't follow up, I'll take it up with the Admins.