Tenyo cites the trick's release as circa 1980. Created by brilliant Tenyo toy designer Shigeru Sugawara, Tunnel of Darkness (ToD) is an exceptional curiosity of deception and mystery.
Props:
A red, ornate, rectangular shaped box with a vertical guide tract and 2-sided vinyl guide bumper is presented with a "caged" or imprisoned 4-sided white dice. The dice jail is attached to what resembles a simple key-chain. The white dice may be fully inspected before mutation!
Effect:
Magically, the key-chained dice is pulled through the mysterious tunnel of darkness only to be magically mutated from a white dice to a red dice without ever leaving its prison! The red dice may be fully inspected!
Courtesy of Cormatches and performed brilliantly!
Impression:
This trick is truly mind blowing. To watch the dice color change in front of your eyes is truly perplexing. "Plastic magic" or "Toy magic" was never supposed to be so clever or well engineered, or so many of us thought. Tricks like this are why Tenyo magic has the following they do.
A note about the video above. The gentlemen performing the trick executes the illusion masterfully. In a live presentation, it would be extremely difficult for ToD to be presented as such. Video presentations allow tricks additional concealment, editing tricks, noise control, re-takes, etc, all adding to a trick's perceived quality. It's important to remember this when purchasing a trick as you might not be getting what you thought. I recommend always seeing the trick of interest live before purchasing whenever possible.
Comments:
Literally after seeing this trick, I recollected on my toiling with non-Tenyo magic over the years. I'm a mediocre magician (partly because I don't have the time to develop into a better one) at best and now fully realize that a big part of my interest in magic has been the engineering behind the apparatus. I'm far more interested in innovating and constructing magic than performing magic. I've recently taken the posture that it wouldn't be irrational to sell all of my non-Tenyo tricks in pursuit of solely acquiring, practicing, and collecting Tenyo magic. As a result, this tribute site to my favorite Tenyo effects was born.
As I truly enjoy and cherish most of the tricks I own, I can't bring myself to actually going through with selling all of my non-Tenyo magic. There are some effects that I'm quite fond of, for which, I will showcase on this blog.
Rating:
Similar to Stereo's rating system, I offer my own numerical rating system of Tenyo curiosities. I offer a 10-point scale in assessing any magical effect showcased on this site. The categories weighed into my rating are:
Impact: This is the visual impact of the trick. How hard the trick hits. Of course this is how hard the trick hits me. That said, before purchasing a Tenyo effect, you should always seek to observe the trick yourself before taking anyone's opinion as to the impact of a trick.
Innovation: Is the trick particularly clever?
Engineering: Is the trick engineered well? Could the trick have been constructed better? As an engineer by trade, I'm a bit biased, but will be objective as possible and as open as possible to an engineering discipline I have little experience with.
Plausible Denial: Is the trick only mind blowing for videos? Can the trick be used for both video and close-up work? Can the props be inspected?
Please note all ratings are non-formulaic
Tunnel of Darkness - 8/10
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