Card Fountain X

I bought this to use in connection with an umbrella card stab effect that I am creating. (I have designed an umbrella prop that uses a new method.) There are cheaper card fountains available from China and also from a UK seller on eBay. I did think about taking a chance on one of those products. (I was put off by a demo of one of the cheaper ones on Youtube in which the cards did not appear to be sent up more than a couple of feet.) Having seen Prop Dog's video demonstration of the Taiwan Ben version on YouTube and having taken some advice from several UK magic suppliers, I decided to buy the Taiwan Ben one (from Vanishing Inc. because they offered it at the most competitive price at the time.) I am glad that I did. It works well and sends the cards up really high in a nice, fast and steady stream. I would estimate that you get a fountain that goes about five or six feet above the fountain. You can get a wider looking stream by placing the deck off-centre in the holder. I haven't fully tested the range of the remote control. I will be standing close to the fountain (positioned in a top hat on a table) when I use it for the umbrella stab. However, I did also use the card fountain during a marionette theatre performance. The remote was operated by a puppeteer and the fountain was positioned on the floor in front of the theatre sending up a deck of plastic gold foil cards at the end of a scene. (I had to treat the gold deck with fanning powder for the cheap deck to work well but the effect was dramatic and the children in the audience had fun collecting the cards at the end of the show.) In general, I think that Taiwan Ben's products are priced a little too high, and some electronic products I have had to return because they failed to work. However, I needed a card fountain that was really reliable and shot the cards high enough for a stage show and this does the job really well.

Does exactly what it's supposed to.The stream is fast and high fast. Remote works as expected. Does not come with batteries so you will need 8 AA and 3 batteries called 23A. You can find them on Amazon for a very reasonable price. The video that comes with the fountain is really just how to put the batteries in so there are no routines or anything included so make sure you have some ideas.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The rocket by MS Magic and bond Lee is so much better.

Bulky, requires lots of batteries, instructions are unclear.

The cheap knock off on Amazon is better, despite it also kind of sucking.