In this review, I will describe what Helix looks like in the promotional video, how it is described in the ad-copy and what it is like in real life. Can you guess where this is going?

Helix is not described in the ad-copy with any specificity. It starts with a nonsensical statement “There is an energy that binds the universe together. What if you could be taught to harness that power… what if you could influence the natural order of the cosmos?...” Not sure why that is in there as it is so absurd and inapplicable.

The promo video states “Move any small object from a distance with the power of your mind, then end completely clean!” False and false. It further states that that you can “move objects, manipulate matter, with a mere thought.” The reason this language is totally deceptive is that you cannot move anything from a distance. You need to be right there and holding the object before it starts moving. That’s right, if you want to slightly move an object, you must be holding it and then let go of it before it starts slowly rotating in place. To be clear, for example, if you want the top of a Sharpie to slowly twist on a table, you need to do some set-up, need to hold the pen cap in place and let go to start it moving. The obvious question is…why did it only move once it was let go? Is there something attached? And, you cannot end completely clean. It is not a fair suggestion for more than one reason, which I cannot share as it would give away the method to this trick, which will doubtfully be used by most purchasers… at least not by me. It does not look like your mind or your thoughts are moving anything, it looks like the object slowly moves because you let go of it.

Let’s move on to the unacceptably deceptive and extremely misleading promotional video. First a stationary deck of cards is shown on a table and then, without prompting, the top card starts to rotate. This is repeated but with a stationary tic-tac box, a standing box of cards and Sharpie cap. None of this is possible as it appears in the video. To accomplish this you would need to be holding each of the aforementioned items and let go of them immediately before they would twist, just a bit. And, you would not pick up the boxes or cap without risking exposure to the method. Then, the items cannot be handed out because of the significant chance that the method will leave some clues behind.

There is a video segment that shows a mint, on top of a roll of mints, spontaneously fall off the top onto the table. This is not possible at all. Totally false!. Then, a straw that is balanced on top of a bottle of Coke starts rotating. Again, not possible without being held in place first and in the case of this false advertising, any spectator would see the method.

Still with me? What you get here is a small package containing some “gimmicks” which are essentially single use (certainly cannot be used after one set) and some streaming video instruction by Chris from Magic Tao. The video is about 17 minutes. The video starts with a thanks from Tom Elderfield for buying the product. He indicates that he created it when he was 14 years-old. Now, things are starting to make sense. I can see two 14 years-olds having fun playing with this for about 10 minutes. But, then Tom disappears in a graphic swirl and Chris starts the instruction. The instruction is poor. First off, there are no live demonstrations of the tricks at all. No spectators at all. Not even magicians pretending to be spectators.

He walks through a presentation of the haunted deck, which is sub-par. Basically, let go and the effect starts. In the video, the decks twist to reveal a card at exactly a spot where there appears to be a break in the deck before the deck is let go and before it starts moving. Even worse is that the cut-to-card is sticking out of the deck and that is NOT the spectator’s card. That spectator’s card is in fact under the card that twisted out of the deck. To reveal the spectator’s card, the top of the deck needs to be lifted with the card that rotated in the deck which makes it look like there is something that is holding those cards together. Those cards cannot be handed out. He teaches another trick where a selected card (from a Bicycle deck) is show to have a misprinted angel on the back which rotates back into place. This idea is not impressive and cannot be handed out until you clean up and the clean-up is clumsy and noisy. And it is likely that you cannot even clean up enough to hand out the card.

At a certain point in the video, the audio quality gets worse and sounds tinny and hollow. Much of the instruction of other ideas is totally lacking because it does not demonstrate the effect. There is a linking rubber band “bonus” effect which is also mediocre.

The video claims that there should be 30 gimmicks, but my package has 22 and not all were usable.

The list price of $25 is incredibly overpriced. In fact, I would not pay 25 cents for this. I threw mine out.