So, for lack of time and inspiration I’m gonna post the top ten things I bought since the start of 2008. Because ranking these would be a massive pain in the arse there will be three honourable mentions, nine runners up and a winner (and if you’ve read this blog you can guess the winner!!!) At some stage I’ll get round to writing real reviews for them. Maybe.

Honourable Mentions
Casanova Concept
The Alchemical Tools by Paul Brook
Decisions by Mozique

Extractor
An awesome utility gimmick. Essentially, a card is placed in a deck box, an impossible place for sleight of hand, and almost instantly the card appears somewhere miraculous like my… (skip the following silly sentence that Ian made me put in)
Available from Alakazam for £50.00

JOL Large Plus Wallet
My companion to the extractor. Has two separate loads, palm and no-palm, can be used to introduce a stack of cards, the same card can appear in your wallet, be removed, placed in the deck by the spectator and shuffled and then appear in your wallet again. It’s the best secret load wallet around as long as you are happy using a gentleman’s breast pocket wallet and not a hip wallet.
Available from Top Secret Magic for £75.00

Art of Astonishment by Paul Harris
A massive three volume set of tricks. They are mostly cards and there is some brilliant classics in her. Personally I love Las Vegas Leaper, Re-Set and Galaxy. I only got these recently and am loving just opening a random page and finding an effect nearby that I like!
Available from Alakazam for £80.00

Coinvexed
The best coinbending gimmik I have ever seen. The gimmik is… camoflaged. The spectator sees it but it just slips right under their radar. Dying to get my hands on the sharpie edition.
Available from World Magic Shop for £85.00

Still Fancy a Pot of Jam?
An excellent collection of misdirection based effects. The title trick is fecking hilarious, a spectator is convinced you have 11p in your hand when in fact you have… a pot of jam. WARNING: You need brass plated balls to attempt some of these.
Available from MagicBox for £24.99

Banachek’s Psi Series Volume 2
The best of the Psi Series DVDs. It contains some seriously strong effect. My favourite is the Drawing Duplication which leads nicely into a Q&A routine if you want. So good I performed it on TV!!!
Available from Alakazam for £24.99

Psychological Subtleties 1&2 by Banacheck
Excellent work on psychological forces or priming. The basis of the circle/triangle force.
Volume 1 is out of print (due a reprint soon) and Volume 2 is available from Alakazam for £37.50

Naked Mentalism 1 & 2 by Jon Thomson
More priming material. Jon, using a massive database, presents two books on a vast array of possible forces. A good follow up to Banchek’s work.
Both are available from lulu.com for £39.99

Get Nyman
Much of the creative work behind Derren Brown is done by Andy Nyman. The DVD is excellent with some seriously excellent and entertaining effects. WARNING: You need brass plated balls to attempt some of these.
Available from Alakazam for £34.99

And the winner is…

Reality is Plastic by Anthony Jacquin
See my review on the site, this book is brilliant!
Available direct of Anthony for £22.50

And the worst purchase…

The Raven
DO NOT BUY… It is a one trick pony, a pain to master, does nothing that can’t be done more easily with sleight of hand, is impractical and expensive.
Available from me, if anyone wants it, for €12.00