As a member of the Penguin Platinum Club I got this early.

I thought from the ad and the demo that this was a gaffed rubber band trick and that the supplies were gimmicked bands.

THE BANDS ARE NOT GAFFED!

One rubber band melts through the other. He turned his hands to show all sides and one band WAS clearly running through the other. This doesn't even seem possible. I LOVE gaffs. Not because they make things easier, but they tend to allow things that you can't get with just sleight of hand. What I just Casshan Wallace do should take a gaff to accomplish.

What an incredible follow up to CMH this would be. The band can then just "melt off" the other band into the audience members waiting hands.

You can see that at 00:12 into the demo

Casshan is an excellent teacher. He goes through everything slowly and clearly and then you get an explanation with the camera over his shoulder. No quick or unnatural hand movements to perform this. Everything is done slowly.

I am in love with this routine!

I met Casshan at Magi-Fest this year and I saw him perform this and I was blown away! He really put some work into making a beautiful, ungimmicked linking rubber band trick. Great job!

Great, great, great effect! Love it! The effect deserves 10 stars!

Unfortunately this effect is on one of the poorest produced videos I've ever seen. The instruction leaves MUCH to be desired! You can't simply say "which is hard to explaing, it's something you have to get a feel for" and expect the viewers to be satisfied. Yes it's hard to explain what is going on but that's why we are paying you per DVD to do so!

This effect would benefit from a thorough and excellent written description along with some diagrams. (Why were there no real close-up views showing the complicated configuration of bands?) Still I recommend the DVD. The effect is just that good.

I would unreservedly have given this a FIVE star review had the instruction been just a bit better. Look forward to further effects from this talented mind.

Cons:

#1 - The final get ready move is something you "have to get a feel for." Even with a lot of practice, it's really a challenge for me personally to get this 100% of the time.

#2 - The setup does take a couple of seconds after practice...but easily covered with patter.

#3 - The second effect took quite a few views to see the last phase

Pros:

#1 - This is totally impromptu (no gimmick)!
And uses normal bands!

#2 - The main effect is amazingly visual! And taught very well from both angles....pretty easy to learn.

#3 - The angles and subtleties are really good!

#4 - The second handling ok, but with a quicker set up

#5 - The Crazy handcuffs version is GREAT!

#6 - The 3rd effect is a nice, easy, quick band through finger trick...I'll be using it.

Dear Penguin-ites, :)

My Penguin package arrived this morning and I popped the Melting Point DVD in this afternoon.
Here is my review I left at the Magic Café:

From a still-beginner’s perspective: Melting Point is offered at such a bargain price for, what I gather from the experienced magicians, is really as ground-breaking as Bill Cushman's "The Dr’s Billet Tear". If Dan Harlan, a rubber-band king, praises Melting Point it has to be very very good.

The Lord has blessed me with being able to earn a living as an inventor and, as an inventor I recognize that the "idea", as simple as it may be, is everything. The "pop-tab" on an aluminum soda can is a good example: what a simple idea but what a gift from God that idea came to be for the fellow from Belgium who invented it.

He did so in his spare time while working on an assembly line in Lynchburg Va. (my home) at Belvac Tool and Die. The inventor earned over 75 million for the idea. People had complained for years about the former "throw away tabs" citing the damage they did to animals and fish who swallowed them and how easy it was to cut your foot stepping on one. The little fella from Belgium changed the canning industry in a major way with just a simple idea. What a great story and what a great example of how simple things can have huge impact.

The reason I related that story is that I think "Melting Point" is worth SO much more than the price being asked. I don't have a magician's experience to make this statement, just "ordinary guy" experience...but as an ordinary guy: This is the greatest rubber band thing I have ever seen!

I don't know "rubber band" magic at all. I have shied away from it thinking it would be too difficult to learn and a disaster to perform (at least in my hands). But then I saw the trailer for Melting Point and read some of the Cafe's thoughts on it. If ever I was going to try to
learn a rubber band illusion...well then, why not swing for the bleachers? :)

For me, as good an effort as Casshan made at teaching, it was still hard for me to learn his illusion. LOTS of DVD rewinds. I even photographed still images out of his video lesson with "Snag it" so this tired old brain could learn things one simple step at a time.

But, boy oh boy was it worth it!!! This gifted young magician allowed me to swing for the bleachers with his new standard in illusion and as I watched myself finally perform it all I could think was:

HOME RUN! HOME RUN! IT’S GOING OVER THE FENCE!! YAY TEAM!!! :)

This is a great looking trick. Casshan Wallace seems like a nice guy and does his best to explain it however in my opinion is not entirely successful. There is a lot going on that is described as a knack and you will get it eventually. This may be the case although it is yet to happen for me. Casshan is a young guy and I hope had some adults helping with the project. A method either with a simple graphic or or some other way to expain the configuration of the hidden bands between the fingers would be helpful.

I met Casshan at magifest this year. i asked him to show me a trick and he pulled out this bad boy. I kinda stopped what I was doing and grabbed the person nearest to me to make sure that I was really seeing what i was seeing. It is that good.

I love doing this for other people because it is so clean looking and so open. The illusion is fantastic and amazing. Some people may have some issues with the [edited to protect secret] at first, but just take some time and work on this and you'll be adding it to your magic rep very quickly. I used to think the rubber band links i did were good, but this is way better!

The teaching here is awful. He goes way too fast and constantly says things like "you'll get a feel for it" or "it's hard to explain." How about trying to explain? The last set up move is giving me all sorts of problems, but because I don't know the mechanics behind it, I can never figure out why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Why not provide a diagram or animation so we understand.

Great trick, but right now I'm probably only 10% on getting this thing set up. I don't seem to be "getting a feel" for it because I have no idea what goes wrong when it doesn't work right. That understanding is key to improvement.
Unfortunately the teacher doesn't do any "here are some common mistakes and how to correct it." Paid for a trick I can't use.

I have always been a fan of linking bands. I bought many different tricks and methods to achieve this effect. Many were gimmick bands or require some other gimmick to achieve this. However, this version has totally brought it to a whole new level. theres not freaking gimmick at all. The bands are 100% normal. And thats impressive. Gotta take my hats off to Casshan . greats job for creating this! looking forward to more of your effects!

This trick looks great and it's easy to do not to mention that he even gives you the rubber bands to do it with. I'm very happy with this purchase. I will be doing this.