The Golden Shells
Type: Close-up
Skill Level: 
Retail Price: $100
Effect: The magician shows three golden walnut shells. He than takes
a pea and places it below one of the shells. He mixes the shells by sliding
them around the table. the spectator is invited to guess where the pea
is. They are always wrong. The magician offers to make the game "easier"
by altering the actions and conditions (ie., placing the nut with the pea
below in underneath an upturned shot glass; or only using 2 shells, etc).
The spectator is always wrong.
Performance Time: depends entirely upon the routine
Reset Time: none
Angles: 
Quality:
The Shells: Fine jewelry manufactured to exacting specifications by Whit Haydn and Chef Anton. These are awesome !!! These are the easiest shells in the world to manipulate (the design of the shell does a lot of the work for you). Cast in solid metal, then plated five times with extremely heavy layers of gold-plate, they will never tarnish or wear out (or so the manufacturer claims). Each shell is identical, manufactured with the proper angles to insure that the pea always comes out smoothly. The front and back edges are machined to allow the pea easy travel, in and out of the shell. By incorporating the Chanin Dip in the design, The Golden Shells can be used on virtually any surface: wood, glass, marble, carpets, even a close-up pad.
The Pea: Critical to the success of the swindle, the pea construction has always been overlooked. Injection molded, this pea set is great. You get two different kinds of peas in the set. The first pea is a perfect sphere. It's a solid hard green rubber, with exactly the right amounts of give and friction to make sure your manipulations work every time. The second pea looks exactly like a real pea, but it's manufactured of a frictionless plastic. No matter how hard you try, the pea will not escape from under the shell. For the first time, your spectators can handle the shells and the pea with no chance of discovering the secret.
The Golden Shells comes with three Golden Shells, 5 rubber peas, 2 plastic peas, shot glass and small pouch to carry the whole thing in.
Dr. Mitch: This is the Rolls Royce of Walnut shells. Practice, practice, practice, come up with a good routine and practice some more. The shells do a lot of the work for you, but you still need immense amounts of practice. Even if you never use these, they look great on your shelf. (an expensive ornament, but sooo gorgeous).
I love them, I saw them and had to have them. I am, however, kind of leary about what this portends...what next ? Gold plated "snapper" or Sterling Silver "Spikes through coin", maybe diamond encrusted "thimbles". Oh heck, its just SO CHIC!!!!
Mike Maione: Well, Mitch is right about one thing, these are the Rolls Royces of Walnut Shells and Peas. At least they're priced that way... $100 for walnut shells??? Am I missing something... isn't the idea of the old walnut shells and pea trick that the swindle occurs with ordinary walnut shells? These things are anything but ordinary... they certainly don't look ordinary. (Did King Midas touch them?)
And, here's one to ponder. While the shells look anything but ordinary, the peas are perfect replicas of real peas... good enough to eat. Go figure.
Anyway, technically, these shells and peas work great. The rubber pea rolls out easily and the hard one won't. And, they are fun to play with. So, if you have $100 burning a hole in your pocket and you can come up with some logical reason why you would have golden shells instead of real walnut shells, get them. Me, I'll work on molding the inside of regular shells.
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