Spider Pen, Electric, Yigal Mesika
Reviewed by Ed Williams
How many magician’s do I know that shun invisible thread? Quite a few. They’ve all tried it, but realize that the darn stuff is hard to work with. The effects that you can create are well worth the practice, but about the time they think they’ve got the handling down, the thread breaks. Regardless of how proficient a person is in handling thread, and until someone comes up with a truly invisible thread that is unbreakable, the thread is going to break occasionally. It’s a fact. I don’t think that the thread breaking is what turns so many people off. It’s the reset after the break that has always been a problem. Many attempts at improving the convenience of using thread reels have been offered but Yigal Mesika has come up with what appears to me to be the ultimate in thread reels the
Spider Pen. It is powered by a truly silent electric motor and is in the form of a pen that you can carry in full, your pocket. It doesn’t need to be hid under your collar or inside your coat and there are no safety pins or alligator clips. You can walk up to 25 ft. away and the tension remains constant. You can turn the motor on and off right in front of your spectators and they won’t have a clue. In fact all of the claims that are made in the advertising and packaging of the Spider Pen appear to be accurate. That in itself is something magicians know is not a common practice when it comes to magic.A thread reel inside a pen is not a new idea. Using a miniature motor to retract thread has also been done before. However, Yigal Mesika has taken these two ideas and combined and perfected them into a thread reel that is superior to any that I’ve seen.
Another thing that I found interesting in the packaging of the Spider Pen is “Patent Pending” Evidently; Mr. Mesika has enough confidence in his product to at least consider applying for a patent. I’m not a patent attorney, nor do I play one on TV, but the way I understand it, it’s not that difficult or expensive to get the patent pending statement on an item and then you have something like a year to decide if you want to proceed with the patent process.
It makes me wonder why more magic inventors don’t apply for patents on their new, revolutionary, original, innovative, never before seen, new concept invention. David Copperfield patented his flying effect and D’lites also received a patent. Surely the rampant claims of revolutionary, innovative, etc. are not just hype.