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"Professional" Four Way Force Wallet (Multiple Outs)


Available from: Magic4Less(Sorry the link doesn't seem to work directly to the page, search for "professional wallet").

Cost: a mere $39.99, go check the exchange rate! Also, you get a free Koran Deck!

Difficulty: N/A - not an effect as such but thought should go into whatever you use it for. However, very easy to actually use.

As you know, I like to do thorough reviews, so first a couple of notes...!

Regarding whether or not this is a "rip off" of the Miller Miracle Wallet: this uses a bandless himber/ "z fold" wallet principle, with an extra principle. I know the miracle wallet is called the "Miller Miracle Wallet" but I do not feel this breaks any rules any more than anyone who makes a Himber wallet without consulting Richard Himber, or a 12-way outs wallet without asking Kenton Knepper. Technically it probably owes it's additional principle to the Horwitz wallet anyway. But nevertheless, this is in most ways very, very similar to the Miller Miracle Wallet - obviously the fact that it is $100 cheaper makes it an attractive prospect.

Regarding Magic4Less - the website is a bit tacky, and they don't answer your "query" emails, but to be fair I received a prompt postage calculation and they dispatched quickly - I guess they've got no time for time-wasters! Another bonus is the free tricks you get with each order - not just one, but every free trick included until you reach your "price barrier" - the 2 card monte is a bit cr@p but a 5 pack of loops always comes in handy! It's also worth noting that I bought "Spellbinding Boxes" from here (brass nesting boxes for a vanished coin) - an absolute bargain at $10 if memory serves. If you buy this with Spellbinding Boxes you are getting the two items, a Bicycle Koran deck, a 5 pack of elastic loops and two fairly crappy packet tricks for about £25. Not bad going I don't think.

What they say: "This is a classic of Magic and Mentalist alike. A professional 4 fold forcing wallet. Made from Leather folds flat. Other ones on the market today sell for $149.99. This one comes complete with the Al Koran deck. Detailed instructions. Give your wallet to the spectator to hold. They have them pick any card from the deck at random. You will then take the wallet and open it up and your card inside the wallet will match the choosen card. This is of the highest quality."

So then, I'll try to be brief:
Review: This is not really a "force" wallet, it's a four way multiple outs wallet, and I bought it primarily for John Archer's presentation of KK, "Komedy Killer" - the advantage being that the wallet is very fairly shown to only contain 1 card. with the use of double envelopes however, you could easily use this for 8 outs.
It is slim and smallish (think small himber wallet size - the picture shows it with a deck of cards for comparison). It includes a "dry wipe pad" (more on this in a second) and... well... really, out of the packet, that's all it contains, because the pockets are... GLUED UP! Yes, for some insane reason, the place where you'd put the card or envelope (classically for a prediction although I suppose it could be for a switch as well) are gummed up with what looks like rubber cement. So, it loses major points on that front as it doesn't have anywhere to put anything!
And the wipe clean pad - I think with the MMW you get a nice printed one that says "notes" with some lines... with this, it consists of a laminated piece of notepaper, torn from a stapled notebook! Now, I don't know if they're going for the "look, it's just a piece of notepaper" look, but it just seems tacky.
Otherwise, the quality is pretty good - the leather and stitching is all there. The wallet is very, very slightly mis-aligned, but there is another glaring problem which was a major source of disappointment when I got the wallet out - the "flap" which makes the whole 4 outs thing work sticks out of the wallet, thus making it pretty obvious that something's going on.

If you stop reading here, this product gets a fairly stinky

1.5 out of 10

...because you can't even enjoy the bits that are good quality if it's unusable. And it is.

However!
Being determined not to have wasted my money, I set about making improvements to it. Firstly, trimming the flaps, which seem to be made of some kind of fabric coated rubber - quite a clever use of the material actually. I then peeled off the "dry wipe pad", coloured around the edges of the flaps with a permanent marker (they're slightly faded looking, making them a nice strong, slightly shiny black does a world of good) and replaced the dry wipe pads with my own version, much like the MMW - a laminated piece of paper with "NOTES" printed at the top and a line guide. Much smarter.
Perhaps most important, I took my Blockbuster card and slowly shoved it further and further down one of the pockets (not the window one, that was going to be too complicated and risky), so you can now put a card in there no problem. Finally, I left it under a desk lamp for a few minutes, gently aligned the edges perfectly, clamped them and left it for a few hours.

The result?

7.5 out of 10!
...and I no longer regret buying it!

It's still not perfect - the "window" is still useless, and I'm considering what do to with that at the moment - perhaps print out a "return to: (name+address)" sticker for it, or perhaps a "signed" photo of some old man, to fit in with the presentation John does.
I haven't read the included routines to be honest so can't comment - I wanted this wallet for a specific purpose, but there do look to be some reasonable ideas to get you started.

All in all, I would still like to see a Miller Miracle Wallet to see if the quality justifies the price-tag, but for now I am perfectly happy with this and despite the shaky start, would recommend it to anyone who wanted an affordable 4-way-out z-fold wallet and didn't mind doing a few DIY improvements.

Hi,

I know it's a year after your post, but I found it very useful. Because of the details you provided, I realized what I would be getting for this discount price and decided that if, like you, I opened the pockets, it might be an inexpensive alternative for a four-way wallet.

Unbelievable that they glue teh pockets in place, but I was expecting it. It was also very sticky, so that in addition to opening the pockets, I had to use a solvent that worked with leather to clean off the goo. Thankfully, my flaps were not off-kilter so I didn't have to cut them down.

Thanks again for the advice that allowed me to buy this when otherwise I would have been afraid to buy from this vendor at such a cheap price.

Robin Robertson