Emergence by Tim Hill

This new device has been making quite a stir in the magic community for the past five years. It’s finally available, and I’ve been playing with it for a couple of weeks now before writing my review. I wanted to put it through some solid testing to give a more informed opinion.

For those who haven’t seen, this device allows you to shoot a coin out of a card box electronically. You can watch the trailer to see the device in action.

The first annoying thing is that you have to cut your own card box to use the device. I do wish they had provided one so that you could use it right out of the box. I think there are two main reasons they don’t provide a precut box: First, it’s a device that fits in any poker sized card box, so you can use whatever design you prefer. Second, you have the option to use a quarter or half dollar and that changes the size of the cutout. Even though I was initially annoyed that a box wasn’t provided, it only took about 5 minutes to prepare a card box once I dug out my exacto knife and tape, so it’s not a huge arts and crafts project.

Another minor inconvenience is that you will have to charge it before the first use. It doesn’t really matter, but I do appreciate when electronics come with enough charge to try it out before your first charge. But this is really a moot point and doesn’t affect the workings in the slightest.

Let’s quickly chat about the provided tutorial and routine before digging deeper into the device. The main tutorial is just over twenty-four minutes long. It covers all you need to know about the device: charging, turning it on, pairing the remote, resetting the unit, triggering the unit, delay options, making the box, switching the gimmick out, positioning the glass, adjusting the distance, and troubleshooting. I will point out that for the delay options you have 0, 5, 10, or 15 seconds. You can’t choose an exact time, but that gives you plenty of variety depending on the routine.

Speaking of routines, there is only one routine that is taught. It’s Tim’s coins across routine. It’s a great routine using four coins and a coin shell. The coins appear one at a time, travel from hand to hand, and ultimately the last coin travels to the glass while you’re far away. His teaching is clear and concise. You are also shown four performances of other routines. Since you already know the working of the device, you don’t really need an explanation for any of them as the main centerpiece is the Emergence gimmick itself.

Digging deeper into the gimmick, mine came wound rather tight which meant the distance the coin travels is quite far. The glass had to be about 8 inches away from the box. I adjusted the strength of the unit, and now my glass sits just in front of the box. It definitely takes some experimentation to get the exact distance locked in, but with a half hour or so, you’ll have it perfected. I then wanted to test its accuracy by just triggering the coin over and over. This thing is incredibly accurate. The only time it missed is when I had the glass off set at too much of an angle. Once you understand the distance of the glass and get it into your muscle memory, it’s crazy how it nails it every time. It sounds silly, but it is so fun to play with and it does feel pretty magical.

The reset is definitely something you have to do out of the eyes of others, but you can set it up very far in advance of needing it. I wouldn’t have it set up days in advance, but a couple of hours and you’ll be fine. I actually found the reset a little knacky at first. Several times I would “reset” it but the device wouldn’t be properly locked in place. It took some playing with to understand how far down I had to push the arm so that it would be locked in place.

My only gripe from a performance perspective is the sound. It’s not LOUD, but it’s definitely not silent. It’s actually the mechanical sound of the door opening that I like the least. The arm hitting the coin doesn’t bother me because it could be mistaken for the coin falling into the glass, but the door opening makes a "zip zip zip" sound that is hard to explain away. If you give the spectators a little distance from the box, it’s much less noticeable, but it’s still something to be aware of. Your environment will play a large part in how loud it is.

I have one slight tip. Put the deck on top of the box at an angle (not on the flap) where it remains throughout the routine. This adds a naturalness and doesn’t affect the workings at all. It also allows you to easily switch the box because after the coin trick you can spread the deck out, and get the box out of the picture. When you go to put the cards away, just bring out a normal box.

Here's a video to show you what I mean: