Tarantula 2

Simon

Very happy with this, I had the original Tarantula which was great but this is definitely a great upgrade. All the best bits of the original and some very smart design changes, highly recommended, especially if you liked the first one

Chao Heng

Vincent

Had a little experience with loops which l love but his this thing takes the cake! I'm 71 years old and previously did not have much experience with I.T. (invisible thread) At first it was a little hard to deal with as it is quite invisible! But give it a chance and you'll get use to it! I had good luck working at my bathroom vanity as the lights are bright there and the sink is bright white so you can find the thread when you work over the sink! I found out this is good for attaching the thread to the wax as you can see what your doing this way. However, if you have taken the spool out of the tarantula to repair the thread as Yigal shows in the video, be sure to close the plunger on the sink to prevent dropping the spool down the drain! I dropped mine the first time but was lucky enough to catch it before it hit the drain, then I realised, if you close the drain you solve this problem. Do not play with your Tarantula when it arrives just be patient and watch the whole video first so you don't break anything before you even learn how to use it! Also charge it to full charge before you even use it! Try the floating bill to hand which is very easy if you follow Yigal's directions. I did it the first time I tried it in front of my bathroom mirror and I fooled myself it looked so good! What Yigal says is true, at first you will probably break the thread until you get use to it but as you practice you will learn just how much tension you can apply before it breaks. As Yigal says, it will become second nature and the only time the thread will break is when you want to break it! I found this to be true as after I broke mine about 3 or 4 times I started to get the hang of it and now I don't worry so much about the thread breaking. I also suggest you buy at least one extra pack of spools when you buy the tarantula so you have some extra thread to practice with until you get use to it. It was a little tedious fixing the thread once it broke but I did fix it a few times and each time it became easier to do! Just take my advice and start with the floating bill to hand and work you way up to the spinning ring, or life saver effect which are both about the same and a little more difficult to master. It took me about 20 or 25 tries before I could do the spinning ring and the hardest part was actually learning the spin part. If you use white thread like Yigal uses in his teaching video you can learn how to do it first before you waste your spider thread. Once you can make the ring spin nicely even for a short time, you are ready to switch to the spider thread which you will find will spin about 3 or 4 times longer than the thread! You can also use the white thread to practice the handling of the other effects as well then switch once you get the moves down. If you have no experience with I.T. I would say buy a pack of loops and give that a try first just to get a feel for how it works. With the loops there is nothing to fix and no mechanical parts, you break a loop, you just toss it and get a new one! If you have some experience with I.T. all I can say is, if your considering buying a Tarantula don't think about it just get off your wallet, it will be money well spent. I had very little experience with I.T. when I bought loops and before I used all 8 loops that came in the package. I pretty much had the hang of it. Then spinning fork is easy to learn and it will blow peoples mind! The P.K. touch routine will also get a W.T F. response! Once you get the hang of loops you can graduate to the Tarantula! Now I never leave home without a loop on my wrist and I always ready to amaze someone in a seconds notice! I'm still in the practice stage of learning the Tarantula but it won't be long before I'm ready to dazzle a crowd! Yigal out did himself on this fine piece of magical apparatus and you owe it to yourself to give it a try! Thumbs up Yigal!

Nigel

Having seen my friend Keiichi Iwasaki use the Tarantula to great applause, I was persuaded to take a leap and advance from Loops. Yigals IT products are always of exceptional quality and Tarantula 2 met all my expectations. I plan on investing in the Spider Pen and looking forward to Yigals Loops Legends.

David

Everything was explained very well, and he also shared a nice variety of effects that you can do.

Steve

I use the T2 and another ITR in combination, both work differently. What you can do with the T2 you can’t do with the other ITR and vice versa. If you want to blow minds like the Golden buzzer routine on BGT. The T2 is the way to go. Loads of customer support. Love it.

Martin

I already have the first tarantula and the tarantula II is more confortable and have a bigger innovation, with the first tarantula you have to do a little modification to block the spool for performing the hovering but not with tarantula II. The tarantula II is easier to use.

John

So far, this is great! I've previously bought loops and struggled with consistently breaking them so was concerned I'd be too heavy handed with this too!

However, less than an hour after opening it, and a couple of deliberate thread breaks to see how easily I could reset it...I'm already able to perform a card based twist on floating bill!

Sure, if you break the thread you're gonna want a bright light and preferably a white surface to work on, but it's really not that hard - but certainly not something to easily be done whilst roaming.

Yigal actually recommends for roaming magicians to purchase a second device for backup because of that. I'm a hobbyist so that's out, but probably worthwhile for those doing this in any form of professional capacity.

Matthew

The Tarantula 2 is my first ITR device and it's amazing! The levitation effects you can perform with this device are incredible. My product came exactly as described. Yigal Mesika's teaching is simple, clear and straightforward. I can see myself using this device for years to come.

Julian

I hesitated a very long term before shelling out for Tarantula 2, but I am now very glad that I did. I only recently ventured into work with IT. I began by experimenting with split strands of Kevlar, trying out various effects. But I soon realised the advantage of an IT reel. I watched and read all the reviews I could find for the earlier Mesika Tarantula, for the newer Tarantula 2 as well as reviews for other types of IT reel. I even considered buying one of the Tarantula knock-offs from China on eBay just to 'have a go' with such a device. In the end, there were at least three things that persuaded me to buy Mesika's Tarantula 2. First, the great balance between strength and invisibility with Mesika's thread. When I first tried the floating ring effect in broad daylight, I couldn't believe my own eyes! Second, the silence of the reel motor. This is very impressive. I would not hesitate to use Tarantula 2 close-up in a small room. Third, the 'Soul Technology.' Until I tried the Tarantula 2 out, I wasn't sure whether this was an advantage or not, especially for an effect such as the haunted deck. However, in the explanation video, Yigal Mesika explains and demonstrates very clearly how to do this. I've seen his earlier video for Tarantula 1 and I think the Tarantula 2 is much easier to use for the haunted deck, though I haven't tried to stand at a great distance from the pack (which seemed to be one concern expressed by those discussing the pros and cons of Tarantula 1 v Tarantula 2.) The new instruction video is better filmed and well miked. The effects taught are the same as previously but I believe that the design of the new Tarantula is an improvement. I am so pleased with this that I won't be bothering with a £3.81 knock-off from China! I think the best way to use this utility device is to work one of the effects taught in the video into a longer routine, e.g. At a wedding, borrow a ring each from the married couple, vanish one and make it appear later in an impossible location (e.g. ice block), and in the mean time take the other ring, float it and move straight on to a linking ring effect (e.g. using Ninja + rings and/or Steve Thompson's Flite. The same principle applies to use of paper money, cards, polo mints or pencils. I wouldn't do an effect with the Tarantula in isolation and I probably would not use it more than once in a set (though one of the beauties of the device is that, unless you have had to break the thread in the way that Yigal teaches with the polo mint in the mouth effect or ring onto spectators ring effect, the real automatically resets, can easily be pocketed or dropped into a topit or servante and is ready to go again almost as soon as you steal it back into your hand. I am an amateur, hobby magician. I perform mainly for my grandchildren's birthday parties or in church for children's talks, but I have taken to the Tarantula 2 like a duck to water (or spider to web?) Highly recommended, though I the spare Spider Thread spools seem expensive, especially compared with the price of the main Tarantula device (the price you pay for that of course includes the excellent teaching video.) However, I have found the thread quality and the reel mechanism to be excellent in operation.

George

This is my 1st ITR and I love it! I've been using Mesika Loops for awhile and I thought those the best invention for thread work when they first came out, but they were limited. I never owned the Tarantual so I can't comment but the Tarantula II is the balls. The tutorial is very easy to understand an filmed well and he teaches some pretty good routines to get you started.
I see some reviews knocked the broken thread repair. I've been playing with this for 2 days and my thread broke 3 times. It took me about 3 minutes each time to repair it. Sure, you need a white table, bright light and good eyesight but c'mon - it's invisible thread! And IT will always be a bit of a pain in the ass to work with.
Great product.

Joey

I'm not a magician. I got this effect as part of a costume. And it works great. It'll take a little while to figure out the weight it can support & how to get it ready without people noticing. Once I was used to that, the next challange is dealing with people's reaction.

Nick

I do not know if Joseph is trying to be funny, or if he failed to pay attention to the tutorial dvd.

This item is fantastic! (Yes... imagine that in the 9th Doctors voice...)

I have been trying to get the hang of IT for the past year, and my previous ITR was very dodgy... I was scared to use it in fear of breaking it, because it DID take roughly 45 mins for me to repair the thread.

I have been playing with my Tarantula II since it arrived... really, really easy to get the hang of, if the thread does happen to break, it is, literally, just a couple of seconds to fix it.

I have, using this, lost my fear of the thread breaking... in fact, I even managed to repair the thread in front of someone after I broke the thread at the end of a levitation, just before I went to do another effect, without them even noticing.
(This was a home environment... not a working performance environment, however it was done so quickly, they did not even spot it)

My advice. Open the box, take your T2 out, to get a gander at your code, go watch the entire tutorial DVD BEFORE you play with it... because you will break it if you just jump right in.

STEFAN

This is the one.
Look no further.

All I wanted was a more robust Tarantula with a rechargeable battery.
I heard that these criteria were met and purchased without watching the trailer.

I am blown away with what this new tarantula is capable of! I used to have one Tarantula set in a locked position for certain levitations and another one ready to make a bill fly across the stage. Now, you can lock it to the desired length in the MIDDLE of an effect!!! This means that you could float food from a plate on the ground up to your hand then, without hesitation, float it all the way up to your mouth and eat it!
I used to have to awkwardly bend over for that to happen, now I can stand straight and confident.

I've been a huge fan of the Soul technology since the Spider Pen Pro. Having this tech in the Tarantula is amazing. Well worth the $75. There are more possibilities with the Tarantula 2 than ever before =)

Douglas

This is the best product I've ever bought. Truly worth the money. Mastered it in a day.

Maksymilian

Great levitation device, really useful and practical. The only thing which I don’t like is that at the beginning when you learn how to use the gimmick, the IT breaks a lot, so you should buy some additional Spider Thread, but except that it’s great and worth the money.

Matthew

I bought this product and it worked well at first. After that, the motor broke and there was no instruction on how to fix it. I emailed and asked how to fix it and they said they didn’t know how to fix it and only offered me a discount if I buy another one. I am certainly not buying another one if it’s just gonna break. I regret paying 80 bucks for nothing.

Joseph

RESETS WITHIN HOURS......
After waiting months after this product was promised it finally arrived. I managed to practice the easiest effect two or three times before the "IT" broke. No problem....just watch the tutorial for how to resolve the situation. I am now into hour two of trying to restore the device back to normal operation and am still working on it!
I would recommend this for strolling magicians provided they have the following on hand for the reset:
--one or two hours between performances,
--table with white table cloth,
--1000 watt light,
--magnifying glass,
--tweezers and/or teeny tiny hands,
--a great deal of patience,
--privacy and that's all that you need to be back up and ready for your next performance!

I wish I could leave a review about audience reaction but alas I fear that I have another hour or two to spend before I can get the device back to working order so that I can resume practicing so that I can break the "IT" again and then repeat the whole process again.

Anyone want to buy a Tarantula 2 real cheap?