My first simple analysis of the Magic of Fushigi shows something that to the Trained eye, is nothing more than a Clear (or colored sometimes) Ball made of what I believe is just the typical substance the normal transparent bouncy balls are made of. I notice that the people on the commercials are preforming seemingly amazing acts of Gravity Defiance. And relatively Attractive, yet annoying young females, gushing over how "I don't know what it is, but it's like the coolest thing ever".
I wish to Explain the "magic" of Fushigi I had a few dozen bouncy balls I received from my local CiCi's Pizza's Prize Machines for a mere dollar. I picked up one of the clear ones which also had a few Gold paint strings through the ball's mold. These balls are admittedly about half or so the size of Fushigi, but they only cost me about a dollar or so each. The Price I paid is a resounding One-Thirtieth the price of Fushigi. Which after Shipping and Handling was about 30 dollars, The price now has lowered a bit to $19.99 plus S&H.
I attempted to preform the same "tricks" I saw on TV with this normal ball, and not surprisingly I was completely successful. Most of them are as seen in the Video are simply moving the ball along which requires no special skills, no DVD tutorials, hell not even the pricey ball. The hardest trick was the Gravity Defying illusion, this is achieved by applying a little pressure to the highly frictional and somewhat adherent, smooth surface, with one finger on one side and another on the other, holding the top part of the ball where your fingers will have a hard time slipping.
The Beauty of Fushigi is how much money they rake in off of over hyping the kids making them believe they have to have this Thirty Dollar ball, that I've seen the same type of thing go for about Five at stores like K-Mart, Walmart, and Target, and they even at least to me are Cooler, having snakes, or other things in them. Meaning even if these Stores were selling them and not making any money back which is Financially Illogical, and I believe Walmart and the like would never NOT make a profit Fushigi is getting an extreme Profit with their Advertising Campaign. For Example: Since the Mass Product stores were able to sell these balls for 3-5 dollars, I assume they cost a dollar or maybe less to produce a ball of the same material and size. Fushigi sells them for 25 to 30 bucks. If they cost only one dollar to produce these Fushigi Balls Rake in a 18.99 plus "shipping and handling" of five or six dollars meaning:
19.99 Product Price
+ 5.99 S&H Price
$24.98 Total for consumer
- 1.00 (estimated price of production)
+ 0.00 ????
23.98 PROFIT!
Of course my math may be a tad iffy, but the basics of Economics say that they get quite a large wad of cash regardless, the main difference between this and the five dollar ball sitting on the shelf at the toy store? Only the advertising calling it Magic. I commend the brilliant Businessmen who found a way to even sell one, Imagining how many kids suckered their parents into buying it I'm sure that these Slick Bastards are still getting a few grand incredibly fast. I'm only ashamed I didn't come up with it myself. Bravo, Gentlemen. But Consumers, beware of the Art of Fushigi, it will Kung-fu your wallet into submission.
--Note as of 4/15/11--
Having found what I believed to be a fushigi ball in the bargain bin of my local Good Will I decided to give it a fair try, I was of course wrong on the material it seems instead it is Made of either glass or hard plastic, I only had it for a moment and my material test of those sort of items involves hitting it against my teeth (crude but effective 99% of the time) which I wasn't going to do with a used toy. Of course these materials cost a tad more than the other things I listed, but I would imagine not much more. Most of my facts as listed are true but I wanted to update something I had missed. It's still not incredibly special but I will admit it was fun for the few seconds I bothered to play with it, but I was more interested in the design of the old Singer Sewing machines someone seemingly brought in by the truck load. I was willing to put a large sum down and I have no use for them other than resale.
--Update 2017--
Having gone against my own displeasure of the toy I came across it yet again in a Goodwill Store and purchased it for the outlandish price of 99... cents. It IS indeed made of Clear Resin with a mirror ball inside. It's still hardly something special, I would use it as an interesting display item and the .99 price is about right for it. I only purchased it however for the possible use in an item for my newer venture: Piece Of Scrap Props
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