Tag Archives: magic

Bad Robot & Theory 11’s latest collab inspires you to “Send Wonder”

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On Friday Bad Robot, again in collaboration with Theory 11, revealed a new “Mystery” product that serves as an extension of the previously announced Mystery Box. The new Mystery Bottle is an art piece handcrafted by artist and magician Jamie D. Grant. Theory 11 describes it as an “impossible object.” Have you ever seen a meticulously handcrafted ship stuffed inside a tiny bottle? Grant took this idea and made it all his own by “impossibly” inserting a regular deck of cards inside an unaltered solid glass milk bottle. Look at the image above; anyone can see that the deck of cards is clearly wider than the mouth of the bottle. You are free to shake the bottle as much as you want but you’ll find that the deck won’t budge and cannot be removed without breaking the bottle. Grant’s secret method remains a mystery of the best kind: one that truly inspires.

Following in the footsteps of J.J. Abrams’ TED talk that laid the groundwork for his Mystery Box, Grant too shares his story and inspiration behind his card deck in a bottle trick. Watch his brief yet stimulating TED presentation here and learn all about how his creation came to be and how his “Send Wonder” campaign altered his life and others for the better.

Grant’s Mystery Bottle–containing a sealed deck of Mystery Box Playing Cards embossed with the signature “?” symbol, naturally–is available for purchase today for $100 at Theory 11. 826 National, a non-profit that promotes creative writing in schools and workshops around the USA, is involved as $10 per bottle sold benefits the organization.

J.J. Abrams shares his inspired “Mystery Box”

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If you haven’t seen J.J. Abrams’ TED Talk from March 2007, stop what you’re doing and watch it now. In it, the prolific filmmaker talks about his “mystery box.” When he was young his grandfather Harry Kelvin would take him to a magic store in New York City called Lou Tannen’s Magic. One day his grandfather bought him Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box, a box embossed with a giant question mark filled with $50 worth of magic tricks for the low price of 15 bucks. To this day, Abrams’ mystery box remains sealed and it sits on a shelf in his office at his production company Bad Robot. He reveals his reasons behind not opening it and keeping it after all these years: it represents his grandfather–an important figure in his life–and the notion of infinite possibility.

“…It represents infinite possibility. It represents hope. It represents potential. And what I love about this box, and what I realize I sort of do in whatever it is that I do, is I find myself drawn to infinite possibility and that sense of potential. And I realize that mystery is the catalyst for imagination… I started to think that maybe there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge.”

Think about to some of Abrams’ most prominent creations. Lost was one giant mystery box full of potential and engrossing enigma. Did we ever really need to know what the Island was or even represented? In the end, no, we did not; Lost was about a group of plane crash survivors finding salvation and hope in each other. Look at Cloverfield; Abrams unleashed an exciting campaign leading up to that monster movie by not revealing what the mysterious otherworldly creature actually looked like. And then there’s the dearly departed Fringe; that show was literally about infinite possibilities and holding onto hope in the worst of times.

Seven years after introducing that box on stage at TED, Abrams is releasing his very own mystery box for you to put up on your shelf. Bad Robot teamed up with Theory 11, an online source for high-grade magic products, to create and produce a handcrafted, wooden Mystery Lockbox. It’s made of 100-year-old reclaimed wood, the lid is iron-branded with the Mystery Box emblem (it’s a giant question mark undoubtedly inspired by Tannen’s box), and each box sold is locked with an alphanumeric combination lock. The Lockbox includes a letterpressed note from J.J. Abrams enclosed in a kraft paper envelope stamped with a black wax seal. The main contents of the box are 12 decks of Mystery Box Playing Cards and each deck is individually wrapped in letterpressed kraft paper. Art direction for the box and deck of cards are by Abrams and Theory 11’s Jonathan Bayme.

The Lockbox with the letter and 12 decks of cards is on sale now for $149.95. The cards are also sold separately at $9.95 per deck. Bad Robot will donate $1 per deck purchased to 826 National, a non-profit dedicated to promoting creative writing in schools and workshops around the America.

Now the decision remains: do you open the box or do you remain inspired by the mystery inside like Abrams does with his? Abrams, in his letter to Mystery Box owners, puts it like this: “The choice to open the box, or not, is yours.” Continue reading J.J. Abrams shares his inspired “Mystery Box” →