The Plasto Pencil trick has been around since at least the 1950's.   This one is from the late-1980's, and is a good example of how a good trick can be ruined when the maker tries to save a few cents on the manufacturing costs and ends up with a much less deceptive (or even non-functional) prop.

My brutal honesty about this prop may lead you to stop reading, but if you read on, you may end up seeing the value in this prop.  :-)

This version of the plasto pencil is not flexible enough to do what it is supposed to do, The pencil can be wrapped in newspaper, but the paper cannot really be crumpled like much older (and higher quality) plasto pencils.  It can be bent in half, and you can kinda fake crumbling the paper, and probably get away with the quickie vanish of the pencil.

But I recommend using it for the old rubber pencil gag in a stand-up venue.  The rubber pencil gag always gets a great reaction from lay audiences, but the typical rubber pencil prop is quite small and only suitable for closeup work.  But here is a full size pencil with the necessary flexible quality.   So I use my Plasto Pencil like this:

Show a pencil and demonstrate the well-known rubber pencil optical illusion, but shaking the pencil loosely between your fingertips.  With a full size pencil, the illusion is visible to your living room (or other small venue) audience.   Hand the pencil to a spectator and offer to show them how to do it.  Now you remove another pencil for yourself (the Plasto pencil), and again you demonstrate the optical illusion as the spectator simultaneously tries it.   In the end, you really bend your pencil, explaining that "using a real rubber pencil makes it a lot easier!"

If your style allows for a bit of fun and zaniness in your shows, the Plasto Pencil might be a nice addition to your routine.

NOTE:   the rubber pencil bit (described above) is not explained in the instructions, but if you know the old optical illusion that is taught in almost every beginning magic book, you will see how to adapt this prop to a "do-as-I-do" rubber pencil routine.

CONDITION NOTES: new and unused -- comes with Plasto Pencil, matching regular pencil, and instructions for the original vanish effect.

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