When I asked my Magic 8-Ball if I should write a positive reivew, it said "IT IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN." When I asked if all those reading this review should buy a Magic 8-Ball it said (quite emphatically, I might add) "YES." Though the Magic 8-Ball may hedge with a "MOST LIKELY" or the ever cryptic "BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW," it is most often a source of affirmation. Having a Magic 8-Ball on your desk can save countless hours of trying to make decisions based on long, complicated evaluations of fact.

Some 8-balls can be difficult to read, physically, that is, as the manufacture does not lead the inner mechanism to place an answer flat against the opening. Again, difficult to check when buying through the web. (Talking 8-balls, which Amazon doesn't list, solve this problem.)

Variants on the 8-ball come and go (most recently, affirmation balls and financial-advice balls have made the rounds), but these are nothing more than pretenders to the throne. When asked if these imitators could provide correct answers, the Magic 8-Ball said, "OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD."

50 of 52 found the following review helpful:

Great fun for kids from 5 to 95 (and beyond)  Mar 14, 2006
By JLind555
When I was seven years old I received a Magic 8 Ball for Christmas. As soon as I unwrapped it, I ignored every other present under the tree for the next half hour, so absorbed was I in the 8 Ball. Fast-forward some quarter of a century later when my own son was seven. I passed my 8 Ball down to him. That's how durable it is.

WHAT IT IS:
The Magic 8 Ball looks almost exactly like the 8-ball in a billiard game, only larger; about five inches in diameter, slightly flattened on one side, which allows it to sit on a flat surface without rolling off, and constructed of very hard black plastic. The flattened side is a round window, in which you can see an icosahedron (a 20-sided geometric figure) floating in water. On each face of the icosahedron is a phrase written in white: Yes, Without A Doubt, My Sources Say No, Concentrate And Ask Again, Yes Definitely, Outlook Not So Good, You May Rely On It, Ask Again Later, etc. The positive, negative and vague phrases are distributed about 10-5-5, so you get a 50% chance of a positive response, a 25% chance of a negative response, and a 25% chance of a vague response.

HOW TO PLAY:
Using the 8 Ball is great fun. You hold the ball face up, with the 8 showing, and ask a yes-or-no question. Turn the ball over, wait a second or two, and as if by magic (at least young children will think so), a face of the icosahedron with the answer to your question will swim eerily up into the window. The question, of course, should make sense. I remember my bratty little five year old neighbor down the hall complaining that my new 8 Ball was dumb -- "I asked it, Is my mother a boy? and it said Yes." I told her "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer." She went home in a huff.

The big caveat in playing with the 8 Ball, of course, is taking it too seriously. It's a game, for heaven's sake. It's a toy, actually, but grownups who think they are too grown up for toys can call it a desk game or whatever else they want. (Law & Order SVU fans: check out the 8 Ball sitting on Detective Tutuola's desk.) You can ask the 8 Ball any question that can be answered with a yes or a no; like most other fortunetelling games, its response will be right some of the time. Using the 8 Ball to play the stock market is definitely dicey. It's can be frustrating when you're told to "Concentrate And Ask Again", or "Ask Again Later". I wanna know now, dammit.

The Magic 8 Ball is one of the classic toys, like Slinky, Mister Potato Head, and Lego blocks, that have stood the test of time. It's easy to use and great fun.

SAFETY/DURABILITY:
I've never known an 8 Ball to break. My own was dropped on the hard floor innumerable times and never showed a crack. Maybe if you bounced it at 90 miles an hour off a concrete wall...

AGE RANGE:
Age 5 to adulthood. Children under 5 will probably find it too large and too heavy to handle easily.

Judy Lind


92 of 100 found the following review helpful:

Recommended For Kids Of All Ages  Nov 16, 2004
By Robert I. Hedges
This is simply a classic! I never had one as a kid, and as a result I was unfocused and directionless. Fortunately, I now have one in my office, and it helps me greatly in my professional life. I highly recommend the Magic 8 Ball for kids of all ages, but be sure to note that if you know the answer to the question before asking, the crystalline matrix of the special magical blue solution will become deionized, and thus, cause the Magic 8 Ball to generate random, spurious, and possibly incorrect answers. Fortunately this is a highly buffered solution and resets to a neutral pH after every question, thereby restoring functionality.

I recommend this for silly fun for the whole family, and especially for politicians, who, as a group, would make overall better decisions after consulting with the Magic 8 Ball.


20 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Bubbles can leave you answerless  Oct 28, 2007
By John Colum Hughes
I teach and bought three of these to add a little fun to the classroom.It certainly did and it was great to see the faces of the children (and adults) as they asked their sincere questions and delight in the right answer or ask again if the answer didn't satisfy.I teach english to spanish children and this 8 ball really forced them to focus and speak as I had said it would only respond to English.A great toy.....but.....after six months,all three are now next to impossible to read as bubbles have appeared within the port hole and they seem to spawn at an ever increasing rate.Now it is no longer as effective and I now have to ask the students to try and decipher whats written.

19 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Fun for everyone  Feb 02, 2005
By L. Cabrera
This is a simple novelty toy. No real educational value, unless your child wants to use it to calculate the odds of a yes or no answer.

These 8 Balls are fun for everyone. I keep mine on my computer desk and use it every few days when I'm bored. The only downside to these balls is that they tend to get air inside them after a few months. These small air bubbles will affect the ability of the "answer" cube inside - it will often get stuck midway between answers, so you have to shake it again. I've had this happen with 2 different 8 balls.

See all 144 customer reviews on Amazon.com