CHILLI

One of the most unusual balloons I expected to see on this collection. I'm not sure when I will have a chance to use this one but fun all the same.

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BIRD

I didn't quite have the right colours for this one but hopefully you get an idea of what this one looks like. It is some kind of unusual bird. Good use of hearts for the feet and a trio of 321Qs for the tail. I will be making this one again with some different colours. A good design all round.

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SNAKE

The frumple twist is back for the snake's head. Great design and fast to make once you can do the frumple twist! This complication rules it out of line work but even so I like this very much.

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MERMAID

A cute mermaid character but when I made this for some children they were not too sure what it was supposed to be! Perhaps if I had used 'Aerial' red hair the effect may have been better. I will stick to Don's quicker mermaid that I used for gigs all the time.

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Great job on these!  I'm debating getting one of the sets now, but can't decide which one.  Clearly the big and bad stands out, but the practicality of the others really is getting me.

I don't know why but i loooove the frog. And the bird. Keep up the good work. I'm now busy with the adorables

Great review!  Will you be doing the rest of his DVDs?

  I missed out on the box set and now I am looking to get a couple of his DVD sets.  I would love to see what you thought of them and which you thought would be great to start with.  I'm leaning towards the adorable and the frightening fashions.

I have already ordered a couple of new DVDs based on your reviews. Keep up the great work!

Hi ya, I plan to do the entire collection but as you can imagine that's a massive undertaking. I like to have a good mix of artists in the review section so you may be waiting a while. Thanks for your feedback.

What have your ordered after reading my reviews?

Hello !

I bought David Brennion's masks, and I have added many others on my wish list.

These reviews are awesome !
Thanks a lot for posting them.

I have ordered the superheroes 2 dvd and mad hatz 5.  Also this weekend I am going to join balloon click.  I had looked at it before, but your review put me over the edge.  That's not to mention that I've dusted off many of my balloon magic magazines!

CUPCAKE

This cupcake offers a little challenge. To start with, the top of the cake is made with hearts and it is very important that all the hearts are made very soft as both lobes need to be twisted together. I had to make this cake twice as the woven base was too large the first time around. My advice would be to weave the base once the top is complete and actually attach the top of the weave to the hearts before weaving the rest of the basket.

A pleasing end result but probably not something I will make again.

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BIRTHDAY CAKE

What first seems to be a standard woven birthday cake base, this version uses 321Qs to weave with. There are pros and cons to both methods I guess and it will be each to their own. With 321Q weaving it is easier to get bubble sizes the same but there is a lot of balloon tying!

I actually don't really like this cake design (i prefer the cupcake) but it does show a new method for weaving.

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GLOBE

I've been putting this one off for a while as I needed to get my hands on a qualatex globe bubble. In the past I haven't used bubbles unless inflated with helium so to air inflate one seemed a little strange. It didn't take long to pump up though.

This design gave me a few problems, not because it was difficult but it just gave me problems...

a) the balloon water weight underneath the base was too large and so the base didn't sit flat. If i made it small enough to sit within the recess of the four hearts then it would not have been heavy enough to hold it upright.
b) I didn't have any gold 350Qs so used a mocha brown instead - no big deal
c) In the video Buster uses glue dots to hold the 350Q in place against the globe. Nice idea but my ones were not strong enough regardless of how many I used. Maybe I inflated it too hard. So I tried to be clever and used Elmer's Rubber Cement - big mistake, it doesn't stick! What a muppet - so I ended up in a right pickle.

So the end result isn't the best - but it has potential. Buster recommends part inflating the globe with helium to help it stand upright.

It has potential but probably not something I will use.

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SNOWMAN

And last but not least, a lovely big cuddly snowman. Unfortunately I have really struggled to find the snowman print balloon required for this. Maybe because it is Summer so I have pushed my luck and taken a screenshot below. Having watched the design it is excellent and I can't wait to make this one nearer to Christmas.

If Don's lawyers have an issue with this let me know asap and I will remove it but I hope to think my review may have benefited with an odd additional sale and so it won't be a problem!

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SUMMARY

Originally purchased as a limited edition DVD set, this collection of models is now available for $100 (approximately £65) - so is it worth it?? Yes absolutely. There are some wonderful original creations here. Not all of them shown for the first time on DVD as some were released in balloon magic magazine previously but even some of these have been subject to improvements.

Buster's instruction is first rate and is delivered with his usual crazy sense of humour which I love. The DVD is well produced but I would not advise beginners to buy this collection. Frumple twists are a killer and you will curse the first few models you make.

I have really enjoyed making this collection and sorry it has taken so long.

If you haven't done so... BUY IT NOW!