Ill keep this short. The Elite line from Penguin are absolutely brilliant! I love this stock and finish, and have purchased bricks of the Elite decks.

The Honeybee Elites are a natural progression on these and I'm so glad they're released, I bought 2 bricks out of the gate. I LOVE the red and blue they chose, the finish is amazing, and the borderless design is a cross between Bees and Steamboats, just perfect! Faro is easy and clean, springing, bottoms, seconds, Greeks, all with ease and look amazing.

Why only 4 stars then? The tuck box, in what I'd call a design blunder amongst otherwise perfection, is the words "PENGUIN MAGIC" in large, all caps black letters down one side of the box!!!! What on Earth was the thinking behind that decision (a terrible one at that)?? Using these at a game will be impossible. It will always draw attention and suspicion if noticed. The branding is clear on the bottom flap and was sufficient in all previous Penguin decks,but apparently this one someone felt it was necessary to all but ruin the deck by printing the word "MAGIC" in large bold black letters very conspicuously on the side of the tuck box.

Oh well, the cards are great. The tuck is beautiful. Unfortunately these will get little practical use due to the unnecessary advertisement printed in a very conspicuous location. Whyyyyy did you do this???

Just received my deck and played around with it.

I ordered red backs because red is closer to my skin color than blue.

The red color itself is lighter than a standard Bicycle deck, but when you look at the back of the card, you perceive it to be a darker red.

I think this is because there are more designs taken up with white (such as the angels on bicycles) on the Bicycle cards.

These cards are THINNER AND LIGHTER than the Bees or Bicycles you're accustomed to.

That means some cool things happen...

I sprung a single card up into the air, and it floated down SLOWLY. Usually, half the battle for me is catching the card upon its descent. These cards are lighter and they fall slower.

I one-hand riffle-shuffled the Honeybees without breaking in these cards. When using a Bicycle deck, not a chance. I would need to break in the deck for a minute--bending the cards in the direction I need prior to the faro.

Every magician knows that borderless cards make second deals more imperceptible.

What nobody talks about with borderless cards is how much better the Top Change looks. I can't be the only magician who has noticed this, c'mon!

The border on playing cards was invented to preclude second deals. Yet we see magicians choosing bordered cards.

Maybe the reason magicians today use bordered cards is because of the prevalence of the double lift (since the '90s the DL has become unfortunately too well-known).

The borders can help conceal a fumbling magician's poorly executed DL.

When using bordered cards, if you're displaying the "one card" as resting atop the deck of cards, you can even push over the top-most displayed card, revealing a bit of the white on the card beneath it. Everything looks as it should because the white of the border looks the same as the white on the face.

So bordered cards are better for the DL (IMO).

However, with these Honeybee thinner cards, the DL looks better (if the cards are in perfect register). The two cards together are less thick, so it looks more like one card.

Bordered cards are better for Triumph, as well; because when you're using borderless cards for Triumph, everyone can clearly see a reversed card (just by looking at the inner, outer, or sides of the pack).

These have the feel of a deck that was designed to be used by professional card magicians.
A previous reviewer mentioned displeasure with the card box having, "PENGUIN MAGIC" printed on the side of it. I didn't realize this until I read the review!!!
If your audience is paying that much attention to the card box, and not the effects you are performing, then you better keep practicing your card magic!

I've loved every version of the Honeybees, and these new Elite ones are no exception.

The feel is great - I've gotten spoiled on using Elite Edition cards, I think they feel much better than standard USPCC stock.

The red and blue are different from standard Bike red and blue, but I think the choices of shade are great, especially the blue!

I'm not really good at any kind of gambling moves, but overall I'm a big fan of these decks!

I love the look and card design, but i don't think the cards live up to the quality standards that i was expecting to feel. The cards don't feel like a cheap plastic deck, but i was anticipating a very high quality feel to them, for example Bee and Bicycle cards.

the deck is of good quality, 2 gaff cards are added: double back and white face, however, although of good quality I find them rather soft, much more suitable for manipulation and production and fanning, rather for use in cardmagic (my personal opinion ).In fact, for the production I use the classic Bee, but these (Honeybee Elite) could be even better.
Anyway congratulations to penguin Magic, as it is your production

The Honeybee Elite playing cards from Penguin Magic are my new favorite all over back card! Just ordered 2 bricks and love them. They are thin and pliable, yet have a high quality to them and fan beautifully! They also work nicely for faro shuffles, especially table faros!

For at least the past four years, I've been using nothing but standard Bicycle Rider Back playing cards for everything I do, including practicing a number of gambling moves, including false shuffles and false deals. While my ultimate goal is to get my chops to a point where I can pull off a convincing bottom or second even with a bordered deck, I decided to buy some borderless decks just to try them out. After swearing off the standard Bees as too stiff for my liking, I decided to try out the latest edition of the Honeybees, and I'm never going back. The crush stock, while much thinner than I'm used to, is incredibly comfortable and surprisingly durable. Additionally, the traditional cut of the Elite stock means this deck will give you the smoothest faro possible. It's so good, I've started working on table faros just because this deck makes it so much easier.

The best cards since crusaders...back in the day jeff sheridan and jeff mcbrides cards of choice for manipulation(back then tere was no such thing as manipulation cards) were the crusadres...i was a student of both of them and had used them...the crusaders went out of print and trust me guys Honeybees are exactly the same texture and quality..Great cards!!

I love these cards.. I am fairly new to the world of playing cards but these handle like a dream