Lev-It!    
© Nick Burgoyne - April 2003    



The response to the TV advertising was, predictably, overwhelming.

Pre-sales for Lev-It! had been breaking records for months but figures went through the roof after people had actually seen the toy in action on their TV sets.

It opened with the scene on Christmas day.

Children (boy and girl), under tree, open impressive boxes.

They find Lev-It! and are seen to be almost tearful with excitement.

Boxes are opened to the sounds of their newly woken parents.

Show face of clock on shelf: <It’s 4:01am>

Children fasten the Velcro-tabbed band securing Lev-It! behind their heads and switch on.

Harry-Potteresque scene ensues:

Both follow simple lessons.
One each of the smaller ‘special items’, supplied with Lev-It!, tremble and slowly rise into the air.
Family all smiles and cheers.
Scene shown later of kids making aerobatic displays with various shapes and sizes of the ‘special items’.

And the tag-line:
Lev-It!
Yours for $49.99!
A new era of excitement in toys!




Of course, every child in the television-reaching world wanted one. And they were not particularly expensive for an electronic, ‘fad’ toy.

$49.99 was not much money for a present in those innocence-corrupted days of high-pressure advertising campaigns aimed at children to ensure that last year’s toy was always second best in comparison.

$49.99 for the answer to the question which had been asked worldwide since Lev-It! was first announced.

How do they do it?

How did they create the illusion of levitation? One which had been baffling scientists and journalists invited to Lev-It! briefings for months.

Most of the ‘learned’ opinion tended to quieten when pressed to voice their opinion. The more vocal of the ‘celebrity opinions’ supposed towards some clever positioning of super-magnets or the like.

But however they did it they were certainly striking a chord with the child-hearted of the world.

Almost regardless of age group and seemingly transgressing the usual demographics, it was the most sought after present of the recently embarked upon century.

And the sting was in the distribution. Not one piece would be released to anyone outside of the Lev-It! corporation until Christmas Eve.

Units would be arriving at 9am local time on the 24th by air freight and would be delivered to the purchaser’s home before 5pm that day.

And even then, dire warnings which said that the toy would be permanently disabled should it be opened before time. A clever timing device (the ‘Gizmo’ as it was termed) created by the Lev-It! labs to support the clever timing device (product security strategy) dreamed up by the Lev-It! in-house marketing team. Both together ensured an enormous demand for the ‘Wonder Toy of the Decade!’.

And the warnings proved well-founded. Those who opened their toys as soon as they had them were not disappointed to find that their Lev-It!’s were not only inoperable but also contained only a harmless, warm, sticky gel. All trace of any mechanism was rendered down to carbon, silicon and water.


And so the second arrived when it was Christmas all around the globe.

Simultaneously throughout the world, at twelve midday GMT, Lev-It!’s tamper-proof mechanisms chimed the happy Lev-It! company jingle and melted in bright colours inside their transparent housings.

Simultaneously throughout the world, millions of people opened and strapped Lev-It! to their heads.

Simultaneously throughout the world, millions of people studied the brief instruction manual, focused their attention in the required manner and watched, amazed as the ‘special objects’ wobbled and rose into the air.

Simultaneously throughout the world, millions of people found that other objects, not only the ‘special objects’ could also be focused upon, to rise into the air.

To the parents of Lev-It!, those seeking to lift humanity out of it’s selfish, self-limiting ways, it was a magnificently executed coup.

A masterstroke which changed humanity forever in an instant.

Lev-It! blew boundaries, adjusting limitations and opening a whole world of possibilities.

A device which, in the normal run of things would have been quickly suppressed by ‘security organisations’ within the discoverer’s government, was suddenly everywhere.

Throughout the world, millions of people now owned a means to amplify the tiny signals deep within their brains and manifest psychokinetic ability…

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