Presented as an interactive multimedia experience the title frames and menus are neatly done. Unfortunately the drawings of the actual balloon animals look like hand sketches that were scanned in, not at all on a par with the other graphics. Each major transition from one topic to another is a smooth transition where one fades out and the other fades in, while this is cutesy at first it quickly becomes annoying while you wait for the page to become readable. Likewise with the accompanying music track, each menu and balloon construction have their own music loop and while at first they seemed novel the loops are short so quickly become annoying (I just turned my speakers off since sound isn't really necessary for the material presented). The author relies heavily on marker for finishing up many of his creations and the people creations and faces left me feeling that these were a bit short.

Even though some of this is lacking in polish, IMHO (in my humble opinion) there are a lot of good ideas here that could be used as a jumping off place to add to or take some ideas from. I would only recommend this for intermediate to advanced balloonists who would be able to take this to the next level.

Reviewed by Randy “John Q” White on October 2002

I purchased this CD from the T. Myers web site at www.tmyers.com for about $25.

This is a great CD, that has been out for a little while, © 2001 Hans Siemons. This is an easy to use CD the format is that of a web page. The CD includes balloon-twisting instructions, a sampling of balloons (many variations on standards you've seen and many new characters), a special section on using latex gloves (cool heads), a special section on deflation, and pictures from several balloon festivals (I've gotten a boat load of ideas just from these).

This is a very nice CD, worth every penny I spent on it. A year later I am still trying new things off this one. Much of what is here is targeted at intermediate to advanced balloonists.

Reviewed by Randy “John Q” White on December 2002

I purchased this CD from the T. Myers web site at www.tmyers.com for about $25.