Is the Original Lazy Fish Corkscrew worth the price?

About six years ago I was visiting Newport R.I. -- after a lovely day of touring the grand old mansions of the Vanderbilt’s and friend with their pre-income tax lavish lifestyle I happened upon the coolest corkscrew I ever laid eyes upon. Especially since my business (www.fishboy.com) deals with all things fish.

It was the Original Lazy Fish corkscrew. It’s awesome. Closed it looks like a shiny chrome fish. Open it resembles one of those robot grabber claws you had when you were a kid.

Plus it works even better than it looks! You simply screw the corkscrew end (the fish’s mouth) into the cork. Grab hold of the fish’s tail and pull. The compound lever action in the design of the fish corkscrew multiplies your effort and the cork pulls out with ease. Plus it makes a really cool "plop" sound as the cork pops out of the bottle. The fish corkscrew makes opening up wine bottles fun and it surely impresses any guests you may have in attendance.

The only downside of the Original Lazy Fish version of this corkscrew is its cost. It’s an imported item and can cost $40 to $50. But since the fish corkscrew design is based on a product from 100 years ago, there are other versions on the market.

Franmara Pisces Multi-lever Corkscrew

For a while the Original Lazy Fish Corkscrew was hard to find. I don't know if the company went through some restructuring, stopped importing them for a while or what but I had a hard time finding them for my store. I was also hoping to find a less expensive version of the Original Lazy Fish to offer my customers on Fishboy.com and along comes The Pisces from Franmara.

The Pisces is pretty much indistinguishable from The Original Lazy Fish Corkscrew. It looks the same and opens bottles the same. It even seems to be made of the same materials. The only difference is the packaging and most importantly the price. By choosing the Pisces over the Original Lazy Fish you can save yourself at least 20 bucks.

The only downside that I can see is that the Original Lazy Fish is available in colors and the Franmara Pisces Multi-lever Corkscrew only comes in classic chrome.