What ever happened to....

They’ve been back in production for a while now.     More expensive than back in the Eighties, of course.                             Stereophile re-ran their original review, last year:   https://www.stereophile.com/content/vpi-magic-brick

Nothing happened to them. They're indestructible.

Homeopathic garbage. One of the reasons I would never buy a VPI product.