Magic-Box was a manufacturer of ice cream truck music boxes[1]. It was in business from 1994[2] to 2006 and was based in Jacksonville, Florida. It was owned by Jeff Wray[3].
Regular Magic Box
The Regular Magic Box appeared to be their best-selling product, with 6,455 sales as of 2001. Despite this, they can rarely be found on eBay and other online stores. It was last seen on eBay on May 10th, 2021.
It has three songs which are supplied by three different Holtek HT3810 melody generators. The default songs are 10K, 11E, and 11G (see Songs), or they could be chosen by the customer.
A regular Magic Box seen on eBay. The speaker was not included.
A B/W picture of a Magic Box.
Custom Magic Box
The Custom Magic Box is the same as the Regular Magic Box, but it could have 1-3 songs supplied by a sound chip with a song or songs supplied by the customer programmed on it.
Songs
| Default Songs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song # | Song Name | Composer(s) | Audio | Notes |
| 10K | Yankee Doodle | Public Domain | [1] [2] | |
| 11E | Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? | Frank Churchill | [1] | |
| 11G | Mary Had a Little Lamb | Public Domain | [1] [2] | |
| Optional Songs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song # | Song Name | Composer(s) | Audio | Notes |
| 10E | It's a Small World | Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman | [1] [2] | |
| 10I | When the Saints Go Marching In | Public Domain | [1] [2] | |
| 10N | London Bridge / The Train Goes Fast (火車快飛) (Chinese) (Medley) | Public Domain (London Bridge), Unknown (The Train Goes Fast) | [1] [2] | |
| 10Q | Little Brown Jug | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 10X | If You're Happy and You Know It | Joe Raposo | N/A | Known song, not heard |
| 11A | I'm Popeye the Sailor Man | Sammy Lerner | [1] | |
| 11B | Row, Row, Row Your Boat | Public Domain | N/A | Known song, not heard |
| Miscellaneous Songs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song # | Song Name | Composer(s) | Audio | Notes |
| 10A | Kalinka | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 10B | Happy Birthday | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 10F | Home Sweet Home | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 10L | Oh! Susanna | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 12A | Greensleeves | Public Domain | [1] | |
| 12H | Yesterday (The Beatles) | John Lennon and Paul McCartney | [1] | |
| 12J | Love Is Blue | André Popp | [1] | |
Trivia
- "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" appears to be the most common song.
- The Regular Magic Box has a few similarities to the 32-song Nichols Electronics Omni, another ice cream truck music box:
- They were both sold within the same time frame, though the Omni was introduced in 1998, 4 years after Magic Box opened.
- They were both discontinued in 2006.
- They both use melody generators from Holtek; the Omni uses a Holtek HT3894A. This can explain why the song names on both websites are similar to each other.
- 27 songs on the Omni overlap with the Magic Box.
- Beginning on March 11th, 2002[4] until early 2004, several users of the allscream.com message board claimed to have been ripped off by Magic-Box[5]. Specifically, in most cases, the payment was accepted by Magic Box but the orders were never shipped.
- The company was allegedly investigated by the State Attorney of Florida and the Jacksonville Better Business Bureau.
- The owner, Jeff Wray was tested positive for COVID-19 on the week of July 18th, 2021[6].
