Kikkerland 1200 Mechanical Music Box Set

I bought this as an experiment, as I'm looking to make a music box with a tune I can't find on standard music boxes, and I've been very pleasantly surprised at how good it is. The quality of the sound is excellent - much clearer and louder than I expected.For my project I was considering using a normal music box and making a customised barrel for the tune I need. But having watched a couple of YouTube videos of people who'd tried that (and they were far more skilled craftsmen than me) this product seems much easier to use, and the sound quality is much better than they achieved. I would definitely recommend using this if you need a music box with a rare tune, rather than trying to make your own drum/barrel.The unit itself is pretty solidly constructed, not as fragile / plasticky as it looks in some photos, and the mechanism that translates the holes in the paper into plucks of the comb is more substantial than I thought too. It will serve as a long-term mechanism and I imagine the punched paper could easily be replaced with something stronger like a thin strip of metal if you needed something permanent.

This is probably the best thing I've ever bought. Its such a daft hobby that other people don't seem impressed with but I've discovered there is a huge amount of fun and satisfaction when you painstakingly mark, punch out, and delicately playback a song. Genuinely love this product. It's great quality, has good sound - I highly recommend mounting it to a music box (or sitting it on the cardboard box it comes in) when playing as it amplifies the sound massively. Would definitely recommend!

The media could not be loaded. Bought this as a gift, but I wanted to include a custom song (the included "Happy Birthday" strip seemed a little inappropriate for a Christmas present).Other reviews have mentioned this but the music box isn't quite tuned correctly, it's still a 2-octave major scale but starts on Ab rather than C as written in the description. It's a good idea to use an arrangement app if you're not too musically inclined (I used Chrome Music Lab song maker, free from google), but once you've an arrangement you're happy with it's straightforward (if a little tedious) to punch the notes onto the strip. You just need to bear in mind when arranging that you can't have 2 identical notes too close together, due to the way the mechanism reads the strip. The secondary divisions on the strip are really as dense as you can make it.The box itself comes with some screws for mounting it onto a surface, which I recommend as it's a little fiddly trying to play a strip while holding the box down.Overall I had a lot of fun designing an arrangement and committing it to a punch strip, and the present was a big success with the recipient.P.S. included is a video of the arrangement I made -- guess the tune!

I absolutely loved this product. Perfect for the gift I wanted it for, and was probably the best gift I’ve ever given. Easy to use if you can write or transfer sheet music, and if not you can follow tutorials on YouTube like I did. Would definitely recommend!

I bought this as a gift for my girlfriend. She loved it and spend hours picking out her first song. Unfortunately it can't do sharps or flats so it had to be a specific tune.If you make a mistake then you can tape over the error and simply punch another hole.We then found out that the box isn't tuned correctly. But it still sounds lovely when she plays her piece. Overall I reccomend as a fun gift if they won't mind tediously punching holes in the correct location for a while!

The media could not be loaded. This is a lovely little instrument, stretching across two whole octaves up a major scale - A-flat3 to A-flat5 (excluding chromatic notes!). I saw in the Questions & Answers that someone said the range was C to C, but it is actually A-flat to A-flat (unless I got a faulty music box. Nevertheless, it still sounds great!), so keep an eye out.The box comes with 3 blank strips, and a hole puncher for you to punch holes into the blank strips. The hole puncher is a little tricky to use (more so than the instrument!) but after getting used to it, hole punching becomes far simpler.The box also comes with a 4th strip which is already punched - a 'Happy Birthday' strip which you can use to play the instrument if you don't want to punch holes into a strip yourself.It also comes with 3 small screws, which you can attach to the music box if you intend to fix the music box in place to something (e.g. if you want to mount it inside a little box for extra amplification). There is also an instruction booklet in English and French, although it is rather brief.See the video for a recording excerpt of this 'Happy Birthday' strip and to hear how the music box sounds.

It sounds cute, but it's awfully flimsy, and comes with too little to make music with. It doesn't have very many notes either.

A good novelty present for those who like Music Box sounds and composing their own music. A little fidgety to operate but great fun. No doubt there will be more expensive and better models on the market, but in the final analysis, you get what you pay for.