Kikkerland Make Your Own Music Box Kit, Siler

This a great thing to get if you want a fun craft project to make as a gift. The gear system is already all put together, but it’s so much smaller than I thought. Not a bad thing in the slightest, you just can’t make a cliche music box that girls in 90s movies have. Instead it’s closer to keychain size.The music is really, definitely worth the price. The gears are made of plastic, so it doesn’t feel like it will shatter in your hands, but if anything were to break it would be those gears.The sheets, where you hole punch into, are good quality (they are not gonna tear on you if lay a finger on them). But, even though they look long, you could probably only write the chorus of most songs on there. Also it has no bass notes, and the box is only tuned to major C.Otherwise it’s a great gift, and you can personalize it by making your own box.

Works great. Here is a bit more information for those who want to compose some songs for this.First, someone made a printable sheet that you can use for regular letter-sized paper (8.5" x 11.0"). Just google "Kikkerland goodies sheet" and you'll find the guy's project. I used 110 lb paper but I hear that other similar sizes will work, too. I don't know why they made it so expensive, so if you print your own then you'll be set for life. You can also tape multiple music papers together for a length like the refills. If you really cannot get any cardstock paper for some reason, you can glue two or three pieces of regular printer paper together, and that will also work.Second, the gears have 4 little hooks that catch onto the holes. If you are trying to play a note twice very quickly, it might miss the second hole. Make sure they are about 8mm apart from each other. On the paper I linked above, that means that if you put a note on one of the vertical bars, you have to skip the next one before you can play it again. This is not an issue for different notes being played quickly.Also, this is just personal preference, but I feel that the happy birthday song they give you is spaced out too much. It feels like you have to crank like mad to get it to play at a normal speed. If you halve the distances, you run into the risk of the above issue, but you can crank at a leisurely pace.Third, if you don't have a wooden box for acoustics, you can just use either one of the two cardboard boxes that comes with it. It also comes with 3 little screws, so if you really want, you can screw it into place so it doesn't wobble so much.Fourth, yes, it is diatonic, which means it covers two octaves and no sharps or flats. CDEFGABCDEFGABC. Sometimes this is okay if you can transpose the song, but more complicated songs won't work on this. Get a 30-note music box for that or something larger.Fifth, someone already mentioned Music Box Composer for Android. It's $3.50 and works very well. The controls are awkward sometimes, but the sound quality is good and it has a cool 3D music box sharing option.If anybody can find a good way to store and share songs, that would be great. So far I haven't found anything.

**UPDATE** 9/15/2014: I've finally gotten another hole punch (I found it at a local craft store in just the right size) and I tell you what, the box still plays as beautifully as it did when I first purchased it. A long lasting gift in my honest opinion.I've read all the review about this product, but did I never find anything regarding the quality of the hole punch that is included with the kit. I got my music box, and was extremely satisfied with the product: the sound was beautiful, the gears never failed, the whole thing help up extremely well. So having spent 2 weeks composing songs using a piano as reference, i tried to punch out my own songs, and two things happened.1) I noticed that what I had played on the piano was different for the music box (i played an E-F chord on my piano, which was equivalent to the F-G chord on the music box. Minor problem, not an issue to me.)2) The included hole punch (which granted punches holes much smaller than normal hole punchers, so finding another is a pain) has holes on both sides of device, that, whenever the pin doesn't line up with the hole and you try to punch it through, it comes out the other side, rendering the entire thing useless.Many attempts and ideas to fix it ended up in failure. So to those who may end up with the same problem I had, I figured it'd be nice to post where you could find a replacement, or at least the size of the hole it punches as reference, assuming that all of them are made the same relative size.The diameter of the holes made from my hole punch is 2mm or 3/32"You can find Euro hole punches on here but they're METAL hole punchers, so I am unaware of their effective use on paper, but hey, then you can make metal strips.http://www.amazon.com/Euro-Metal-Punch-Pliers-1-8mm/dp/B003JD9VX2/----------- 1.8mm Metal Hole punchershttp://www.amazon.com/Metal-Punch-Pliers-1-25mm-44158/dp/B003L7PLNK/----------- 1.25mm Metal Hole punchers (if you want smaller holes. just make sure your accurate.)http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-12-23508897-Punch-16-Inch-Circle/dp/B0001DT3YU/----------- 1/16" Hole Punch (a bit smaller holes, just be accurate)http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-12-23518897-Punch-8-Inch-Circle/dp/B0001DT3ZE/----------- 1/8" Hole Punch (slightly larger, be careful with holes that have to be close together)A long review, I know, I apologize, but I hope this helps someone else as much as it did me. Other than the hole punch, the music box kit was amazing, I highly recommend it, it looks amazing and sounds beautiful.

With 15 notes and a small price point I didn’t know what to expect. The box sounds really nice. Warm deep and sentimental. Just like I would want a music box to sound like. I did not think I could have so much fun, plotting melodies and punching holes. It is a manual process and can be tedious if you look at it that way. But you end up making a product that is completely analog and mechanical. And there is something very special to me about that. It sounds so pretty and it is fun to make your own custom tunes.This is not chromatic, so the note range is very limited. But the constraints are good for creativity. I think. And I am practicing on a 15 note before jumping into a 30 note music box.I think I found a new hobby.