Josette's Music Box

[Philippe Cordier]

I am curious if anyone has purchased the latest version of Josette's music box from MPI.  Is it exactly the same as the previous version?  Most important, I am wondering if the music is exactly the same.  I have the 1996 version, and the theme plays much faster (and in a higher key) than the music box did on the show.  I'm wondering if the music piece to the 2004 (?) version is the same as the 1996 box.

Various aspects of the music box, both the commercial one and the one on the show, have been discussed here in the past.  I was searching for the thread where I think I may have mentioned how much I paid for mine from the DS Festival (it was either $100 or $150, I'm not sure which).  (The new music box from MPI is about $40.)  Although I didn't find that thread, it was interesting to read some of the others, such as one where I claimed to have seen two different music boxes used on the show!  Certainly don't remember that ... wonder how many other things I've written here that I no longer have any memory of?

[Gerard]

I got the "new" one at the 2003 Brooklyn fest, Vlad.  Is that the one you mean?  I got TLATKLS to autograph the box for me!  Of course, I keep it in my china cabinet.  I don't think I paid $40 for it though; I'm pretty sure it was under thirty, but I can't really remember anymore.  I saw a few originals at the fest that were going for around $150.  Most of them had that crack in the plastic which some attribute to a glitch in how they were made.  One person had an original with the packaging, asking $300.

Gerard

[Philippe Cordier]

Hi, Gerard -

If you bought one at the 2003 Festival for under $40 it must have been the currently produced version from MPI.  When I was at the 2002 festival in Anaheim, I was told by MPI that the music box would never be offered again, and so when the Festival organizers offered a few pristine "originals" (produced in 1996) for $100 (or $150, I can't remember), I decided to buy it.  I'm not disappointed, although I could have kicked myself that I didn't buy one from the MPI catalogue just two years previously for $36 or whatever the price was -- I thought that was too much money.  I also blithely assumed that it would "always be available."

I hadn't heard about some of them being cracked - fortunately mine is perfect and had never been assembled, and the box was also "mint."

I have mine on my bookcase now, whereas my Barnabas ring sits in its small box in an "armoire" (a word I learned from DS!).

When you play yours, does the melody sound faster (and in a higher register) than it sounded on the show?

I wish I could also hear the original Josette's theme again (yes, there were two different versions of the music issuing forth from Josette's music box!).  I've completely forgotten what it sounds like, but remember it as quite lovely, too.