howtoeducateyourduck
Thanks for purchasing your Duck from Magicbox!
This is project close to me and has been in development for some time.
Basic history
Origins traced back to Professor W. Norris, who performed at The Crystal Palace in London from 1868 to 1885. He used a model of a swan to find a chosen card. This was the predecessor of the Card Duck.
Around 1932, Laurie Ireland began working on the idea, and Ireland's released "Otto the Automaton Duck" in mid-1936
Ireland's design became popular and was reproduced by several manufacturers under various names. Sometime later, after being told that all ducks are female, Ireland changed the name "Otto" to "Shirley."
We are aware that there was an electronic version back in the 80s. This was a box that was added to a regular Educated Card duck. The box contained a car windscreen wiper motor. In fact one of our early prototypes built by JOE FRANCIS from Jersey was similar (see below photos).
Joe Francis (a well known magician from Jersey) approached us with the idea in 2024 and had a prototype made. The prop worked, but was unreliable as the performer had to manually turn a dial on the wand to get the duck to do the correct action. It was a bit of "a knack" and didn't always work. The prop was also very heavy as it had a large wooden box that the duck sat on which contained all the electrics.
The version you have now has gone through many developments to get to, what we feel is a real working prop. All electronics are hidden inside the "body" of the duck as well as the battery pack. HUGE thanks to Thomas Moore creative who really made this project come alive!
You will find an instructions sheet in the package and videos below: