Just ask Matt Hannifin, who has run the jewel box-like Science Toy Magic Shop in Santa Fe, N.

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Standing silently but amiably to one side, he would unbolt the magic boxes, hold the ropes, demonstrate the emptiness of beakers and pots, confirm the thickness of a sheet of glass before a near-naked girl would climb into a magic box and pass straight through it!

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Some double as games, such as an igloo-shaped one that is actually a maze with a ball and a "magic box" that is also a flip puzzle.

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