myFirst Insta magiBox turns kids’ stories into printable four-panel comics

An octopus wearing a sailor’s hat makes for a great picture. But where is it going? What happens along the way? And how does its adventure end?

That’s where storytelling begins, and it’s also what makes the myFirst Insta magiBox more interesting than another AI sticker printer. Made by Singapore-based children’s technology brand myFirst, the device turns spoken prompts into black-and-white illustrations or four-panel comics that children can colour and assemble into miniature storybooks.

Easily generate four-panel stories

The magiBox’s Voice-to-Story feature gives children two ways to approach storytelling. They can narrate an adventure they’ve imagined and have AI illustrate it, or simply describe a character or premise and let AI come up with the story.

Rather than generating four unrelated pictures, it turns a spoken narrative into a continuous sequence of comic panels. Four panels might not sound like much, but they’re enough to introduce the basics of narrative structure: setting up a situation, developing it and bringing things to a conclusion. Children can begin to explore how events connect and why one thing leads to another.

AI Detractors might say that children will lose the ability to be creative or to draw, but Magibox offers two ways for children to develop their creativity.

When children tell their own stories, they supply the narrative and see how their ideas materialise visually. If they only have a ‘starting point’, the AI invents an adventure, shows the child possibilities, and helps them learn the process.

A child can still learn something from reading, questioning or changing a story they didn’t write. Plus, they have a physical comic to colour and embellish.

That said, whether the magiBox can faithfully interpret a child’s story and keep its characters consistent across four panels is another question altogether.

From spoken words to printed pictures

For individual illustrations, Voice-to-Image converts spoken descriptions into pictures in six selectable styles, including anime, cartoon and pencil art. Story mode uses a single illustration style.

A 2.8-inch screen displays the generated artwork before printing begins automatically, although users can cancel the print. Once the artwork is ready, printing takes about 10 seconds for a single illustration or 50 seconds for a four-panel story. The device uses ink-free thermal printing on sticker paper that the company says is free from bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS). Children can then colour their creations using the included markers.

Note that Voice-to-Story works only with standard thermal sticker rolls, not Quick-Peel rolls. A standard roll produces approximately 47 images, while a Quick-Peel roll produces around 50. The printer requires official magiBox rolls, so replacement paper will be an ongoing expense.

MagiBox supports 26 languages, including English, Mandarin, Malay, Hindi and Japanese. According to myFirst, its rechargeable battery can produce up to 120 Voice-to-Image prints on a single charge.

Parents will need the myFirst Circle app for initial setup and to review, save or reprint artwork. Children can subsequently operate the device without a connected phone, although Wi-Fi is still required for AI generation.

myFirst also says it screens prompts for inappropriate content before generating images. Regarding privacy, the company also says it deletes voice recordings immediately after processing, doesn’t use prompts to train external AI models, and keeps saved illustrations in the companion app for six months unless deleted earlier.

Singapore price and availability

The myFirst Insta magiBox comes in Aqua Blue and Blossom Pink and is available through the myFirst Experience Store, Popular Bookstores and Takashimaya at SGD 119, and at the myFirst Singapore Online Store for SGD 129.

The package includes three standard thermal sticker rolls, two Quick-Peel rolls, two interchangeable silicone covers and eight coloured markers, alongside a USB-C charging cable and decorative stickers. A three-roll thermal refill pack costs SGD 14.90.

UPDATED: Pricing for online and offline stores.