The "Magic Bag of Tricks" throughout history

I was thinking today about the many manifestations of the “magic bag of tricks”—a portable object that can produce any item the character needs—in cartoon culture. We’ve got:

  • Felix the Cat’s Magic Bag of Tricks
  • Meadowlark Lemon’s Afro
  • Inspector Gadget’s … um … entire body, I guess
  • Batman’s Utility Belt (some may argue this point, but come on—you know it’s true)

In myth and literature, there’s the idea of the cornucopia/horn of plenty. In the Finnish Kalevala, there’s the ill-defined Sampo, which can mill gold, salt, or flour out of thin air.

What other examples are there of this concept throughout literature? What’s the earliest version?

Captain Caveman

Dr. Who’s pockets/Tardis. Slightly different, but off the same general concept.

Steelgrip Starkey’s All Purpose Power Tool.

Green Lantern’s Ring.

D&D: Robe of Many Things or Bag of Holding.

Fibber MacGee’s Closet.

In reverse, but related: Pandora’s Box.

Just thinking about this the other day as I was watching Imagination Movers with my son. Dave’s hat.

Right! (Capt. Caveman.) And that got me thinking about the Shmoo, which is a horn of plenty in and of itself.

Wikipedia on the magic satchell

TV Tropes on Hammerspace

“Hank Pym: He’s Got The Whole World In His Pants.”

Back when changing his own size was really taking a toll on the crimefighter, he swapped out ant-sized superstealth and giant-sized superstrength to just concentrate on insta-growing the useful stuff he kept in his pockets. Need a baseball bat? A fully-stocked laboratory? Maybe a jet? Possibly a chainsaw? Or a movie camera? Perhaps a grenade launcher? If all else fails, he’ll solve the problem by throwing money at it – by which I mean he’s got a handful of coins that quickly expand to the size of manhole covers.

Also Harpo’s coat.

Prof. Jerome Lettvin of MIT claimed that the kibisis, the magical bag given to Perseus by the nymphs in his quest for Medusa’s head (he eventually stored the head in that bag) was such a magical bag that could expand to any needed size and contain an almost infinite amount of things in it. He built an elaborate theory relating it to the properties of the octopus (which, he maintained, was one of the roots of the myth’s imagery) Certainly the bag was meant to be something special – it had its own, apparently pre-Greek name.

On the other hand, I looked at considerable length, and could find no support for this – nothing I could find supported the idea that the kibisis could contain TARDIS-like amounts of space or material. So, in my opinion, this isn’t an early case of the trope.

Clown cars?

OK, so the only thing they can produce is more clowns, and the occasional dog dressed like a clown, but still…

Shaman of Marvel’s team Alpha Flight possessed a magic pouch of tricks. Or as I recall snarky fan cracking “His Native American fag bag o’ tricks.”

And the titular character’s coat from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.

Nate Wright’s locker.

Darn, should have read the Wikipedia article first. I see it actually mentions clown cars.

OK, then, how about your butt?

Isn’t this attributable to accumulated errors in the copying process? :smiley:

Yakko of the Animaniacs has a similar bag:

The Frobozz Magic Boat in Zork could be used as a bag of holding for anything non-sharp: If you inflated it, filled it with loot, and then deflated it, it would only weigh as much as the deflated boat itself.

And my best friend in high school had an extradimensional trenchcoat, if we’re counting real life. He somehow managed to store all manner of tools, a large supply of duct tape, books, snacks, and I think even changes of clothes, in its pockets, but it still hung flat on him.

Dr.Henry Killinger has his Magic Murder Bag.

It’s really amazing just how much stuff I can get into a bookbag. :smiley:

Stan Laurel’s lunchbox.
In the cartoon “The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop” there was a character named “Pockets” Guess what his specialty was?
Ricco from “The Penguins Of Madigascar”

Y’know, it occurs to me that there are two different sorts of things we’re talking about, here. One is the container that can hold a very large amount of stuff, but doesn’t necessarily have anything in it, while the other is the container that doesn’t necessarily hold all that much, but what it does hold is whatever it is you happen to need. There’s some overlap, but not completely.

Oh, and while we’re at it, Santa Clause and Mary Poppins both also have magic bags.

At least in “The Twilight Zone”, anyway.