Debut as massager Hitachi listed the Magic Wand for business use with the
United States Patent and Trademark Office on 25 April 1968. Hitachi Ltd. registered the trademark to the Magic Wand. It is effective at relieving pain associated with back aches, and is registered with the
Food and Drug Administration as a
physical medicine device under the classification therapeutic electric massager. The stated use of the Magic Wand is the soothing and relaxing of sore muscles and nerves, relieving tension, and rehabilitation after sports injuries. She recommended women put a small towel over their sex organs in order to dull the sensation of the vibrator and prolong the pleasurable experience. Her technique became known as the Betty Dodson Method. Dodson taught thousands of women to achieve orgasm using this technique. Williams said the Magic Wand was her favorite sex toy because of its dependability and its power at delivering pleasure to the clitoris. In 1974, Dodson recommended the device in her book
Liberating Masturbation. In 1975 in her demonstrations, she replaced the Panasonic Panabrator with the Magic Wand. The device became an enduring bestseller in adult sex toy shops in the United States. and is also simply referred to as "The Hitachi". The Magic Wand features on the covers of the 1989 and 1998 editions of the book. In 1992 for the 15th anniversary of the opening of Good Vibrations, the sex store managers arranged to have
chocolates manufactured in the shape of the Magic Wand. Sales staff from the corporate headquarters of Hitachi company contributed finances towards the creation of the chocolates in the shape of their massager. The 1995 book about
censorship Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada, which included works confiscated by
Canadian authorities for being "obscene", featured a contribution involving a woman who used a Magic Wand for pain relief. In 1997, the Magic Wand was the most popular holiday gift item sold at the Good Vibrations store in Berkeley, California. According to
Out magazine, the Magic Wand was the best-selling sex toy of 1998.
Chatelaine received criticism from the
Alberta Report in 1999 for reporting on the increasing popularity of the Magic Wand and other sex toys among women. In 1999 the Magic Wand was promoted to consumers as a "personal massager" device.
The Village Voice reported in 1999 that the device was marketed by the company as the "Hitachi Magic Wand Household Electric Massager". According to the article in
The Village Voice, the device had outlived competition from subsequent inventions by other companies and remained a bestseller.
Vibratex distribution In 2000, Hitachi came into conflict with Appliance Corporation of America, the American distributor of its products including the Magic Wand.
Urologist and
sexual dysfunction specialist Jed Kaminetsky told
The New York Observer in 2000 that the Magic Wand had a renowned reputation. The character
Samantha Jones goes to
Sharper Image to buy a vibrator, but the staff at the store tell her it is a neck massager. Journalist
Naomi Wolf wrote in
The Sunday Times that while researching an article on the female-oriented sex toys catalogue
Good Vibrations, she was informed that the Magic Wand had sold out from their stock because of its appearance on
Sex and the City. The
Rabbit vibrator had previously seen an increase in sales, after it was similarly popularized on the program in 1998. According to a contribution to
Best Sex Writing 2013 by Andy Isaacson, these appearances of sex toys on
Sex and the City revolutionized the way they were perceived culturally in the United States.
Faye Flam writing for
Knight Ridder Newspapers reported in 2006 that the Magic Wand was exempt from anti-vibrator laws in
Alabama,
Georgia, and
Texas because it did not appear to be a phallic object. In 2006 the device was among the top-selling masturbation aids in the market. The closing credits of director
Tanya Wexler's 2011 film
Hysteria featured the Magic Wand in a montage showing the evolution of the vibrator. In August 2012, American filmmaker
Clayton Cubitt used the Magic Wand in a video-art exhibit titled
Hysterical Literature. The film project featured women sitting on a chair narrating a piece of literature while being stimulated by the Magic Wand. It was sold as the "Original Magic Wand Vibrator" by Good Vibrations. Hitachi did not market the device for sexual purposes until recently, as of October 2016, but still only referring to one of its uses as an "intimate" massager. Betty Dodson told
Engadget in 2014 that the device was still her preferred vibrator. In 2014, 250,000 Magic Wands were sold in the U.S. by Vibratex. In November 2014,
Stanford School of Medicine assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology Leah Millheiser recommended the Magic Wand.
Expansions In 2015, the Magic Wand Rechargeable, a
rechargeable battery-powered version, was released. It has four speeds, the highest of which is , which is a higher frequency than the original's , as well as four vibration patterns, and a smooth
silicone head. The vibration intensity and the patterned vibrations are controlled by two separate rectangular buttons. It has been widely praised since its debut. In 2019, the Magic Wand Plus was released, which, like the original, must be plugged in, but has the same vibration power levels as the rechargeable. The button layout is slightly different, with separate buttons to increase and decrease the power level, rather than cycling through all with a single button. In 2022, the Magic Wand Mini was released, with three power levels up to , the same button layout as the Plus, and a much more compact size. In 2023, Vibratex introduced the Magic Wand Micro, a wand with three intensity settings and four patterns featuring vibrations up to . The internal design of the Magic Wand Micro can be seen on the website for the device. ==Academic research==