The wall of lunchboxes...

[HardyGirl]

At a job I had in the late 80's/early 90's I brought my lunch in an original Star Wars lunchbox .

Being a teacher, I can get away w/ bringing a lunchbox to work! I used to bring my vintage and repro boxes, but now that they're displayed in my toyroom, I use a dome box w/ a Mars-robot motiff I got at the Chabot Space and Science Center.

[z3zep]

Some cool ones pictured here: http://www.skooldays.com/decades/lunchboxes_1970s.htm

Cool thanks for the link....

I remember really wanting that Charlie's Angels one.


My Woody Woodpecker lunchbox:
Vintage 1972 Woody Woodpecker Metal Lunchbox & Thermos - eBay (item 270264021422 end time Aug-17-08 17:55:00 PDT)

[Shanester]

I got jipped on the lunchbox front. I didn't get to pick! My parents got me a Peanuts lunch box and I felt ripped off. I'm sure it was a great lunchbox and maybe even valuable these days, but I was not impressed at the time. My friends had Kiss, Space 1999, Star Trek, & assorted super heroes, while I had Snoopy & Charlie Brown. Not that ole' Charlie and Joe Cool aren't great characters...but at the time, I felt it a lame box.

I think my brother had a Big Jim lunchbox, which I felt was way cooler than mine.

[david_b]

Lunchboxes ~ They were the bane of my childhood..!

I insisted/pleaded for a cool Batman or Green Hornet box when I was young (around '70/'71), but I had to live with a Road Runner one for a few years.. One kid on the school bus had the Batman one (most likely a hand-me-down), which I envied for so many years until Hallmark started coming out with the wonderful minature ones...

I believe there are support groups for us 'cool-lunchbox-deprived' survivors..

Even a POTA box would have ranked..! I know folks have, but Plaid Stallions should do a ranking of coolest metal lunchboxes. I'd vote for LIS, 1999, and Green Hornet.

david_b

[spaceace35]

by 1985, metal lunch boxes were no longer considered a safe playground accessory. Many schools banned them because they found children hitting schoolmates with them. Manufacturers, as a result, stopped making them.


taken from

Lunch Box Pad : Pack It In, Sack It In, Put It In A Purse, Or Maybe A Metal Box. Whatever Your Fancy, It's Time For Lunch.

[Wee67]

The first I can remember having was this lame little one.



It did have a game on one side, complete with spinner. I think, however, at some point I decided lunch boxes were for kids and had to brown bag it like a big kid.

[Hector]

This thread got me thinking into buying one.

I do have a metal one right now, it's an X-Files one...but it's rather new...I want to get an old school one.

[Adam West]

Finally, a category that I have a vast amount of knowledge. I started collecting metal lunchboxes long before Mego's and started buying them about 10 years ago and although I haven't purchased one in years, I have a collection of about 75-100 boxes including some pretty rare ones.

To clarify the lunchbox ban...it is an urban legend. There was talk that a group of Florida parents bringing a lawsuit against the public school system banning metal lunchboxes because they were being used as weapons. Someone looked into it and there was no such lawsuit. Plain and simple, plastics were cheaper and most lunchbox companies converted. I have boxes from the 1950's up to the 1980's and you can distinctly see an evolution of the thermoses from the metal glass lined variety to the plastic lined variety starting around the early '70's.

I had two lunchboxes growing up...Adam-12 and the Washington Redskins (actually the Redskins box is pretty rare and highly desirable).

I think the favorites from my collection are the 1954 Superman box that I own as well as an almost mint 1970 Brady Bunch box, 1966 Star Trek and 1966 Batman.

For some reason I can't access lunchbox pad but if you can look at pictures of the boxes and click on Brady Bunch, that is the one that belongs to me as well as every other box pictured with the white cloth and same lighting.

It is also the reason why I chose Adam West for my museum name. I was Adam-12 over at the lunchbox pad and wanted something close to that name.

I pretty much have all the boxes I ever wanted with the exception of Underdog. That box is super rare and I remember it was easily selling for $1500-$2500 during its heydey but have no idea what it would bring today. I really have no idea what my collection is worth and don't care since I have no intent on parting with it.

[Hector]

I think the favorites from my collection are the 1954 Superman box that I own as well as an almost mint 1970 Brady Bunch box, 1966 Star Trek and 1966 Batman.

Great post, thanks for all the great info...I think everyone in here would love to see a picture of your lunchbox collection.

[Beatnik]

I had one with little magnetic race cars.

[Adam West]

My acquisition of the '54 Superman box is a great story.

Again, I have not been collecting boxes for a long time but based on some of the prices
T1K was receiving for some of his boxes, I would say it has come down quite a bit.

The '54 box was easily fetching $1,000 on Ebay at the time and a particular seller had it up for sale for $2,000 or something like that. The picture was really bad and it didn't look like a mint condition box but not too shabby.

The auction ended with no bids and after looking at the auction again, I realized that the seller lived 20 minutes from me. I asked him if I could come up and look at the box in person and possibly make an offer on it. He said yes, so I drove up to his house to take a look.

He was very nice and told me he knew nothing about lunchbox values. He collected old bottles. His mother had passed away and left him with all her belongings. As he was going through a piece of furniture, there was the lunchbox tucked away in one of the drawers and he remembered that it was lunchbox that he carried to school.

I took one look at it and realized that it was much better than the fuzzy picture on Ebay and was probably a C-8 condition and probably would sell for $800 on a bad day. I told the guy and it was honest that his box was worth about $800 and I really couldn't afford it.

He asked me what I could afford and I told him the best I could offer was $400 which was seriously all I had. He looked at the way I was drooling over the box and told me he would sell it to me at that price because he saw how much I was admiring it and that I was a true collector and not someone who was looking to flip on Ebay for a quick buck.

I didn't ask him but he took the time to write a brief letter of his ownership of the lunchbox and asked if I ever decided to sell it, that I would give the letter to the new owner so they would also know that it belonged to him.

To this day, I have kept the letter stored inside. I will snap a pic of it sometime soon...but in the meantime, like I said, there are a lot of boxes on lunchbox.com pictured that belong to me. Just find the Brady Bunch box and every other one with the same background as the Brady Bunch is in my collection.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I had the metal Super Friends one, like Hallmark reproed a few years ago. I still have the original, although the Batgirl side is pretty rusted. It took me 20 years to notice...it's a girl's lunch box! It has magenta/pink piping and more prominently displays Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl and Catwoman than the male heroes and villains!!! Thanks goodness no one noticed in kindergarten!

I also had a cool MOTU box and the awesome Super Powers one, probably two of the last great metal lunchboxes. Still have both.

Chris

[Hector]

My acquisition of the '54 Superman box is a great story.

Again, I have not been collecting boxes for a long time but based on some of the prices
T1K was receiving for some of his boxes, I would say it has come down quite a bit.

The '54 box was easily fetching $1,000 on Ebay at the time and a particular seller had it up for sale for $2,000 or something like that. The picture was really bad and it didn't look like a mint condition box but not too shabby.

The auction ended with no bids and after looking at the auction again, I realized that the seller lived 20 minutes from me. I asked him if I could come up and look at the box in person and possibly make an offer on it. He said yes, so I drove up to his house to take a look.

He was very nice and told me he knew nothing about lunchbox values. He collected old bottles. His mother had passed away and left him with all her belongings. As he was going through a piece of furniture, there was the lunchbox tucked away in one of the drawers and he remembered that it was lunchbox that he carried to school.

I took one look at it and realized that it was much better than the fuzzy picture on Ebay and was probably a C-8 condition and probably would sell for $800 on a bad day. I told the guy and it was honest that his box was worth about $800 and I really couldn't afford it.

He asked me what I could afford and I told him the best I could offer was $400 which was seriously all I had. He looked at the way I was drooling over the box and told me he would sell it to me at that price because he saw how much I was admiring it and that I was a true collector and not someone who was looking to flip on Ebay for a quick buck.

I didn't ask him but he took the time to write a brief letter of his ownership of the lunchbox and asked if I ever decided to sell it, that I would give the letter to the new owner so they would also know that it belonged to him.

To this day, I have kept the letter stored inside. I will snap a pic of it sometime soon...but in the meantime, like I said, there are a lot of boxes on lunchbox.com pictured that belong to me. Just find the Brady Bunch box and every other one with the same background as the Brady Bunch is in my collection.

Awesome story!!!

[fallensaviour]

Did you ever drop your thermos and break the glass liner in it? That would ruin your day fast.

Heck ya I remember that....Many times it happened.Then my mom would fix me up with a plain jane thermos...Grrrr.
Great memories...
I remember Scooby Doo,Batman and a cool star trek one.and even a hulk one I think?

[HardyGirl]

That's a great story about your Superman lunchbox, Adam West. Thanks for sharing it.

BTW...I know for a fact there were some schools who really did ban the metal lunchboxes.