Vintage Lunch Boxes

The essential idea of a lunch box has been aroundwestern to space heroes and cartoon characters
since the 1900s, but it wasn't until the 1950s andwere depicted on lunch boxes.
1960s that they became a marketable product.Aladdin and Thermos were the two main
Television transformed the once ordinary lunchmanufacturers over the years. The first lunch
box into the hot collectible that it is today. TVboxes were made of steel up the mid 1980s
introduced hundreds of popular characters andwhen plastic boxes became the norm. Some of
soon these characters were showing up on lunchthe more popular lunch boxes include: A-Team,
boxes. The lunch box that every child carried areAdam 12, Addams Family, Annie Oakley, Archies,
now highly collected due to their colorful design.Astronaut, Barbie, Battlestar Galactica, Bee Gees,
The golden age of lunch box production was fromBeverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Brady Bunch and Buck
1950 to 1987. Baby-boomers with nostalgia forRogers. Prices for these boxes range from $20.00
their childhoods trivia enjoy this unusual popularto $400.00. Condition is important to value. Rust,
collectible. Lunchboxes bring back a lot ofchipped paint, dents, scratches and missing latches
memories, and that's why people respond toor handles reduce their value. Lunch boxes with
them. Most of the 120 million boxes sold betweenthe original thermos bottle adds value.
1950 and 1970 were decorated with images fromBefore the Internet, collectors looked for vintage
popular television shows.lunch boxes at garage sales, thrift stores, and
The first lunch box to feature a popular characterantiques shops in search of lunch boxes featuring
was the Hopalong Cassidy box released byHappy Days, G.I. Joe, Zorro and Disney
Aladdin in 1950. This lunch box was an immediatecharacters. But with Web access, tracking down
success and quickly led to the release of otheryour favorite lunch box takes but a few mouse
character lunch boxes. Popular TV stars fromclicks with online sites such as eBay.