How to start collecting vintage lunch boxes

I never had a lunch box as a child (I am too young and on the wrong continent for that), but I have heard a lot of things during time about this North American habit that became an industry a few decades ago, between the 1950 and 1980s.

Those decaded were even considered the Golden Age of lunch boxes, as the US' baby boomers entered kindergarden and they needed to be fed regularly. But the story of the lunch boxes starts ealier, as the laborers carried latching lunch buckets made from toolbox-grade metal. In the years 1880 kids created lunckboxes from colorful tin cookie, biscuit or even tobacco boxes. The first lunckbox inspired from the pop culture was created in 1935 and featured Mickey Mouse.

The first popular lunchbox model was made by Alladin Industries, it was featuring Hopalong Cassidy, and the other companies followed suit, making their own lunch kits for children. In those decades there were sold over 120 million in US as the competition between companies developed into an industry as each company tried to capitalize on the popularity of cartoon series, television and movies. After 1950 everything from Snoopy Dog, Tom and Jerry, Charlie Brown and Star Wars were emprinted on the lunck boxes all around United States. Some of them were sold along with a matching thermos.

Usually the vintage lunckboxes are made of vinyl, plastic or metal, most of them are square, while some feature a domed top.

Knowing this it will be easier for you know how to start collecting vintage lunch boxes:

• Determine the area of the items you are collecting: vinyl, plastic or metal. Are you collecting the lunch boxes with or without thermos? Usually the thermos add to the kit 50% of the value of the lunch box.
• Choose a genre (or genres if you find appealing more than one) of the lunch boxes. You are a Beatles or a Star Wars fan? Or maybe a Tom and Jerry fan? It's ok, I am sure you can find more than one picture of them imprinted on the lunch boxes and you can start collecting them. Do you like only the square lunch boxes or you enjoy also the ones with the domed top?
• the purpose or the target of the collection may be also important: where do you want to put them? Some people put them into their kitchen, others display into the living rooms. The lunch boxes are made to last for years, but the environment where they will spend this time must be taken into consideration.
• ask around (your family and friends) for opinions. They may give some ideas about the items to collect, especially if they know the Golden Ages of the lunch boxes.
• look and inspect the vintage lunch boxes you are trying to get with a discriminating eye to determine the values of the items and the possible future worth.

In order to determine the value and/or authenticity of the lunch kit you should check a few things on the items, to take some things into consideration:

• Look carefully for any date printed or stamped anywhere on the lunchbox and the auxiliary thermos (if it exists). It might appear next to a trademark symbol, either inside or outside the box.
• Inspect how are applied the design images on the lunch box. Older lunch boxes have a painted or lithographed design. Only after 1962 some lunch kits (box and thermos) were made with a 3D stamped or ambossed impression. From the 1980s they started putting sticker decals on the plastic boxes.
• The last advice is to check the published books about collecting the vintage lunch boxes. Cross reference the picture and information about the items you want to buy with the lunch box collector's guide (in your neighborhood or on internet). Show the picture to the shop experts and ask if they know whether it's collectible and the approximately value.

The original pictures are here and here.