Epic Win: Lunchboxes
Submitted by katsak
From Wikipedia:
1972 is a key year in the history of American lunch boxes. This is an important year because this is the supposed year the steel lunch box died.
In 1971-72, a concerned group of parents decided that metal lunch boxes could actually be used as weapons in school-yard brawls. With petitions signed, they marched all the way to the Florida State Legislature, and demanded “safety legislation” be passed. It eventually was passed, and other counties in Florida, and even other states adopted this legislation.
The migration to plastic was probably nearing anyway, and probably was as much a factor in the stoppage of metal lunch boxes as any law could have been. This is not to say that plastic quickly killed metal production. From the early plastic boxes in 1972, they stood in the shadow of metal boxes until 1987. 39% of all lunch box production from 1972–1987 was steel.
By the time the 1980s came, lunch box sales were still strong, but they were waning. Many popular licenses were around during this time, including Pac-Man, GI Joe, Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Strawberry Shortcake, Knight Rider, and other characters.
As the decade drew towards the end, lunch box manufacturers simply stopped producing new boxes for the back-to-school season. Generally, it is accepted that Rambo, produced by KST, was the last lunch box of the golden era (1950–1987) to be sold. Lunch box production did not stop, but companies now moved to plastic and vinyl as a means of making lunch boxes. These boxes were generally solid colored with a label on one side and no other decoration beyond the thermos.
Who else would have been pissed if they’d known that they got a plastic lunch box, as opposed to the cool metal ones their older siblings had, all because of some goody-goody Tipper Gore-esque Mom who ruined it for us all? Especially since now-days the Hipster scene-kids are living our steel lunchbox dreams, with their Invader Zim or Emily the Strange lunch boxes.
1st!
I don’t have a metal one…which is disappointing
Not only did I have a metal one, I had THIS EXACT ONE!!! I would have been seven or eight.
He-Man for teh win!!!
ME TOO! Friggin awesome He-Man box!!! I think I still have it somewhere…
OMG exact that have one!
…or something.
I had a plastic yellow Rainbow Brite lunchbox. I loved it but remember how your lunch box would always end up smelling like bologna sandwiches and cornchips by the end of the week…..regardless of what you had for lunch that week!
ooh im second!
and third
i loved my popples lunchbox in the 80s.
Heck yah! I still have my Pound Puppies one. Though now, I must admit, I use a metal Tinkerbell one (and get ridiculed for it at work DAILY, but oh how worth it it is!)
OK….but I fully remember the lunchboxes of my elementary days (92-98) were sometimes plastic, sometimes vinyl, always smelled like ham sandwiches, had licensed characters on them. Mine was pink vinyl, with Dot from Animaniacs on it. I believe my brothers had TMNT and Spiderman. So I don’t understand this claim that after the 80’s lunchboxes were plain with no decoration.
The claim is, that the metal ones were decorated ALL OVER, and they were. Plastic/ vinyl ones had the one sticker on one side, with the vinyl & plastic being a solid color. The metal ones had decorations on both main sides, & around the edge (again, all over). Take it from a 70’s/ 80’s kid. The metal ones are better!
Ooh, I had a metal WALTON’s lunchbox. Top that, y’all!
I still have a metal Mickey Mouse Club lunchbox from the late sixties and a metal Partridge Family lunchbox from ‘71. Lost forever: my metal Scooby Doo lunchbox, Osmonds lunchbox and Hair Bear Bunch lunchbox.
I had that one too! I scratched their faces off and drew new ones w/ black marker.
Durn right the metal ones could be used as weapons… I know because I used mine to hit some bully upside the head once when he wouldn’t quit bugging my best friend. Boo-yah.
LOL! I actually cracked some bully’s tooth with Duke’s of Hazard metal lunchbox. That’s what happens when you keep reaching over the bus seat to keep jabbing at another kid and pulling their hair. So I can vouch for metal lunch boxes being effective in this regard. Kind of funny looking back at it, was an epic win considering I was a 1st grade kid and the bully was in 4th grade.
Too bad I don’t have the lunchbox anymore. I’m guessing the stamped metal ones with the raised artwork actually have some collector’s value.
I had a sweet metal Pac-Man lunch box with matching thermos (and matching bed sheets), which is odd, because I started elementary school in ‘86. However, I thought ti was the bee’s knees.
Lynnie, it’s just a generalization. Most lunchboxes didn’t have designs on them. I remember this shift. However, lunchboxes with designs might have been more prevalent in other parts of the country. I noticed a gradual fading out beginning in the early nineties to where they were near impossible to find by the end of the decade.
I recall clobbering a girl on the schoolbus with my full metal Return of the Jedi lunchbox. Funny thing is, we ended up as really good friends in high school and beyond….but she never lets me forget whacking her in the head with that lunchbox. LOL
My best friend in kindergarten had a metal “SheRa: Princess of Power” lunchbox. That girl was batty for She-Ra. (she was HeMan’s twin sister)
Hey, has anyone submitted She-Ra for OUAW yet?
I was born in 1972 and didn’t get a plastic lunchbox until 82 or 83- always had metal ones before that. I got a new one almost every year and some of the ones I remember were Emergency (the TV show with Randolph Mantooth), Sesame Street, Mork and Mindy, Sha Na Na and I think Xanadu. I really wish I still had some of them now!
I saw the same lunchbox on sale at Amoeba for $100. O.o
I have the same lunchbox, minus the thermos, right here that I received for a Christmas present several years ago from my mother. I also have a plastic Transformers one, with a huge battle scene. My E.T. lunchbox was ran over by a train, so I can’t claim that one…
Had the Scooby-Doo metal lunch box.
I think I was the only girl in my kindergarten class with a Spider-Man lunch box. I’m pretty sure it was metal. I still love Spider-Man . . . and metal.
Rock on!
You young’uns don’t know what you’re talking about! In 1970, I had a Partridge Family lunchbox, complete with a thermos with the glass liner. In ‘72 or 73 I got new new lunchbox- it had Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote on in, and a plastic thermos, which didn’t break but always smelled like sour milk. In ‘74 I started carrying a brown bag- lunchboxes weren’t cool anymore.
I had a My Little Pony lunchbox in 1984, but it was plastic. I still have it, but have since lost the thermos.
OMG I had a MLP one too.
But it got run over by my dad. 
I had a metal one in grade school- 1977 or therabouts. It was Battle of the Planets. I then got a plastic one with Snoopy that I still might have somewhere.
Last birthday, my sister got me a metal lunchbox with a skull and crossbones on it.
I miss my lunchbox. For some reason, the one I remember most was 2nd grade, 1981-Fox and The Hound
I beat the snot out of some kid from the trailer park down the road with it because he was picking on me LOL.
Those metal boxes were great self defense tools!! I had a metal Holly Hobby for years, I started brown bagging it once the plastic boxes came out. by 85 my peers deemed lunch boxes in general un-cool. I wish I still have it, I have no idea what my mom did with ours when we moved in 87.
I don’t remember my thermos at all…think my mom took it away and I just got the cardboard/plastic juice boxes. Ones with the green slime guy from Ghostbusters on them.
You know I still wonder to this day what kind of juice “slime” was
that would be ecto cooler( or how ever its spelled) the orange flaover one now is the same taste i think. it was damn good!
I use that same lunchbox every day at work! so so cool
And formidable weapons they could be. A psycho kid hit me in the face with his boring ol’ plaid lunchbox back in ‘74. The blow knocked out my front teeth and loosened most of the other teeth in my mouth. It dented the lunchbox itself and the glass in the thermos was broken. Gallons of blood everywhere. It sucked on SOOOOOO many levels.
‘Course, if he hadn’t had a metal lunch box he probably would have just used the globe and Groups Of Concerned Parents would probably have forced schools to replace globes with gas station maps or something.
My metal one was Dukes of Hazzard, baby! My brother had Star Wars. Good grief those things would get smelly.
I know at one point I had a Star Wars one – had the classic TIE behind the X-Wing picture on it. I seem to remember also having a dyno-mutt/blue falcon one. I’d pay money to have both of those back.
Of course my kids have these horrid looking cloth ones. I still have a problem with the thermoses in there. I guess at the time I didn’t, but now I like my milk ice cold, so I would have trouble with something that had been sitting in a cubby for a few hours now adays.
I had an awesome hot pink Barbie and the Rockers lunchbox.
Friggin sweet!
i had a metal ET lunch box in kindergarden that was 83. i used it as a weapon. my sisters had star wars and hollie hobbie. i once threw the thermos at my friends head, but i did not do it to be mean, she just could not catch.
i had a metal edward scissor hands lunch box, and a plastic power rangers one, you cant get much awesomer then that
I still have my metal transformers lunchbox from the first grade.
I had a metal lunch box. It was Pigs. In. Spaaaaaaaaace.
All this lunchbox talk makes me crave Sunshine Punch Kool-Aid…and they don’t make it anymore:(
I had/have two metal Peanuts boxes with the comic strips all over them. I lost the thermos for the first one, and when the latch broke, Mom bought me the last one metal one they had (probably ever made). I had a few plastic ones after that, but don’t remember what was on them. Probably HotWheels or some generic pattern. :/
Lunchboxes, the coolest thing ever. I had a yellow one. The thermos could hold a ton. I kept soup in it.
i had this exact one too!
I remember having a metal Superman lunchbox around 1979 or so. I remember also having a Care Bears plastic Aladdin lunchbox in the 80s.
I had 3 metal ones, Holly Hobbie, Disneyland and The Dukes of Hazard. And they were GREAT weapons!! LOL!! I didn’t even start school until 1982 so they hadn’t banned them in Texas at that point I guess!
I lived in Texas my whole life (until a few months ago) and as far as I know metal lunchboxes were never banned. They simply fell out of technological favor (plastic ones are lighter and much cheaper and easier to make).
even though my school days are still going on, i remember having a plastic lunchbox with pooh on it, that included a thermos.
i had one!!!
I had like ten Disney lunchboxes between 95 & 97. I loved my Pocahontas one. I recently found it at my dad’s and I started using it them.
Kindergarten 1990, had a Legend of Zelda metal lunchbox and a Metroid plastic one with the thermos. Someone needs to submit Samus Aran to OUAW. Baddest bitch EVER.
Oh my gosh, my uncle gave me this exact lunchbox. Only a lot more denting and paint chipped. But it’s still cool.
I still have my Holly Hobby lunch box (metal, thank you very much). I also used to have an Annie lunchbox and then in 4th grade I got a plastic Boomer the dog box… it cracked, stupid piece of plastic junk. Long live the metal lunch boxes!
The many years of using a lunchbox as a kid (I remember having a couple metal ones, and I went to elementary school in the 80’s in Florida) are the reason that I happily shelled out an extra 30 bucks for Fallout 3 collectors edition since it came with a spiffy metal Vault Tec lunchbox. Also brings a whole new meaning to using a lunchbox as a weapon.
Weapons? Well, I guess they were right. In 6th grade I used one on a boy that was tormenting me. He ended up with a concussion. Interestingly enough, none of the boys ever bothered me again, even in Jr and Sr. High
^-^ I just bought a limited-edition steel lunchbox.
Eat your hearts out.
I had a metal lunch box. I was only allowed to use it when I didn’t have something that needed to be hot or cold. It was shaped like a giant oreo cookie. I think I still have it, in the deep dark bowels of my closet.
My brother had this exact lunch box! Are these worth anything now?
I had 3 metal lunchboxes in my day – Strawberry Shortcake, Holly Hobbie and Care Bears. Metal lunchboxes FTW!
I had a Roy Rogers in grade school and later a metal embossed Sesame Street from 1979 – i still have the SS one, complete with Thermos, but i have misplaced the yellow thermos top.
I hope it is in this “Sanford” house somewhere. I used it for lunches until i retired it as a keepsake. It is sitting here in my office. It is still in great shape. I miss Roy – i loved that thing. I have distinct memories of gazing at it during lunchtime, with pride – dreaming of horses i never quite got. Ah to be 5 again.
I had a plastic lunchbox with Cabbage Patch kids on it. I stopped using it when some kids made fun of me.