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Main | 1960-1969 Part 1 | 1960-1969 Part 2

The Munsters has some of the nicest artwork of any box, and the thermos is one of my favorites. Nick LoBianco did the artwork for this kit. The Munsters TV series debuted September 24, 1964 on CBS. This comedy stayed around long enough to give us some laughs and a lunch box. The show's last telecast was on September 1, 1966.

Aladdin gave us Bonanza (brown), Daniel Boone, Mary Poppins, and the vinyl kit Linus! The Lion Hearted.

Mary Poppins was another Disney creation, and this box was released in flat and embossed versions.

Landers, Frary and Clark went out of business. The Universal trademark and lunch box dies were sold to General Electric's housewares division.

Standard Plastic Products, the New Jersey maker of KST's vinyl lunch boxes, was bought by Mattel Co., which discontinued box production.

1 9 6 6... Aladdin released my favorite lunch box, Batman and Robin. Also released by Aladdin were The Beatles, James Bond, Gomer Pyle, Junior Miss, Tarzan, Zorro (red sky), and the Hogans Heroes dome. The brunch bags The Beatles, Go Go, Mary Poppins, and the vinyl Go Go lunch kit were released by Aladdin this year.

Batman, Gomer Pyle, and Hogans Heroes filled out the television presence for Aladdin. Batman was the most short-lived of these TV series'. It lasted just a tad over two years, premiering January 12, 1966 and ending March 14, 1968.

The Batman box was another Elmer Lehnhardt masterpiece. He captured the feeling of Bob Kane's comic book Batman which first appeared in 1939 Detective Comics. I can't say enough about the colors on this box. This one is a true gem!

The Beatles lunch box sold over 600,000 units. This classic was also painted by Elmer Lehnhardt. What is there to say about The Beatles that hasn't been said? Great music, great box.

On March 4, 1966, this quote of John Lennon's was printed in an interview by reporter Maureen Cleave, for the London Evening Standard:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

Then, almost five months later on July 29, a teen magazine in the U.S., Datebook, reprinted the quote out of context-- not submerged in an article, but as a part of a front cover story entitled "The Ten Adults You Dig/Hate The Most."

A mass hysteria broke loose throughout the country. Every parent and individual who had something against The Beatles and rock 'n roll in general, used this quote to condemn them. Many religious figures at the time used this quote to push their own agendas and moral leadership.

Nowhere was the anger more pronounced than in the southern United States. Radio stations in the south banned Beatles music. There were rallies for young boys and girls to stomp on their records, and bonfires torched piles of Beatles merchandise. People were even threatening John Lennon's life. These must have been the "moral" and "god fearing" people of the deep south.

Poor little kiddies... I bet they wish they had back all the Beatles stuff they torched! Now you see them on eBay paying $200.00 for that Rubber Soul album they destroyed. Karma is good!

KST produced Atom Ant, Flipper, Get Smart, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Peanuts. KST also released the Casper and Soupy Sales vinyl lunch boxes. The 1965 KST releases all had one thing in common-- they all could be seen on TV in one form or another.

Flipper was painted by Nick LoBianco. Flipper debuted on NBC on September 19, 1964. The front of the lunch box depicts Porter Ricks, chief ranger of Coral Key Parks, Florida, and his two sons Sandy and Bud. The role of Flipper was played by a dolphin named Suzy.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was American television's answer to James Bond movies-- in a twisted sort of way. This lunch kit was illustrated by Jack Davis.

Davis is best known for his work with MAD magazine. If you look at this box, you'll see much that resembles a MAD magazine art layout. The show first telecast on September 22, 1964. This spy spoof starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin.

Ohio Art released Captain Astro. This was one of the nicest boxes produced by Ohio Art. Captain Astro was a space-themed box with very nice colors.

1 9 6 7... KST released Auto Race, Campus Queen, GI Joe, Green Hornet, Superman, Lost In Space, and the vinyl lunch kits Monkees and Peanuts (red).

Auto Race and Campus Queen were generic boxes, but of a different flavor-- they had magnetic games on the back of the box.

Nick LoBianco designed the Monkees vinyl box. LoBianco also designed the Monkees guitar logo as a favor to his friends at NBC. This was LoBianco's favorite lunch box. The Monkees TV show aired on NBC Monday's 7:30-8:00 PM from September 12, 1966 to August 19, 1968. The TV show was just one big advertisement for their records, which sold in the millions during this period. Their hits included "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm A Believer", and "Day Dream Believer."

As a musical act, the Monkees were as manufactured as their vinyl lunch kit. As The Beatles got too heavy around this time for the pop-youth, the Monkees seemed a soothing replacement. Somehow, "Strawberry Fields Forever" just didn't have the musical appeal of "Day Dream Believer" to the screaming teenage girls of the time.

The Green Hornet was another Nick LoBianco box. If you look at the front of this box, it is almost identical to the action sequence on the front of the Batman box, which was produced a year earlier by Aladdin. The Batman box has Batman striking a bad guy with a gun in hand. The Green Hornet box has Green Hornet striking a bad guy with a gun in hand. Both scenes are practically in the same spot on their respective boxes.

These similarities are fitting, considering The Green Hornet was launched on the heals of Batman, which debuted some eight months earlier. Both shows were televised on NBC. Not unlike Batman, The Green Hornet did not last long. After its first telecast on September 9, 1966, it found its way out the door on July 14, 1967. But it still is quite a memorable show, mostly being associated with the late Bruce Lee, who played Kato in the series.

When kids got home, they went straight to their toy boxes and got out all their favorite Hasbro GI Joe action dolls. Who said playing with dolls is only for girls? After a long day at school, it was time to relax and fight a war. But in 1967, kids no longer had to wait until they got home. You could now carry your favorite GI around with you in school. You never knew what was around the corner, and having Joe with you made it that much easier to venture the hallways of your own "battle zone."

GI Joe was Painted by Nick LoBianco. GI Joe would go on to achieve more fame in the early to mid-1980s, and another Joe box was released by KST in 1982. I remember everything was GI Joe when I was in grade school. I never owned a single GI Joe toy, as I was too busy playing with The Transformers.

Aladdin produced Dick Tracy, The Monroes, Rat Patrol, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, It's About Time (dome), and the vinyl and brunch bag versions of Twiggy.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, visually, was another stunning Elmer Lehnhardt box. This box was created for the TV series of the same name. Voyage was one of television's all-time favorite science-fiction adventure series', premiering September 14, 1964 and lasting until September 15, 1968. The series followed the exploits of the officers and men of the Seaview, a glass-nosed atomic submarine that had a knack of finding trouble wherever it roamed. The back of the box shows Adm. Nelson and Capt. Crane watch frantically as a giant mollusk threatens their safety. Excellent use of color makes this one of the great "art pieces" in box history.

Dick Tracy was another box with glorious colors, and is one of my favorites. The Dick Tracy cartoon hit Saturday morning with a bang in the early 1960s. The show and box were based on Chester Gould's famous detective comic strip. The final box art was based on work done by Robert O. Burton and Elmer Lehnhardt. Lehnhardt carried his great use of color over from his Batman box to Dick Tracy.

Ohio Art produced Bond XX. This was a poor excuse for a James Bond type character. Seeing that Ohio Art could not legally use the name James Bond without a license (that Aladdin already had), they slapped together this "Bond" box. The guy on the box almost resembles Sean Connery-- almost. This box was released again two years later, identical in every way, except that the words "Secret Agent" were written under the Bond XX name. Keeping with Ohio Art tradition, both the front and back of the box share the same, doomed image.

1 9 6 8... Aladdin gave the kids Bonanza (black), Doctor Dolittle, The Flying Nun, Gentle Ben, Jungle Book, Land of the Giants, Laugh-In (nazi helmut), Bread Box (dome), and Star Trek. Aladdin also produced the vinyl kits It's A Small World and Pussycats-- Pussycats also coming in the form of a brunch bag.

Gentle Ben, The Flying Nun, Land of the Giants, Laugh-In, Bonanza, and Star Trek were all TV boxes.

Star Trek didn't achieve the success during its first television run that it would ultimately achieve in the years following its cancellation. It has reached cult status since then, and many "Trekkies" or "Trekkers" speak of it as gospel. If only the show had that much support back in 1969, NBC may have kept it around long enough for the U.S.S. Enterprise to complete its five year mission. The mission, to "seek new worlds," was cut short by two years-- premiering on September 8, 1966 and coming to a halt on September 22, 1969. For the network execs at NBC, it was Sponsors: The Final Frontier.

The Star Trek dome art was done by Robert O. Burton and Elmer Lehnhardt. 250,000 kits were made and sold for around $3.50 each-- less if you picked yours up "off season." This kit is legendary. Many collectors know, if you're going to own only two domes, make them The Jetsons (1963) and Star Trek. This box is a cross-collectible, meaning lunch box collectors are competing with pure Star Trek collectors. This can and does drive the price of this box whenever it sells at auction.

Painted by Elmer Lehnhardt, Land of the Giants was a science-fiction fantasy in which seven people, through a "space warp" on a sub-orbital flight from U.S. to London, find themselves in a strange world much like Earth but with inhabitants twelve times their size. While trying to repair their rocket ship to get home, they were continually menaced by giant children, huge pets, and insects.

Like Bob Burton before him, Lehnhardt included a likeness of himself on this box. In 1957, Bob Burton painted his profile on two ten reales coins on the Buccaneer dome. Lehnhardt, not to be out-done, painted the giant face on the front of the box in his likeness.

At this time, Aladdin also switched from steel/glass thermos bottles to plastic/glass bottles. This was the first real change to the thermos since Aladdin stopped producing a metal collar, and instead used a plastic type. The next change wouldn't come for a few more years.

If not for the Yellow Submarine lunch kit, this year would have been a wash for KST. Cowboy In Africa, Guns Of Will Sonnett, MLB Baseball, and Secret Agent are good boxes, but nothing spectacular. Yellow Submarine gives KST a box for 1968 to remember. KST also produced the brunch bag Red Roses.

Yellow Submarine was a Beatles box designed by Nick LoBianco for the animated movie of the same name. Directed by George Dunning, Yellow Submarine was released in the United States on November 13, 1968.

This kit offers up the same art style as the movie animation. This is the second and last Beatles metal lunch box. One year later, the four Beatles would part ways.

Leonard Maltin on the Yellow Submarine movie-- The movie is a phantasmagorical animated feature with as much to hear as there is to see: Beatles' songs, puns, non sequitur jokes combined with surreal pop-art visions in story of Beatles trying to save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies. Unique, refreshing. Songs include "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "When I'm Sixty-four," "All You Need Is Love."

MLB Baseball served up a game on the back of the lunch box, complete with magnetic pieces. Kids could play a baseball game and keep score using the scoreboard. The box art done by Nick LoBianco could have been more vibrant. Mostly yellow and brown, the action sequence also could have been done better. A view of the baseball diamond and scoreboard are on the back.

Ohio Art came up with some boxes again this year in Airline (National), Basketweave, Fruit Basket (brown background), Highway Signs (first design), and Pit Stop. The designers at Aladdin spent more time on the "Safety Rules" printed on the inside lid of their boxes than the Ohio Art designers spent on all of these boxes combined. If you want a suitable case for carrying food, yes. If you want a suitable collectible to display, no.

1 9 6 9... Aladdin produced The Archies, Astronauts, Peter Pan, Disney Fire Fighters (dome), Psychedelic (dome), U.S. Mail (dome), and Wild, Wild West. Also released were the vinyl boxes Peter Pan, Psychedelic (yellow), Tinkerbell, and the Gadabout brunch bag.

U.S. Mail was a box perfectly suited for the dome shape-- it was a mail box! A simple, yet perfect piece that serves its purpose well. Released in the early days of the modern zip-code, the thermos features Mr. Zip. Zip is trying to get you to learn your zip-codes, which are printed on the thermos for various locales across the country. Designed by Jim Blackburn (freelancer), this box uses only five solid colors-- red, white, blue, gold, and black.

KST released Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Family Affair, Hot Wheels, Julia, Kellogg's Breakfast, Play Ball, and the vinyl kits Banana Splits and Peanuts (red).

Hot Wheels brought the exciting world of "cars scattered around messy rooms" to school lunch. At one time or another, every kid had a Hot Wheels toy car. And at one time or another, every kid was fascinated with cars. Was it the fact that they themselves couldn't actually own or drive real ones, or was it the speed and death defying action these models could partake in? Little cities and towns popped up on bedroom floors all across the country, chock-full of all the muscle cars any kid could every dream of owning. This box, painted by Nick LoBianco and Rinaldo Leverone (freelancer), captures these cars flying off their tracks into the imagination of the viewer.

Julia had the distinction of being the first comedy series to star a black female actress in a prestige role-- Diahann Carroll. Julia was a young, widowed nurse who's husband had been killed in Vietnam. The show first telecast on September 17, 1968 and ended May 25, 1971. The show was thoroughly integrated, and after this attracted some initial attention as a novelty, it met with immediate acceptance-- to the relief of nervous network executives. The Julia lunch box was designed by Nick LoBianco. LoBianco, in speaking of the trouble to produce the art for the Julia Box, "Diahann Carroll was a bitch about her Julia box."

Play Ball was just an un-licensed version of the MLB Baseball box released a year earlier. The box used the same artwork, leaving out the MLB logo.

Ohio Art presented Bond XX (w/secret agent), the "insanely lacking" updated version of the original Bond XX (1967).

exit the 1960s... Man would walk on the moon in 1969, and close out this most explosive decade. Some of the greatest boxes were produced herein-- The Jetsons (1963), Star Trek (1968), The Beatles (1966), Batman and Robin (1966), James Bond 007 (1966), and the list goes on and on. The new decade ahead would also produce some memorable titles, and the new age of plastic would be born. The 1960s would prove to be the last "metal" decade.

Look for the 1970s, coming soon...

Crave more History? Buy these great Lunch Box books today!

Main | 1960-1969 Part 1 | 1960-1969 Part 2

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