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There's one "when-I-was-your-age" story that is grabbing kids' attention and holding their interest. It has to do with toting a lunch box to school, before the days of school cafeterias. Today, this nostalgia is fueling lunch-box collecting and initiating a new generation of collectors, with thanks, in part, to television reruns.

Lunch kits for kids made their initial appearance in the 1920s, but they did not catch on at first.

In 1949, however, everything changed.

"The first character lunch box that collectors know and love features Joe Palooka," said Marcie Waldie, a contributor to Warman's Today's Collector magazine.

"Its popularity didn't pack much of a punch with the buying public, but it did usher in the lunch box that is considered by many to be the hottest -- the Hopalong Cassidy plain blue box with a decal of Hoppy on the sides. For the next 35 years, metal lunch boxes ruled the schoolyards."

From the late 1950s through the 1970s, kids carried lunch boxes that reflected their favorite television shows. They prized the pressed-metal containers for their artwork and logos.

The two major lunch-box makers, Aladdin and American Thermos (aka King Seeley), produced boxes for nearly every successful kids television program and even some that didn't survive past one season.

Prices of vintage boxes skyrocketed during the latter half of the 1990s but have recently made a successful re-entry into a more affordable market.

Vintage television lunch boxes are in high demand among casual and serious collectors. A 1962 Rocky and Bullwinkle in excellent condition recently sold online for $1,000. A 73 Scooby Doo box sold for $78.

Noted lunch-box collector and dealer Joe Soucy of Seaside Toys in Rhode Island got hooked on the metal meal carriers in 1988.

"The hobby is very strong, very healthy and is attracting new people," said Soucy.

According to Soucy, the popular lunch boxes sought today feature Dudley Do-Right, Underdog, Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Jetsons, and Star Trek and Hogan's Heroes characters.

"All of the television series from the 70s are really good," said Soucy.

Other lunch boxes in demand include those made by Universal, a small company from Connecticut.

"They made boxes for a very few years, but the boxes that they did make are extremely collectible. They're the most sought after and the hardest to get," Soucy said.

Examples include the Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Howdy Doody and the 54 Superman. An example of the Superman box recently sold on the Internet for $12,000. Other lunch boxes that are calling to collectors are two Beatles boxes -- a blue version showing the band members and the Yellow Submarine box. A blue box in new condition with the price tag still attached recently brought $2,805 in an online auction.

A more recent rock band, KISS, is the subject of a 1977 box that has brought over $300 at auction.

Beginning collectors will find plenty of choices in the $50-and-under range. Happy Days, Dale Earnhardt, Rat Patrol, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang boxes are just a few that have recently sold for less than $50.

Caring for a lunch-box collection is relatively easy. Soucy recommends removing surface dirt with an ammonia-free glass cleaner. For dried-on stickers and tape, he suggests a product called Goo Gone.

Sharon Korbeck, editor of the book Today's Hottest Collectibles, offers the following tips for collectors: Character-related Thermos bottles -- even without their matching lunch box -- are collectible. Steel and glass bottles with such popular characters as Roy Rogers or Howdy Doody have particular appeal. Plastic character bottles have less collectible value. Plain, undecorated plastic bottles have virtually no collector value.

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