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Note to Barbie: You are a gorgeous girl, but you are not hip enough for Rosy Jones' lunch box. She is, like, so over you - has been since kindergarten. That goes for you, too, Scooby Doo.

So says Rosy, a 9-year-old lunch box fashionista, who keeps up with what's in and what's out at Seaside Elementary School.

"They are, like, too babyish," says Rosy, who abandoned her Barbie and Scooby Doo lunch boxes after kindergarten. "The only cartoon character you will see on the lunch boxes of older kids is SpongeBob [SquarePants], but you will see very little of him."

Nowadays, lunch boxes are hipper, just as happening as they were in the past, still affordable and varied in style. But what kids think are cool and adults think rule differs.

Schoolchildren don't want to be seen as nerds because their lunch boxes are not trendy. Meanwhile, their parents want to ensure their kids' food stays fresh until it's eaten.

Big kids, also known as adults, have amore for lunch boxes, too. Lots of these kids are lunch box collectors, and they want the vintage stuff or items lauded as "collector editions."

Lunch boxes are a piece of Americana that have been a happening part of our culture since 1950, when 600,000 decaled boxes of Aladdin's Hopalong Cassidy were sold.

as happening, still affordable and varied in style. But what kids think are cool and adults think rule differs.

School children don't want to be seen as nerds because their lunch boxes are not trendy. Meanwhile, they're parents want to ensure their kids food stays fresh until it's eaten.

Today's manufacturers produce lunch boxes, also called lunch kits, that are intended to make kids feel fashionable and fly, while their parents feel assured they've packed a lunch that is delicious and won't spoil.

"The soft-sided insulated lunch kits are the most popular with kids and also with moms, too," says Julie Ryan, licensing manager for Thermos, the nation's largest manufacturer of lunch boxes. "Moms want to ensure food safety. They don't want their children to run the risk of food-borne illness."

Diane Movsky adds an ice pack to the insulated lunch box of her 10-year-old son, Taran Movsky, as an extra safety measure.

"The ice pack helps the drinks stay colder," Movsky says. "Plus, sometimes there are perishables in there like yogurt and other stuff."

Taran, who is a fifth-grader at Myrtle Beach Intermediate School, favors lunch boxes without flash. Just like Rosy, he stays away from the cartoon characters and loud colors.

"He's a basic blue man," his mom says. "He's real modest when it comes to his lunch box."

And he roughs it up. Movsky says she buys two lunch boxes per school year for Taran.

"I buy the ones that I can pull the lining out of," Movsky says. "They are easier to clean because a lunch box can get very nasty. But with the removable lining, the lunch box stays good and it doesn't stink."

Some lunch boxes come in a variety of shapes and styles, including two-tier designs that let kids keep their sandwiches at the bottom and their drinks, yogurt and other snacks at the top. Zak Designs Inc. has a Shrek lunch box like this, which can be found at Wal-Mart.

Manufacturers such as California Innovations offer parents insulated lunch packs with easy-to-clean liners and removable trays. The company's soccer-ball lunch box was enough to catch the attention of Susan Harrelson, Movsky's friend, who decided to buy one for her 8-year-old son, Thomas Harrelson.

"Thomas likes red and blue lunch boxes," his mom says. "He likes designs, a little flash."

His new soccer-ball lunch box cost $5.88 plus tax and included a divided tray that is removable. Underneath it is a satiny gray lining that Harrelson says will clean easily for her third-grader at Carolina Forest Elementary School.

Note to parents: Try to buy a lunch box your kid likes, because some lunch boxes are totally whack, according to Grand Strand kids and their moms.

"Barbie is out because she is too prissy," declares Harrelson.

Days before, Harrelson bought her 9-year-old daughter, Sally Harrelson, a lunch box by Arctic Zone that was shaped and designed like a ladybug. The red and black lunch box even featured small antennae.

"She loves it," Harrelson says.

Collectors editions

Larry Shackelford, who owns the Old Church Antique Mall in Supply, N.C., with his wife, Joyce Shackelford, has a collection of about 30 antique lunch boxes for sale at his business.

The series collector likes all things old - Gene Autry, Zorro and anything with space in it, Shackelford says.

"Collectors like the things they grew up with because it brings back memories and they just have to have it," he says.

While kids and parents prefer vinyl, insulated lunch boxes, metal lunch boxes reign among collectors.

"The adults are looking for the tin lunch boxes, the metal kind," says Sergio Rodriguez, operations manager of Giftapolis.com, which ships lunch boxes worldwide. "They love all the '80s stuff, like 'Knight Rider.' We buy more lunch boxes for people who never use them than for people who have functional uses for them."

Vintage favorites include the Dukes of Hazzard, Felix the Cat, Betty Boop and Popeye. "Spiderman," "Terminator 3," "Star Wars," "Charlie's Angels 2" and "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy are among the popular movie lunch boxes.

"Some lunch boxes are made to be collector's items, and once they are gone, they are gone," says Mike Dobbs, customer service manager at Lunchboxes.com, where about 150 lunch box designs are offered. "For example, there were only 5,000 lunch boxes made for each Lord of the Rings movie. So if you are a 'Lord of the Rings' collector, you've got to collect them."

While the parents of school children can go to Wal-Mart and Target and get lunch boxes priced between $5.88 and $7.99, collectors shell out big bucks for what they like.

"The rare boxes, like Superman, are always sought after by collectors," says Bryan Los, a lunch box collector since 1998 and lunch box expert at LunchBoxPad.com. "Usually, a new collector can't jump right into the rare stuff, as it's very expensive to get in. Even a good condition 1954 Superman box will run you between $500 and $600, and that includes all the scratches and rust you can imagine."

In & out of style

But guess what? Everybody isn't crazy about lunch boxes. According to Grand Strand parents, it seems that the older their kids get, the less likely they are to carry a lunch box to school. And their kids aren't even thinking about collecting lunch boxes in the future.

Shandi Movsky, 13, is so over lunch boxes. The eighth-grader at Myrtle Beach Middle School abandoned lunch boxes in the seventh grade.

"She believes carrying a lunch box isn't cool anymore," her mom says. "She uses paper bags."

Nevertheless, there are some kids who, for whatever reasons, still have to rock lunch boxes. And if that is their fate, they may want to follow Rosy's lead.

"I'm just getting a plain lunch box," says Rosy, who will find her perfect lunch box with her mom, Sarah Jones. "I'll probably get a light blue box. I wouldn't get the dorky lunch boxes, like Harry Potter and stuff like that. The cartoons and stuff aren't in anymore for the older kids. Those lunch boxes just aren't cool."

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