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Buck Rogers lunchbox, 1979

Here’s one for Mom and Dad. Remember this thing?

When I first started kindergarten back in 1981 my parents bought me my first lunchbox, good ol’ Buck Rogers. But since the show was on TV in the late 70s I was too young to even know anything about pop culture. I had no idea who Buck was when I was a kid other then what dad told me about the show. But here is where blind kid-like enthusiasm comes in. The lunchbox had a dude aiming a laser gun, hot girl, a robot, a spaceship and a real cool logo … everything a kid needs. Seeing the show was irrelevant, I still knew I had the coolest lunch in the class.

The round, cut-out portrait of Buck still makes me laugh. Maybe Gil Gerard had it written into his contract that all merchandise needed his headshot included. So good.

Mom packed my sandwich and juice in this thing everyday. I can still remember the sound that latch made when you closed it up and the rattle of the handle when I carried it to school. Good times.

And it’s sure no mystery where I get my inspiration from these days. This lunchbox has all the elements I love (and mimic) today. This shots were borrowed from this Vintage Tin Lunchboxes Flickr set.

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James

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8 responses to “Buck Rogers lunchbox, 1979”

  1. Jorden Tually Avatar
    Jorden Tually

    Man this rocks!

  2. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Amazing! That takes me back a bit.

    Metal lunchboxes seemed to be all the rage in the 80’s and the one that my parents bought me (which I don’t seem to have anymore!) was the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom version.

    Wish I still had that bad boy.

  3. james Avatar
    james

    Jason, here’s the weird thing. The image above is the tin version but what I had was plastic. Looked exactly the same, handle and everything. Those tin ones get smashed to crap but my plastic box lasted for years. I believe I was still using it in grade 4, long after Buck had been off the air. I loved that thing.

    And Temple of Doom?? Man, that definitely would have made you the coolest kid at lunch hour.

  4. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    Oh wow, that’s great! I’ve still got a Buck Rogers pop-up book at home; it’s on the shelf next to my Superman and Empire Strikes Back pop-up books :-D

  5. gwax Avatar
    gwax

    As soon as I saw this, the phrase “Beedeep – Beedeep” entered my head. Now it is stuck there… My first lunch box was the Dukes of Hazard.

  6. Josef Avatar
    Josef

    I had a similar box, with motive from E.T. I don’t think I actually used it to carry anything, it was more like a shrine to me that I could look at in awe. I really wish I still had it, but I can’t remember what happened to it. It must have been 25 years since I saw it. Man, I’m getting old.

    I should also add that I only ever saw one episode of Buck Rogers. I’ve lived in Sweden my whole life, far away from any network broadcasting the show. I saw the one episode during a holiday trip to the US back in the early 80’s. But it has haunted me ever since. I should just get myself the DVD box to get closure on this thing.

  7. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Man I had a crush on Erin Grey/Wilma Daring back when I was a lad. It’s great thinking back to what my parents did for me when I were a lad.

  8. khareen Avatar
    khareen

    amazing!
    How did you do it?
    Metal lunch boxes make me think about the tragedy I’ve had when I was a kid but that doesn’t matter…I love that picture even if I haven’t seen that movie before, I only watch ET.

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