The Beatles 1965 Lunch Box

I've mentioned before that The Beatles were probably the first musical group to have such a wide variety of merchandise with their name and likeness attached.  One of the most popular items was the 1965 Beatles lunchbox and thermos brought to you by Aladdin Industries Incorporated.  The lunch box features The Beatles performing on one side and their faces with signatures on the other.  The top also featured their signatures under the handle.  The bottom had different images of their faces and sides had images of their instruments.  The thermos features artwork of their faces and signatures on one side with the band playing on the other, but surprisingly, different artwork was used on the thermos than on the lunch box itself.

Although the very first licensed lunch box was manufactured with an image of Micky Mouse in 1935, it wasn't until 1950 that Aladdin Industries began making the metal lunch boxes that many of you probably remember from your childhood - that is, if you were in school before 1990.  Aladdin's first lunch box featured Hopalong Cassidy and sold an amazing 600,000 lunch boxes in the first year of production!  Needless to say, Aladdin began acquiring the licence for more characters and continued to sell similar lunch boxes for several decades.  Today, these vintage lunch boxes are highly collectible.  I believe the 1964 Superman lunch box is typically considered to be the most valuable.  I have seen one sell for $17,000 with the thermos.  Although The Beatles lunch box isn't in the number 1 position, they are usually seen in the Top 10 most valuable lunch boxes.  Even a rusty, beat up Beatles lunch box missing the thermos often sells for more than $100.  The lunch box and thermos pictured below was in excellent condition and sold at auction in 2015 for over $2,000!