~THE SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCAST~

CELEBRATING THE BLAZING SIX-GUN ACTION OF THE WESTERN GENRE

IN BOOKS, MOVIES, TV, AND ANY OTHER MEDIA AT HOME ON THE RANGE...

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

TV WESTERNS—LUNCH BOXES

TV WESTERNS
LUNCH BOXES
MeTV ran this article on TV western lunch boxes. It was interesting, but not worth dealing with the inundation of intrusive ads constantly pulling the reader away from their place in the text, so—with attribution—it is recreated here in this ad free environment...

HOPALONG CASSIDY
With its smaller image, this red Hopalong Cassidy pail (it also came in blue) may not dazzle like the rest, but it was the pioneer. Yep, this simple beauty was the first ever licensed television show lunch box.

LAWMAN
Nifty action, in appropriate Wyoming colors, though Peter Brown's Deputy Marshal seems particularly young and bit a slow on the draw. The accompanying Thermos, with its stock western gear, was generic and popped up in a few of these lower ranks.

THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT
Interlocking legs and all three guns firing at the same time. Now that's teamwork. Dack Rambo looks like one cool customer—and who has a cooler name? This tie-in to the later western can be found for much cheaper on the auction block.

WAGON TRAIN
That's a beautiful painting on the back side, uncluttered with text. Shame that a similar effort was not put into the side panels and the Thermos, which was the same generic one seen before.

THE RIFLEMAN
Nice subtle piece of storytelling here, with a no-good feller holding his wrist after what we assume was a perfectly placed shot from Lucas McCain. Appropriately, his nifty modified Winchester 1892 is all over this thing.

PALADIN
The black and the white stitching is awesome. The dapper Paladin would certain approve, and we could image Lil' Johnny Cashes carrying this to school. The flip side was stunning, too, with Paladin driving a wagon while standing and shooting a masked bandit.

GUNSMOKE
Gunsmoke spawned a few lunch boxes, largely focusing on the kid-favorite Festus. The storytelling is richest on this one, though. It's a mini Marshal Matt Dillon narrative. It's also rare. It can now fetch over a grand!

DANIEL BOONE
A fort on fire… Whoa! Look at that Thermos! He's fighting a bear! We love to hear the reaction at the lunch table when that baby first came out.

TRIGGER
As much as we love the boxes covered in detailed scene, sometime simple is stunning. This gorgeous tin tote captured the glory of Roy Roger's Trigger. This must have been like carrying a custom van by your side. We dig the stencil look, too.

BONANZA
There's a lot going on here on this, one of three different boxes produced for Bonanza. There's a bar fight on the Thermos. Hoss is wrangling some cattle. Lorne Greene is sporting a spiffy pink shirt to match the font. 

THE WILD WILD WEST
This has everything. The action here is amazing. Throwing a grappling hook at a moving train! Riding a zip line over a pit of fire to kick a gun out of a hand! What!? Flames, dust, steam, smoke. It's trimmed in black. The stylized comic graphics on the Thermos are nifty, too, and a nice change of pace.

2 comments:

  1. There's some great lunchboxes here. But at the risk of sounding blasphemous, the best lunchbox ever was not based on a Western series. It was the Rat Patrol lunchbox.

    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/353321533244912506/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will say The Rat Patrol lunchbox certainly still has its place deep in my heart...

    ReplyDelete