darthskellington
Dark Lord of the Typos
Today's collectible is a plastic Ewoks lunch box produced by Thermos in 1983. Thermos released both metal and plastic lunch boxes for each classic movie, in addition to Ewoks and Droids cartoon lunch boxes. The Ewoks lunch box included a standard Return of the Jedi thermos, that featured an Ewok on it. It looks like Wicket, but is colored more like Paploo. Apparently most Ewoks look alike in the cartoon universe, as there appears to be no less than three Wickets and two Kneesaas in the lunch box artwork.
This technically isn't the only Ewoks cartoon lunch box, as the plastic Return of the Jedi box features a large-eyed, cartoon-like Wicket meeting R2-D2 in the forest. While it prominently features the Return of the Jedi logo, it also has a Wicket logo in cartoon font in the bottom corner.
The Star Wars movies came along at a point when the use of metal lunch boxes was waning, and plastic lunch kits began to dominate the market. As a result, some of the earlier plastic Star Wars lunch boxes are harder to come by than their metal counterparts. I suppose this may also have to do with their overall durability, as plastic lunch boxes tended to crack when handled roughly. I still remember seeing a ROTJ plastic lunch box shattered by the school playground fence, and wishing it had wound up in my collection prior to receiving such a harsh fate.
Collectible metal lunch boxes made a return in the early 2000s, and for the most part that fad has moved on. A handful of plastic Star Wars lunch kits were released around 2002 when Attack of the Clones came out. However, most lunch kits these days are softside bags of one form or another.