Vintage Wayne Gretzky Lunch Box with Thermos

This is a great piece of Canadian history based on what can only be described as a legend.

Aladdin Industries is responsible for this little gem. They were formed in 1908 under the name the Mantle Lamp Company. They specialized in kerosene lamps and formed Aladdin as a subsidiary in order to manufacture vacuum bottles. They moved on to manufacture (very successfully, might I add) lunchboxes made of tin. They were the first to also offer an aluminum variant when one of the employees accidentally stepped on and crushed his tin lunch box. Their pre-war successes were monumental and they quickly became an industry leader in the manufacture of various items, but primarily, their immensely-popular thermal jars and cookware. Their success with these thermal products led to the formation of Aladdin Industries. With plastic being produced on an industrial scale, they released lunchboxes made of plastic, mainly for children, in the late-40s, and their sales soared. However, their claim to fame, however, came in 1950 when they produced the first branded lunchboxes of a television character named Hopalong Cassidy. Their annual sales jumped from 40,000 units per year to more than 600,000 units and they didn't look back. Their successes with Cassidy led to a dominance over the field as they added more and more characters to their lunchbox empire, including Superman, Mickey Mouse and The Jetsons.

The character on the box is nothing short of a hockey God. Wayne Gretzky spent 20 years in the NHL and when he retired in 1999, he held 61 NHL records. They include the most career points, most career goals, fastest to the 50-goal mark (it only took him 39 games!), most goals scored in a season and a plethora of more, highly impressive records. In the 21 years since his retirement, nobody has even come close to touching his records and it seems they'll be standing for some time to come.

The condition of the lunchbox is... well... not ideal. The orange half of the box is structurally sound with no real damage to it. There are a few scratches, as a used lunchbox should have. It opens and closes cleanly and the latch works well. The sticker is not ideal, but clear and sharp. There is a bit of fading to the colour and the edges have a bit of water damage to them, but it doesn't affect the image or the quality of the sticker - it is firmly in place. But the blue half... oh my. Maybe it was stepped on at some point? Maybe it was just thrown around or neglected. Either way, it is damaged. When closed, the box is quite sturdy and could even be used, if you wish. However, when the box is open, the cracks to the blue half are clearly evident. One is fairly significant, but again, they don't affect the shape or structure of the box, when closed. The bottom 'fins' of the blue half are also damaged, but don't affect the display of the piece (it stands straight). Although I was considering trying to repair the cracks, I decided against it. The cracks can be pushed together to the point where they disappear, but I don't have the steadiest of hands and figured I could do more damage than good, so I left it as is. The thermos is original and complete. There are a few scuffs to the images on the thermos, commensurate with age and elementary school use, but it is complete, the pictures are clear and it is clean and seals beautifully.

As always, should you have any questions or comments, I'm happy to answer all messages almost immediately.

Thanks for visiting C&K!