My first lunchbox was a Thermos brand Peanuts lunchbox, back in the late 1970s. It was all metal, with a plastic insulated drink/soup container inside, held in place by a little metal hinged protrusion. (For years, we called that kind of container a Thermos, but really, it’s just the name of the company…) I loved that lunchbox so much. I have no idea what happened to it. We moved in 1981, and I never saw it again. Sadness. But I was able to revisit my lunchbox in the vintage section on the Thermos website. They have a slew of vintage ones to peruse.
The Thermos company is still quite in business today, making much more modern products with modern materials. A couple of years ago I even bought a large container for hot drinks or soups. It’s a fantastic contraption. And now Thermos has some new products available to fit our geeky lifestyle.
Thermos isn’t limiting themselves to the usual rectangular shapes for lunchboxes anymore. Nor are the boxes made of metal or hard plastic. This 100% PVC-free snazzy R2-D2 lunchbox (or “insulated lunch kit” if you want to be precise) is shaped just like the droid himself, soft-sided, with a zip open top and plenty of room inside for a full lunch (probably for more than one person). He has a sturdy handle on his back, and you can even make R2 light up and make droid noises. Don’t do this while you’re in school, though.
Another of Thermos‘s offerings is a line of Hello Kitty products, which brings me back at least 30 years to when I obsessed over the Hello Kitty store at the mall. This soft-sided lunchbox, also 100% PVC-free, shaped like Hello Kitty’s head will easily hold your meal, and insulated stainless steel drink and soup/pasta/whatever containers will give you plenty of options. The box is a little hard to zip closed, though, since Hello Kitty’s face is a harder material than the rest of it to help protect your food, but it works well enough. The 12 ounce insulated drink container will keep your drink cold for 12 hours, and the 10 ounce food container will keep food cold for seven hours, or warm for five. Both are top rack dishwasher safe, but hand washing is recommended.
All of these products are very easy to clean (the soft-sided lunchboxes can be spot cleaned), and live up to the usual Thermos standards. They protect food while keeping it the right temperature, and just work.
Prices vary on all of these Thermos products, but they are all reasonably priced and made of quality materials. Geek up your kid’s lunch hour with some of these new products. (But let’s face it, we want them for ourselves. I know I do!)
GeekMom received some items for review purposes.
I bought my son the insulated Thermos at the beginning of last year. It’s awesome!! A little on the expensive side, but so worth the money. Also, they didn’t have a design that he liked, so we bought plain and put a huge “foil-type” sticker on it. He loves it.