I was intrigued when I read that Diamond Distributors is going to distribute a line of lunchboxes called “Tin Titans”! For the life of me, I can’t figure out why!
WHAT’S THE DEAL?
A recent news release tells the story. The first paragraph gives a lot of information for fans:
“Diamond Comic Distributors has partnered with Surreal Entertainment, voted a Top 200 Leading License by License Global, to launch a line of classic lunchbox/beverage container sets called “Tin Titans™.” These rectangular lunchboxes are the same footprint as the vintage lunchbox sets made famous from the 1950s through the 1990s, but with today’s safety features and molding technology. Brands from Surreal’s extensive portfolio of licenses will be featured, from superheroes to monsters, from anime to videogames. Tin Titans™ will be exclusively available through Diamond Comic Distributors.”
The size intrigues me. They are going to be a “sturdy” 4×7.75×6.75-inch case with a latched lid. The cover with have stylized art from dozens of world-calls IPs. They will have fully dimensional 3D sculpted, embossed highlights to make them stand out. There will also be a cylindrical 11-oz. beverage container (jug).
So, why make these now?
“Most of us grew up with these lunchboxes,” said Sarvish Arora, CEO of Surreal Entertainment, “and we wanted to maximize the form factor to bring the same collectible excitement we had when we were kids. Most of today’s ‘lunchboxes’ are just tin totes with perfunctory images printed on them. Ours pop when you first see them, and the beverage container is decorated to look just as retro-cool!”
The first line, which has not been given a release date yet, will feature the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, TMNT, Godzilla, and (of course) Marvel heroes such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Wolverine, Black Panther, and more.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLECTIBLES
The most important world in that previous quote is “collectible”. See, as I’ve often said before, comics are perceived by many in the “normal” world as a thing of the past, and people who buy them are not fans, but collectors.
Granted, there are many customers who buy them, take them home, bag and board them, and never crack open or read a single page in them. That’s a collector, of course!
And that’s the audience I think they’re trying to reach with this item.
Maybe I’m out of touch with school-agers, but it seems to me that many schools provide lunches (and often breakfasts) for students, so they no longer need lunchboxes to take their food to school. That makes these lunchboxes nostalgia, not functional needs. Of course, nostalgia sells, as I’ve often pointed out here.
The question is: How much will these sell? Are there many fans who want to buy these and proudly display them next to their 7-11 glasses or other novelty items? (I realize that many of the comics-related things we buy are considered novelties, but these, if they are not used for any usable function, are for display not use.) I don’t remember lunchboxes ever being collectible when I was growing up!
THIS DISCOURAGES ME
I own many comics-related items, believe me! I have tons of T-shirts, statues, toys, and even a few gamer-like things, but this crosses a line for me.
If we keep aligning our comics-related items with nostalgic things like lunchboxes, how long before they are hopelessly locked with the past? And I wonder if DC isn’t getting their lawyers working on “Tin Titans” already! That’s mighty close to one of their teams, Teen Titans. I notice that they aren’t involved in this product, apparently.
How many “other” people are going to buy these “Tin Titans?” How many parents will acquiesce to children pleading for them to buy one for them? How many kids will actually WANT them?
See, when I was a kid, we used to buy paper bags on which we wrote our names and took our lunches to school in them. They rarely survived long enough to go to school more than one day. Some never even really made the journey there at all! It depended on how strong those guys were made and how heavy our lunches were!
Where I went to school, there were often lunch trucks that we could buy food from during lunchtime. I often bought pizza from a blue truck so much that the guy who sold it would start getting my order ready before I even made it to his side window where sales took place!
That’s no longer possible, I understand.
I just don’t see much of a market for lunchboxes outside of collectors. They better hope they catch on with the collectible community!
What’s next? Comics-related pill boxes? Denture holders? Senior diapers?
ARE COMICS BECOMING ONLY COLLECTIBLES?
Things like this really worry me because I get concerned that we are going down the “collectible” rabbit hole so deep that this reputation might preceed us wherever comics go.
Are we now for an “older” crowd that, as we die off or leave for other reasons, will fade away, replaced by younger, hipper interests?
And what happens if this doesn’t catch on with collectors? Will they develop a smaller, more rabid base that gets them, thinking that smaller sales will make them even MORE collectible? Yikes!
I just don’t know. But they honestly scare me!
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