Paileontology:
A history of the lunchbox
Domes
Square
boxes were great for their TV screen-like dimensions, but much of the
highest artistry went onto the "domes" with rounded tips which aped
the shape of the original workingman's lunch pail. Ironically, though
now much sought-after for their designs, they were begun as a cost-cutting
measure. t....
You
see, the cost of buying rights to licensed characters and TV shows,
some of which would be canceled before the box had a chance to sell,
was becoming astronomical. Aladdin decided to create some generic-subject
boxes and decided the new shape would be a novelty selling point. Its
artists rose to the challenge, given a bigger canvas and freed of the
tyranny of having to please temperamental producers and stars (Rex Harrison,
for example, bounced the art for the Dr. Dolittle box six times before
okaying it).
Aladdin's first dome, "Buccaneer" in 1957, capitalized on a pirate craze that had been spurred on by Peter Pan and other movies of the era. It was a huge success. From there, domes featured other whimsical patterns, some of which — like the VW Bus and the Disney Schoolbus, which at 9 million units was the biggest seller of all time — used the shape of the boxes to brilliant effect.
