Americans have been using lunch boxes and pails to carry their grub to work since the mid-19th century but only started commercializing them in 1935 with the first Mickey Mouse lunch pail. They were mildly popular but it wasn't until television in the 1950s and the Hopalong Cassidy pail crested 600,000 units that the process took off. And it's the 1954 Superman box, with him fighting a robot, that fetches the most amongst "pailiontologists," including over $13K at auction. The Mazda Miata is lunch box small, but not so tiny that it can't transport a deer. Commenter Oddfish makes the connection.
Sucks when your wife doesn't pack your lunch.
You can go here for a lot more on the history of lunch boxes. We'd totally rock a Rat Patrol one.