Update: Country Club Plaza’s Zoom will auction its vintage lunch boxes

Zoom toy store’s collectible lunch boxes will probably have many homes now, not the one that owner John Middelkamp had hoped for.

He started collecting them nearly three decades ago, but only as an added attraction for the store — from a 1935 “lunch kit” Mickey Mouse (the first lunch box known to feature graphics) through to ones featuring cultural icons such as Trigger, Superman, G.I. Joe and “Star Wars.”

But with the closing of the Country Club Plaza store at 300 Ward Parkway this weekend, he has been in talks with several groups about keeping the collection together so Kansas Citians could see and enjoy them for years to come.

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures in Kansas City had considered taking one or two that might relate to toys.

“Our mission statement is very clear: We collect toys and miniatures,” said Amy McKune, curator of collections. “They have some toy themes but they aren’t toys. Like we have G.I. Joe in the collection so a G.I. Joe (lunch box) might relate to that.”

Still, McKune said the collection committee doesn’t meet again until early March to formally accept objects into the collection. An Omaha candy store owner, who already purchased a Zoom gumball machine and was interested in the bright blue Zoom neon sign, also wanted the lunch boxes but said he needed to sell a bus first to raise funds.

“Selling them off individually would be a long and arduous project,” he said. “No one has been able to get enough money on the table to buy them all and I did not want to store them.”

So Middelkamp turned to Kansas City’s Equip-Bid Auction. It is selling the remaining store fixtures in an auction that ends Jan. 28. It plans to sell off most of the lunch boxes in an auction that ends Feb. 5.

But Middelkamp has held back about a dozen of the most valuable ones until he sees how the auction goes.

“The boxes really speak of almost three decades of our culture,” Middelkamp said. “I hope they will find good homes and bring back great memories to their new owners.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Update: Country Club Plaza’s Zoom will auction its vintage lunch boxes."