Contested Boundaries and Mediated Space in a 1979 Star Trek lunchbox

Hopefully the final title will be a little more fun than that, but that's where I am with it right now.

This 1979 Star Trek lunchbox will be the object of my analysis. I’m particularly interested in how it is mediating a very specific notion of science fiction culture/the Star Trek franchise in commodity form. I want to think about the logic behind both what images its exterior does display and what aspects of its referent (the first Star Trek film) remain absent. I’m also curious to see how the design of the images fit within a larger history of popular lunchbox motifs (i.e. Star Trek was not the first or only sci-fi narrative to be represented via lunchbox, and science fiction not the only genre of narrative popular for lunchbox adornment). The other aspect of my interest in the object concerns its function – how is its intended and practical usage related to the external presentation? I want to think about how the object is mediating different kinds of space, with its formal gestures toward both the contained/mundane/domestic and the exotic/boundless/imaginary.