We love well-designed, environmentally-conscious lunch boxes that use reusable containers to encourage parents to offer kids a variety of foods in reasonable portions. We've added more than a dozen options, many of them very good, to the ZRecs Guide since its launch in late 2008, but the products that got us really, really excited in the ten years since Laptop Lunches set the standard have been few and far between. Today we get to talk about one of them.

The PlanetBox is a molded stainless steel lunch tray with a hinged lid, with top and bottom halves meeting to form tall open compartments. Its otherwise institutional look and solid build are offset by magnet sets used to decorate the box. PlanetBox sells a variety of combinations of products at different price points (all of them high, so get ready) but, wisely, they do not sell PlanetBoxes without decorative magnets. For our daughter, the magnets are a crucial element.

Let's go on a tour.


You can buy a PlanetBox with or without a carrying case and a set of two (only one pictured here) "wet containers." More about those in a minute. First, let's look at the main event: the lunch tray.


This magnet set is the least exciting of the seven themes they currently offer; we'll show you a more exciting one in a minute.


This clasp works really well, at least when the PlanetBox is contained in the optional storage sleeve. I'm not sure we'd trust it to stay closed in a backpack without a case of some kind.


These indentations are what give the clasp its grip.


Here's what Z took to summer science camp today. Note the size of the "main" compartment - it's a bit small, and although it could accommodate a standard square piece of bread (the smallest loaf shape you'll find these days)




The cherry tomatoes are homegrown - and so are the pickles! We grew the cukes in our garden and made four quarts of refrigerator pickles this year.




This nice little spot in the PlanetBox is designed for something sweet - a square of chocolate, small cookie, or other treat. We love the suggested portion - we regularly offer Z desserts this small, and she loves them. In this case, we went a bit savory with a few newly-dried cherry tomatoes from our garden - a luxury item she's sure to appreciate, as they taste like candy!


A kids' Clif bar and string cheese.


Here's the second set of magnets we promised to show off. One thing we like about this and several other magnet sets PlanetBox offers is that the shapes form a larger whole, sort of like a puzzle with big gaps in it. It makes a nice design and kids (Z at least) think it's pretty fun to put together and show off.




The lunch tray in its optional (but recommended) case.


The two "sidecar" containers you can buy with your PlanetBox (or separately) looked like an afterthought but proved invaluable. Like most other divided tray lunchbox designs, the PlanetBox is not designed for seriously wet foods. Wet fruit and pickles caused no problems for Z's lunch, but we wouldn't put yogurt, soup, or anything else very wet in there; the sections simply don't seal perfectly from each other or from the outside world. The separate containers are a different story, and fit in a pouch in the carrying case or can be used inside the PlanetBox itself, where the closed tray will hold the containers shut.


This container (and a smaller one we failed to get in this picture) have silicone rings in their lids that help them seal nicely (a rubber band is recommended to hold it shut) and are removable for cleaning.

So... the price. We have a lot of difficult conversations here in cases where quality comes at a price, but aren't afraid to call out overpriced products that don't deliver on value. In the case of PlanetBox, we're firm supporters despite a relatively high cost of entry.

A basic set - PlanetBox and magnets alone - will set you back $35. Add the two additional containers and you're up to $50 - an awkward surge upward, as the two containers don't feel like $15 more in product. Add a carrying bag and you're looking at $60. Yep. Sixty dollars for a lunch kit. Parents cross thresholds of price every day as they move towards safer and more durable products and away from stuff designed to be lost, disrespected, or thrown away when the next new product marches by. But are parents ready to cross a $60 threshold for a kids' lunch box kit?

For us, the answer is not (just) academic. One of the nice side effects of our no-swag policy is that unlike many product reviewers, we don't have to approach the question of "is it worth the money" on a theoretical basis; if we want to keep a product that has been sent to us for review, we force ourselves to buy it, donating a comparable amount to charity. And although more than 9 out of 10 products we evaluate for review pass through our home in a month or two and never look back, we really can't let this lunch kit slip through our fingers, so we'll be paying up.

That said, I'm pretty sure we don't have $60 in our budget for a lunch box. We will probably forgo the separate storage containers, buying the PlanetBox a la carte for $35. You could add a carry bag for $15, and it wouldn't be a bad buy - it fits the PlanetBox well and includes an extra pocket on the outside for a small drink container. I think I'll vote for us to skip the carry bag and have Jenni make Z her own awesome fabric sleeve for it. Then we'll use a small Lock & Lock container or other small-form plastic container instead of PlanetBox's stainless steel ones, and save ourselves that $15 as well. We'd recommend a sleeve or container of some kind to ensure it stays closed and protect it from dings. But it isn't that hard to sew a fabric envelope... Jenni made herself a pretty awesome Kindle holder we've been meaning to show you, and I'm sure she could do something nice for Z's new PlanetBox.

We're naming the PlanetBox a ZRecs Top Pick for its use of sustainable and safer materials, its overall design, and its incorporation of fun into what could otherwise have been a very institutional-feeling product.

You can buy the PlanetBox and its accessories at the PlanetBox website.