Between my posts on The Retroist and Facebook some of you already know some of this story, but here’s the entire thing from beginning to end.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Etsy.com. To clarify, I’ve known about Etsy for a year or two, I’ve just never really checked it out. Etsy is a place where normal people can set up their own virtual online shops and hawk their goods. Think of it like an eBay Store, but focused more more on homemade arts and crafts.

Since I’ve been writing so much for the Retroist lately, I decided to check out Etsy and see what retro items they had for sale. While randomly throwing words into Etsy’s search box, I submitted “retro lunchbox” and found a store belonging to Walker Davis Designs. Walker Davis was not selling a retro lunchbox; Walker Davis was selling a painting of a retro lunchbox (a Gremlins one, to be specific) for $12.

Let me pause for a moment to point out that I am always on the lookout for a good story. I’ve already checked eBay. You can get a real Gremlins lunchbox for between $20-$40. But there were thousands upon thousands of Gremlins lunchboxes manufactured. A lot of people owned them. A lot of people still them. But how many people have an oil painting of a Gremlins lunchbox?

As far as I know, one. Me.

In real life the painting is smaller than this picture makes it look. It’s 8×10 (inches, not feet, although that would be grand).

As I recently mentioned, the weekend before last was Sun Valley Garage Sale Day. While searching garage sales I found two frames the perfect size for 50 cents each. I could have bought a frame at the store, but something prohibited me from paying more for the frame than I did for the painting.

Here’s one of the two frames I picked up. The frame was the wrong color — nothing a little spray paint wouldn’t solve.

Ah, much better. The painting was exactly the right size and fit snugly into the carved out opening of the frame. With the glass in place and a nail in the fall, the framing of the painting of a Gremlins lunch box was complete.

The painting is now proudly — proudly — hanging in my movie room, above our candy machine and next to my framed Empire Strikes Back poster.

So there you have it — a framed original painting of a Gremlins lunchbox.