971 Lichen set

Production: 1960 - 1964

History
During the early 1960's, Lionel continued to offer Life-Like scenery products to it's customers. As with prior offerings, Life-Like products were simply re-packaged into Lionel boxes and were sold under the Lionel name.

The 971 Lichen is generally green but there is always a small percentage of yellow, brown and brownish-red lichen included in each box. Due to the age, the lichen is usually dried out or missing altogether from the box. From a collectors point of view, the Lichen box contains all of the value and not the contents.

Features
The 971 Lichen set included a full box of lichen. The color is predominately green, but yellow, brown and brownish-red lichen is also included in each box.

As with all repackaged Life-Life and Plasticville items, the original Lionel box accounts for most of the value of the item. Complete lichen boxes -- especially with an intact window panel -- are very difficult to locate.

Additional Detail, Photos & Box Information

Collectors believe there are four variations to the box. The variations are summarized below and involve the weight of the lichen and the presence or absence of the Made in the U.S. of America printing on the back of the box.

Weight: 4 1/2 oz. - Shown in the photo above - The most common version has 4 1/2 oz. printed on the box. This box, however, has two different variations:

• With Made in the U.S. of America printed on the back.
• Without Made in the U.S. of America printed on the back.

Weight: 4 1/4 oz. - This is a hard variation to locate.
No weight on box - This too is a hard variation to locate.

To purchase quality Lionel Transformers, Track & Miscellaneous Items from our sponsors, click on either website:

Dave's Trains Inc.