Life-Like
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| Private | |
| Industry | Toys and hobbies |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Balitmore, Maryland, United States |
| Products | Model trains and accessories |
Life-Like was a manufacturer of model trains and accessories that began as a division of parent company Life-Like Products, a manufacturer of extruded foam ice chests and coolers. In 1960 the company purchased the assets of the defunct Varney Scale Models and began manufacturing model trains and accessories under the name Life-Like in 1970. In 2005 the parent company, known as Lifoam Industries, LLC, chose to concentrate on their core products and sold their model railroad operations to hobby distributor Wm. K. Walthers. Today, the Life-Like trademark is used by Walthers for its line of value-priced starter train sets.
Life-Like Products was founded by brothers Lou and Sol Kramer, whose parents were Lithuanian immigrants residing in Baltimore, Maryland. Their experience in the hobby industry began in the 1930s when they became interested in constructing model airplanes. With money borrowed from their mother, the brothers formed the Burd Model Airplane Manufacturing Co. and sold their own model airplane kits using balsa wood they would salvage from discarded banana crates. As the business grew, their line had expanded to include more than 200 different kits. America's entry into World War II put a halt to their production as they could no longer get materials like balsa wood and rubber bands to produce their kits.
Following World War II, the focus of the business shifted from manufacturing to distribution and Kramer Brothers Hobbies was created to sell items like model cars and fishing tackle. They also began making items like model trees and grass mats under the name Life-Like for the first time. They also introduced dyed lichen moss for use as a scenery material, imported from Norway.
Realizing that hobbies had year-round appeal, versus toys that had seasonal sales spikes around the Christmas holiday, the Kramer brothers formed a silent partnership with Lou Glaser and his Revell injection-molded plastic model company in Venice, California. The company's breakthrough came in 1953 when Revell offered a scale model kit of the USS Missouri, the battleship where the Japanese surrender that eneded World War II was signed. Revell briefly manufactured its own line of HO scale model trains beginning in 1956.
The Kramer brothers sold tunnels for toy train layouts as part of their Life-Like line. The original supplier was making the tunnels from papier mache, but was unable to deliver on a consistent basis. At the same time, they learned about a German manufacturing process to mold expanded polystyrene foam into shapes that could later be painted and decorated. They imported the technology and began making tunnels out of the polystyrene foam. According to son Jay Kramer, workers at the factory discovered the insulating properties of the foam tunnels could be used to keep their lunches hot or cold. Soon after, the company began producing foam ice chest coolers under the Lifoam name in 1954.
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Wikipedia