There was a day when folks gathered around the potbelly stove in the general store to share news, tell stories and gossip. Today, that setting has changed to the local barbershop in small-town America. In the case of Sonner's Barber Shop in Hillsboro, Ohio, the potbelly stove has been replaced with farm equipment models.
Little did Marty Sonner and his fellow barber, Matt Butler, realize their collections would create such a draw. Along with a haircut, the farm toys became a gathering point for customers to jaw about their favorite farm equipment brand.
"We always thought our quality barbering was what customers came for. Evidently, the toy tractors were the customers' excuse to stop by," Marty chuckled.
Marty explained, "It all started a number of years ago, when Matt decided to put some of his John Deere tractors on display shelves in the barbershop. That's when I brought some of my collection in for display as well. This evolved into more than we ever anticipated. We became aware of more farm toy collectors than we could have imagined. It also became an exchange point for some to sell or barter their extra models."

Every morning, Doug Harke settles into a chair at his computer, then launches an extensive search engine he's devised to hunt for farm toy literature on the internet. With such an extensive collection of catalogs, brochures and advertisements, it seems impossible there's more to find. But he still untangles some treasures from the web.
"That occasionally turns up things. Last fall, I found some Massey-Ferguson literature that I never saw before. One was from a year that I didn't have, but I didn't know that it existed," he shares.
Doug's collection of literature related to farm toys in an outreach of both his love of history and his love of the farm toys themselves, passions which both stem from his childhood.
"I always liked toys growing up," he says. He and his late brother had an almost complete set of Massey-Harris toys made by Lincoln, which they played with while growing up on the prairies of western Canada near Edmonton, Alberta. His favorite full-size tractor as a child was an International Super WD-9.

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It's available in the February TF 2020 magazine!
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Farm toy collectors are constantly searching for their cherished oldie, the creative custom piece or the latest and greatest. Collectors were able to pursue their quest at the 42nd Annual National Farm Toy Show staged in Dyersville, Iowa, in November 2019. The ample offerings throughout the show resulted in thousands of collectors breaking new ground by adding special models to their assemblage.
"I would say 90 percent or better of collectors either grew up on a farm or have connections to farming today," commented Kate Bossen, owner of Bossen Implement, indicating those connected with agriculture have the greatest influence with the farm toy hobby.
Some questioned whether the farm economy and challenging 2019 farming conditions would affect the show's success, but vendors were generally optimistic about the interest expressed by collectors.
"We have not seen a (farm toy) setback with the current farm economy. The rare toys are still as strong as ever. We've even seen resurgence in cast-iron toys. The only noted slump is the pieces that were overproduced," noted Ken Girard, whose Girard Auction & Land Brokers, Wakonda, S.D., sponsors a tent with several dealers.

Meld mechanical expertise with a generational family history in farm toys, then infuse a sense of humor. The result is Jered Buckert, a farm toy scratch builder and owner to "Looks Like Farm Toys."
The 32-year-old from Nauvoo, Ill., has a baby photo of himself clutching a 1/64 scale John Deere tractor, a toy which was handed to him shortly after birth. "They say I just grabbed onto that as soon as they handed it to me," he says. 
That John Deere is being held captive by his mother in a display case in the family home. "She said I can have it when she's gone, but until then, it's hers," Jered says with a laugh.
While Jered's love for farm toys in an inherited family trait, his business was launched when he became a serious builder, paying homage to implements from the 1940s to 1960s. 
"I've been keeping with the antique implements just because that seems to be a void in the industry," he says. "There are not a lot of guys building implements and part of the fun of owning an old tractor, to me, is taking it out and using it, pull the plow or run the combine."

Dan Robinette's has a defined purpose for assembling farm tractor and equipment replicas. "Collecting the farm toys I grew up with provides wonderful memories. In addition, I've rounded up models of the equipment I farmed with over the years. I'll often go into my man cave, look at special models and reflect on those memorable past days," Dan reflected.
Dan continued, "I also view my collection as being educational. Without seeing models of farm equipment from the past, the next generation cannot appreciate how farming was done. I don't expect young farmers to go back and farm as we did. But, it helps give them an appreciation for the progress that has been made through time. I enjoy sharing my collection for people to view."

Collection launch and content
Like most farm kids, Dan received a plethora of farm toys as gifts when he was a youngster. During his teen years, Dan probably 16 when I began buying my own tractors and equipment models. And then, when I graduated from high school, I got serious about putting toys on the shelves."

Members of the Chatham-Kent 4-H Association Farm Toy Club in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, are "learning by doing," by creating farm toy dioramas that realistically depict everything from a family farm to a tree farm.
"In 4-H, our motto is 'Learn to do by doing,' and I think our club, being such a hands-on club, is a ver good example of that," says 16-year-old Matthew Sterling, the youth leader for the Chatham-Kent 4-H Farm Toy Club. "Our immediate goal in the club is to create the dioramas, but our long-term goal is to share knowledge and enthusiasm for the farm toy hobby."
The 4-H club was launched in 2005 by Matthew's parents, Carl and Julie Sterling of Pain Court, Ontario, Canada, and Matthew's tow older brothers, Robert and Brian, who were teenagers at the time.
"In the beginning, it was focused on restoring and customizing 1/16 scale farm toys," Matthew describes. Three years ago, the club members switched their focus to creating scale dioramas with 1/64 scale farm toys.
Carl and Julie, along with Rob and his wife, Katrina, serve as adult leaders, with Matthew serving as the youth leader. They are all longtime farm toy collectors, as Carl and Julie started to collect farm toys shortly after they were married in 1984, with a special interest in replicas of tractors used on their farm, according to a Toy Farmer feature story in October 2007. Today, they continue to share their knowledge and interest in the hobby with area youth.
"There's just a passion for it," Matthew shares.

Ken Klettke was in a pinch to complete a farm display and could not find suitable components, so he built his own.
"I was looking for well-built silos for my home farm display. I wasn't able to find the quality 1?16 scale models I wanted, so I started building them. After the project was complete, my brother saw the models. He asked if I would build some 1/64 scale models for his display that he sets up at toy shows. My brother's friends saw his setup and asked if I would make some for them. So I started making more and selling them at farm toy shows. It mushroomed from there and as they say, the rest is history," Ken indicated.
At first, Ken was reluctant to take on more complex projects, but he was nudged on. "Bob Heath and Bud Wall are two friends with extensive scratch building experience. They saw my work and thought I was pretty good at it. They encouraged me to keep building," he shared.
Ken launched his custom endeavor by building 1/64 and 1/16 scale model silos. As requests came in, he began crafting 1/16 scale field equipment. And with time, the equipment became more complex. Ken noted, "Naturally, collectors wanted models of equipment they worked with. Some of those created real challenges. But, I learned to adapt anc build according to their desires."

As he farms the fields of northwestern North Dakota, Dan Maier studies the specifics. The distinct contours of a field. The exact stubble pattern of a corn row. The hue of the rusty abandoned equipment lining a tree row. The meandering tracks of a prairie road. Then he meticulously recreates those details in his farm displays.
Raised on a farm near Morristown, S.D., Dan graduated from high school in Mobridge, S.D., after his family left the farm. But the farm never left Dan.
"I couldn't let it go," he said. "Farming is all I ever wanted to do."
He now lives in Wildrose, N.D., with his wife, Janae, and newborn son, Joseph. And he climbs into the tractor cab every day to farm with his father-in-law, raising small grains and field peas on the plains of North Dakota amidst the oil wells of the Bakken Formation.
Dan was 19 years old when he pulled his childhood farm toys out of storage and decided to pursue the creation of his first display. With an overly ambitious idea, Dan never completely finished both of the 4x8 portions of that display.
"But it was a good learning process," he says.
Those lessons led him to seek the advice and ideas of others, and Dan quickly formed bonds with other modelers, including Adam Frerichs of Virginia, Neb., Chris Delva, from Fremont, Neb., and Chris Putman, a farmer on the prairies of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Denny May of Chetek, Wis., has crafted a unnique grader around a Farmall M pedal tractor. The original grader was manufactured and marketed as an American Coleman No. 8.
"Bob Anderson, who is a good friend, learned about a retired version of the old grader at Rick Lake, Wis. On a cold, winter day, without mush to do, we loaded up and drove north to find this piece of equipment. Since Bob was told exactly where it was located, we sought it out behind an old barn. Although it was nearly buried in snow, we took numerous measurements and shot pictures as best we could. This was all I had to work from in creating this project," Denny related.

TRACTOR OUTFITTED WITH GRADER
The American Coleman No. 8 was manufactured by the American Road Equipment Company of Omaha, NEb. This utility grader was built around a Farmall M with a 35-horsepower rating. The front wheels were first removed. Then framework was built to support the grader blade and turning mechanism, along with leaning front wheels. The 10-foot-wide blade was controlled by hydraulics. The resulting light-duty, economical machine was satisfactory in performing maintenance work on gravel roads and parking lots. It also served well in cleaning snow during the winter months.

For almost 20 years, Eef Smitshuysen has been building paper tractors from printed sheets. And despite not noticing many newcomers in this hobby, he has discovered that the number of building projects on the market is increasing all the time!
Eef lives in the village of Schimmert in the Metherlands, where he is the housekeeper and manager of a Schimmert rural museum.
Eef has enjoyed tractors and agriculture all of his life. His father was an Air Force pilot, which fuels Eef's interest in aircraft as well. However, the Smitshuyen family used to spend vacations at a campsite in the rural areas in the southeast Netherlands, well-know for its scenic landscape and peaceful atmosphere. It was on the neighboring farm to the campsite that Eef, who considers himself a city boy, first learned to drive tractor when he was a kid.

Want to read the rest of the story?  It's available in the June TF 2019 magazine!
Download here: JUNE TT&C 2019

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