Gerdjan Bos, 56, and Arne Meekhof, 38, are two friends with the same passion for collecting, converting and scratch building farm toys.
Both friends are from the Netherlands. Meekhof lives in the province of Drenthe, and Bos lives in the province of Overijssel.
Living in the northeastern part of the Netherlands where there is a lot of farmland, the two share their hobby and a farm toy display with different scenes.
Bos loves the Veenhuis and Fendt toys, while Meekhof is more of a Case IH collector.
Bos worked for many years as a contractor, but now he is working for the Department of Public and Traffic Light Management for the provincial state of Overijssel, planning everything to do with traffic lights and street lights.

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For 2022, the National Farm Toy Show tractor resumes the line of 1/32 scale four-wheel-drives, and continues the 1/64 scale line. The Toy Farmer started this line in 2003 with a 1/32 scale John Deere 7020. In the series, there has been a previous Massey Ferguson four-wheel-drive: a 1/32 scale Massey Ferguson 1500 celebrated the 2004 National Farm Toy Show.
This year's National Farm Toy Show toy replicates the Massey Ferguson 4840, the real machine having been built and sold from its late 1978 introduction through 1983. 
Along with Allis-Chalmers, Massey Ferguson was something of a late-comer in the four-wheel-drive tractor market. In 1961, International Harvester (IH) started offering the IH fixed-frame 4300 crab-steer, built at the Hough assembly plant and incorporating some Hough components. And John Deere executives dipped their toes in the market with the 1963 John Deere 8010. Case began selling their crab-steer 1200 tractors in 1965. In 1966 and 1967 Steiger and Versatile started making "noise" at farm shows.

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Like a typical farm kid, Layne Atwater pushed toy tractors through the sandbox as a child. He still has all his childhood tractors in his collection, but his favorite was his John Deere 8650.
"Grandpa had a John Deere tractor when I was little, and I wanted a toy tractor that was a replicas of Grandpas's. The closest they found was the 8650, so it quickly became my favorite plaything. I spent hours farming the sandbox in our backyard," Layne said.
Even in high school, Layne showed an imagination, able to envision what a tractor could become, so he began customizing toy tractors.
"It's been a long time, but in high school, my customizing was simple things, like adding lights, different tires or painting a tractor," he said. Even then, Layne wanted to make his own parts, rather than buy them.
"I actually fabricated small things, like a set of tractor lights using nail heads," he added. "Back then, I glued all the accessory parts onto the tractors."

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According to Joe Trout's count, he has had more than 6,000 "children" so far, and he plans on getting more.
"My toys are my children," he said. "I have had two major John Deere model collections. My first collection had 4,000 models, and my second collection has over 2,000 models in it."

An early love fore tractors
Joe, of Gambrills, Md., grew up on a small, 108-acre farm in Westminster, Md. His parents, Clarence and Rheba Trout, had about 40 head of cattle and grew hay and other grains.
Clarence taught his son many lessons, but the love of John Deere tractors made the biggest impression on Joe.
"Dad owned a variety of different farm equipment, but he truly loved John Deere equipment. I learned early in life, though, that green is both the color of John Deere and the color of money, so Dad bought Farmalls, Fords and other machinery. He pretty much bought what he could afford, and that wasn't always John Deere," Joe said.
In 1967, Clarence purchased a new John Deere 3020 tractor. Later, he owned a John Deere 4010 and a John Deere 4020 diesel, but the 3020 remained his favorite tractor.

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Tom Cornwell grew up in an auction family, now known for farm toy auctions as well.
"My father, Les, upon returning from the service in 1947 boarded a train at Grand Island, Neb., and headed west to Sterling, Colo., to attend the Jim Hoover School of Auctioneering and Radio Broadcast. After returning from Colorado, he established the Cedar Rapids Sale Pavilion at Cedar Rapids, Neb. He co-owned and operated the sale barn until the fall of 1957, when fire destroyed it. In 1957, he moved to Aurora, Neb., and bought into the Aurora Sales Pavilion," said Tom in a tribute to his dad on the business website.
"From that time on, he conducted numerous auctions throughout Hamilton and adjoining countries. He was the auctioneer at livestock sales at various times in Grand Island, Ravenna and Wahoo. Later, his brother, Bill, joined him in the auction business and, in 1979, I started working auctions with him. He held a real estate license in conjunction with the auction business. In addition to his brother (Bill) and me, my brother, Kent, has also been active in the auction business as a ting man," Tom shared.
"I have many cherished memories during my childhood following Dad from auction to auction and growing up in the auction environment."

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Avid farm toy collectors gathered in November 2021 for the 44th National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa. The farm toy hobby continues to thrive, as collectors pursue that next great gem, which may be a cherished oldie, the latest release from a preferred brand or a detailed custom piece. Still others search for elements to customize models or to build displays. With this passion, the search for excellence in farm toys continues.
Collectors relished the opportunity to travel to Dyersville, Iowa, after the disrupted show season in 2020. The event facilities were abuzz with excitement during the entire show. And vendors were grateful for the renewed enthusiasm.
The show also provided collectors the opportunity to reconnect with old friends. They may have traveled from across the state or the country. Friendships developed through this hobby are intangibles that make these events special. The national show was a grand success b all measurements.

Christopher Malsam's foray into collecting farm toys began March 16, 1991. That's the day his parents, Conrad and Jacquelin Malsam, arrived in Aberdeen, S.D., for his birth. With Jacquelin in the early stages of labor, a nurse suggested the couple attend a local farm toy show to walk around for a bit.
At the show, Conrad became a farm toy collector after purchasing a set of state tractors offered by Scale Models. 
Today, Christopher, who is 30 years old, and his father share much more than the story of his birth. The two partner in a construction company, Malsam Carpentry in Hosmer, S.D., and attend toy shows together, eyeing the latest models and visiting with other collectors.
And, Christopher jokes, the same conversation often arises as they meet other farm toy collectors year-to-year. 
"How are the crops?"
"We still don't farm. We're still doing construction," Christopher replies.

Mark Parker, of Burlington, Ky., has his priorities just about right. "I'm a kid at heart," he said. "I show full-size restored farm tractors, have a huge collection of scale model tractors and farm memorabilia, and since 1996, I have a Fountain 35 Lightning hotrod speedboat that goes almost 100 miles an hour, and it is a real rush to hear it roar as it zooms down a lake. The truck is, I've never really grown up."
Like many model farm toy collectors, Mark grew up on a farm. "Mom and Dad - Gloria and Carl Parker - purchased 72 acres in 1962, when I was about 4 years old," he said. "Dad grew tabacco, hay and some corn, and Dad's tractor of choice was a Massey Ferguson 165."
Moving to the farm near Walton, Ky., was a big adventure for a little boy. Mark's earliest childhood memory is of carrying feed buckets. "I was just 4 years old, but I clearly remember carrying feed buckets into the barn and dumping feed into a trough for one of our Hereford cows. When someone says they have worked all their life because they went to work at 18 or 19, I kind of laugh, and then I think about growing up on a working farm where I started working at age 4. Like all the farmers I knew, I have truly worked all of my life," he said.

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 When Drake Schaben, a 14-year-old high school freshman from Roland, Iowa, toted a display to the Summer Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa, it was his first foray into that aspect of the hobby. While he didn't win an award, he's now inspired to do more, and to continue to pursue the farm toy hobby.
"I am, in the future, going to continue. I think this is going to be my main hobby," he says.
He's truly been bitten by the farm toy bug.
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's something I can cure. What am I talking about? Of course, not 'unfortunately.' I'm glad," he says with a laugh.

Getting Started
Drake has studied past farm toy displays, noting details and thinking about his own ideas.
"I've always loved seeing all these displays by other collectors and I said to myself, 'Hey, it would be amazing if I could do one myself," so I went out to the woodpile and got myself a wooden board and started painting."
The 3x4 display has an intricate story about a mid-July first-crop wheat harvest. "They usually do two crops per year of wheat, double-crop it," Drake says of the farm scene. "Across the road, you've got some people working on machines in the shop, getting them all ready for the planting and cultivating season. You've got the neighbor driving by, pulling a header cart with a header on there. The neighbor was harvesting and a rock went through the head and busted it up pretty bad, so they just ran to the dealership and got a rental until theirs could be fixed. That happens quite a lot out in the field."

With a passion for the unusual, Jim Gorman's farm toy collection will never be complete. Gorman's collection of commercially made models caused his home to burst at the seams. But his zeal for the unusual replicas has not been satisfied. When Gorman sees a model not previously made, he builds it.
"I enjoy building unique models, those not made commercially. I don't have an accurate count, but I've customized or scratch built well over 100 different models. Most of those replicas were created for my own collection. I have built a few pieces for my collector friends, however," Gorman noted.
Antique tractor and steam thresher shows are the best events for Gorman's inspirations. "I was meandering through the Miami Valley Steam Threshers Show & Reunion held in Plain City, Ohio. On that walk, I spotted the New Holland SP166 baler. SP in the model number stands for self-propelled. I checked it out and learned that it was rare. That peaked my creative interest, so I took a bunch of pictures for future reference," he stated.
Gorman eventually scratch built a 1/16 scale model.

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