One of Wayne Eggert's fondest memories as a child was being handed a large box containing a set of Slik Oliver farm toys. Today, he still has two of those original toys in his collection, now carefully displayed in the basement of his home in Dickinson, N.D.
While Eggert has strong roots in the western North Dakota farmland, he wasn't bit by the collecting bug until he was an adult. But it was a child who inspired him.

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Working scale models are the result of Abe Miller's mechanical aptitude. Growing up and living in the Amish culture would not suggest this skill set, but Miller explained how his interest developed.
"Although my family farmed with horses, some mechanical equipment was used. Threshing machines were operated with stationary power. Small engines were used for certain jobs ... "

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A zoom chat between two boys who share an interest in farm toys eventually led to a winning display at the National Farm Toy Museum's 37th annual Summer Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa, in June.
Tucker, 11 years old, Owen, 8 years old, and brothers John, 13 years old and Luke, 10 years old, collaborated to complete a 1/64 scale display for the 2022 show, and walked away as the winners of the people's choice award.

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Kevin Trout gained an interest in farm equipment and, consequently, scale models by marrying into a farm family.
"I married a farmer's daughter. When Lisa was pregnant with our first son, Josh, I purchased a toy tractor for him. That was the seed that grew this great hobby. It wasn't long before the collection filled the available space in our home. Our younger son, Jacob, has since become interested in the hobby. We're now collecting and customizing as a father-son team," Trout stated.

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Bob Stoller constructed a beautifully conceived Toy & Hobby Museum in 1992. An Orrville, Ohio, attraction, the museum was built to display Stoller's extensive collection of scale model trucks. While the truck collection grew to well over 6,000 pieces, the museum also contained scale model farm equipment and countless memorabilia.
With space available near the entrance, Stoller thought a display of a family member's farm would be appropriate.

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Jerry Zahner's zeal for collecting farm toys started as a younster. "I've been collecting all my life. It started by saving many of the toys I played with as a kid. I also collected trains when I got older," he reflected. 
While visiting a farm equipment dealership through an early job, Zahner observed a group of old toys above the parts counter.
"Seeing those toys was intriguing. I couldn't beleive a person would have that many toys. When I expressed interest in them, he showed me a recently acquired John Deere collection. He said there were items among them for sale. That caught my interest. I couldn't resist, so I bought several," Zahner said.

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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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