Farmer-Collectors Flock to National Farm Toy Show

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Bill Panncke, one of 10 outdoor vendors who have been at the National Farm Toy show for the past 10 years, shows some of his wares. Nikki Rajala

Collectors cluster around tables, sharing snapshots of their "favorites" - farm toys, not grandchildren. They plunk down hard money for "floor rights," which means they get first pick of toys being sold by vendors, and sometimes, they even encounter old friends with whom they have shared, unknowingly, a passion for farm toys for years.

They are among the 20,000 collectors from all across the United States and abroad who attended the National Farm Toy Show, held the first weekend in November annually since 1978 in Dyersville, Iowa. Most are middle-aged men, many of whom have "gone public" with their hobby, thanks in large part to the efforts of the late Claire Scheibe of LaMoure, N.D.

For many years, it did not appear seemly for big, burly farmers to love and collect small farm toys. So for many years, collectors hid their collections and their interest, literally in the closet. When they wanted toys, they studied those at their local farm implement dealership, and as they placed them on the counter and reached for their billfolds, casually mentioned that they were buying the toys 'for my children' or 'for my grandchildren.'

Claire and his wife, Cathy, changed all that in the late 1970s. He was farming and running an antique business called S & S Antiques in 1976, when he began buying farms toys while on antiquing forays around the Midwest. The same year, he also purchased in bulk 100 Ertl toys, being sold for $2 each in a special offering by the Ertl Company in Dyersville.

Recounting the story earlier, Claire said, "By that time I was already known as the toy tractor guy in North Dakota. People were asking me if I had this tractor or knew of someone who did." To sell his new inventory, he started sending out typed lists of toys, which in time turned into Toy Farmer magazine, the premier magazine of the farm toy industry today.

As interest in the hobby continued to increase, Claire and Cathy started the National Farm Toy Show, and both the show and the publications helped legitimize farm toy collecting - and brought many farmer-collectors out of the closet.

The Scheibes picked Dyersville as the show's location for several reasons. That's where Fred Ertl Sr. began his first toy company, The Ertl Company, in the mid-1940s. Second, other major farm toy companies also have sprung up in this northeastern Iowa town, including Spec-Cast Company and Scale Models, which was started by Joe Ertl, Fred Sr.'s son. All three companies still operate in Dyersville, though the Ertl Company has changed hands several times and now goes under the name Racing Champions/Ertl Company. In addition, other smaller farm toy companies have operated in Dyersville from time to time, including some that continue today. Among those in business now is F.F. Ertl III, Inc., started by Fred Ertl Sr.'s grandson Fred Ertl III.