New Materials, Technology Revive Farm Toy Hobby
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Lakone-Classic, Aurora, Ill., entered the farm toy fray in the early 1950s, manufacturing plastic toys like the International Harvester C, 200 and 230 tractors. Product Miniature, Milwaukee, also began making farm toys in the early 1950s. The company produced a few Ford, Allis-Chalmers and International Harvester pieces, mostly tractors but also sets and crawlers, all in plastic.
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Another big player during that decade was Reuhl Products, Inc., Madison, Wis. Andy Reul made such fine farm toys that he put himself out of business. Reuhl toys were assembled with screws. If a toy broke, replacement parts could be ordered to make the toy like new. Reuhl’s best-known farm toys are Massey-Harris tractors and combines.
Factoring in SpecCast
Dave and Ken Bell bought SpecCast in 1986 when it was making mostly collectible belt buckles, key chains, statues and a few collectible tractors. “I was working at Ertl’s in charge of farm toys, marketing, licensing and developing products for the replica industry for many years,” Dave explains, “so buying SpecCast was just a natural progression.”
Today SpecCast produces model tractors (not toys, Dave notes, but collectible items) in 50 to 75 versions per year. The company is especially known for its pewter farm models. SpecCast produces a line of pewter J.I. Case tractors, and short runs of tractors originally made by companies that went out of business after limited production.
Scale Models Toys spun off from Ertl Co. in 1977, when Joe Ertl set up his own plant, ensuring domestic assembly of his farm toys. His autographed farm toys are well-known in the industry. Scale Models produces John Deere, Case, Kubota, AGCO, New Holland and other makes, including 1/8-scale farm toys, 1/4-scale pedal tractors and 1/16-scale farm tractors.
Ertl Co., now part of Racing Champions/Ertl of Dyersville, Iowa, produces a wide variety of farm toys ranging from 1/87 to 1/16 scale.
Hobby goes mainstream
Up to the late 1970s, many collectors were closet collectors. “When I was 16 or 17 years old, I was collecting,” says Lyle Hovland, Rothsay, Minn., “but I wasn’t going to let any of my peers know I was playing with toys, or that I liked toys.”
Even in the mid-1980s, collectors were wary about going public. “Collectors are coming out of the closet now,” said the late Claire Scheibe (who launched Toy Farmer magazine) in a 1985 interview. “A grown person can collect farm toys, just like collecting rocks or stamps or coins.”
As farm toy shows became more prevalent, the hobby matured. Collectors wanted models with greater accuracy and more detail. The Ertl Co. responded with its highly detailed (and popular) Precision Series. But the company limits its annual output, leaving collectors wanting more.
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