HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe 27th Huron Pioneer Thresher Reunion, 1988-09-07, Page 4PAGE A-4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1988.
To be a knowledgeable collector, Cliff
Schultz says one should subscribe to
several of the very excellent farm toy
model collectors' magazines now easily
available in both Canada arid the U.S.A.
Little tractors big business
While many farm equipment dealers
today are feeling the pinch of an uneasy
economy, there is a dealer in LaMoure,
North Dakota, whose business is expanding
so rapidly that he can only guess at what its
final outcome might be.
Clare Scheibe (pronounced “Shy-bee”)
moves a staggering number of units through
his dealership each year. But the big-name
tractors and farm implements he handles are
only two to eight inches high - the “farm
toys” that have long since passed out of the
hands of kids in sandboxes to the hands of
big-time collectors, in what has become one
of North America’s fastest growing hobbies.
Mr. Scheibe and his family own “The Toy
Farm”, a shop which displays and sells more
scale model farm equipment than probably
any other dealer on earth, and he’s a man
who loves his work. It’s a job made to order
for someone perpetually young at heart.
Although they are often called toys, the
miniature equipment models are actually
extremely accurate and detailed blueprint
replicas of their real life counterparts, and
often sell for several hundreds of dollars as
soon as they are released. Farm toy
collecting has gone big time.
Most of the models seen in Canada and the
USA are made by the Ertl Company of
Dyersville, Iowa, which works closely with
the manufacturers of real farm equipment,
designing the rugged, metal die-cast toys
from actual scaled-down blueprints of the
real thing. Each year’s new model equip
ment is unveiled to dealers in conjunction
with the first showing of the real equipment,
and each “unveiling” is treated as a gala
occasion, since the “toys” can actually
assist in dealer sales of the real product,
according to Dan Ellidge, Ertl’s Line Product
Manager.
Mr. Ellidge is himself an avid collector,
and as a sideline runs a business called
Midwest Farm Antiques, buying and selling
antique model and toy farm implements, as
well as caterpillar toys and toy banks.
It is impossible to estimate the number of
farm model collectors in Canada or the USA,
butthehobby magazine TheToy Farmer
(published by the Scheibe family) is a glossy,
handsome periodical which is mailed
monthly to more than 10,000 subscribers
around the world, and which carries stories
and articles of interest to collectors, plus
advertising from dealers around the world, a
collector’s directory and several pages of
upcoming model shows and sales, as well as
detailed price lists of available equipment
and buy-sell-trade listings from dealer and
individuals.
The Toy Farmer may be ordered by
sending $25 in U.S. funds per annual
subscription to The Toy Farmer, RR 2, Box 5,
LaMoure, North Dakota, USA, 58458. It is
without a doubt the best of a growing number
of hobby-relatedmagazines available to
Canadian collectors, and is a must for any
serious collector.
The Scheibe family and The Toy Farmer
also sponsor the world’s largest farm toy
Grandma’s household hints
Kitchen Soap: Dissolve a ten cent can of
potash in one quart of cold water and add a
heaping teaspoon of borax. Let stand until
cool then strain five pounds of grease into it
by degrees. Stir until like soft soap and pour
into molds.
To Clean Silver: Put the silver article in
buttermilk for a day. Next, put it in water that
potatoes have been cooked in for an hour or
so and rub with a raw potato that has been
dipped in baking soda.
To Kill Bedbugs: Use moth balls dissolved in
show, the National Farm Toy Show and Sale,
held each November in Dyersville, Iowa,
home of the Ertl Company; this year, it’s on
November4,5, and 6. Last year, close to
20,000 people attended the three-day event,
many of them serious collectors seeking a
coveted item or trying to find a market for
some of their own better pieces.
The highlight of the National each year is
the Toy Auction, conducted along the lines of
a real farm equipment auction - and
sometimes getting bids nearly as large as
you’d hear at the real thing. Recently, one of
the top items sold on consignment from The
Toy Farm brought over $1,000 while an
antique model tractor went for more than
$1,800.
Although farm toy shows are becoming
more and more frequent in every state of the
USA, they have been slow to catch on in
Canada. Only a few have sprung up so far,
with one of the largest now going into its
fourth year at Woodstock, Ontario. But that
could soon change; Mr. Scheibe says that the
interest in the fascinating miniatures is
growing at such a rate that a model show may
soon be part of every farm show in the
nation - there by popular demand.
gasoline or smoke from Cayenne Pepper.
Also fifteen cents worth of quicksilver and
the white of an egg combined and shaken in a
bottleandappliedwith a feather will kill
bedbugs.
ToRemovelnkfromHands: Rub a match
head on spots before washing.
Laundry: Salt added to the rinse water will
help stop clothes from freezing to the clothes
line in cold weather.
To Grow Hair: Use axle grease and black oil.
Grey Hair: Steep husks of walnuts to make a
strong tea and wash hair in it.
4^__TRAVEL
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27th Reunion
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