Look what I found

I'm sure most of you know by now that I work out of the Dyersville, IA office. Here in Dyersville we have the marketing, engineering, graphics and sales functions that handle most of the agricultural toys. Adjacent to the office is one of our warehouses where most of the farm product is stored and shipped out to retailers.

In the warehouse we have a special "archive" room where we've tried to keep samples of the product we've produced over the years. One of the items we have is a very early John Deere 1/64th tractor set. No one knows exactly when this specific set was produced, but most of the tractors shown in this set were tooled in 1967. You probably can't tell from the pictures, but most of these tractors had hooks for a hitch, instead of the holes we now use. It's interesting to me to look at the design of these tractors vs. what we are currently tooling today. I'm intrigued by the big blister card. Who knows, maybe someday we'll do this again.

1/32nd John Deere 8RT Tractor

Here are pictures of the new 1/32nd John Deere 8RT series tractor. John Deere made some changes to the new 8RT tracked tractors, including the new cab and track suspension. The new suspension has really made a big difference in the ride quality of these tractors according to John Deere.

We are doing a special 1/32nd version for the John Deere Waterloo Factory Store. This will be a model 8345RT replica. This unit features the new track suspension, something we also did with the latest 9000 tracked replica we produced in 1/32nd scale.

This unit will be shipping in March.

Bill

"New" 1/64th New Generation Set

As I'm sure all of you are aware, 2010 marks the 50th Anniv. of the New Generation tractors from John Deere including the 1010, 2010, 3010 & 4010 Tractors. We decided to come out with a set of these tractors in 1/64th scale. Unfortunately at the time our new 2010 catalog was being developed we did not have any units to photograph. We finally received them in and the photos should help you get a better idea of what they'll look like.

Notice that these tractors have authentic steering wheels. I keep hearing on chat boards about our steering wheels. Understand that making an authentic looking steering wheel sometimes involves making another tool, which can get very costly.

New 1/64th JD SP Windrower

I had several people come to me at the National Farm Toy Show and ask if we had a prototype of the new 1/64th JD SP Windrower that they could see. Unfortunately, at the time I didn't have anything to show you.

Now I finally have something!!! I hope you enjoy the images and I can tell you that the rear tires do not pivot, they are fixed. This unit does have cab glass and will hopefully make many people happy. At least those that like JD and hay equipment!!!!

Happy 2010, or should I say 2510?

I wanted to show you some images of our new 1/16 JD Precision 2510 tractor with sickle bar mower. This is #9 in the Precision Key Series for John Deere.

We've tooled a narrow front 2510 w/roll guard along with the model 50 side mounted sickle bar mower. The detail on this unit is outstanding. I hope the pictures do it justice. Notice all of the hydraulic lines and the detail of the mounting brackets for the mower.

I hope all of you had a great 2009 and I look forward to keeping you updated on our new 2010 projects throughout the year.

Bill

1/64th Case IH 2010 Spring Farm Show Tractor

For those of you who didn't get to our showroom during the National Show, I wanted to make you aware of a 1/64th Case IH Magnum we're producing.
We are producing a 1/64th Magnum 305 with rear triples and front duals as a special "Spring 2010 Farm Show edition". Case IH will have a booth at both the Ag Connect 2010 show in Orlando, Florida, along with the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

2010 also marks the 25th Anniversary of Case IH. We're celebrating this anniversary by adding in some "red chrome" chase tractors into the production run. The picture below shows both versions of the tractors. This is stock # 14748A. Good luck in finding this.
Bill

New 1/32nd Case IH 9120 Tracked Combine

We've just received in the new 1/32nd Case IH 9120 Tracked Combine. This combine comes with a 16-row corn-head along with our existing grain head. I received quite a few questions at the National Farm Toy Show about why we didn't tool a bigger grain head. All I can tell you is that we are waiting to hear from our contacts at Case IH about this same subject.

As you can see from the pictures, I also want to highlight the new 1/32nd diecast grain cart we're tooling. Don't mistake this grain cart for the "mostly" plastic model we've had in the past. The entire frame and cart body of this unit is diecast and now features the "hole" hitch that works with the pins on our newer 1/32nd tractors.

If you want to do some serious combining, be sure to take a look at this great model.