By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

BROSLEY, Mo. — Last year, Cody Austin, who hails from Brosley, Mo., walked away with the winning display in his class at the Gateway Mid-America Toy Show. In his rice farm display, this young man creates displays of crops with which Midwesterners are not always familiar. In 2008, he had a cotton display, and continued the unusual theme with rice in 2009.

Gateway is an annual show that takes place in St. Louis the first week in February. This show is a mecca for young layout exhibitors and toy builders. Since his big win there in 2009, Cody has moved from it being just a hobby, to a business status.

“I started making cotton equipment last year,” he explained.
Cody is a senior in high school with plans to attend college to study engineering. He is off to a good start with his scratch-built items. One eye-catching machine he had for sale was the Boll Buggy.
“The Boll Buggy is scratch-built from brass or plastic. The buggy dumps the cotton into a modular building that makes the cotton bale,” he described.

One of the latest items in his equipment list is a liquid applicator. “This has a couple hundred pieces,” he shared, adding since they required so much work, he is applying for patents for the applicator and the Boll Buggy.

Cody had a bit of help applying. “My girlfriend, Amanda, is going to be a lawyer. She is helping me along,” he said.

Amanda even helped him paint one or two of his custom-built combines. Cody has a wide array of custom-built toys available: tractors, water fertilizer trailers and even a 1/64th-scale weed eater.
For more information about Cody’s