DYERSVILLE, Iowa – The 45th National Farm Toy Show was held in Dyersville in early November. Hobbyists from across the United States as well as several other countries gathered in pursuit of “new frontiers” for their collections. 

“We were excited to sponsor the 45th annual National Farm Toy Show again this year. The attendance was the largest in recent memory. Two factors contributed to the large crowds. Mother Nature provided a blessing of rain which brought farmers out of the field. In addition, the farm toy hobby is alive and well. And vendors expressed pleasure with the wonderful interest. As a result, the show was a grand success by every measurement,” said Cathy Scheibe, owner of Toy Farmer Publications.

Manufacturers of farm equipment models are an important facet of the hobby. Companies represented at the National Show included TOMY International, owner of the Ertl brand, SpecCast, Scale Models, and First Gear with its Die-Cast Promotions brand.  

Availability of models was challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem has improved but shipping and labor shortages continue to slow the process. “New models never slowed down in design or in tooling during the COVID pandemic. Shipments were disrupted as ports closed both in the US and China. Fortunately, we’ve experienced improvement but it’s not back to normal,” Dave Bell, owner of SpecCast said.

The national show’s display contest attracts great interest resulting from intriguing craftsmanship. There are three divisions, Large Scale Adult, Small Scale Adult, and Youth. The first-place winner of the Large Scale division was Seth Eberhardt of Mediapolis, Iowa. His display featured stages of farm silage. Through his creativity, Eberhardt demonstrated harvesting, storage, and silage feeding.

Another major attraction is the annual National Farm Toy auction. Cornwell Inc. of Aurora, Nebraska, has managed the successful auction for 30 years. “Extremely rare toys and collectibles were offered through the 2022 auction. The high-selling piece at $18,500 was an Adriance Buckeye mower and reaper salesman’s sample. This rare collectible was designed for salesmen to demonstrate the product to potential customers in the late 1800s,” Tom Cornwell said.

Toy Farmer Publications, organizer of the National Farm Toy Show, publishes two informative magazines for the toy collector. Toy Farmer is the iconic publication for the farm toy hobby. Toy Trucker & Contractor is the principal connection for the truck and construction equipment hobbyist. To learn more about these quality publications, visit www.toyfarmer.com or www.toytrucker.com.