D2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 12,1981
BYM.H.GITT
Staff Correspondent
MX. HOLLY SPRINGS - Bob
Weaver has an inventory of
tractors and farm equipment that
would make any dealer green with
envy. His lineup boasts over 100
tractors, both wheeled and
tracked, and about 100 pieces of
other equipment combines,
disks, plows, balers, and corn
pickers, to naine a few.
But, unlike other machinery
dealers who would need acres upon
acres to display this array of
implements. Bob keeps his medley
of machinery in his house his
equipment is of the miniature
variety. You see, Bob is one of a
growing number of people who
collects and invests in toy tractors
and farm machinery.
While toy tractor collectors are
as yet an unorganized lot, Bob
explained dealers get together
every chance they can and hold
shows to compare their best pieces
and sell others. Recently, the
collectors held a show in Beaver
Falls with dealers from as far
away as Florida, lowa, and
Missouri coming to participate.
The Cumberland County
collector traveled to the westem-
Pennsylvania town with his toy
display and managed to grab
second place with.a refinished
Oliver ‘BB’ pedal tractor, complete
with original decals and paint.
This particular tractor is unique
because it is shorter than most
pedal models. “It seems when they
first manufactured these tractors,
they found kids out-grew them too
quickly,” Bob remarked. “So they
lengthened them by about six
inches. If you see a pedal tractor
that appears shorter than ‘nor
mal,’ it’s an older type.”
According to Bob, who owns only
five pedal tractors, these types of
toy tractors are just beginning to
gain in popularity among dealers.
He explained these toys are dif
ficult to come by in good condition
because they are used hard by the
kids who ‘drive’ them. And being in
good condition is one of the three
mam factors that determine the
value of a tractor.
“The other two factors are age
and desirability,” Bob explained.
“Some people like a certain make
of tractor because they are
familiar with the ‘real thing’ so
they try to collect the toy models of
that brand. Pieces of Oliver
equipment may not mean much to
somebody else, but they mean
something to me because I collect
them.”
Bob explains his affection for
Olivers was cultivated when he
was a boy. His father was an Oliver
dealer in Punxsutawney from 1940
to 1955 before becoming active in
politics. Bob later drove and owned
full-scale Oliver tractors they
still remain his favorite.
“The real Oliver tractor is rare
and the toy is even more rare,” he
said. His most cherished toy is an
Oliver OC-6, a bulldozer-like
tractor that sports tracks instead
of wheels. Along with the tractor,
Bob also has an OC-6 poster
adorning a basement wall, a sign
from his father’s dealership, an
Oliver clock, and a porcelain sign
advertising Cletrac crawler
tractors.
Bob recalled how he began
collecting toy tractors about seven
years ago when his travels took
him to various implement dealers.
“I would be waiting around to see
the owners and would start looking
at the toys. I noticed some models
were out of production and thought
‘they ought to be worth some
money someday.’ So I started
buying and put the word out I was
interested in more toy tractors. A
lot of dealers gave me leads.’'
The search for toy tractors is not
always easy, as Bob explained. He
said there is a feeling of despair
when you look for months and can’t
He collects machinery in a small way
find the model you want. And just
as you’ve resigned yourself to the
hopelessness of the search
“bingo” you find two or three.
Bob confessed his greatest
satisfaction comes when he finds
an old toy because they are so rare.
In his quest for antique toys,
however, Bob faces the com
petition of people who buy the old
cast iron tractors simply because
they are old or to add to their
collection of cast iron articles.
But age isn’t the only criteria
that makes a certain toy tractor
more ‘collectible’ than another.
“When a company goes out of
business, like Oliver or Min
neapolis-Moline, the toys increase
in value because you know they’re
not going to be making any more.
Or when New Holland stopped
supplying toy tractors, prices on
these pieces went up fairly
quickly,” Bob observed.
Value also is determined by the
material from which each toy
tractor is constructed. According
to Bob, metal toys are worth more
than plastic ones. But, since plastic
implements usually warp or break
faster than metal ones, a plastic
toy in good condition is hard to find
and therefore valuable. In fact,
Bob recalled the highest price paid
for a toy tractor that he knows of
personally was for a plastic im
plement.
Some companies have
recognized the growing interest in
collecting toy tractors and have
produced ‘special edition’ runs on.
a number of mini-machines. Each
of the limited editions bears its
own registration number.
In one case, Bob recounted, a
certain company made one tractor
for each of its dealers. The prices
for these collector’s items went as
high as $2OO at the start, but later
dropped back down to |75.
This same company also
.produced a similar tractor with
only the registration number
missing—prior to mass-producing
toy tractors with no registration
box at all. According to Bob, these
‘blank box’ editions also are
collectible and will hold their
prices because they are, in a sense,
a second special edition. Bob has
one of these models in his collec
tion as well as a model tractor that
was produced during the Bicen
tennial complete with stars and
stripes.
As in any line of business, there
are pitfalls and imposters in the
toy tractor enterprise. Bob
cautioned collectors to be aware of
a specific case involving TruScale
and John Deere combines, both
almost identical except for decals.
“TruScale was a toy
manufacturer and patterned toys
to scale, however they had no
major tractor makers backing
them at the start. Later the tractor
people hired them to produce their
toys, which is the reason the two
combines (John Deere and
TruScale) look alike. In fact the
only difference is that one has a
dent which kept the boom elevator
in place during shipment.
“Some people will remove the
TruScale decals, paint the combine
green, stick on John Deere decals,
and try to sell them for a higher
price,” warned Bob.
Another danger in the toy tractor
collecting field is current
manufacturing of models of
tractors that were produced years
ago for which there never was a
toy model made. Some people are
led to believe it’s an old toy
because the style of the tractor is
old.
One clue to a tractors
‘credibility’, advised Bob, is that
new tractors generally have
plastic parts and aren’t as detailed
as the old tractors. This com
promise on parts is done to keep
down costs and make them af
fordable for kids, be said.
But what about the price the ‘Big
.eaver, .. Hofly Springs, keeps his’ with still another 0
farm machinery inventory on the tshelf. His combines, disks, balers and others,
collection of toy tractors totals over 100 pieces
Bob kneels next to his prize-winning Oliver shorter than most pedal tractors by about six
'BB' pedal tractor. This unique model is inches.
kids’ have to pay for their
collector’s tractors? According to
Bob. the miniature tractors still
don’t compare to full-scales in
price. “Most of the small ones go'
for between $2O and $5O, with few
costing more than $100.”
Even though it’s possible to tie
up a small fortune in this mini
Mdiytond gains assistant
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Eleanor F. Young has been named
assistant director for Home
Economics in the Maryland
Cooperative Extension Service
headquartered at College Park,
Md. She has been Extension textile
and clothing specialist at College
Park since 1971.
In announcing the appointment,
Craig Oliver, director of the
Maryland Cooperative Extension
Service, said, “Dr. Young is well
qualified to bring leadership to the
statewide Extension home
economics program. In the course
of her work during the past decade,
she has worked with most of the 45
home economics agents located in
all 23 counties and Baltimore city
as well as the other Extension
specialists officed at College
Park,”
machinery, the worth of these toy
implement collections is perhaps
realized more for their sentimental
value memories of countless
hours of summer fun spent
‘playing’ cateipillar operator or
farmer with little replicas of Dad’s
big tractor, or that death-defying
first run down the barn-bridge hill
A native of Detroit, Michigan,
Dr. Young earned all her degrees
at the University of Maryland
beginning with the B.S. degree in
home economics in 1955. She
worked for two years in the
homemaker testing service for
General Foods Corporation.
She added the M.S. in textiles
and clothing in 1958 and served for
seven years in teaching roles in the
College of Home Economics. After
four years as director of the
merchandising department of
Marjorie Webster Junior College,
she returned to the University of
Maryland as Extension textiles
and -clothing specialist and con
tinued her course work in the
agricultural and Extension
Education Department.
In 1976 she*, earned the Ph.D.
degree with a dual major in
that tested the courage of even the
bravest pedal-tractor pusher.
For Bob Weaver, his collection of
metal, plastic, and steel is much
more than just a hobby it’s
childhood memories and a touch of
the past all stored up in rows of toy
tractors. .
director
Textiles and Clothing and
Agricultural and Extension
Education.
Young is a member of the
American -Home Economics
Association, the Maryland Home
Economics Association, The
Washington Fashion Group, The
American Association of Textile
Chemists and Colorists, The
Maryland Extension Specialists
Association, Omicron Nu and Phi
Kappa Phi.
Young lives in Silver Spring with
her husband, an engineer with
Science-Management Resources.
The couple has two grown
daughters, one a geologist with
U.S. Geological Survey and one a
mathematician with the Syncon
Corporation.
Young’s appointment becomes
effective October 1,1981.