Greetings from Dyersville!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday. I’m glad 2020 is over and we have moved on to 2021! Now that the days are getting longer I’m already thinking about spring. On December 29th Mother Nature blessed us with the last snow of 2020.

I try to stay positive and snow can be really beautiful at times. In other instances it can cause real problems.

My wife and I were also blessed with a new granddaughter in January. My daughter Allison and her husband Nolan welcomed Ivy Elaine to our family. Everyone is doing fine, and we’re so happy to welcome her into this world.

For those of you who weren’t able to come to Dyersville last year, I’m hoping you’ll be able to visit in 2021. The National Farm Toy Museum has setup a special display that looks back at the last 75 years of Ertl. There are displays of some of the early models, history of the Ertl family and a big selection of toys produced throughout the various decades. The ERTL Team in Dyersville put together a video of the display; watch it here: https://youtu.be/agFZI-GWcVI . I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live through the early days when the Ertl family lived in Dubuque on Algona Street and produced toys in the basement of their house.

While we’re talking about the National Farm Toy Museum I want to mention our next NFTM model that will be coming out in the summer of 2021. We will be producing a 1:32nd scale IH 4786 tractor with duals. (Stock # 44253OTP) This tractor features the later “Black Stripe” paint scheme with the revised curved stack. This will be a one-time production run and will be available through your local Case IH dealership or through the National Farm Toy Museum.

On our ERTL Facebook and ERTL Farm Instagram we recently announced that our 2021 Case IH and New Holland catalogs are finalized. Check out our new catalogs, recent flyers and past catalogs here: https://us.tomy.com/ertl/catalogs/all . We have some interesting new models planned for the first six months of 2021 that we are excited to show you.

For Case IH we’re announcing a new 1:64th 2150 Early Riser Planter. (Stock # 44183) This features a die cast frame with folding wings and foldable marker arms. It also transitions from road transport to field work. This planter will be available in March 2021 at your local Case IH dealership.

For New Holland we have updated our 1:64th T9 tractors to the new PLM”TM” models featuring new cab updates, air intake system and new hood graphics. For the SmartTrax”TM” models we are also updating the tracks and track frames.

If you like pedal tractors check out our new Farmall Super C “Blue Ribbon” pedal tractor.

I think it’s time for all of you to start meeting other members of the team besides just me. Starting in my next blog I’ll start introducing you to some of my co-workers and people who make this all happen. The first team members to be featured will be Pat Wessels and Garrett Trilk. Be sure to catch the next blog to find out about these guys and their key contributions to ERTL Farm Toys!

Until next time,

Bill