Greetings from Dyersville!

I can’t believe it is already July. Where is the summer going.. I had a good time talking to some of you at the Summer Farm Toy Show. We were able to show you some new items, including all the “Farm Show” units for the various OEMs. (I’ll talk more about these below.)

One of my goals is to get to all 99 counties in Iowa. I was also able to take a quick vacation in June which allowed me to check another 13 counties off of my list. One of the places I visited was the American Gothic house in Eldon, Iowa. If I had my overalls on I think I’m the spitting image of Grant Wood’s farmer!

Let’s talk about the new “Farm Show” units we have coming out for 2019. First is the 1:64th New Holland FR920 “Forage Cruiser” Self Propelled Forage Harvester. (Stock # 13953OTP) This item features new tooling and has dual front wheels. It also includes both the corn and hay head. The FR920 has 911 max engine horsepower. It also has a 55 degree steering angle giving it a turning circle of only 21 feet. Ertl will also have some “chase” gold chrome units randomly inserted into the production run.

The Case IH “Farm Show” units this year will be both a 1:32nd and 1:64th RowTrac AFS Connect Magnum models. (1:32nd stock # is 44202OTP & the 1:64th is stock # 44201OTP) We will randomly insert silver painted “Chase” units in the production run. These units feature the new grille, hood and cabs of the “AFS Connect” Magnum models.

The 2019 John Deere farm show units include a 1:16th XUV590M S4 Gator (Stock # 45715OTP) and a 1:64th R4038 Sprayer (Stock # 45716OTP). The Gator is in their black paint scheme and will also include some randomly inserted black chrome chase units. The R4038 Sprayer will feature a chrome plated tank and will also have randomly inserted silver painted models.

We also had samples of the new 1:16th Farmall 766 Precision tractors (Stock # 44149). We are producing these tractors with both the early “white panel” versions as well as the later “black stripe” models. The same quantities of both models will be produced.

Visitors to the Summer Farm Toy Show also got to see our new 1:64th John Deere RX860i Gator. (Stock # 45593) It’s one of the smallest 1:64th scale items we’ve produced in some time. It’s small, but is packs some cool features included a bed that dumps.

We have plenty of additional new items coming out this Fall. I’ll do my best to keep you updated.

Until next time,

Bill