“This is our 30th year,” Roy Lee Baker of the Gateway Farm Toy Club said about this year’s Gateway Mid-America Farm Toy Show in St. Louis. (Baker is one of the hosts of the show and a famous scratch-built toy maker.)

The Gateway Mid-America Farm Toy Show opened Feb. 4 and offered a variety of events over the Super Bowl weekend. Visitors had the chance to go from hotel room to room and see the vendor displays, as well as visit the vendors set up in the bigger rooms.

While many of the vendors have been coming for years, one collector just started a new business. Alan Chestnut and his wife, Leesa, hail from Ridge Farm, Ill., and this young farmer decided he wanted to open his own farm toy manufacturing company. Calling it Top Shelf, he started this past August.
“I’ve been dealing in toys and saw a void in the 1/64-scale truck hobby that is not filled. I looked at the opportunity and took it,” Alan said.

This small family company is looking to offer toys to both toy truck and agricultural collectors. “We fill a void for multi-hobby collectors,” he explained. “These trucks are items guys like for displays. Truckers like it to fit their truck collections and they fit in with farm displays.”

The first model should be available soon for vendors; the models are not available directly to collectors. At the show, Alan’s and Leesa’s boys were having fun seeing all that was on-hand. Gavin, 6, Blake 5, and Colin, 3, kept their parents busy.

Besides the vendors, that Saturday was the 30th annual Gateway Toy Auction. The auction was conducted by Mark Krausz Auction Service from New Baden, Ill., and offered more than 400 items in the day-long sale.
One of the highlights of the auction was Fred Clark’s scratc
h-built New Holland CR970 combine with a grain head and the rook Case SP 12 & Toreq 13000 dirt scrapper.

“Fred Clark’s combine sold for $4,500,” Mark Krause said, offering highlights from the auction. “The Tru Scale pickup that was new in the box was a nice piece and it sold for around $1,600.”

Memorabilia which included John Deere service manuals in a thick 3- to 4-foot stack brought around $950 and Mark said the other items such as an AC thermometer, John Deere signs and other brands, like Massey, were sought-after items. “These continue to sell well,” he added.

Turning nostalgic, this auctioneer shared, “This is the 30th year, there are a lot of people that have passed away and now the kids and grandkids are coming.”
Mention was also made in the show brochure as a tribute to those who have passed on over the last few years.

One man who appreciates each and every day is collector Elmer Maddox. This farmer and former state legislator had a heart transplant; he purchased Clark’s combine. Through the years Elmer has added to his ever-growing collection. “I am just happy to be here,” Elmer said – stating what most collectors felt.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.