By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

XENIA, Ohio — Anyone can be a collector of farm toys. But fewer, such as Dan Robinette of Xenia, can say they own replicas of the actual farm machinery with which they once tilled the earth.
“Collecting these toys is a reminder of my past,” said Robinette, who grew up on a Greene County farm and plowed the land with his father and two grandfathers.

He was the special guest at last month’s Greene County Farm Forum. There he displayed some of his 550-piece collection and gave pointers to those wanting to start a farm toy collection.
“In 1958 I was four years old; that’s when I got my first John Deere toy for Christmas,” Robinette said. “Every Christmas after that I’d receive a farm toy. I wish I knew back then that you could restore them, because I wore many of those tractors out and many were thrown out in the trash.

“I destroyed many of the originals. A lot of the ones I have now are replacements. Nothing from 1958 through 1962 survived. But eventually, I started putting some of my toys on a bookshelf and saving them.”

Just as many children who stopped collecting baseball cards or model trains, Robinette shelved his collection as well. That all changed in 1980, though.

“In the 1980s I didn’t have the money to purchase anything but looked at the toys as a reward,” he said. “The times were so depressing that sometimes one needs a pick-me-up, so I would go out and buy a toy.”

Now he has 550 toy tractors (or implements) and nine pedal tractors. He refuses to disclose the actual value of his collection.
“I would say that 70 percent of farm toy collectors had something to do with farming,” he observed.

According to Toy Farmer Magazine, the most popular reason most people collect the toys is nostalgia. Toy farm tractors have been on the market since the 1920s. In the 1970s they became the focus of many serious collectors. As a result, children no longer dominate the hobby of toy tractor collecting.

Farm toy collecting can be an expensive hobby. Prices can range from a few dollars to $1,000. “It doesn’t take long to spend $500,” Robinette said. “I budget myself with $200 a year. You can restore an old toy for half the cost of a new one. The only thing you can’t replace are the bodies of the toy, but you can get replacement decals and attachments.”

According to Robinette, farm toys can be obtained through private sales, auctions, garage sales, flea markets, toy shows, toy dealers and the Internet.

“Condition of a toy is important too,” he said. “Some collectors leave them in the box and never use them.”

Some modelers go so far as to create miniature farm scenes. Serious collectors focus on everything from one brand of model to antiques. Most toy tractors and other farm toys nowadays are mass-produced die-cast models manufactured by Racing Champions Ertl, Scale Models and Spec-Cast. The most popular tractor brands available are John Deere, Case IH, Ford New Holland and AGCO, which includes Massey-Ferguson, Gleaner, Allis-Chalmers and Oliver. Older models such as Minneapolis-Moline and Farmall are also available. And, many implements and accessories are available, such as grain bins, barns and even animals.

Then there are pedal tractors, those strong enough to support a young child. Robinette had one pedal tractor on exhibit, but he owns nine of the relics.

The four most common versions of tractors are the shelf model, collector edition, precision and pedal tractor. The shelf model is usually manufactured over a period of several years and is not as valuable as a limited or collector edition toy. The limited, or collector, editions are limited to a one-time order or a specific quantity produced, which raises its value.

The precision series is a toy replica that is highly detailed with wire or filters on the model and is released in a numbered series. The precisions are popular with many serious collectors. Pedal tractors are the ride-on versions of new and vintage tractors. The most common scales of farm toy replicas are 1/8, 1/16, 1/25, 1/32, 1/43, 1/50, 1/64 and 1/87. Robinette specializes in the 1/16th-scale.

“For a lot of Americans, these toys are nostalgic reminders of their youth,” said Noel Barrett, an expert on such toys and owner of Antiques and Auctions in Carversville, Pa. “When the family farms they grew up on started dying out, many started collecting farm-related stuff, and that included toy tractors.

“Tractors were always part of the toy manufacturers’ lines. Once real tractors were being built, the toy manufacturers followed suit very quickly.”

Collectors can buy most of these vintage toy tractors for between $75-$200.