Reporting from the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville (Iowa,USA)

Sunday, November 16, 2014
Cloud, cold and snow later in the day

Reporting from the National Farm Toy Show

in Dyersville 

(Iowa, USA)

I have a reader who writes to me and also asks some good questions. He wrote to me on November 3, to say that he was boing to the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville (Iowa, USA), the farm belt of the USA. Farming is a serious profession in Iowa, but so is farm toy collecting! I can;t believe that it's 2 weeks ago that Mr. Bob Walden write to me. He wrote back to me on November 9, and here's what Bob had to say.

"Well,  first the bad news. It was cold and windy. General admission to the museum and toy venders was $7 a person. That was fine. But to sit in the auction and bid was an additional $10 for a good seat. I'm old. Don't see all that well or hear that well. The $5 bleacher seats were out of the question. We arrived early because I did want to bid on a few items but wanted to see them first and I wanted to get a few pictures of the Vindex toys for you. Well, they used a tiny area for viewing and they was a constant SLOW line. I gave up! Also as you can kind of see in photo 810 the Vindex and most of the old toys I was interested in were in cases and not available for close inspection! Most of the people were there for the newer stuff that were in boxes. This being Dyersville, Iowa home of Ertl.  So before I could even bid on something we would have been into it (my wife and I) $37! and I couldn't even get a close look at what I wanted to buy. So we left. 

Then the sun came out. I walked through the tons of inside vendors. Had a ball! My wife, not so much! Items were priced very high which I expected but fun to look at.  Many of the toys I was interested in were painted and/or restored(?)  And looked it!  Then on to the museum! Wonderful! Many displays and items to see. I loved it! My wife, well ok. They had tons of places to sit and one room had old Roy Rodgers and Rin Tin Tin playing on an old tv. (Rin Tin Tin of my Rin Tin Tin Dexterity Puzzles!) The museum did have some nice Vindex farm items so that's where the pictures are from. I also sent some Arcade pictures as they are my kind of collectables. And the tin toys are always pretty and interesting to me. Also thought you might enjoy the picture of the tractors hanging to dry. They had a section laid out showing how some of the toys were made. I have sent these jpegs as sized for the web. But I do have the psd's if you would like those for their larger size. Hope you enjoy these.

Bob W."*
Reporting Courtesy of Bob Walden

 I understand what Bob meant when he said how costly it is just to enter an exhibition such as a home improvement show, or a food tasting fair. My wife and I used to go to the Fete de Gourmand here in Montreal,. It was in September on Ile Notre Dame, where our World's fair was in 1967 to commemorate the 100th birthday of Canada. It was a great place to go since I always was a bit risqué (challenging) and liked out of the ordinary food. There we would try alligator, ostrich, red deer, bison, and a few other things. Just to enter the fair at the time (at least 10 years ago) was $10.00 for parking, $15.00 to enter the grounds, and then of course you had to pay for mere tidbits of the exotica. We went anyway, but the year ofter, the fair was no longer. The cost must have been too prohibitive. The same I could say for the home improvement show, but I have to add one other "party pooper" - everything is in French. And so is the car show. But like Bob said , you can't touch anything, there are long lines to look at everything,and you have to keep moving.

Bob did send back some nice photos of old toys. 

However, they were behind glass, and "you couldn't touch!

Bob came well prepared. 

I'm assuming he's using a flashlight to examine the toy because it is under glass. 

I've made the photos larger than usual, so you can view them best in Blogger's slide mode setting.

I did my "usual" whitening effect to illustrate how the detail pops out better when you remove the distractions. Of course, it reporting, the big rule is to not alter a photo, especially with photo-eidting software!

However, for toys, I'll make an exception as the editor!

The Vindex Toy Company specialized in farm machinery, and made some of the finest cast iron toys of that era in America!

 Here's a nice Hubley cast iron set. I've revered the straightforward image and the "retouched" one. 

Notice how you see the nice round portholes on the sides of the cart. IN the straightforward image, you might miss these fine details,and as you know - I like details!

Below is another colour variation of the Hubley ice cart that you see above.

  

A wall of photographs of a factory from long ago.

Those green items hanging are cast iron tractors.

Below are some nice Arcade toys.

  Some fine farm machinery from Vindex.

A window  full of Marx toys.

I'm wondering why the  yellow and red tractor on the upper right shelf

has had parts taped up on the side and front.

If you ever search for a Marx tractor,you'll most likely to find a dozen different ones.

For myself, out's as if Mr. Louis Marx's "mission" was to create enough toys and variety for everyone, as well as to sell lots of toys for the company.

Below are some fine close-up photos from the window above.

At one time, close to 1/3 of all toys produced in the USA were manufactured

 by the Marx toy company.

I can say with certainty that Bob did a great job with his assignment covering the 

National  Farm Toy Show.

I'll have to wait to see what his next mission will be.

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com