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By: Dan Adamson


I hope everybody made it back from St Louis safely. From all the pictures I’ve seen on Jason’s website it looked like a great show with lots of great displays.
This month’s focus will be on the Ertls TW series Fords with the black and red decals that came towards the end of the TW series. Ertl released these in the late 1980’s. It was during the era of Ertl’s FWA, duals and loader models. These models included both a TW25 and a TW35.

The most noticeable feature is the filled rivet hole for the loader. This hole was used on the loader model to attach the loader to the tractor. Previous blue decal models can be found without this.

Another feature that will vary is the grill decal. You can find it in many shades of grey ranging from a light grey to a dark grey.

The last picky detail is the size of the lettering on the decal. This will also vary from very small, then lettering to a larger thick lettering.

Now for the real variations. The first model is a TW35 row crop tractor. This was followed by a dual wheel version that can be found in both the TW25 and TW35 models. This is also true for the FWA models. The front wheels on these FWA models have the old style Power Pull front wheels.

Some of Ertl’s other tractors have the later, better looking new Power Pull wheels, but I have not found that variation among the Ford TW series.
The last regular edition variation is the loader model. This model had the old style large loader. It has a larger bucket and is riveted to the tractor a little more crudely.

Two show tractors can be found. The 1st is a TW35 Farm Fest 1989 show model. This is for the 8th annual Farm show. The Farm Fest tractors are very rare. There were four or five different Ertl models made each year. Other models for the 1989 show included a John Deere, and a CIH. That year’s models are each 1 of 200.

The last variation is a TW35 made for the 75th Pennsylvania Farm Show in January of 1991. This came packaged separately in a cardboard box.