By Jason Hasert

New 1/64 John Deere dealership from Ertl

Displays can go beyond the model farm.  Many collectors like to expand their set up to include tractor dealerships.  Model farms have to have a place to buy their equipment. 
 
Having a tractor dealership on your display opens up new equipment opportunities.  With a dealership you can show off a fleet of new machinery.  The latest 4wds, 2wds, combines, seeders can all be in one spot.  
 
When Ertl first introduced the Farm Country buildings in the early 1990's they included a tractor dealership building set.  The building was a traditional dealer with a showroom and parts counter up front and a service bay in the rear.  The set included a white Ford F-250, a dealership sign and various shelves and tools.  The set also included decals to place on the sign, building and pick up truck.  You could chose between CaseIH, Deutz-Allis, Ford-New Holland, John Deere and Massey-Ferguson decals.  Like all farm toy pieces the dealership set was phased out after a few years.  The sets went on clearance and could be purchased for $9.99 reduced down from their original $25.00 price tag.

In the year 2000 many collectors started to notice the dealership set was getting scarce and they wanted the building for their displays.  This set started bring top dollar at toy shows and as much as $70.00 on E-bay.  Collectors started asking Ertl to re-release the set and in July 2004 Ertl answered the call.  The new John Deere Dealer Play set was a nice summer surprise.  It includes the original dealer  building and a variety of John Deere toys.  The set has an exclusive plastic 8520 (the first 8520 in 1/64), exclusive John Deere 7820 on European style single tires and a John Deere 4440 as a trade in tractor.  There is a new Ford F-150 Pick truck and John Deere implements including the 2700 mulch-ripper, 338 baler, hay rake, gravity wagon, barge wagon and trailer. 
 

Exclusive John Deere 8520 and 7820 to the new John Deere dealer set

New Ford F-150 in the John Deere dealer set

The new John Deere dealer set is a nice starter set for a display plus it gives you a few different tractors for the equipment lot.  Collectors hope that other brand dealer sets become available.  CNH could offer CaseIH and New Holland dealer sets.  AGCO could offer a nice set including an AGCO/MF dealership with a new AGCO DT and Massey 8200 series tractor and use Oliver, Allis-Chalmers and Massey-Harris tractors as trade in models.  The Hesston hay equipment could also be included.  

When you add a dealership to you display the Ertl building offers the perfect start.  You can make an equipment yard and line up tractors and equipment around the building.  It makes a nice setting on the display and provides a new aspect to the model country side.  

Basic John Deere Dealer Display

If you add a dealership to your display you may want to go beyond just placing tractors around a building.  Many collectors put lots of effort into building farms with barns, grain bins and fields.  Putting the same effort into a dealership can add to your displays realistic look.    Below is a nice looking display that was at the St. Louis Toy Show.  It included a large farm operation and CaseIH dealership.  

Large Farm Display at 2004 St. Louis Farm Toy Show with farm and dealership

This CaseIH dealership was well done.  Two friends built it.  All of the buildings were custom made from vinyl.  Certainly an interesting choice for buildings but effective for displaying.  The yard had the extra attention that set it apart from the average dealer display.  New CaseIH equipment like the AFX 8010 combine, 1200 ASM planter, MRX690 ripperSTX Steiger and MX Magnum were placed up front along the road.  The dealer display also had short lines on display like Kinze and Reynolds.  The short lines were a nice touch because most dealers offer a variety of implements for farmers beyond their core line. A CaseIH 2388 was shown on a semi coming into the dealership.  Rather than putting the combine on the trailer they took the extra step to take the wheels off the combine.  Combines are tall machines and in order to hual them over the road the wheels are taken off to lower them to pass under bridges.  

My favorite part of this dealership was the used lot.  The used tractors were lined up behind the new items.  There was a mix of modern and classic CaseIH trades as well some older John Deere tractors.  The used combines were placed out behind the dealer.  The nice thing about that was that the grain heads were all lined up off to the side of the used combines.  If you visit a tractor dealer you will most often see the grain heads on the lot lined up away from the combines.  Unlike Ertl toys real combines and grain heads are sold as separate items.  When a farmer trades combines he may keep his old heads or he may upgrade headers but keep the combine.

1/64 CaseIH dealership lot

Notice that the driveway and parking lot are paved but the yard is gravel.  Great detailing/ 

If you are thinking about building a tractor dealership or using the Ertl building visit a few dealers in your area and look around their lots and see how they have things set up.  I visited my local AGCO, CNH and John Deere dealers to show a few different ideas on ways a lot can be arranged.  Below are some ideas that picked up from my visits.

 AGCO 

CNH

John Deere

I hope that this article gives you ideas on ways to incorporate your new Ertl John Deere dealership set or inspires you to venture into building your own replica dealership.  Attention to small details can go along way in setting your display apart from the rest.  The ideas listed are not hard to incorporate or expensive but can get people asking about your work. 

In a future "Down on the Model Farm"  we will look at classic tractor dealership displays.  This type of lay out takes extra work because outside of some classic tractors from Ertl and Scale models there are not many classic tractors and pieces of equipment on the 1/64 toy market. For example, Jonathan Klawonn built a 1/64 Minneapolis-Moline dealership for part of his 2003 National Farm Toy Show.  This type of dealer takes some advanced interest in effort.   Most of pieces are custom and had to be scratch built or purchased from a custom builder.  Something to think about until the next Times.  

Jonathan Klawon's Minneapolis-Moline dealership display	Classic Minneapolis-Moline Dealership  Minneapolis-Moline Equipment
M-M dealership shop

e-mail: toyfarmer2@msn.com