Blog

Greetings from Dyersville.

Where has the summer gone? It seems like only last week it was June, and now August is here.

I just got done picking our sweetcorn before the raccoons get it. As I talked earlier my stand wasn’t the greatest this year. My wife thinks it would be much easier to go buy sweetcorn in the store vs. trying to grow our own. She’s probably right. We’re having better luck this year with cucumbers, onions, beans and potatoes.

This last weekend I pulled out one of my favorite “toys” from my childhood out of the machine shed. In the early 1970’s my parents bought me a Honda 90 All Terrain Cycle. After damaging the engine, they traded it off on a newer 1978 Honda 90. I can’t tell you how much I used this over the years helping dad, and just having fun. These units were banned in 1988, but I keep this around for sentimental reasons. If you recall Ertl produced a replica of this unit, (Stock # 13020) back in the ‘90s. I guess you can figure out what we used to make our model.





Let’s switch gears and talk about some of the new product we have coming out soon. We just released new flyers for Case IH and New Holland dealers. Some of the new items we’ve announced include a 1:16th Case Interional 7230 Magnum tractor celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the 7200 series Magnum tractors. (Stock # 44168) We’re also including some randomly inserted “Mark 50” Magnum tractors in the production run. These “Mark 50” models had special paint schemes celebrating the production of the 50,000th Magnum tractor.






In addition to the 7230, we also are offering a newly tooled 1:16th Farmall 856 tractor with open station, 2wd and front weights. This is a 14+ Prestige model (Stock # 44128) with lots of nice detail. We’ve also tooled the 856 in 1:32nd scale and are offering this tractor as a 3+ unit under stock # 44130. The 856 replaced the 806 tractor in the late 1960’s as the mainstay of the “56” series.





In 1:64th scale we’ve tooled a new IH 3688 tractor. We tooled a 1:16th IH 3688 a few years ago and received quite a few comments asking for a 1:64th version. I hope this makes some collectors happy. This unit will be coming out in August under stock # 14135. We also tooled a new 1:50th Case 621G Wheel Loader in our line featuring updated graphics and detail. (Stock # 44134). )




For New Holland we’re featuring the Farm Show combine along with a new harvesting set which includes a CR8.90 combine, T9 Tractor, grain cart and straight truck with pup trailer. This is stock # 13933.


You can find these new flyers on our website at www.ertl.com under the “Catalogs” heading. We will also announce some additional John Deere construction items within the next few months. Keep watching my blog for more information. I hope your summer is going well. Stay safe.

Until next time,

Bill