With 3 sons interested in farms, I’ve spent my fair share of time hunting for good quality farm toys. The bigger the town or city, the scarcer the good quality farm toys. The best place to find them is of course in toy shops in rural towns surrounded by an enthusiastic market – and the very best farm toy retailers are in farming areas where the rural community is affluent enough to be able to afford the farm toys that the kids keep asking for! This means cotton growing areas.
When one of our sons turned three we forked out what was a lot of money for an Ertl ‘John Deere’ pedal tractor. Not one of those plastic jobs that deteriorate quickly in the heat and humidity of the tropics – we bought solid metal. In fact this toy tractor was so solid, that when our learner-driver son failed to completely make the turn under our Queenslander house, the door of the Japanese-made car yielded to the bonnet of the American-made pedal tractor. It has travelled many miles since and good-quality though the solid rubber tyres were, they have long since worn out, and have been bodgied up with old 1″ garden hose. Though nearly loved to death, it still works, and there is no sign of rust on the cast body of the tractor, though it’s missing a bit of the green bark (paint) by now. We certainly got our money’s worth.
Unfortunately most farm toys, like all toys, are now made of cheaper materials; i.e. cheap plastics or cheap metals (not all plastics and metals are equal, either; a good quality plastic is more durable than poor quality metal).
However good quality farm toys are still available. And it’s the smartest way to encourage future generations to have at least some interest and understanding of where their food comes from – by encouraging them to play with the toy farm animals and implements before they can even read, write or use a computer! Our sons have a collection of farm animals, toy farm machinery and implements that I am exceedingly jealous of. I had to make do with the scant and moth-eaten cast-offs from my elder brothers – such as ancient plastic cows that had long since had their hooves chewed off, and toy vehicles that were missing the vital bits, such as wheels. I have just ordered a tiny metal skid-steer loader, as the boys are sick of me pinching theirs. It’s a Bobcat so will be easily distinguished from their (yellow and black) Cat!
Half a century ago most farm toys sold in Australia seemed to come from the U.K. These days around 50% of the good quality farm toys sold in Australia are produced by American companies (made for them, in China). (In fact there’s even a Farm Toy Museum in Iowa, U.S.A.) The rest of the good quality farm toys sold here are from Germany and elsewhere. Most farm machinery is sold world-wide so it’s virtually identical in the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and any other western country.
However it would be fabulous if it was possible to buy Australian-style roadtrains and toy utes (rather than toy ‘pick up trucks’), Australian-style farm animals (eg Merino sheep and toy brahman cattle), figures (eg stockmen, horseriders and shearers, rather than ‘cowboys’ and ‘dairymaids’), Australian homesteads and sheds (imitation silver or rusty corrugated iron machinery and shearing sheds rather than the mission-brown imitation slab ‘barns’ on offer) and Australian-style fencing (posts and wires or netting, rather than railing-style fencing). And little windmills (proper Australian ones – Southern Cross or Comet galvanised steel windmills – not timber & cloth Dutch windmills).
But unfortunately uniquely Australian farm toys will not be mass-produced in the foreseeable future, because the Australian market for farm toys is too small for mass-production to be economical. (If I thought it had a hope of being financially viable, I’d begin manufacturing myself.) So if you want your kids to have a toy shearing shed, you’re going to have to make it yourself or find someone to hand-make it for you. (We have an excellent 6-deck roadtrain, made out of wood, and I’ve seen some excellent sets of hand-made toy stockyards around too.)
If you don’t have any local retailers selling decent farm toys, the mail-order company Collector Models regularly publishes an excellent catalogue with good images, detailed descriptions and prices. And the Collector Models website is excellent too. Leigh is full of useful information and advice – the sort of first-hand detailed knowledge that is only obtained by someone with years of experience, who is passionate about their line of work.
Tags: Farm toys