Exhibitors aren't just playing at Farm Toy Show

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It isn't just toy tractors at the New Ulm Farm Toy Show.

The annual gathering isn't just scale models of classic cars or careful recreations of farm sites, either.

Instead, the yearly get-together allows pratically everyone who walks through the door a chance to chat and catch up on eachtother's kids, the crops, swap jokes and stories while updating a carefully-planned collection or browsing for that one specific, special model.

The New Ulm show is a kind of start to the farming season. Many of the dealers behind the tables in Vogel Arena farm several acres themselves, so consequently, harvest is when the farm toy show circuit is thinnest; winter is when most collectors are actively trading, buying and selling, organizer Bradley Zender said.

For some people, like Chris Burmeister of Mankato, the show is an opportunity to show off the fruits of a long, laborious project. Burmeister won first place for the display. He said he's won a couple in New Ulm before and takes his work on the road to other Minnesota towns and into Iowa.

Burmeiester said he gets his ideas from neighbors, from farms where he's done roofing or siding work and simply from traveling around the area, stopping to ask for permission to take pictures or make drawings.

He's been at it now for 15 years and has won the New Ulm Farm Toy Show trophy -- as well as several others -- before now. He said he also shows his work at similar events in Mason City, Iowa and Redwood Falls.

The buildings in Burmeister's models are made from siding and wood. He uses fiberglass filler and twigs to make the trees, carpet to represent grass and sand and dirt from his shop floor to, well, you get the picture.

The projects can take up to a year to complete and are sometimes quite expensive to put together, depending on how much detail the scene requires.

While Burmeister and the other contestants stood close by their entries, showgoers and would-be shoppers browsed aisles and aisles of replica John Deeres, Farmalls, International Harvesters, Cases and Allis-Chalmers, asking sellers questions and examining the wares closely.

Seller Larry Redlin said one particular brand of tractor sells better in one town than in another. He said New Ulm buys even amounts of every brand made. Redlin has come to the New Ulm show from his home in Watertown, S.D., for seven years to sell scale models of tractors. He said he keeps coming back to New Ulm "because it's good business."

Tommy Barth from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, felt differently. He said he's not coming back for next year's show because of slow business.

"There's no people," he said, packing some John Deere clothing into a carboard box.

Rodney Anderson primarily sells die-cast models of classic cars like the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge, the 1936 Pontiac coupe or the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. He said he gets more requests for specific models of cars now that consumers have some idea of what's available.

"In the past, it was just a '57 Chevy or a Mustang," he said. "Now, there's a lot more and people know that."

Zender said he was disappointed at the thinner crowd at the farm toy show. He blamed the sunny, cooler weather for keeping people outdoors. Past toy shows were held on rainy or humid days and lured many more people, he said.

"Everything was good except it was too nice a weekend," Zender said.

Next year's show could move to the New Ulm Civic Center, he said, "although I'd rather not do it because it's been here so long. People are creatures of habit."