Avid farm toy collectors won’t part with favourites

The annual Farm Toy Show at Clearspring Centre is advertised as a show and sale, but for the most ardent collectors, it’s much more show than sale.

Surrounded by tables of green John Deere toys, some dating back to the 1950s, Ken Urbaniak and Brent Chubaty spend their time reminiscing about the old days between visitors, all the while refusing offers to part with any of their favourites.

“Maybe next year.”

Chubaty, who has been instrumental in organizing the annual show for a number of years, admits it probably is time for him to start selling some of his growing collection, but says he is in no hurry.

His friend from Kennedy, Minnesota echoes these sentiments.

Urbaniak, a former John Deere dealer, whose family had dealerships in both Kennedy and nearby Hallock, says some of his more rare toys were collected by his father.

They went out of business in 2002, when John Deere was pressing dealerships to “get big” or “get out” at a time when farms were bigger and smaller dealerships were being consolidated.

John Deere did keep the Kennedy location open, but closed Hallock, Urbaniak said.

At the peak of their family business, the Urbaniaks had 40 employees at the two locations and catered to Canadian farmers living closer to the border.

One of these customers was Chubaty and it could be said these two decided to “get little” rather than getting out altogether. Chubaty’s farm show collection at the mall varies from year to year. Last year, it was Massey Ferguson and next year it may be Cockshutt.

One thing is constant, however, and visitors to the annual event marvel at the centrepiece, which is a barn created by Chubaty, with a cabinet maker who supervised the project and didn’t let him take any shortcuts in its construction.

“It was a lot of work to individually glue 1,500 shingles to the roof.”

The same meticulous attention to detail is evident throughout this part of the display. The bales; big round bales, square bales, small bales in stacks and bales on a conveyor belt being loaded into the hay loft, are all made of genuine hay. There is no room for plastic, Chubaty chuckles.

In the rest of his spare time, Chubaty takes care of 20 cows on his Ridgeville farm, puts up hay bales and firewood every year and plays guitar in a band at the Pat Porter Active Living Centre in Steinbach every week.

Brent and his wife Rachel are enthusiastically involved with the toy show every year and he says he is much like the others who visit the city with their displays.

“These are big kids with their toys and while expecting them to set up Thursday evening for a Friday-Saturday show, some were already there waiting for me at 2 p.m.”

One of these is Rick Collette of St Adolphe, who used to be the organizer before turning over the reins to Brent and Rachel Chubaty.

Collette usually shared his display space at the show with Aime Boivin, another avid model railroader. This year, Collette was on his own, for his hobby train partner has moved to Carberry to be closer to family.

Collette is an auto mechanic by trade, who retired a decade ago. He used to be a Meccano enthusiast who switched to trains when he was looking for something different to collect, and, not to mention, play with.

For the Steinbach show, he has created a farm related train display.

Like Chubaty and Urbaniak, Collette is in no hurry to sell off his collection and says he would like to keep going for at least another five or six years.

Another display that again attracted a lot of attention to visitors to the Steinbach mall was the Friesen family from Winkler, who have created table upon table of intricate farm scene displays.

The detached buildings and corrals depicting a feedlot, a hayshed and the yard of a typical grain farm has been a decade in the creation and the Friesen’s have been coming to the Steinbach show for the past five years.

The Friesen boys collect their own toys to add to the display and Ben and his boys, Christopher, Brendan, Dustin and Ben get together a couple of times a month to work together on buildings for new and bigger displays.

But there was one collector, who came all the way from Virden, who has been collecting farm toys since the 1990s and has a ready stock of farm toys for sale.

One of his sales Saturday for five bucks was an older model tractor that had seen better days as a toy. A collector interested in the tractor for parts would have gone higher, but Rene Vodon says he is not there to make “a lot of money.”

He used to come to the show regularly, but in 2003 he moved from Winnipeg to Virden, and this was his first time back in 21 years. The four-hour drive is worth it, just for the chance to visit with other collectors, he says.

Some of his toys came out in the ’90s and are still in original boxes. Most everything on his tables sold for $20 or less and Vodon did a brisk trade both Friday and Saturday.

He says he buys a carton of six toys, mostly 1/64 scale, that he likes and keeps one for his own collection, and sells the rest.

“It seems to work, and other people like the stuff too. I have a lot of repeat customers.” But even if sales were not brisk, he says he would still enjoy being on the farm toy show circuit.

“The show circuit is like a family and we’re not here really for the money.”

And that sentiment holds true for the Diamond Aces Flying Club, who were busy at the end of the hall, talking to potential new members for their model airplane club.

John Wiebe has been a member of the club for 13 years and flies a collection of electric-powered aircraft ranging in wingspans from 15 inches to seven feet.

Every day in the summer, when weather permits, Wiebe can be found at the airstrip just off Clear Springs Road, next to the concrete plant, where the club has its airfield.

Often he will go home and charge the batteries and return for an afternoon of flying.

Diamond Aces president Kevin Allard says he has 30 to 40 planes of various sizes. The hobby has become more popular as planes, easily equipped with a camera, can be used for crop surveillance by farmers.

A lightweight camera can be easily attached and many farmers have their own to get a close look at crops during the growing season without entering their fields.

When it comes to the question of sales, both Allard and Wiebe answer in the same way as the avid toy collectors spoken to earlier. Neither is in any hurry to pare down their collection.

“But for the right price, everything’s for sale.”

At the same time, Wiebe muses about his own collection. “I fly the favorites all the time, and the rest three or four flights a year.”

The Diamond Aces like to participate in the Farm Toy Show, which follows their own show, which was held two weeks earlier.

Allard explains the Farm Toy Show attracts a different demographic of people and provides an opportunity to bring in new members to the club, with an added incentive of free training at the field for people interested in taking up the hobby.

A newcomer visiting the display was discouraged from purchasing a small plane to start.

“They are much more difficult to learn to fly than a bigger model and less forgiving in a crash.”

Tuesday night is club night at the Diamond Aces field next to the concrete plant on Clear Springs Road, and people are encouraged to come out and watch members in action: practicing acrobatics for competition or simply enjoying an evening of flying their favourite plane.