For nearly thirty years, farm toy collectors have flocked to Saskatoon for the annual Farm Toy and Collectable Show.
Ten-year-old Landon Mehrer first came to the show as a baby, he says, and now has his own wares on display.
“I started to customize and collect, and people seem to like it!” Mehrer said.
Mehrer had about 50 items on display. He comes from a long line of farm toy collectors – his father and grandfather started the family tradition years ago. Mehrer credits them for teaching him the art of collecting and restoring farm toys to sell.
"Everybody is coming and they're just so happy to be here,” Mehrer said. “(They’re) building and selling and all the cool, little artifacts."
This year’s annual farm toy showcase featured 50 exhibitors with thousands of items on display.
Tom Waterhouse made the trip from Davidson, Sask. and won the “Scratch Built” trophy at this year’s show – a competition showcasing toys no one has ever made before.
“Combines - I might have five or six of them on the go at one time,” Waterhouse said. “I’ll do a little bit on each one as I go along.”
Waterhouse sells his combines all over North America for about $250 each.
But while there is money to be made, the true passion of the show is about the memories in all of the toys on display.
“Guys will come in and they’ll tell Grandpa, or tell their kid, ‘This was the tractor I had and I planted potatoes with Grandpa, and Grandma hated it the whole time because the clutch wasn’t working,’” Neil Isley from the Saskatoon Farm Toy and Collectable Show said. “You know if IT inspires a story that probably wouldn’t have been told. But when they see the toy, the memory’s back.”
Next year will mark 30 years of the annual show.
Based on a report by CTV Saskatoon's Julie Clark
