John Deere opens toybox to tell company’s innovative story

In a massive exhibit hall dominated by big green machines, visitors to the John Deere Pavilion are being drawn to miniature pieces of the Moline company’s history; some small enough to fit into a child’s hand. That’s courtesy of a new permanent exhibit in the northwest corner of Deere & Co.’s education and exhibition center […]

In a massive exhibit hall dominated by big green machines, visitors to the John Deere Pavilion are being drawn to miniature pieces of the Moline company’s history; some small enough to fit into a child’s hand. That’s courtesy of a new permanent exhibit in the northwest corner of Deere & Co.’s education and exhibition center at 1400 River Drive, Moline, that is giving visitors a glimpse inside John Deere’s own walk-in toy box. Some 40 rare and vintage toys from the past 100 years or so are the stars of “From the Toybox: A Century of John Deere Toys.” “It’s been really well received,” Neil Dahlstrom, branded properties and heritage manager at John Deere, told the QCBJ. “We had about 800 people in the pavilion the day after it opened (May 17th) and a lot of them came specifically to see the exhibit.” Fans of all ages continue to visit the exhibit cleverly tucked inside a replica John Deere toy tractor box, complete with the folds needed to fit its original packaging, so guests can feel like they’re walking into a toy box. It was brought to life with the help of Edwards Creative in Milan. “Once you walk in there, of course you’re going to see all the toys, but if you pay close attention, on the walls we actually represent vintage advertising from the last 100 years about John Deere toys,” Mr. Dahlstrom said. Nostalgia is only part of the draw. “I think most people have a connection to John Deere somehow and at the end of the day products are durable and impactful. If you’re a farmer, it makes your operation more profitable and John Deere products often become part of the family,” he said. “They’re handed down over the generations, I think they just have a big impact on people’s lives.” He added: “We’ve had people come down and just tell us how emotional it makes them because maybe it unlocks a memory.” QCBJ visitors quickly discovered why archivists were like kids in a toy store while putting together this celebration of vintage toys and replicas from John Deere’s archives or donated by generous members of John Deere’s extended family. “It was really hard for me to resist playing with all of these toys because they’re artifacts to us now,” Mr. Dahlstrom said. “To see Barbie in the box, we left her in the box. That’s hard to do.” Planners also had their work cut out for them in picking just the right pieces for the exhibit’s launch. To get started, archivists reached out to toy collectors to get their top 10 lists of the most important John Deere toys. Only one toy made all four lists. “I was expecting fairly similar lists … and really what we learned is everyone has a different perspective on toys,” Mr. Dahlstrom said. “For some people it was maybe based on collectibility, or rarity or financial value. For others, No. 1, it was the first toy they received as a kid, maybe a Christmas gift or a present or something they picked out at a dealership.” That’s when the planners “realized that we really had to try to put something together that would really cater to everybody; just give everyone a platform to talk about their favorite toys,” he said. Among the exhibit’s surprises is that John Deere Barbie from 2007. Mr. Dahlstrom had been looking for one when he got a call from a retired tour guide who had an extra one to donate. “It was a fun part of this exhibit, we just kept learning,” he recalled. “And it’s like most things, there’s a story behind everything.” For example, the first John Deere toy tractors came out in the late 1920s and there was a line of them made as awards for kids selling magazine subscriptions. “Depending on how many magazine subscriptions you sold, you got to pick what kind of John Deere toy you wanted,” Mr. Dahlstrom said. “Picture a kid who maybe got a John Deere tractor in 1929 and what that meant to him going through the Great Depression,” he added. “I think there are so many great stories that come out of this and that’s what we’re really looking forward to is people telling those stories.” Other surprising finds, he pointed out, included a toy tractor that clearly is being driven by a female driver. Deere’s toy box also includes one of the very first John Deere toy tractors, a Model A, crafted by the Ertl family in Dyersville, Iowa. According to the Encyclopedia Dubuque, family patriarch Frederick Ertl received approval to produce toy tractors bearing the John Deere name, and in 1952, the first 1:16 scale John Deere die-cast Model A toy was produced. Archivists did some sleuthing and discovered the toy now on display is a Model A Variation E. Uncovering such facts and memories is a major part of the exhibit’s draw. “I love stories from folks about toys that were handed down across the generations,” Mr. Dahlstrom added. “We have a ride-on toy tractor from the 1960s. We had a family reach out to us about six months ago and ask if they donated it if there was a place for it to be shown. It has been passed down through three generations.” He noted “There is nothing fancy about the piece. It isn’t in new or pristine condition. Generations of kids had played with it and it just has been very warmly abused over the years through play and that’s really what we like about it.” The exhibit also includes replicas of vintage Deere products that were handed out to dealers and are part of the exhibit’s “Toys that are Not Toys” Section that also include a replica bank featuring John Deere himself hitting an anvil when a coin is inserted. Another non-toy standout is a replica of a car that was built by the Deere-Clark Automobile Company. John Deere’s son Charles Deere was the president, and W.E. Clark the vice president of that small manufacturer that briefly made cars in Moline. Deere-Clark didn’t survive long after Charles Deere’s death in 1907. It’s unknown whether any cars still are around today, but that replica is safely ensconced in the pavilion’s Deere toy box. Mr. Dahlstrom urged visitors to learn more about that and other items in the collection via the exhibit’s companion app which can be downloaded at JohnDeere.com. There, for example, visitors can look up information about Deere-Clark and find photos of the actual automobile as well as other information that wouldn’t fit into an exhibit. Speaking of size, the Deere toys and replicas afforded archivists the opportunity to tell Deere’s story of innovation on a toy-sized scale and in a new way. “It’s one of the things we were trying to address which is equipment keeps getting larger and the pavilion is the same size, so we wanted to continue to kind of think about ways to talk about the history of the company. And the evolution of the company and doing it, as you say, in miniature version through toys, I think is really interesting.” He added: “We’ve got a toy wagon from 1912 that was designed to be pulled by dogs or goats so this is pre-tractor era. “Then you start to see toy tractors not long after we introduced tractors and you see a lawn and a garden tractor from the 1960s and construction equipment. So you very much see the evolution of the company all the way until you get to our recent John Deere Lego launches from the last couple of years.” Mr. Dahlstrom said, “It was fun for us to explore the history of the company from all of our samples or products over the years but also the sophistication of some of our toys. We were really struck by it.” “At the end of the day, toys are intended to do the same thing that they did a hundred years ago, just promote play and imagination and to inspire kids and that hasn’t changed in a hundred years.”  

1 of 9

If you go

• What: “From the Toybox: A Century of John Deere Toys.”
• Where: John Deere Pavilion, 1400 River Drive, Moline.
• Admission: The pavilion is always free. 
• Hours: 1-5 p.m. on Mondays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Closed on Sundays.
• On the app: Learn more about the exhibit and the pavilion via an interactive app available on the John Deere Pavilion website at deere.com.
• Don’t miss feature: A kids’ theater showing Deere videos in the pavilion’s northeast corner.