Post by JasonB on Jan 24, 2016 3:21:00 GMT
Joseph L ERTL, one of the sons of the founder of the original ERTL company left ERTL and founded his own toy company called: Scale Models in 1978, and today it remains the only toy company in the US that builds toys in North America. While Joe ERTL does build toys for collectors, his primary focus has been on building toys for children to play with. While some of his models may be crude to some people, Scale Models has really filled the gaps in collectors collections with models that other collectors might not consider doing. One of the brands that Scale Models has had a long history of producing models for is the GLEANER brand. In fact, Scale Models started operations a year before Gleaner brought out the real N series combines in 1979.
I am very privileged to OWN two 1/24th Gleaner N6 Prototype combines that were made by Scale Models, and I acquired them in Feb 2013 through an auction held by Gerard's Auction services. The first prototype N6 Gleaner was completely made of Plastic and is definitely one of a kind. Main reason its one of a kind, is that the majority of Scale Models items were die cast. This prototype was ALL plastic, Body and cab and featured narrower front tires, a longer spout on the unloading auger, and axle spacer detail on the narrow tires, making me believe that Scale Models was considering putting duals on the N6 at one point. Like all future 1/24th Gleaners, the Prototype model has the same grain head as the production N6's in 1/24th. The 2nd 1/24th Gleaner N6 Prototype that I own is an All Die-Cast Metal N6 Gleaner, which includes the cab! It also has a grain head, and shares the same tires as the production N6. Of the two 1/24th Gleaner N6 Prototypes, the all metal N6 prototype likely was the later of the two models and perhaps the pre-production model.
When Scale Models released the 1st 1/24th Gleaner N6 combine toy to AC dealers, it came with the large letter N6 decals, a white plastic cab with no cab interior but black windows. The unloading auger was also positional and could be swung in and out just like the real deal. Originally the 1/24th Gleaner N6 was offered to dealers with just the grain header only. However in the early 1980's, Scale Models offered an 8 row corn head that could be purchased separately. All that was required to change heads on the 1/24th Gleaner N6 was to remove a nut and a bolt. It was a pretty simple task.
In 1983, Gleaner combines celebrated its 60th anniversary of being in business, on top of that Allis Chalmers introduced the Series III N series Gleaners. Scale Models offered a 1/24th Gleaner N6 combine with the Series III decals on the combine, plus it also featured a 60th anniversary logo on the engine compartment. Out of all the 1/24th Gleaner N6's that were produced by Scale Models, the Series III 60th anniversary N6 combine is one of the most valuable and hardier to find variation of the N6 combine. New in Box, this version can easily top $240 US or more.
The last variation of the N6 Gleaner that Scale Models produced was in 1984 or early 1985. Around that time, Gleaner changed the decals on the N series combines from the bigger decal format, to the smaller style N6 decals. This was to be the last 1/24th Gleaner that Scale Models would produce with the Allis Chalmers name on it.... But the 1/24th Gleaner series from Scale Models did not stop here.