Upon receiving the picture of this diorama I could not believe my eyes, I was viewing early Americana in its infancy. Also, the beauty captured in the eye of the designers utilizing sheer simplicity mesmerized me. Gazing at this image today, I am surprised, no make that shocked, that the Franklin Mint rejected this diorama. I for one believe this replica would have been a home run, a hit out of the park so to speak.

Being a fan of prints and paintings done by David Knowlton who captures early Americana perfectly, this diorama resembles something that he would capture on canvas. I can visualize an old barn in the background along with a pickup truck rusting away in the field, too.

The designers of this diorama wanted to capture the old warrior in all its glory boy did they do that. Randy Moyer, was asked to do a weathered look similar to what was created in “Old Reliable” the junkyard truck. Utilizing a Franklin Mint Farmall tractor along with some extra parts and ideas supplied by George Bojaciuk Randy came through doing an outstanding job as seen by the creation above. Actually, Randy kicked it up a notch from the original idea doing an outstanding job on nothing more than an idea a tractor and a few extra parts.

The sad part of this story is the model sat on George Bojaciuk desk for exactly one year covered by a newspaper until a VP told him to take it home. It had been as far up as the President's office, but no one would commit to the project. Now you know the rest of the story. There is only one of these known to exist.