Case International 8500 Air Drill

The 8500 air drill was one of the first implements offered as a new product from the newly formed Case International company in 1986. International Harvester had offered the 5800 air drill in the Australian market during 1985. IH only offered the 5100 grain drill line in north America. After Case International formed they continued the IH grain drill line and expanded into the growing air drill market. In 1986 Case International contracted with Great Plains a seeding specialist company to build an air drill. The 8500 and 8600 air drills were manufactured by Great plains and assembled by Case International at the company's Hamilton Ontario plant where the Cyclo Corn Planter was also produced at the time. The 8500 and 8600 air drills were built for western wheat country. The 8500 had a hopper capacity of 146 bushels of seed and was available in either 33ft or 45ft drill sizes. The 8600 was slightly smaller and was available as a 30ft model. Ertl offered a 1/64 scale 45ft 8500 air drill from 1986-1991. The 8500 is the largest 1/64 toy implement produced by Ertl to date. Today this 1/64 air drill will sell for $50 to $70 new in the box because nothing else has ever been offered like it. Ertl re-released the 8500 Air Drill in June 2002 2002 as a Classic Implement for the CaseIH toy line up. It is unknown at this time how the 1980's drill value hold up.  There are key decals differences between the 1980's 8500 and the re-released 2002 8500.  The 2002 8500 toy is exactly the same as the 1980's 8500 body wise.  The decals are completely different.  Ertl started from scratch on the decals according to RC/Ertl farm Toy Manager Bill Walter's in TTS's June 2002 Toy Farm Report.  The 2002 decal has the Case International name on the side of the grain box all the same size and on both sides. The front and back of the box have the 1980's CaseIH block logo on the decal where the 1980's version is blank.  The 1980's version has CASE in large and International in a normal size so it reads CASEInternational on the left side and InternationalCase on the right side.

Ertl surprised 1/64 fans with the announcement that they would re-release the Case International 8500 air-drill. CaseIH dealers should be stocking the drill this month. The air drill was originally released by Ertl in the fall of 1986 and discontinued in 1992.  The only difference between the re-released 8500 and the 1980's model is the packaging and decals on the cart.

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