My grandfather was a farmer, and he was particularly fond of John Deere tractors. He grew up with literal horse power as much as mechanization, but the classic "Johnny Popper" two-cylinder tractors were his favorite. Every now and again, I find myself succumbing to the temptation to buy toys and knick-knacks that remind me of him. I grew up near some small midwestern farms, and there were red International Harvesters and blue Fords, but to my mind, a proper farming machine was always green.
I dug around a bit for photos of the 9620, and while it's close, this model is not a perfect reproduction. It more closely resembles the newer 9R series in the separate stacks to the left and right of the cab and the overall contours. In any case, it's a neat articulated tractor model.
The contents are pretty simple. Four numbered bags of parts, four rubber tires, an instruction book for the tractor, an instruction book for the trailer, and a sticker sheet. These paper items were a bit wadded up, but usable.
I ripped open Bag 1 and started on the tractor model. If you're a LEGO fan, you know how hard it is to pause and take photos. I snapped shots as I completed each bag of parts, so I hope that suffices.
The first bag built the backbone of the tractor. This is the basic frame and the hinge point between the sections along with the start of the steering mechanism. Very basic, and the build is modern LEGO simplicity with just a few parts per step and excellent illustrations. Any moderately savvy 8-year-old should have no trouble building this, so the age rating is certainly fine.
After completing bag 2, we have a more fleshed-out chassis with the start of the cab. Both the cosmetic interior steering wheel and the functional hand-of-god steering wheel are in place. Stickers also start to get applied more often in this stage.
Bag 3 completes the tractor. There is a tan seat inside the cab, and it might be possible to retrofit a basic minifig seat if you wanted a full farm setup. The steering is satisfying. I'd say this has high playability for any kid who likes machines.
Finally, bag 4 had the trailer parts. There's a nice lever and linkage system to dump the trailer, but I loaded it with all the spare parts instead. If I have any complaints about this, it's the way those curved side panels hold onto small contents. 2x2 bricks or larger would be perfect as payload though.
There are enough points of articulation to make this work OK on uneven play surfaces. When I was a kid, the Mother Thing got some carpet samples from the flooring store for me to use as fields for my Matchbox tractors. This kit is a bit too big for that, but I'm sure modern children can find an inventive scale-appropriate play area with little trouble.
As of this post, the set costs USD $34.99, and is available directly from LEGO.com as well as all the usual suspects online and perhaps your local big box store. It's not a challenging build, and the mechanical aspects are only modestly interesting, but the aesthetics and tactile experience are very good in my opinion. This set gets two thumbs up from me, so there's still probably time to order it for Christmas if it strikes you as a good gift for someone on your list.
To close out, here it is next to 8281 Mini Tractor, my other green LEGO Technic agricultural model. It is much simpler, and apparently dates all the way back to 2006. I don't splurge on my green machine addiction often. The old set has a neat gear system to run the cultivator on a lifting linkage though, so it had its own interesting mechanical features despite its size. Just pardon the dust, please!
